24th January 2013

One again I'm back on a bus, this time round I'm heading from Santa Cruz to La Paz, having short circuited the journey thanks to a flight from Buenos Aires. I would have flown all the way alas flights direct to La Paz are prohibitively expensive and even with the bus ride my entire journey back will take less than a third of my outbound leg.

I leave Buenos Aries craving more time there, but as many folks say the best time to go is before you feel ready. Anyway I'll be back before my trip concludes to do some follow up work with a couple of co-ops and visit some of my new friends.

Last night I met with Marco and Sean O Macdonald (who I mentioned in a previous post) he bares an uncanny resemblance to a dear old friend Simon who's also in the business of saving lives although in a slightly different context Sean even agreed on the similarity (I think its unusual for people to acknowledge their own doppelgänger)! Yet it goes deeper than that, they're both people with big open hearts they wear on there sleeve, its a shame there aren't more like them. Adding to the brew of weird(ish) coincidence he's from Nelson a town of ten thousand in remote British Columbia, Canada where it just so happens three of my good friends from school now live.

We rendezvoused in San Telmo and headed down to Plaza Dorrego (fast becoming my favourite haunt) where I was able to get one last steak fix and once again enjoy the unique vibe of San Telmo's streets. On this occasion I opted for Bife de Lomo, (tenderloin steak – I've practically completed the anatomy of a cow in my brief time here and it seemed fitting to continue my exploration of all things beefy) it was very tender as the name would imply and delicious although I don't think it quite reached the highs achieved in some of the other places I've visited. Food aside I did get one final missing piece of my Buenos Aires experience as a couple danced the tango complete with live band as we feasted on red meat and wine.

Even though it was stiflingly hot with humidity close to 100% and the temperature up in the mid to high thirties through the day the tangoists looked perfectly cool on the surface as they glided across the floor, punctuating their elegant movements with an abrupt stop as if compelled by sexual tension to arrest their passion for a moment. I'm really not one for strictly come dancing but this was a sight to behold. Perhaps I was just smitten by the latin looks of the svelte young lady as she flicked her legs and swayed her hips set against the hypnotic music; accordion lilting gently while the guitar play moved between intricate finger picking an violent percussive strikes as the vocalist took up residence low in the mix as a supporting piece (same idea as Mick Jagger's voice on Exile on Main Street). As the night wore on Sean's squeeze a lovely Argentinian girl called Victoria joined us and we crossed town to Palermo for some drinks where we met some of Marco's old school friends and I despite the temptation to stay and dance the night away slipped off back to my hostel at around four (I still can't get over how late everything happens here. We're sitting in front of a bar at four in the morning, its a Wednesday night and the place is buzzing!).

So that's it back to the mountains and ever changing weather of La Paz... The bus has just started our long ascent back up into the clouds, and I'm going to close my eyes and dream of the city on the Rio del Plata...