South America, Buenos Aires

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Our final blog from BA as we while away the hours in the lounge at the airport. Buenos Aires is fabulous (despite lots of rain!) We disembarked from the ship very early (7am) and managed to re-organise our city tour for the morning that we arrived instead of the afternoon, a good move in the end weatherwise. Our tour guide picked us up from the docks, dropped us at the hotel (Alvear Palace) where we received an up-grade on our room (nice start) and had time for a b'fast to die for. The hotel was built in the 1930's, is one of the Leading Hotels in the World group and is absolutely wonderful in all respects. Marble everywhere, very opulent, pool, spa and shops included.
Our tour was fabulous, our guide Sandra took us to all the key points - beautiful plazas, the 'British' tower, the cemetery where Eva Peron is buried, 2 stops on the metro on one of their old wooden carriages (great fun), a beautiful park full of roses (including some 'David Austin' varieties would you believe and parrots flying free), a very stylish coffee house called Tortoni's (very 'Italian'), wonderful public buildings and embassy's. The city is full of Belle Epoch style architecture with the kind of wrought iron facades and gates you would love to have. There are plenty of museums and galleries too. We also went to La Bocha - the famed coloured houses and market district and visited a flea market where the Tango was being danced in the street - wonderful. Our guide was so attentive and was happy to talk about the Maldives too which was very interesting. After our tour we returned to the hotel to rest and later took a traditional tea in the hotel which included champagne - a bit like tea at the Ritz. We skipped supper as we were so full!
On Monday we strolled the city including re-visiting some of the areas in our tour, the humidity is about 75% and very draining so we had to keep stopping for drinks! In the evening we went to the famos Carlos Gardel to have dinner and watch the Tango show, met some nice people from Bradford who shared a table with us. The dancing was fabulous but did run on a little ('how many ways with Tango' comes to mind!). The museums are closed on Monday's so we planned to see some on Tuesday but unfortunately Michael felt 'off colour' so we had to skip them so I did some shopping (we have decided we need to come back anyway, we love the place - dare I say it sits on a par with Italy in my heart). Michael picked up later so we got the hotel to book a table at a good Agentinian steak house which didn't disappoint and finished the night in the lobby bar with a drink. Michael has discovered some great Malbec wine (which should please Barry!) and some of the wine shops are remarkable, just specializing in Grand Cru! Shopping is very cheap compared to UK (about 1/3 of the price in many cases - I wish I'd brought an extra case!) - should please our daughters!! Would recommend the city to everyone, it's clean in most places, cultural and the people are friendly. The pace of life is slow and the drivers crazy like the Italians! All for now. Di

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Photos

Buenos Aires
Cemetery, Eva Peron's tomb

Buenos Aires
Tortoni's coffee bar - worth the wait to get in.

Buenos Aires
Colourful streets in La Boca

Buenos Aires
Writer's Garden in The Rose Garden in The Recoleta District

Comments

[suzanne]

buenos aires in june
Hello Theos, I am going to BA in june with my mother, who will be celebrating her 80th birthday. she is pretty fit and active at her age, but she cannot do any hiking or real physical activities....basically walking for 4 hours out of the day would be her limit. we will be there for around 8 days. i would really love to hear your comments on what we shouldn't miss while there. cheap shopping district, achitecture, ect..... and do you know of any over night flight tours to the falls up north. another thing, do you know how long it would take to get to Mandoza, the wine region. thank you so much, i would love to hear your thoughts. Suzanne

[The Theos]

Buenos Aires in June
Suzanne - Travelling around in BA is very cheap - the pound is strong compared to the pesos (Arg) at present so recommend you get around in taxi's (only use 'Radio Taxi's' - safer and costs are displayed (typical 10 min ride = about 15 pesos (about £2.50)). Cheap shopping is in Florida Ave and Sante Fe Ave but Galleria Pacifica is very nice and enclosed with coffee shops and places to sit; it has a good variety of shops. Take an umbrella - it rains all the time! The Rose Garden (Recoleta district) is lovely to walk round in the afternoon, the whole of the Recoleta area is safe. There is a nice Sunday artisan market quite near too. Be very careful in La Boca area and keep to main street. The flea market is very colourful (Sunday again) and they dance the Tango in the streets. It would be wise to take either a private or group city tour at the start, it's less tiring and you can decide where you want to return to. There's a Latin American museum and the Belle Arts both worth a view. The cemetery (Recoleta again) is busy but a 'must'. Don't know about trips to the falls - you need to get a flight and Americans we met said it is worth going, ditto the Mendoza wine trip (tour agents in BA would organise for you). Can highly recommend the company we used (ATP) who are BA based and you could try www.allaboutar.com/ba.htm website which is very informative about Argentina and has a section on BA, also the Rough Guide. Leave valuables in a safe at the hotel and don't carry too much cash - especially in market areas (use common- sense!). If you're not veggies, try a steakhouse for supper (don't have lunch though!) -great meat. I envy you your trip, 8 days will be good, have tea at the Alvear Palace Hotel where dress is smart casual and non-residents are welcome (about 4.30pm - 6pm it's pricey (120 pesos) but 1 tea between 2 is plenty and the service and food is to die for). All the best - Di