Our first taste of South America
Wednesday, 2 May 2007
Stepping out of Ezeize airport was like stepping into another world but ill get back to that in a minute. Before arriving in Buenos Aires we had to embark on a full day of travel, we got up at 7am, ok thats the first lie so far, Tim got up at 7am. I however was lazy and spent an extra half an hour in a drowsy state and so when i finally got up we had to rush if we were gonna get to the airport in time. Some how we made it two hours early to the airport so we had plenty of time to check in but of course the laws of nature decree that whenever one thing goes your way a thousand other have to go contra. If it wasnt the confusing ticketing process that required you to use a self serve machine for a printed e ticket that actually had no practical use as you then had to join another queue to get a valid ticket then it was the extensive near cavity search of tests the security carried out to make sure you were worthy of using their planes. The list of exasms started with a simple luggage and person x ray, no problem. Well no, not no problem, you had to take off your belt, shoes, even a zip hoodie, anything and everything that wasnt your trousers and tee shirt essentially. Then they had you stand in a glass box that apparantely tested for bombs. How did they do that you ask? Simple, you stood very still in this incubator then without warning consecutive short bursts of air blew at you like a machine gun round for no reason. Security reasons my ass, they just wanted to piss with people and give the tax payer some sort of evidence of their new "safety measures". After all this crap they still werent content that you could be trusted, theyd already x rayed your bags at this point however they still had to look through every pocket or crevice in the bags just for the hell of it, and the icing on the cake? After all this they then let you go on your way with a smile and "have a nice day", HAVE A NICE DAY?! They frickking did everything short of shoving their hands up my crack to look for... well crack and they still say have a nice day after.
Once we actually got on the first plane, a 5 hour flight to Washington DC, dont even ask why we have to go back all the way eastwards to DC to go south, unlike the examinations this was pleasant enough. As it was a relatively long flight they provide each seat with a small tv screen showing aroung 10 channels, mostly with one film on each being repeated over and over till you arrive, its not that bad, at least its some way to while away the time. As an aside ill reccomend you watch The Pursuit of Happyness (yes with a y not an i) starring Will Smith. If you didnt know, the story goes that Will Smith is a down and out recently single father struggling to bring up his child with various obstactles in his way such a lack of income and homelessness. Yes, its kinda cheesy but i think Will Smith actually plays the role well and you do get sucked in and start caring for the well being of the characters. Dont bother with Norbit by the way, its an utter waste of time and off hand, its the worst role ive seen Eddie Murphy play. But i digress, after passing immigration and collecting our bags which were for some reason each stuck in see through bin liners we made our way out of the Aiport. Inside the airport you could believe its any airport with lots of English signs and plenty of Engsslish speaking staff but once you leave the security of the airport the various (probably semi legal) taxi drivers yelling at you in spanish offering fares cheaper than the next guy remind you youre now in South America and in a proud Country that doesnt necessarily want to communicate in English just because youd prefer it. We weaved in and out the cab drivers and headed for the bus ticket desk, straight away the woman at the desk asked us if we wanted to speak english and continued the rest of the conversation in English making it ten times easier for us to communicate where we needed to go. We got a cheap $10 coach fare to the town centre from whence a mini van would take us the rest of the way. On the short bus ride to down town i read every little spanish word i saw and if i didnt know what it meant i looked it up in my phrase book, probably looking psychotic to anyone who didnt realise i was looking at a phrase book and no doubt pissing Tim off who just thought i was talking gibberish as per usual. As we got closer to down town the relatively empty fields and motorways made way for decaying building, some missing a roof, some with massive gashes in the walls, all densely packed together, this must have been a barrio i thought to myself, not wanting to arouse any more suspicion in time that i was just blurting out random words again. Further into the centre we saw more and more densely intervowen houses,then densely intervowen tower blocks, with the odd futuristic skyscraper protruding out like an eye sore. Soon enough we reached the terminal and as we got out a guy immediately reached out his hand to us and said in a Cockney accent "hi im mark". Ah, another Brit, in fact we werent the only brits on the by far, you could tell them by the way they frantically leafed through their lonely planet guide, Tim and i did what we usually did and just waited untill something made sense or some one who looked like they knew what they were doing turned up. It worked once again as a suited castillano (argentinian) said something in spanish that was too fast for me to even guess at but turned out to be a request for my destination as he turned out to be our mini van driver. We hopped in and Mark followed us, he hadnt booked a hostel and the one he was planning on staying in was the one we couldnt find enough room in 3 days ago so he decided to try our hostel. We were hoping Mark could be the translator wed been looking for as hed been to argentina before but we were out of luck as he didnt know a word and the only reason he got by last time was because he had an argentine friend accompanying him,a a privilege he doesnt have this time. We arrived at the address of our hostel and we couldnt see anything that looked like one, thats when the driver pointed to a crevice like door to our left between to shops or something, ah gracias. We dropped off our backpacks in the storage room and looked for our first steak, well my first anyway as Mark had tried them before and Tim was a herbivore. Soon enough we found this small place with an elderly man waitering. We walked in and leafed through the menus, ah Lomo, apparantely thats the best cut of beef, ill have that i reckon. So he asks me a second question, er sorry, what? He didnt know a word of English and i was barely better at Spanish, he offered me two choices, ok one must mean rare and the other well done. I pointed at the first thinking i had a 50/50 chance of getting a well done steak, as he went to prepare the steaks i leafed through my phrase book just to reassure myself. Hang on a minute that means raw, RAW! I jumped out of my chair and raced over to the guy and in broken spanish i asked for medium rare, i must have said something relatively spanish as he understood, that also explained the shocked look he had on his face when i ordered it. Tim went for a spanish omelette, what he thought was the vegetarian option, not so as he spent more time fishing for salami than eating his omelette. Meanwhile i enjoyed the best steak of my life and for only $4 or so. After dinner we hung around the hostel and once again we scored a semi private room as our two bed in the six bed dorm were behind a wall and door without a lock. Some time later we met one of our room mates, a Mexican who was on a short holiday in Buenos Aires and leaving the next day, he spoke perfect english and told us how hed eaten at the pizza place next door and raved that it was the best hes ever had and he definetly recommened it, so we thought wed venture there ourselves and see what all the fuss about. The layout of the place was very down to earth and what you migh expect of such a highly recommended place but it wasnt the first time looks turned out to be deceiving so we stepped in waiting for a moment for one of the many waiters to attend to us perhaps, nope. ok we then went to the till. the guy ignored us completely, we figuired ok well grab a table and then maybe theyll notice us. After waiting a while and seeing several couples walk in and be served immediately i stared one of the waiters walking right past us to no avail as if we were ghosts. clearly we werent welcome for whatever reason so we wasted no more time there. We walked to the next pizza parlour on the street, sat a table and were actually waitered immediately. The waitress took our order and we replied the best we could in spanish, in less time than we spent waiting to be served at the other place we were presented with our beer and vege pizza, the way these things are supposed to work. After pizza we went back to the hostel for a few more of the same beers as it was happy hour.
Despite the snotty waiters at that pizza parlour, the never ending smog in the air, and what ever else i really enjoyed my first day here. For some reason i enjoy the way that even crossing the road is a mission with various hazards, be it pot holes, maniacal drivers that stop for nothing, or just street sellers flinging things in your face.
Scribbled By Dejan @ 10:08:00 PM,
