Think it's probably time for my first real post, been surprised and kind of happy at the interest shown in whatever crap is going to spill from my fingers, but i realise i can't let that wave of goodwill subside.  I've got to surf it.  Ride it like an albatross rides the trade winds*.  So........

Hello, welcome and buenos dias.  For those who I have not explained the intracacies of my trip to, at the moment I am in Buenos Aires, the first stop on my route.  I am planning to hit Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego in about a weeks time to start the actual cycling part, but until then I am learning Spanish in Buenos Aires.

I say learning Spanish, but I am not actually taking lessons or anything effective like that.  The upshot is I am able to explain the meaning of 'a deer' by saying 'el cuerno (spanish for the antler) and lowing at the confused Portenos (means Buenos Aires resident, check it), but not to ask 'hows it going' to the girl on hostel reception without a mutual awkward exchange that lasts for 5 minutes and draws in most people in the hallway as translators (Argentinians have a different word for 'you' than most spanish speaking types, or at least that's my excuse).


I am staying in San Telmo, which is a ramshackle collection of old apartments with colonial style facades, complete with peeling paint and decaying stonework.  There is an incredible collection of antique shops selling elaborate Georgian dining tables, three foot high glazed ceramic animals, silver mate tea sets, and, in some of the less salubrious shops, Werhmacht helmets and medals. Along side this are people raking through rubbish bags in search of recyclable plastic, cardboard, bottles and food, which they will fill up a large trolley with throughout the day, before starting their slow migration to the southern barrios in the evening.  They will generally walk in the roads with their load, as the pavements on many roads are two foot wide and often have more stone missing than remaining.

It's a beautiful area all the same, with plenty of colourful murals, bars with dark wooden interiors, and plenty of street hawkers selling tango themed paintings, jewellery and hats.  The lure of an Indiana Jones style fedora rises inside me whenever I walk down the main drag, and it is only the complete impraticality of carrying the thing whilst cycling that has so far acted as an impediment.

Starting things off on a happy note,


























Fifty pesos??  For a a statuette of a bulbous headed child???  Surely you jest madam.

Just liked the records. And the Argentinian Brigitte Bardot.

 Woman tangoing in the main sqaure in San Telmo,



 Main reason for inclusion  - Ming Emperor looks vaguely like my dad,

 

 And for some reason this tomb makes me think of James Earl Jones emerging from it with a snake wrapped around his neck.  Black marble and copper gives it a pretty demonic aspect i think,

 

Continuing with the vaguely evil graveyard theme, what looks like a 1930s totalitarian secret police insignia.  Suspect it is really a Masonic seal,

 

 THIS IS ART,

 

















Mr Dog joins the party,



 Typical apartment building with nice bit of street art,



And for the many of you who are only checking this out in the feeble hope of some Dave porn....



I have kept the topless shots under wraps for now.  A couple of you have suggested that I keep a kind of 'levelling-up diary' as I become more and more of a man.  I will see if this more of a man thing happens before presenting the before and after shots.  Leave them always wanting more.  I am the modern day PT Barnum.

Yeah, obviously I could fill this with a load of 'and then i went to this bar, and then i ate this steak' bullshit, suffice to say I am doing those things, and may even write a blog post dealing with them someday, but not this day.

love Dave x

* if you are preparing a paper on the family Diomedeidae, or indeed any other
kind of storm-petrel, please use the information contained herein under the
understanding that i know absolutely nothing about birds.  Or winds.