Back to school....

Bariloche 21 January - 26 January

Bearing our school satchels and pens and minds filled with a thirst for knowledge, we marched off to school with our new friend Maarten, our "pancake" (our new word for sweet and hot) of a blonde Dutch housemate. We were separated for the first time in a week into different classes - due to diligent Gayle actually submitting her test, she found herself in a more advanced class while Nix was left with an unenthusiastic native Canadian in beginners class! Gayle had the more "perky, super cool" Canadian classmate, Sarah, who also turned out to be our new housemate at Mara's.ç

Events of the week included:

Monday night = Salsa night with a paunch wanna be Casanova dance instructor... learnt a few sultry moves which we might one day grace someone with!
Tuesday = Admin & blog day - we still can't work out how to post photos - if anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated! (Editor in Chief - Neil Rutherfoord - where the hell are you???)
Wednesday = Ron (La Montaña school principal/director - actually that makes it sound like he is a hardworking, responsible individual, when in actual fact his main role involves corrupting our homework time with beer invites and weekends away!) sorted us out with flights, advice and contacts in 10 minutes (this would have taken us all afternoon) thereby allowing us to go
to Pilgrims (Maartens fav haunt) for a lunch. We spent the afternoon tanning on a gravel and pebbles, swimming in an yskoud Andean lake, surrounded by snow capped peaks on what Argentinians affectionately refer to as a "beach".
Thursday = trek up Cerro Otto (the Lions Head of Bariloche) with a group from school. Fellow trekkers included our chocolate-obsessed friend called Ash who suffers from verbal diarrhoea; Lindsey from the USA & also Ash´s translator - Ash seems to have great difficulty comprehending "South African English"; Will (aka Harry Potter), who finally realised after numerous attempts that his efforts to make us practise Spanish were in vain; as well as a few others. And most importantly Ivo, our knowledgable guide - we have informed all the girls at school it is well worth their while to attend next weeks trek! We kept the group motivated through singing Boney M hits including "I'm so dizzy", "Feliz Navidad" and "Ma Baker" up the mountain - the only way we could get Ash to shut up! Absolutely incredible scenery and an awesome 4 o clock photo. 5 and a half hours later rewarded ourselves with humungous helados (ice cream) and chocolate.
Friday = spent some of the afternoon chilling out in Pilgrims (free Wi-fi) where we created a new age techno junkie backpackers haven - couldn't help but wonder how the backpackers of "the old days" would feel seeing a bunch of backpackers drinking cocktails with their laptops, digital cameras, USB sticks and camera cables sprawled all over the table, talking on Skype,
emailing and researching their next destinations...

That evening the school activity was an asado (a typical Argentinian braai), where we made our mark by teaching everyone the "cereal box game", where various forms of the Giraffe, the Crouching Tiger and the Eagle were displayed. We succeeded in being 2 of the 4 winners, and everyone now believes South Africans have some superior genetic flexability... Had a hecticly big night at a few bars and the local club, getting home in the late hours of the morning.

By the end of the week Gayle was able to make small contributions to dinner conversation with the family, while Nicky was able to command Tibo (our dog) to "Sit" and "Stay" in Spanish! Our great achievements and fantastic people we met inspired us to stay another week in Bariloche.

Posted by Nix and Gayle!

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Hablo poco Castellano

21 Jan 2007 - Bariloche

Arrived today in Bariloche at our host family´s house where at any attempt to speak English, our host mother thrusts a spanish/English dictionary in front of us. Think there is going to be a steep learning curve this week. Start spanish school tomorrow, very excited and looking forward to meeting some gringos

Difference between Sea lions and Elephant seals....

"..is that elephant seals don´t move" (Valerie our Penisula Valades tour guide)

19-20th Jan Puerto Madryn

This is the Hermanus of Argentina, no whales spotted though, or more to our dismay, no orcas beaching themselves to snatch a little seal lion pup from the shore.

