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Bells Beach, Australia - Video of the week

The video of the week comes from Bells Beach, Australia.  This beach is located outside Melbourne along the Great Ocean Road.  They have surfing competitions here every year, and this is the last scene from the movie Point Break.    Peace

I finally found what I was looking for.......Fish and lots of them

By Reed Whiting

Well, here I am in a town of about 100 people on the only computer in town attempting to put this blog together. I'm sorry for the lack of pictures on this one. I had 30 ready to go on, but this Internet connection is driving me mad. I'm so frustrated I cant even see straight. Anyways I got the most important one on there of my big fish.

As of my last blog I was pretty frustrated with the fishing situation and was losing hope fast. My decision to head south paid ff big time as I found some beautiful rivers and a lot of fish that were dumb enough to let me catch them. I headed about 3 hrs south of Bariloche to the Los ALceres National Park. I had researched a river called the Rivindavia and it seemed like at good of a place to start as any. I got into the park as it was getting dark and pulled into the first camp sight I found to put up my tent, oh sorry I mean ark my car.

After another uncomfortable, yet cheap night sleeping in the tattoo I headed to the river. It was around half mile walk from the road as I headed down into the river valley. This river was right out of a dream. The water was the color of the Caribbean sea and surrounded by pine forests and the snow capped Andes. I couldn't of painted a better picture in my dreams. The river was pretty big and like the others up north difficult to fish, but I managed to find one spot where I got into position and slammed them. Over the next 4 hours I hooked into around 25 fish and landed around 10. A great start to this leg of the trip. I also made a new friend down here named Bruno.  (Picture above is Lago Rivendavia.  This was just the last town on my way into the Los Alceres National Park)

Barrios (Neighborhood) in Buenos Aires - El Centro

The center of town has a lot of action during the day and a little bit of action  during the night.  It features Congresso (congress building), Plaza de Mayo, Casa Rosada (like the white house in the states), the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Oblisk (located on 9 de Julio), and the world famous Teatro Colon.  You can walk up and down Avenida de Mayo from Plaza Congresso to the Casa Rosada (or vice versa) in about 25 minutes without stopping.  While you are walking from Congresso to Plaza de Mayo you will cross over the world's widest street, 9 de Julio.  By the time you go half way across the street the light changes, and you have to wait about 3 minutes for the light to change to be able to cross the 2nd half of the street.

Subte (Metro)

The supte runs up and down Avenida de Mayo.  You are able to hop on the subte right by Congresso  and take it all the way to Plaza de Mayo.  There are four stops in between these two destinations that allow you to get off and see different locations.  If you have time I would just suggest to walk the streets, because there is a lot of stuff you can see in such a short amount of time.

Food

There are a lot of cafes and restaurants that are located up and down Avenida de Mayo. Most of them have seating outside during the day and into the early evening.  Most of the restaurants will close down in this barrio at about 7pm, because a lot of the their business is from the workers who commute to the center of town.  There is a mom and pop sandwhich shop that I went to about every other day that is located on Avenida de Mayo and Uruguay (in between Avenida de Mayo and Rivadavia).  You can't miss it because there is always a line coming out of the store during lunch time.  They have all different types of sandwiches, but I think the best sanwhich is their milenesa completo!  A sandwhich here is only 3.40 pesos (just over $1 Us Dollar).  There are also plenty of pizza parlors in El Centro that sell empanadas and pizza by the slice.   Of course, don't forget that almost every restaurant sells steak! 

Fifa Sand Futbol World Cup 2006 - Video of the week

The video of the week is from Ipanema Beach in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.  While I was there in 2006 the World Cup of sand futbol (soccer) was going on.  The States was playing against Brazil this game.  I think that they lost 10 to 7.  This stadium only held about 3,000 people, but the Brazilian's were going crazy!   

Best traveling web sites?

I just had a friend (Tonya) recently send me this link http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23814195/from/ET/. This review tells about the best web sites for traveling and saving money!  It is not really for budget backpackers, but it does have some good tips on flights and hotels.  The tips say good things and bad things about the different sites.  I am definitely a big fan of Kayak.  I have been using this web site for about 3 years.   

Peace

Barrios (Neighborhood) in Buenos Aires - Puerto Madero

This barrio of Buenos Aires is very upscale.  It is a very touristy and expensive area, because it is a part of an urban re-newel project that is taking place in Bs As.  It is a cool Barrio to check out for about a hour in the afternoon, and then maybe come back one time during the night.  In Puerto Madero you are able to take a couple of pictures and eat some food but that is about it. 

Since Puerto Madero is a more "upscale" barrio, the food and drinks are priced higher than the rest of Bs As.  There are really nice restaurants that are located along the Port.  Most meals at these nicer restaurants start at about 30 pesos ($10 US Dollars), and then you will have to add drinks and a tip to the bill.  I know that this doesn't sound like a lot of money before you start traveling, but when you are living off the peso you could probably live one day (housing, breakfast, lunch, and dinner) off the price of one meal at an expensive restaurant.  There are a couple "tourist" restaurants like TGIFridays and Hooters for those that are craving some American food.  Puerto Madero also offers ice cream shops, a movie theater (most movies are shown in English with Spanish subtitles), and a couple of bars.