Buenos Aires

Grumpy teenagers, cultural events, enormous avenues, dogs in sweaters, pollution, street markets, slums, homeless children, the port, the local slang, the dance recognized as a world heritage, local pride, the subway, classic coffee shops, fashionable men and women, and a hundred people lining up politely for the bus - Buenos Aires is the beating heart of a large nation.

There is no way you can match up with the city. At the clubs, the night starts at 2 a.m. Sometimes you just skip sleeping altogether.

Cordoba

They say it's a party city, but I came to Cordoba during the week and soon found the Aldea Hostel, which was recommended to me. The Mezuza on the door left no doubt as to the denomination of the owners.
 
I spent about half a day in the city and wasn't overwhelmed, so I went out to see some countryside. After a two-hour bus ride, I was dropped of on the side of the road. In the middle of nowhere. There wasn't so much as a signpost. With low vegetation all around me, I crossed the road and started walking - hopefully toward the park entrance.

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Beautiful sceneries and clearness of mind

Don't think smelly cheese and sour faces. The French valley in the Chilean park of Torres del Paine is just beautiful, plain and simple.

A lovely green forest, delicate leaves, a stream, a glacier and a fabulous lake view down under. As a special treat, the French valley is a side track, which means that people can leave their bags at camp and go up the trail, light as feathers.
 
The undersigned feather, however, though moving easily up the mountain, still carried some extra luggage. Moderate incline and beautiful sceneries are among the more effective means for feeding the mind.

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Rain, sun, rain and more rain

Eti and Aviel are now my travel companions. Eti is 25, just about to start her studies, alternative medicine probably. Aviel was recently released from his military service and he has since spent his time as a chef in a Barcelona restaurant. One day, his boss at the restaurant told him: "Look, my sister is going on a trip to South America, why would you not join and keep an eye on her?"

He could not find any reason not to, so by this coincidence he, Eti and I ended up in the same camping site, and through a casual conversation in the hostel's kitchen we became travel companions.

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Hebrew-speaking Argentinians

So I am finally here. For some reason, I am not as excited as I thought I would be. Probably because my arrival on the South American continent was less than stellar.

After a flight delay from NYC ended up in yours truly running with two bags in George Bush International (I will allow you the educated guess as to the whereabouts of that airport), I found myself encouraging a local driver to go "really fast" through the busy Buenos Aires traffic because the Argentinian airline failed to inform me that my flight would depart from another...airport!

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