Christmas and the New Year

It`s a bit strange to start this little story right in the middle of my travels, but Christmas and the New Year seems like as good a time as any and maybe in the next little while I`ll try to backtrack so that the pictures (jamesrichards.myphotoalbum.com) make sense.

After travelling around Argentine and Chilean Patagonia for the last little while, I arrived in Buenos Aires after 4 days of non-stop travel. My friend Angie who I met in Caracas was nice enough to have me as her guest and I showed up bright and early the morning of the 19th. We embarked on many a day filled with adventures and field trips until the big day was upon us (24th, here). Angie`s roommate, Negro, his Mom Kitty, Angie and I made up the Christmas family even though the warm weather and general cultural differences made Christmas seem like something very far away that was bound to come in about 6 months. Regardless, we were graced with some amazing cooking by Negro (professional Chef) and Angie, presents at midnight from Kitty, stockings the next morning from Santa, and most importantly, great company. Angie, one of my blogger mentors describes it much better....angie.nomadlife.org

Christmas day was very different. Without the normal routines that we agreed had been the same all our lives, the Christmas crew (now including my friend Andreas from Switzerland) set out on the city looking for something to occupy the time. What we found was a pool hall that played Aerosmith with absurd frequency, almost to the point of insanity. And that was Christmas! Different, yes, but definitely still fun and in congruence with the normal Christmas doldrums.

Between Christmas and New Years was a lot of time spent with a friend of mine Rosario that lives here and that I met in Mendoza (ARG). Then, on the 30th we packed our stuff up after she finished work and headed to the beach (Mar del Plata) on a 1 AM New Years Eve bus. Arriving early and armed with the justification that really, New Years only comes once a year, we found a beautiful hotel on the beach and toasted away 2005 in high fashion. The first day of 2006 then set a good example for the rest of the year, waking up to swim laps in the pool, eating a huge breakfast and lounging on the beach before we headed back to BsAs on the late bus.

All in all things are still going quite well. Extraordinarily well. My next move will be to Còrdoba tomorrow night (12 hours in bus), I`ll let you know how it goes...