Australia

We got to Australia today after a thirty hour trip. The time zone is eleven and a half hours a head of home. The state were is South Australia. I wont have Internet for the next week. just to tell you I don't follow my blog every day.

The March in March

March 24 is a National holiday because thirty-three years ago there was a military take over of the government. About five hundred thousand people marched up and down the streets with drums, yelling for more then seven hours. It was really annoying including the car horns from cars trying to get through the crowds. My Dad wanted to throw water balloons at them to shut them up. The military coup took over Argentina in the 70’s for eight years. Many who disagreed with the government were killed. Thirty thousand people died or disappeared during the eight years of this military government in Argentina. The people marched to commemorate this event.

Tom’s Travel Tips for Buenos Aires

If you want to travel to Buenos Aries you should follow these tips if you want to get through safely:
1. Carry a English-Spanish dictionary with you because most people don’t speak English
2. Don’t put your money in your pocket because there are lots of pickpockets
3. Watch out for cars since pedestrians don’t have the right away
4. Watch out for guns fights or you might get shot
5. When eating out they don’t put pepper on the table, so ask for “piemento negro”
6. The Internet is bad and it might be slow and or not even up, so don’t count on it.
7. Watch for dog crap on the side walks
8. Don’t stay downtown because traffic noise is so loud
9. They have different power outlets and they use 220 volt power, so make sure to bring adapters
10. For supper, most people eat after 9:00 p.m., so be sure to have a late afternoon snack.

Cabana Las Lilas – only rates a 3 Star review

The restaurant I went to is called Cabaña Las Lilas. When I went there it looked fancy because of what most people were wearing. They brought tons of bread to our table. It cost lots of money just to sit there; $21 Pesos a person. I had the lamb because I was too lazy to look at the menu and my mom ordered it for me. It was not that good. It was kind of bland. The best thing I had there was a spicy sauce I had for the bread and I have no idea what it was called. Overall it cost $660 Pesos including tip for a dinner for four. That’s three times the price that we would have paid for the same quality in Mendoza.

Top 5 things to do in Buenos Aires

1. La Boca is the top thing to see in Buenos Aries. It is very colourful because Italians settled there and painted their houses all different colours.

2. A soccer game because people get injured and it is like a war to just get the ball. The fans go mental and take off their shirts.

3. Recoleta Cemetery is a cemetery where they buried dead famous guys from Argentina.

4. Buenos Aires Museum of Latin American Art is something you can see stuff that is supposed to be art in a Museum.

5. Florida Street is a must see because you can buy lots of stuff there at good prices.

River Plate beats San Martin Tuc in last few seconds

The two teams playing were River Plate versus San Martin Tucumin (SMT). With River at home and SMT away. SMT scored in the first minute of play. River then scored their first goal fifteen minutes into the second half. Then at a full ninety-seven minutes into the game River got a penalty kick and scored. That won them the game 2 to 1 River over SMT.

The play is a lot rougher than in Canada. The golf-cart ambulance kept going onto the field to help take the injured players off it and then drop them off on the sideline. The playing field is the same size field as in Canada but it looks smaller than you see on TV. The players were allowed to push each other around lot without being yellow flagged.

The fans in Argentina can be violent to each other during the games so the visitors are caged up in their own section. After the game, the home team fans have to give the visitors a half an hour to get out of the stadium to prevent fights. There must have been fifty police or more there. One fan ran onto the field and the police caught him. After the game the River Plate fans were going berserk chanting to visitors in Spanish to go home.

Nothin

I have nothing to write about so I'll just think of something. Today we are going to go to Florida Street which is good for shopping. My sister will shop but I won't.

On Tuesday we went to a cemetery. There was lots of dead people and lots of live cats. (It was boring).

Likes and dislikes

Here are my first impressions of Buenos Aries. It is really busy on the sidewalks because 14 million people live here. They have no siestas so it’s always busy on the streets while walking. Even thought there is only half as many people here than in Mexico City it is still pretty busy around.

The city is very old and they have subways that are also old. Buenos Aries still speaks Spanish but some people speak English too.

Our place it is 3000 square feet big and has different electrical outlets than Canada’s outlets. To our surprise we have about 20 to 30 English channels on TV. It is very hard to sleep since my room at night, as it is on the corner and there are tons of buses and cars that make sound plus I hear a ringing bell often.

Outside the city I saw there was lots of agriculture land that was green. On the north side of the city there is a 200 km wide river that I saw. Near the street I live on, there is a sixteen lane wide street that you can take the subway under. Last of all there is a really good street for shopping on called Florida Street. I think I or dislike will like Buenos Aires more than Mendoza.

Top 10 Things I Miss About Canada

1. English because I am sick of only hearing Spanish.
2. Rover
3. Reliable Internet because it isn't here.
4. My own room because it is clean and carpeted.
5. Snow because it is hot down here all the time.
6. T.V. in English because I can’t understand Spanish.
7. Friends because I don't know anybody here.
8. My bicycle because I enjoy crashing my bike.
9. The streets where pedestrians have the right of way and are safe.
10. The forest around the block from home because it is fun to ride through it.

coulpe days ago

Here is my story. Yesterday we went to some weird event called the Acto Central at an amphitheatre. I thought it was not very good as everything was in Spanish. We went on a bus at 7:30 p.m. and had a 2-hour drive to the place going 5 km overall. We got to the amphitheatre at 9:30 p.m. and walked 4 miles to our seats. We got there just before it started at 10:00 p.m. and it lasted 4 hours. When we got back to the bus station it started to rain. I fell asleep on the bus. As I was crossing the road from off the bus, my foot got run over by a car. I was shocked but not hurt.
A couple of days ago we went to a disappointing zoo where every animal was sad. One lion had a cage 7 meters long by 4 meters wide and 3 meters high. That is too small for a lion. They had polar bears there, that didn’t belong in Argentina. Kate ate monkey food (some type of popcorn) but you have to consider the fact that she is a monkey anyway. It was dry and desert like. In one cage there were 3 turtles, some birds, a condor and a black kitten. That is a pretty strange mixture of animals. The zoo was pretty poor. I hope they fix it up.

River Rafting :)

Today we went river rafting in the very chilly waters of the Rio Mendoza. My dad fell out of the raft because he did not follow the instructions. At one point, when we were going down ome large rapids, I thought we were going to hit a big rock that was in our path. Kate was not allowed go for the most of the ride but near the finish she got on. She would not likely of survived if she went the whole way down the rapids, so she stayed with my mom at shore until it was smoother. The ride was very bumpy and violent. We saw the Andes Mountains and the river water was very murky. I enjoyed the experience but am glad I never fell into the river.

Driving the Andes (not) take 2

Today we went driving through the Andes. The mountains looked big, red, blue, and some other colours too. It took a long time, 9 hours and we took the road towards Chile even though we did not go there. We stopped at a Puenta del Inca ruins. There was a natural bridge made of minerals that was very interesting. The Incas used to bathe in the spring waters when they got ill. You used to be able to go across the bridge, but since 2005 you can’t because landslides are dangerous and you might cause one. I bought a white onyx egg for 35 pesos. Use the Internet to search Puenta del Inca and read more about it. There was ski hills there because there were ski lifts.

On the way back my dad got a ticket for not having his front lights on (daytime). The officer did not speak English so they brought out another guy who did. It would have cost 750 pesos and they wanted to keep the registration to the car and my dad driving license until he paid it. Instead my day paid him 500 pesos for a bribe.

Avoir.

To see the pictures just click on the picture to see more.

Andes Trip mendosa