Tango for Idiots

Well, here I am...arrived in Buenos Aires with nothing more than a swelling of the cerebral cortex from jet lag and a sever lack of sleep. I thought flying half-way around the world would feel a bit more foreign than it has so far...maybe that has to do with the very European feel to BA. If one didn´t know better one may think this was Milan or Barcelona. But, none of those places eat as much meat or can boast as universal an institution as BA can boast of its Tango. And an institution it is here...it´s everywhere and they are proud of it. Rightly so, I might add. Its exotic and sensual and absolutely tantalizing to watch...it takes restraint to resist the urge to push the guy aside, take his lovely partner in your arms and dance her to the end of love, but then you remember that you were born with two left feel and an absolute ignorance of the style and subtle elegance that this duet requires. Oh well...maybe if I try hard enough at the Tango lesson I am about to emabrark upon some of those divine traits will rub off on me. Hey, a guy has to have hope....

Pre-flight Curiosities

Well, here we are - one day till I jump the puddle. I think I'm set. Lets see...I've sold everything I own (aside from what i'm bringing with me), if I haven't sold it I've given it away (the opp shops in Ballarat have hit a gold mine in me). I've made the most minimal plans possible...a plane ticket and a hostel for the first night, and some loose plans to wwoof at a farm in November. Aside from that, its really a 'fly by the seat of your pants' kind of endeavour....but that's really the only way to do it. To keep me company on the flight I've got Anna Karenin which I've been meaning to read for years and now will finally be forced to in a sadistic sixteen hour stint of sitting in a claustrophobic cylinder filled with 250 stinking people at 35000 feet. I've got my 'Learn Spanish in...' book me which I was supposed to have been consulting for the past months....whups. At least I will provide some humor (hopefully not insults) to some Argentines when I completely mix up the word order, collocations and context and try to say that 'I am a little bit warm at the moment' and instead notify them that 'I am a little bit horny at the moment'! Who knows....maybe that will be the proper thing to say to that specific person at that specific time...or maybe I'll just get slapped in the face.

Ian's Overland Adventure

Hello and welcome to the blog that will surely not change your life, but is pretty damn interesting to me, if no-one else. Herein lies the deeds and accounts of a utterly normal person who banked his life savings and flew to South America with plans, grandiose plans. Actually, the plans are a bit on the skimpy side...in fact, there is really only one. Make it from Tierra Del Fuego to the US without stepping on a plane, aka, overland...and to arrive (hopefully) alive and with no money left to speak of but plenty of stories for the grandkids (no i don't have any and won't for a very long time). These stories will be made up from the many things I do on this journey, things of which I have no clue of at the present moment...so you will have to stay tuned to this blog to seek the answers you so desire.

Vamos al fin de mundo!