Facts we learnt:

• Never be disappointed when on the day you arrive there is no accomodation in the town.. because the more remote places, which are admittedly more of a mission to get to, have the better vibe... stayed at a little one horse town called Puerto Piramides about an hour out of the main town Puerto Madryn, turned out to be a beautiful chilled sheltered bay surrounded by weathered white chalky cliffs and streaming with Argentinians.
• If on a cloudy rather windy day, you sign up for a snorkeling tour, don´t expect to see any fish....our highlights included a sea urchin, 2 small crabs and a jelly fish
• For a mass orgy see the sea lions in action Dec-Feb where the females come to shore to give birth and are impregnated again one week later.
• Elephant seals spend 8 months of the year out at sea, diving for food and dodging orcas so no wonder they don´t move when they come onto shore

Don´t cry for me Argentina

According to Marcel, a Buenos Aires taxi driver, there are 40 million people in Argentina, of which 20 million live in Buenos Aires itself. According to the Nicky and Gayle guess-tometre approximately 2 out of 10 people in your visual field are showing various forms of displays of affection. Therefore at any given moment, 4 million people are scoring in Buenos Aires.

Spent two days sightseeing in BA, a vibey cosmopolitan city, with couples tango-ing on street corners in the touristy areas. Thanks to our street ´wisdom´ we avoided a near mugging by a 10 and 14 year old who were hassling us down a dodgy part of town. Discovered our two new heroes Eva and Che and purchased biographies for first hand advice on how to see Argentina on a motorbike and start a revolution...

Our youth hostel roomies, were a Brazilian mother and daughter who through broken spanish, english and german we somehow managed to communicate with the daughter, while the mother rattled off to us in Portugese and all we could do was smile and nod, nod nod. We made such an impression, however, that we´ve been invited to Vanessa´s wedding to her German finance in January 2008 in Rio (11minutes - Paulo Coehlo we wondered!!)

We met up with Eubel, Scheibes hot hot man (what a catch!!) who took us to a local Argentinian cafe and had an awesome meal with him and his Argentian friends. Engrossing the energy of the city, Nicky "salud"ed one of our new friends and shattered the glass in her hand.

We then got on a 20 hour bus trip to Puerto Madryn..

end of another era

On the 27th December, in little "Z.U.G" (Zuki UpGrade - my pygmy 4x4) packed full to the brim (and bearly enough space for me) I left my beautiful mountain in zululand, carrying with me fantastic memories of new friends, patients and a community.

Having completed my community service at Bethesda hospital, on the Lebombo mountains in northern KZN, I'm now a free bird. My year in Zululand, will always be a highlight in my life. I had my mountain, the sea about an hour and a bit away with unbelievable isolated beaches, 4x4ing, diving, awesome game reserves, men in khaki and a welcoming zulu community. HIV is rife, with a negative growth rate in KZN, the future of the community is dismal unless behaviours start changing. I was privileged to meet and learn from some amazing people working for the community. The community itself was appreciative, and hearing "sawubona dokotela" whenever I walked into the spar in Mkuze gave me goose bumps and warm fuzzy feelings inside.

The concern about picking up bad habits clinically (..mmmm and probably socially when there is a cricket club in the local town) is valid at rural hospitals, where supervision is limited and seniors are decidedly dodgy, learning has to be through mistakes and thats if you're critical of yourself enough to pick up on them. Although, I feel I may have fallen back a bit academically, with the patient load you're forced to make decisions and act promptly(especially when its the wrong decision!). As much of a cliche that it is, my comm serv year was a character building expericence and one I am grateful for. ( and I think I may be a bushcat)

So now I'm off for 3and 1/2 months to tickle my feet in South America. Travelling with my old friend Gayle, who I'll be meeting up with in Buenos Aires on Tuesday 16 Jan. The plan at the moment is to spend a few days in Buenos Aires (learn to tango), head a bit down the coast and then spend a week with a spanish family and go to spanish lessons in Bariloche, in the lake district in the Andes. After that we'll head down to Patagonia, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador - the plans of which we'll make up as we go.

Rural communities also have their humour, have a look at the photos...when I work out how to do that!!

Here's the link http://picasaweb.google.com/nicky.bretherick/AmusingAfrica