Sleeping Beauty

Last night we ventured up to the historic centre again for the carnival celebrations. We ended up sitting on the pavement for a few hours watching everyone go by. It was hillarious looking out for the real nut cases and laughing at them. It was a good way to get talking to people as well. Various groups kept coming and sitting next to us and talking to us. The most interesting were two separate groups of Israelis. It was quite strange how two consecutive groups were from Israel actually. The second group were a lot nicer than the first and were very impressed with my recital of hebrew prayers. They assumed I was Jewish with a name like Sarah but I explained that I was not and of course how I came to be able to recite hebrew prayers. They were all on an 8 month holiday together (about ten of them) having just finished their national service. Their next stop is Buenos Aires - just like me - so emails were swapped. One of them had stayed in London once - Londoners, no prizes for guessing where he stayed ............yes Golder`s Green of course!

Today, after four days of 35 degrees heat, it decided to lash it down. Because of this, we didn`t bother getting out of bed until about midday and the took ourselves for a pizza. We planned on getting a bit drunk all day as we couldn`t think of anything else to do but we agreed to go back to the apartment first for a little sit down, collection of more money etc etc. As soon as we got in we each lay on our bed for a while - to let the pizza digest. Next thing we knew it was 5pm and we had slept all day. Talk about sleeping beauties. We must have needed it - as my Mum would say.

The biggest thing on my mind at the moment is the iminent birth of Nena and Alex`s baby. Nena is one of best friends and I am really disappointed to be missing this event. The baby was due on Sunday but it has not shown its face yet. I have just emailed her to tell her to do a few star jumps to try and jig it about a bit (she is Irish -so it will probably not mind a bit of a jig).

God this place stinks! I just stopped typing for a minute and sat back and got a whiff of the street outside. It really does stink everywhere. I think its extra stinky because of all the party goers toileting in the street but even if it was half as stinky as it is now - it would still stink beyond belief.

We are firmly entrenched in the Historic centre now. We tried a different section of the city last night where there is another carnival celebration route. However, within minutes of getting there we were in a taxi heading for the tried and tested Historic Centre. This other place looked like a refugee camp but without the misery. I know thats probably a really unpolitically correct comparison to make but its true, sorry. I am from Yorkshire after all - political correctness was a bit late catching on up there and still skirts round most parts via the M62.

I had quite an amusing exchange in a restaurant tonight. As you all know - I am vegetarian. On the whole I have been able to feed myself very well in this country. There has always been plenty that I can guzzle down. However, tonight, in a very trendy looking but empty restaurant I encountered a bit of a problem. Now I know you shouldn`t ever go into an empty restaurant but it was off the beaten track a little and it was early so we figured someone had to be the first in a restauant. I ordered a mixed salad, some rice with brocoli and a fried plantain banana thing - a strange combination I know but the menu was in portugese and I could only know for sure that these things were veggie.

My order was taken but then a few minutes later the waitress came back saying she couldn`t do the mixed salad or the rice. I started to speak Spanish and so another waitress came over who could speak Spanish. I enquired as to what was missing that preventeed them from making the mixed salad and I said that I didn`t mind if something was missing - just give me any old salad. I also said that I didn`t mind if they didn`t have any brocoli and they could just give me plain rice. However, I was told that they didn`t have anything capable of putting in a salad at all. I said - what you haven`t got one tomato in the kitchen, not one piece of lettuce or the odd slice of cucumber? No was the reply. I explained to them that I was vegetarian and asked what was vegetarian on the menu. Apparently nothing except what I had ordered (which they couldn`t provide) and the deserts. I declined the offer to have ice cream for my dinner and asked what, if anything, they had in the kitchen that I could possibly eat. The waitress went into the kitchen to discuss this with the chef and then hung out of the hatch and waved a carrot and me and said - we`ve got this. At this point Jo and I left and went back to the place we`d been to the night before where we knew there was some food in the kitchen. We now know why the first place was empty!

Good night bloggers

S xx