On request from the home country for more pictures, here a collection from Buenos Aires. Enjoy and, as usuals, witty comments are welcome below :)

After missing the fourth car deal (don’t worry, we’ve got a fifth lined up :), we decided to get out of this city oven with temperatures close to 40 degrees. The destination was determined by the weather forecast and the only sub-30 place within a 24h bus ride range was Mar del Plata, so there we went.

Not to take chances with Ken’s neck, we took the slightly more expensive Suite class in the bus. Remembering every bus ride during school or going skiing as an eternal, painful journey, where people are piled like sardines and then started smelling like them too, I was prepared for the worst. However, they could have called our seats Royal Suite, or travel-like-a-baby Suite, because it was just amazing! We had our own bed! 180 degrees flat. And we slept like babies.

Before we left Buenos Aires, we did have a rather strange experience. Walking aimlessly around town to kill time until the nightbus, we decided to catch a movie in the main shopping district. Then a police car drove through the busy pedestrian street and then another. People didn’t seem to notice, but the shop attenders did, and suddenly all shops closed up and pulled down their railings withing 2 minutes. Informing what was going on, they told me not to worry, it’s only a precaution. Apparently some looting was reported a few blocks away and these shop owners did not want to take any chances. We went in the cinema not knowing what to find when we walked out.

This story describes well the economic situation here at the moment. Inflation is very high and confidence in the Argentinian pesos dropping. Within two weeks, we saw the informal exchange rate drop from 8.8 to 9.5 per dollar (the official is around 6.3). Imports are very expensive or prohibited (like for my guitar). All of this makes people nervous, especially during the Christmas season where presents are expected. Most people keep working, I guess it’s not their first crisis. Because the Argentinians are such nice people, I wish them the best of luck.

Yezzz, a quizzz.

We’re back in Buenos Aires after a nice couple of days in laid-back Uruguay (pics will follow once I get this gallery plugin working, grr..).

Back in the huge city where people drive crazy but are oh so friendly and, boy, is it hot! Last night we went for drinks and dinner with a nice Czech couple Jana and Petr. We got some car and travel tips and in return bought the dessert (Taratella) for Ana’s birthday :P

We were expecting Andi, our German seller, to arrive today but he had to have his light fixed and is hopefully coming tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Also called the Argentinian importer of Art and Lutherie guitars on which shops sell them, only to found out that due to Government import restrictions, they are nowhere to be found. Indeed, the guitar shops here have a lousy selection. I’ll just have to wait to buy a little guitar until Chili.

PS: Ana still hasn’t written anything yet on the blog, but promised to do so promptly :)

After 10 days of travelling, we spent our first hours at the beach this afternoon. And a nice one it was. So nice we forgot to take pictures :)

However, this makes the perfect excuse to start testing this Blog’s mapping feature. If all goes well, you should see below the location of the beach we were on. Fingers crossed!

PS: check out some older post below, I will retroactively start putting some stories of last week (yeah, it’s cheating a bit, I know :P)

click on the blog post title to see the map.