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Published: March 15th 2007
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Obelisco
A famous Buenos Aires trademark! It was a rainy and early wake up in Johannesburg and a long wait in traffic to get to the airport. Travel departure to Buenos Aires was at 10.30am and we had to be at the airport 2 hours prior to departure. It takes about 45min to get to the international airport from where we live when there is no traffic therefore goal departure time from home, 6.30am. Wake up time 5.30am...My gosh that is early!! We both were taken to the airport by our families and arrived on time, checked in and had the last breakfast with family. Saying goodbye was tough but we knew for now it was best or us to travel. After 1 hour delay to takeoff we were up in the air and flying to Sao Paulo,our first stop and connecting flight to Beunos Aires.
Onboard the aeroplane every seat had a television and we had a whole bunch of movies,sitcoms and documentaries to choose from not to mention the games we could play. There was a very good south African local movie called Drum. It was brilliant and i would recommend you watch it. After a comfortable 12 hour flight we arrived in Sao
Our Apartment
Our beautiful apartment. 3528 De La Carcova,Palermo,Buenos Aires. paulo. Sao Paulo is a metropolis with the city alone having a population of 22 million people. Out the aeroplane window the city looked unbelievable. I couldn't even explain the greatness and extent of this place. It makes Johannesburg look like a peanut. The connecting flight to Buenos Aires was 30 min delayed but that was alright, we were very excited to be in another country.
We arrived at 11pm local time (5 hours behind SA) in the evening on the 16 Jan at Buenos aires Airport. It was very easy to organize transport directly to our first backpackers and without knowing the value of the peso yet i tipped the guy that just put our bags into the car 5 Pesos and the cab driver 20 pesos. To give you an idea 1 litre of Heineken is $3 pesos, a bottle of vodka is 6 pesos and you can buy 2 full mcdonald combo meals for 20 Pesos. I was wondering why there were smiles on their faces when i tipped them...stupid tourists! We arrived at our first stop where we were to sleep a few nights until we found an apartment but to our revelation it was
Iglesia - Church
The top structure of a huge church a dump! The backpackers seemed to be situated in one of the most dodgy parts of BA and right next to a main highway so we could hardly sleep. Anyway we got out very quickly and moved to a much much better backpackers 2 days later. The new backpackers was called Tango Backpackers and they had free breakfast, free internet, a cheap laundry service and happy hour every night(2 trip vodka and sprite for R15) , and the price per night for a room was almost half the first place. It was a really nice place and they had a braai (barbeque) on the roof for their guests every Sunday. They have no idea what the hell a braai is, it is a barbeque to the rest of the world!
So after the 3rd apartment we looked at we decided to take it. Moved in on the 22 Jan so it was only 6 days after we arrived...not bad!! The apartment is situated in one of the nicest areas in BA in a suburb called palermo. We are in a very quiet street called De La Carcova so it is pleasant and we often sit outside on the balcony
De Julio Avenue
The main street in Buenos Aires! in the afternoons and read until the sun goes down. Our apartment is a studio apartment with wooden floors and cable TV. We also have 24hr cable internet which is probably 5 times faster than our average ADSL lines back home. The download speed is 3mb per min and it stands to what it says. Our apartment is also brand new so we are the first people to live in it which is also really nice. We have our local laundry 1 street away which is awesome. You just drop off your loads and pick it up at the end of the day all ironed and folded all for just 6 pesos per load. We also have a local fruitaria on our corner and we 6 blocks from the main street Santa Fe where you can find anything else including a movie house, burger king and a shopping mall. We are also very close to the Bulnes subway which connects you to pretty much anywhere in Buenos Aires for 70 cents.
And that concludes our mission from waking up in South Africa to landing and finding an apartment in Buenos Aires!
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