I´ve Been Tangoed....

People. Buenos Aires was INCREDIBLE. I can tell you now that my liver, however, would not agree with quite so much fervour, and nor would my sleep levels, recently recovered sprained ankle, or body clock. But trust me - it was.

We arrived after an overnighter from Iguassu, tanned, rested and ready to party. And party we did. Day 1 was taken up with a spot of sightseeing, and mainly hitting the shopping areas of Santa Fe and Florída after realising that none of our backpacker garb was quite up to the style of BA girls. That evening, rested and ready to go, we met up with all our crowd who had come down from Flori via Iguassu (10 of us - a bit like our Laos Tribe!) and were taken out on the town by Meggie and Dominic, our 2 German friends who have been living in BA - what good contacts! We ate at a fantastic traditional Argentinian parrilla (at the traditional Argentinian dinner time of about 11) before being whisked off to Meggie and Dominic´s house, a huge stone building with beautiful ornate iron spiral staircases and inhabited by about 10 students like them for their friend Axel´s birthday party. It was FAB - lots of speaking Spanish (exhausting) and meeting so many different and interesting people. In fact, apart from a brief hour´s diversion to go to a club that no-one seemed to know (including cabbies - an hour best forgotten!), it was the best night in a long time and we were quite sad to leave. But it was 6.30am and probably way past our bedtime.

This pretty much set the pace for the rest of BA. We did plenty of sightseeing in La Boca (crazy multicoloured cafe culture where I was whisked off my feet and taught tango in the street), Recoleta (with the strangest, most elaborate cemetery I´ve ever seen, where Evita´s grave is, and where there are many gorgeous restaurants, shops, houses and a lovely Saturday market in the little park), San Telmo (potentially my favourite area, with great restaurants and a Sunday antiques market, and I think we´ll just forget about the over-amorous Argentinian called Percy who - in an attempt to lunge in and kiss me, shudder - managed to bite me on the lip), Palermo (trendy clothes market on weekend, lovely cafes and crafty thieves, but that´s best forgotten about too!) and many other areas. We were staying near the Plaza de Mayo, so very centrally, and near lots of other fab cafes that we were all pleased to visit at all times of day and night.

So the rest of the sightseeing would be that which was located in many bars and clubs. Pachá was a particularly memorable Saturday night when most of us even managed to stay up for breakfast on Sunday morning, as was the night before Halloweén, when we had an awesome supper en masse, plenty of vino tinto, and partied away at our hostel with faces painted for the occasion. I´d elaborate more but to be very honest, mostly the nights blur together in a mass of laughing, dancing and wine. (For some of the guys, the days managed to do that too).

Two of the things that made BA so memorable were the company and (tied to this), the meals. We went to an amazing restaurant called La Farmacía in San Telmo 3 times, once with 7 of us, twice in a group of 4. Every time the meal was incredible and the company could not be bettered. Round the corner was another gem called La Brigada, Maradona´s favourite restaurant, with the best red wine yet and very professional waiters.

It´s just been a fantastic week. Utterly partied out (and me with an unseasonable cold! Damn those nights out...!), we´re looking forward to some r and r in Bariloche, down south, Mendoza and onwards. It may be just a pipe dream, but a detox (wine doesn´t count - come on, Mendoza´s wine country!) is planned. And between now and when I/we see the hordes again (variously in Mendoza, Bolivia, Santiago, Melbourne, Sydney and London) - Dermot, Liam, Meggie, Dominic, Scott, Tony, Alex, Oz, Mikey and Dougsy - it´s been a blast and a laugh and a half. Or should that be (in honour of you Dubliners), "good craic"!