Saturday, 17th July, 2004

I could blame it on the jet lag, the exhaustion of travelling for more than 24 hours, the excitement at actually being in Argentina in the first place, the walking around Buenos Aires all day, my lack of linguistic skills or the fact that we didn�t actually leave until gone 2 in the morning (or 5 am on my body clock).

Let�s be honest, it was a little bit of everything � too tired to dance, too tired to talk, not able to talk much anyway, although having an American girl there at least meant that there was someone whom I could talk to for a few minutes without having to consult my little carry-around dictionary ;)

We went in a taxi convoy to the party, which was a few miles away in a small theatre. Every traffic light stop was greeted with windows being drawn down and bottles of wine being passed between the taxis and quickly swigged before the next red light halted us. I seemed to be the only person wearing a seat belt.

After arriving, fashionably on time at 2 o�clock apparently, everyone else did the full round of hugs and kisses, leaving me a little left out. We stood there in the main room while someone performed a set on an acoustic guitar before someone started up a disco whose volume prevented any real conversation.

With my inability to distinguish between people�s words under normal circumstances, this pretty much halted any way of me talking as I couldn�t hear them in the first place never mind having to ask them to repeat everything twice so that I could understand them!

A couple of us left at about 4ish, getting the taxi back to El Aleph and giving me the chance to have a proper sleep.

Woke up just before midday, although my sleep had been broken by the buses whooshing past the window all morning and after the usual getting ready, I pulled out my camera and went for a walk around some of the more obvious tourist spots in the middle of town.

First of all, I went for a wander further into San Telmo, apparently the home of the tango. The streets felt a lot quieter in the middle of the day, with people doing their daily shop and laughing at two dogs which were getting a little �friendly� on the street corner. Saw some interesting street art on my wander, before turning back round and heading towards Plaza del Mayo where I took some photos of the Casa Rosada and the statues on the square, including the Veterans asking for donations for their Falklands War Association.

From there I went back to the shopping streets, giving them a more thorough examination than before. A few more music shops felt the benefit of my business, while I bought a new sweater to fend off the cold. It�s a very fetching mixture of orange and navy blue, even if I say so myself.

While wandering along Florida I spotted a street which had been closed down for some kind of arts and crafts fair, so I took a little detour around the back streets past a series of musicians giving a drum performance and having a look at the local paintings on show.

After a series of blocks which had gradually become more tourist orientated, including the former premises of Harrods (!), I came across San Martin where my journey had begun the day before. Walking around the centre of the small green space, I took some more photos and then took a detour back around to the shopping street of Santa Fe and then back to Florida.

This time I found a shopping centre, which I think was called the Pacific Galleries, which was home to a large number of more �upper-class� stores with doormen on the entrances and air-conditioning keeping the whole place fresh.

With the Winter holidays approaching, the centre was full of children�s activities and a giant food mall downstairs, and the inevitable cutesy activities.

After my brush with commercialism, I visited the Obelisk again, a giant phallic object whose image seemed to be taken slightly out of context by a number of adverts for �gentleman�s clubs� in the city. A quick photo there, with the Coca Cola and McDonalds arches in the background and then I went for tea in a restaurant called �The Immortals� which was filled with pictures of Claudio Gardel and other tango and music greats from the city.

More importantly, for me at least, was that they were showing a programme on the tv screen with all of the goals from River Plate and Boca Juniors during the season.

Arriving back at the hostel, I found that the football quarter-final between Argentina and Peru kicked off at 5pm local time, which was 7pm in Buenos Aires, so I sat and waited for the game to begin.

Although no-one else seemed particularly motivated beforehand, I was joined by half a dozen others in front of the tv to watch the match which was decided by an excellent free-kick from some guy who seems a natural replacement for Lurch in the Addams Family should he ever fancy a career switch. Argentina had won, the world was good.

I was then joined by the Columbians in the house an hour later who watched their country sweep past Costa Rica 2-0 and set up a semi against Argentina on Tuesday, by which time I will be down south in the Chubut!