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Published: June 30th 2008
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Well, we have arrived to the land of steak, athletic men and shoes, shoes, shoes. Heaven you may say.
But first things first. .. Some of you may have already heard about our epic airport experience.... But we think it deserves to be said again, for those who may have missed out.
So, taking you back to Cusco briefly... we arrived bright and early at the airport, to discover that no planes were leaving due to bad weather/fog. The airline wasnt even able to give us a rough idea of delay times. so we made ourselves comfy and settled in for the wait. We did however begin to feel a bit uneasy after about 30 minutes, as we only had a 1 hr stop over in Lima, before our flight to Buenos Aires left... hmm, after an hour we were directed downstairs, to attempt to re-schedule our flight. Except re-schedule we could not... we had to be put on a waitlist, the next flight leaving in another 11 hours, the one after that in 24 hrs... so needless to say we werent happy possums. but hang on...the flight was boarding, yay, so at least we could do the first
leg and wait in Lima. During the flight we made up time, and ended up arriving 5 minutes before our next flight was scheduled to leave... this was very annoying, as we thought they really should have held the plane for us...i mean really... anyway we headed to the baggage claim, grumpily anticipating at least a days wait at the airport.. when suddenly a gentleman called out our names and explained to us that we needed to run (!) as they were holding the plane.... and i mean run..actually sprint to customs...done...then sprint to immigration... pause... hang on, we dont have the departure tax on us.. we poured the contents on our purses onto the counter, managing to scrape together all but $5US. The lady suggested we ask other patrons for help... so we did, and a lovely Aussie man came to the rescue. More sprinting onto our plane... and once finally settled into our seats we were able to look back and laugh at what we must have looked like... dodging and weaving and laughing!
But alas, the fiasco did not end there. We arrived in BA, expecting a transfer to our hostel, which was pre-arranged. This did
not happen, so we had to sort out a taxi... we arrived at our hostel, only to be told no booking had been made! Luckily we had the confirmation papers to prove that it HAD been made..and luckily they did have one spare room....goodness what a day. The Incan gods were definintely smiling on us!
Ahhh so we´d arrived, and what a change BA was from Cusco. We'd hit the big city! and not only big, but stangely Parisian. Not only do cappuchinos and croissants make up the daily breakfast quota, there are dogs everywhere, the main streets are avenues, and they are filled with balaconies. Plus their main road has 7 lanes each side. Very cosmopolitan... and hence extremely out of place for us, in our travel attire... not to worry, a vino saved the day!
So, we've been doing a spot of shopping, enjoying the local wines and devouring multiple steaks at leisure! my goodness the steaks are to die for.... the melt in your mouth variety... the ones you never want to end. Muchos Grachios!
The odd moments we found ourselves experiencing in Peru, have flowed over to Argentina... one such moment occured after
we had congratulated ourselves on finding a restaurant and figuring out how to order our steaks and wine.. we were then told (well an attempt to tell us was made) that a show was on that night... a magic show (?). we werent too sure if we had understood correctly, and soon forgot about it once relaxation kicked in. However about an hour later low and behold out pops the magician. The oddity never stops... but boy do we like it!
We explored the Recoleta cemetary, where Eva Perone (Evita) is buried. This cemetary is amazing (see photos) and is filled with cats. bonus!
We decided to do a couple of tours. The first was a general city tour, which included the posh areas of Palermo and Recoleta, and also San Telmo, the city centre and the famous La Boca (the mouth). La Boca is so named, as it is at the mouth of the main river, La Plata. The main tourist street in La Boca (after the stadium of course) is Caminito street, named after a famous tango song. This street was where the immigrants lived, and is now painted multiple bright colours (see more pictures), and
is lined with tango dancers, artisans and stalls. The atmosphere is amazing, and you cant help but get caught up in it.
BA has been a lovely interlude between Intrepid tours. We mastered the metro system (always a challenge), we are now able to order our favourite meal without pointing to the menu, we got to see cute puppies/cats daily, we could oogle over leather, shoes and handbags to our hearts content, we´ve seen tango shows on the street and we survived a local futbol game... but more on that in the next blog.
Adios!
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Margi
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Love the bright colours, the shoe gazing!, the croissants, the tango ing in the street, the sound of those steaks, the magic shows.........what a city!!!! Loads of Hugs. xoxoxoxo