Paris of the South

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We crossed the river Plate on a fast cat - a surprisingly large body of water - took about an hour and a half, with free wifi...! Have to confess that I wrote one of the earlier blogs from there. Buenos Aires was really not what I expected... it started when we got off the boat and had our luggage x-rayed.... wrong way around, I feel! Then it was a cab ride to the hotel - moderately tame, and it being a sunday I teamed up with Rick and Simon and Shal to wander over to the San Telmo antiques market. It was truly vast.. They fill a small square, but then stalls spread out in all directions from there. Was quite tempted by a leather cowboy hat but realised that I couldn´t pack it, and that you lot would never let me live it down if I ever wore it....
Lots of the stall holders were dressed up in very random costumes - morrocan, arabian, indian etc which just added to the atmosphere, and of course it was packed with tourists... and for the first time in 3 weeks, lots of english speakers.. We wandered for a long time and just found more and more arcades full of antiques, and not many people buying, I became a little shopped out, so we wandered back,and found a big street parade; lots of drums and dancing, then back to the hotel because it was our turn...
Chucked on some slacks and went to a tango lesson with a very charismatic teacher who was forever splitting the class in to men and "wimens"... and then a nice steak dinner with bottomless wine, and a show. A few of us went out for a sneaky wee drink afterwards, but it beng a sunday not much was open.
Next day dawned; the last day. We all met for breakfast, then started to say the goodbyes. We were a group of 17 and all of went for a meal together at least once a day; lots of goodbyes together seem to be easier than just one every now and then. We lost 4 good men and women today! Nevermind, as the rest of the crew were still about - I tried to make a meeting at the Recoleta cemetary but the walk over took loñger than I thought. Still, it was a beautiful day and a nice wander around. (NB I´m trying to start getting some photos up on the earlier posts but the photos are huge and I can´t edit them) I spent about an hour in the cemetary wondering where all the money came from to make the mausoleums, then wandered over to the Museum of Fine Art which was closed ´cos it was monday... Nevermind, back to the hotel and I passed out. Heather woke me up and bustled me along to the Intercontinental hotel where we met more of the crew and went for a fantastic steak and one or two bottles of wine...
Next morning found me at sixes and sevens - I had to go check in at the hostel, couldn´t find my Lonely Planet guide right when I was going to need it, then I thought I lost my diary (and etickets) and generally went to pieces! Said goodbye to Heather to go look for everything.... Diary turned up when I went to look for my sunglasses and the LP was just in the other bag. Phew! Was much happier in the afternoon - went to La Boca and met the girls, and Matt, Alex and Rab and watched a tango display. Pretty impressive, but wasn´t sure what to make of it when the men danced together! They were really, really good though - throwing each other into the air and over their shoulders etc. Tried to get to Palermo Viejo for the afternoon but the traffic had other ideas, so the worlds nicest taxi driver dropped us (me plus Doireann) at a touristy but mighty impressive cafe. Met the whole crew for dinner but couldn´t eat any of it - I´d been thinking about all the goodbyes all afternoon and had no appetite. A few of us were flying out - most going back to Oz, but I´m heading south!

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Photos

tango with lunch
how civilised!