Antarctica 2015

Early start, 8.05 flight Adelaide to Sydney, 1 hour delay in Sydney as our plane wasn't ready, but a painless 12 hour flight to Santiago... which means we got to Santiago an hour before we left Sydney, so got to experience Monday for a second time.

Another 30 minute delay in Santiago, then a 2 hour flight across the snow covered Andes to Buenos Aires, somehow still arriving on time at 4.30pm.

The drive into town was on motorway most of the way, through a number of toll booths. BA is a city of 15 million people, so a lot of high rise apartment blocks, lots of traffic and pedestrian filled streets.

Our accomodation is in the oldest part of town, San Telmo, with narrow streets, cobbled uneven footpaths, crumbling facades and peeling stucco - very working class but also home to a lot of new hotels and artists, so lively, noisy streets (very much like Naples without the fear of getting accosted every step!)

As we'd sat, slept and eaten all day, we went for a dusk walk along Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest street in the world, at 20 lanes of traffic wide (including 4 bus lanes down the centre). There's pedestrian lights and islands all along, so it takes a few sets of lights to negitiate the whole width.

Bought a couple of beers from the local shop ($1.50 each) and a packets of chips ($6!) to enjoy on our hotel patio on this still, balmy night.Read more