Going solo

I don´t think I´d really actually considered how different travelling alone through South America would be until I first opened my guidebook on the flight from London to Buenos Aires via Madrid. Nonchalantly reading the "Safety"section, I came across `Rape - this can happen anywhere´ with brief advice to contact a doctor in the first instance to test for STDs and get emergency contraception...no mention of sympathy, emotional support or refuge!?! Anyway, it hasn´t been too scary, despite my limited Spanish - most questions I answer with a smile, blank stare and Gracias thrown in for good measure. And despite the over-cautious warnings from the guidebook - "don´t go to La Boca alone" and "best to travel by day because bus drivers work long hours and there is less chance of them falling asleep" - Mum will be pleased to know that I´ve felt quite safe.

Highlights/stories from my chilly 3 days in Buenos Aires:

• Boca Juniors football stadium (Maradona´s sentimental home) with yellow and blue painted everywhere - the team´s originial colours were B&W but they lost a play off against another B&W team so the Italian port workers who founded the club chose their colours from the next ship that arrived in the port, it had a Swedish flag
• Huge and ornate mausoleums in the alleys of Recoleta cemetery, where only the rich (including Evita Peron) can afford to be buried
• Eating dulce de leche (caramel) in everything - cakes, bread, biscuits and pastries - I certainly haven´t lost any of my Heathrow injection weight yet!
• Steaks for A$1 and then proudly ordering a "parrillada" (mixed grill) in Spanish, only to discover it included kidneys, intestines and blood sausage!
• Witnessing the "Mothers of Plaza de Mayo" march in remembrance of their children who "disappeared" (taken by military) in the 70s
• Feeling young again hanging out with the hostel crew - although I did go to bed at 1.30am every night, when they were all going out clubbing! Such is the Argentine custom of eating dinner around midnight.

After enjoying a deluxe flight from Buenos Aires to Santa Cruz (Bolivia), I wimped out of the 14 hour overnight bus trip from Santa Cruz to Sucre (Spitzy/Helga - memories of that nightmare trip to Varanasi still fresh!) because it was only A$67 to fly. I chastised myself for about 24 hours afterwards, especially as I´d accidentally booked on the 1pm flight instead of 9am, but the amazing views flying over Cochabamba and Sucre were worth it. So I´m slumming it now in a cheap hotel and eating from the market! The Spanish school isn´t open until Monday anyway, so I´ve just been exploring the white city of Sucre on foot. Although its the capital city, its a relatively small city (pop 150,000) and only at 2,790m altitude - I´m already finding it hard to breathe walking up hill and cold at nights, what will I be like in La Paz?!