Ok I have a rare spare half an hour here in BA, so an update about the mini trip is going.

So I arrived on Saturday after sleeping very little on the overnight bus, into the BUSY retiro bus station with something like 40 platforms! Managed to fight my way through there, and get a cab. The cab was terrorfying. I´ve been told porteños (people from buenos aires) drive like lunatics, and yeh they do! He was constantly bibbing, switching and changing lanes every 2 seconds, breaking sharply and swearing at other people! An experience right there. Got to the hostel, a pretty basic place and got fixed up with something to eat, then went to explore some of BA. Even though I´m British nothing prepared me for the epic, I mean epic, rain down pour which lasted for about half hour. It was so odd, it was very windy and the rain sort of went totally sideways and sky clouded over, got dark so much that you couldn´t see buildings over the road* and the streetlights came on. The nodd thing was it actually got warmer when it stormed. It was already a muggy 30 degrees but I´m told it went up a good few degress in the storm. So, very nuncomfortable...I have pictures!

*The road I´m talking about is a crazy 18 lane road called 9 de julio which runs across the centre of BA, swirling round the obelisc (picture http://usuarios.lycos.es/debynb/hpbimg/OBELISCO-%20AV.9%20DE%20JULIO.jpg ) , I guess all major routes circulating round Argentina (up to Bolivia, and then down to Antarctica, Argie is the worlds 8th biggest country) stem off this one manic street. So, I visited the obelisc and got some snaps in the rain. It really reminds me of piccadilly circus, very commericial the surrounding buildings etc... two mcdonalds´s right next to each other etc... This is the thing with BA, theres parts of it like London, parts like Dubai, lots like Paris, it has a very bohemian and cultural feel, lots of art and dancing, theatres, shopping, cafes, restaurants. It´s very, very hard to believe I´m still in South America, it feels too european. Spent Saturday afternoon gazing around Calle Floride, a sort of BA equivalent of Oxford Street...very touristic, very luxurious at the same time. Then for the evening signed up to go to a tango show wich was amazing! Met up with someone else from the hostel and we went together. It was very rich and luxurious, set in a theatre and we had a fine 3 course meal before hand, and we waited on as if nit was a proper, rich restaurant. Felt very out of place, everyone was dressed smart nd there was us, two backpackers wearing 3 quarter length jeands and dirty trainers without socks on!!! Then the show started which was amazing...Tango dancing and music, indigious wind pip music and dancing and Gaucho country dancing. Was one of the best, and most authentic things I´ve seen since being here in BA.

Wells thats my first day, still got loads more that I´ve done on the second and third days including more tango dancing, downtown street fairs, cycling amongst porteño drivers ona big city bike tour, and a bit of sad and controversial BA history. But right now theres somebody waiting for the PC!

Info on BA, pics etc...: http://www.bsasfotos.com/