Buenos Aires hotel

Thu 1955 Booked a cheap and hopefully cheerful hotel (about £15 a night IIRC) in Buenos Aires a few hours ago. Had bit of think about possible travel plans a day or two ago and bought some Lonely Planet PDF/epub (nice they give you both) travel guides at a discounted £4.99 each for Chile, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. Flights around Latin America seem a bit pricey, four hundred quid for most routes I've looked at. Vague plan is still to rush down to Patagonia (I have only booked for two nights in BA) then back up through Chile into Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. I was thinking of then hopping up into central America and on to somewhere in Mexico. That may happen or I may decide to not go further north than Colombia. I need to think things through more; I don't have to decide now and I don't want a straitjacket plan but even if I change my mind later it would be good to have a rough per-country time budget to start with and that obviously influences and is influenced by whether I try to include central America/Mexico. It's not just money (for flights), it is a question of time and possibly spreading myself too thin as well.

New phone keyboard feels a bit hard work but am sure will get used to it...

Fri 1205 On train waiting to leave Skegness. Bit depressing to leave parents but will pass of course. Meeting Chubbard tonight if he doesn't cancel. No real further planning of trip but it's OK. I think basic short term plan is to try to see La Boca while I am in BA (especially as I might throw away the return flight and hence not return there at end of March to fly home - I am not desperate to see it but it's the tourist sight which sticks in my mind as something I've missed) and book myself on a longish bus, possibly overnight, heading down towards Patagonia. I can research where from the hotel in BA if necessary but perhaps I will read the Patagonia section of my Argentina electronic guide book (bought for my trip in 2012, there is a newer edition now but I think it will be easily good enough, especially as I can check accommodation reviews on the web and they are probably the most volatile thing, plus I am not intending to spend all that much time in Argentina so a new edition seemed a bit unnecesary, it's not as if it's years out of date) on the flight.

Didn't have any more Spanish lessons in Skegness, just that one, it seems such a faff there. Bit of a shame but one lesson here or there is not the end of the world. Hopefully this trip should give me some practice and wifi permitting I might be more inclined to taking lessons than I was on the trip before Christmas. Though really I think decent wifi availability was the main constraint on how many lessons I had.

Anyway, will send this now, probably mainly only writing now as I forgot to send this last night. Oh, phone keyboard still feels a bit odd but not too unnatural.