Buenos Aires - what a city!

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Arriving in Buenos Aires, we get in touch with a friend we know from London, Flor, who has (luckily for us) moved back to BA for a few months. Looks like Flor will be in full charge of our doings and whereabouts for the next week….we try to prepare ourselves for being back in civilization, however spend the first night not leaving the hotel, too scared to face millions of people on the street…we miss the crabs and iguanas.

We do a half day city tour on the first day to familiarize ourselves with the city. We are amazed to be met with what feels like a part of Europe (only better!) that looks like London, Paris, Madrid and of course stereotypical Latin America depending on which corner you turn. There are masses of amazing architectural examples (highly influenced by the French in the 19th century), cute little tin buildings, tango shows breaking out randomly in the streets, business centres buzzing with people and tones and tones of restaurants, bars and cafes spilling onto the streets. The streets are wide, with the main avenue encompassing over 20 lanes of traffic - it takes you 3 traffic lights to cross…we are told that when the city was preparing for its centennial celebration, the mayor realized the city needed a main artery and a whole block of buildings was demolished all the way across the city to create the Avenida del Mayo.

We go for lunch at what looks like an enlarged Butlers Wharf of BA and take about an hour to choose from about a hundred restaurants spread along the water. We have survived our submersion back into civilization and are ready to meet with Flor tonight for some serious partying!

If you will remember, we were terrified of making our own decisions at the end of Galapagos - turns our we need not have worried…all hail Flor, who takes full responsibility of telling us what time to wake up, where to go, what to do, eat, drink, etc…think we even manage to lose a bit of weight as we simply do not have enough time to eat, and when we do we are shamed into having no more than 6 sushi rolls each by super slim-lined Flor;-)

The next 6 days are spent surrounded by a haze of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana (people tend to roll it right in the open in bars, clubs, etc….we guess its better than London’s traces of white powder found in all the club toilets). (mums - don’t worry, we behaved!).

The parts we remember are (in no order of importance):

* private party in a penthouse suite at a top Philip Starck BA hotel where we get served dinner by waiters in white gloves and are entertained by 5 guys from Spain who are taking their boat on round the world trip…(and we thought we were cool!). We are slightly bemused by the fact that their 4 night stay at the suite would have covered both of our South and Central America travels (including flights!)…but then again - we are having the most “unforgettable” experiences in some of the hostels we stay at (have to admit that we are staying at the Marriott in BA!). The suite quickly fills up with about 100 people and we become local attraction as the exotic English speaking girls on the “self discovery” round the world tour (Flor’s interpretation of our stupidity). We are slightly perplexed when it reaches 3am and we still have not left for the club…by 4am, Flor gives the go ahead and we head over to Crobar for some dancing - we get back at 8am and fall into our lovely beds for some well deserved rest (we have 6 pillows each - what pure luxury!).
* Waking up a few hours later, we spend the afternoon having lunch at an amaaaaaazing (BA slang for amazing;-)) Japanese restaurant, followed by browsing the shops in what feels like the Soho/Greenwich village of NY…great girlie day out!
* House party that evening, followed by another house party, followed by another club at 4am, followed by breakfast at our hotel - we are the first ones in! we eat all the food and retire to bed at 830am…this is starting to hurt!
* Waking up at 3pm, we find some energy to go to San Telmo - the Portobello/Notting Hill of BA - its full of antique shops and stalls selling masses of useless grandma’s possessions, mixed in with the tango dancers, street performers and coffee shops. On our way there, our taxi breaks down literally in the middle of the busiest BA avenue and we pray for our lives as the taxi driver pushes the cab to the curb…where else???
* Sunday night is then occupied with quiet dinner and couple of drinks at the Irish pub down the road from our hotel (apparently everything else is shut on sundays)…we get back to the hotel at 4am - COOOOOME ON!!!! Do people ever sleep here??
* We have to admit, by Monday we are broken and spend the whole day enjoying TV and room service! Our bodies have readjusted all too well, so we still stay up till 3am watching some cr*p on the telly.
* Tuesday is our quietest night on the town - we have nice civilized dinner and then Flor takes us to the most local of local places where people go to dance tango. Its all very cute, with dancers ranging in age from 14 to 80…Heenz gets pulled up onto the dancefloor by Jose (a local guy who thankfully speaks a bit of English) and shows them how its done! (thankfully returning back to the table with no injuries to self or the guy :o))
* On Wednesday, we are taken to a hush hush private art party (there is a password to get in and all - “European kidnapping” - how appropriate!). We are way out of our depth but look like celebrities (or models??) given we tower over everyone in the room in our heels (we have also spent the afternoon getting pampered so look like a million pesos). People shamelessly pass by staring and trying to listen into our conversations. Flor introduces us to everyone and everyone of the BA scene and we feel that by now we know everyone in the party scene! On the way to the party, we get “approached” by another taxi with 3 guys who start following our car to the secret location (overlooking the Parliament) and try to make conversation. When we pretend not to notice, the guy gets out of the taxi in the middle of the main road and stops traffic to get to talk to us…Apparently this is normal in BA! We end up inviting them to the party, and then spend the first hour trying to hide from them - they are way too young;-) (but cute! What a dilemma!). Another night out on the town ends at 4am and we hope we don’t oversleep our plane the following morning…we are off to Patagonia, praying that the ash from the Chilean volcano eruption wont interfere with our plans!


3 days later….arriving back to BA slightly re-hydrated, we are thrown into the world of luxury once again as we are staying with Innz’ mum who is visiting and putting us up in the Hyatt….how will we ever go back to backpacking??? The (quiet) Sunday night in BA starts with some champagne that mummy brought (its been 2 months since we have had French rose bubbles and not the Argentinian sparkling wine with Red bull - yes, really, they drink that combination here!!)…The night swiftly continues into significant amounts of amazing wine, port, cosmo’s, martinis, cognac, etc - so we obviously fall back into the lifestyle in a matter of minutes…and drag mom into it!

The next day, not feeling too pretty, we head off to have our hair done at the best hairdressers in town! Unfortunately Argentinia’s definition of highlights is very different to that of London, and poor Innz suffers as a result. Travelling must have changed her as she refuses to cry (well done Innz!) as she realizes that it will grow out and by the time we are back in London our hair will be dreadlocks anyway!

That evening we go to a ridiculously overpriced dinner and tango show expecting to be disappointed by the tourist trap. Little did we know that we would be left speechless by the end of the night spending two hours with our mouths hanging open. The dancers move as if one, the variety is mind blowing, and the cutest thing of the evening is the 60yr old couple showing everyone how tango is really done! We are tango addicts now, although still petrified to actually dance the steps!

Leaving Buenos Aires we are very sad, and say a tearful fairwell to Flor, our guide, our spiritualist and most of all our friend. We look forward to our new adventure - being the 14 hour bus ride northwards to the Iguazu falls. Thankfully we have spent GBP30 on the most expensive tickets which are the 180 degree flat beds, a three course dinner, the latest movies and most importantly alcohol……

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