B.A. - No gold-chained mohawks in sight...

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jueves, 8 de abril
Hola! We speak Spanish now. Didn´t take long did it?

We arrived in scorching Buenos Aires early Thursday morning (the 8th) after a 12 hour flight from Madrid. We had passed through Heathrow airport disappointed that nobody tried to X-ray us naked, we had both kind of hoped that someone would have seen our bits on youtube by the time we had landed and offered to buy us a drink as quasi-celebrities. We almost could have stayed at the airport there were probably more cultures and languages floating about than we will ever see in our six months away. There wasn´t really anywhere to sleep though.

We got onto our plane instantly to be devastated:
Sh*t! No TV!
Sh*t! A dog sat two rows in front, already yelping at the thought of being miles above the ground.
Sh*t! A baby to the left of us. A baby to the right. Here we were stuck in the middle of two.
Sh*t! The chicken dinner has run out! Er...okay that one isn´t so bad.
12 hours with very little sleep passed slowly.

Arriving in Buenos Aires before the Sun had even got out of bed, we headed to our hostel (the Sandanzas Cultural in San Telmo) to avoid the strain of carrying both our backpacks (mainly filled with Hayley´s clothes) around the city for 8 hours until we could check in. We caught a cab from the airport, 40km outside the city, and felt our first real Argentine experience; the shocking driving. Neither of us had been on the roads on our previous visit to BA and hadn´t realised that the white lines on the road were not in fact guidelines as to where the cars should be driving but merely decoration on the otherwise cracked and dried out concrete. Our driver swerved in and out of the traffic (sometimes to avoid others doing the same) using his indicator only to warn the cars behind that they should probably brake very quickly or at least pre-emptively get on the phone to the insurance company. Disgruntled horn pressing soon became the national anthem of outer-Buenos Aires.

We have both been to BA before and therefore did not have too much more to see that we hadn´t already. This meant no urge to trip back to Recoleta cemetery to be underwhelmed by the Eva Duarte Peron crypt or try to fit the Centro Obelisk into a single camera shot. With our several hours to kill we attempted to get our bearings...and walked straight into La Boca, translated ´the mouth´but is more the ar*ehole of BA. We hot-footed it out before Lonely Planet could write about the incident and how they had warned us not to go there. Continuing on the same direction we finally reached the Ministry of Defence, a huge monument to..oops...Las Islas Malvinas (Falklands to you and I). Better play down the accent, at least until the oil has been extracted and no-one cares again. We continued on to the ´Pink House´, the Argentine government building, where a crowd had developed at the sight of several brightly coloured soldiers lined up flanking a red carpet. Being British but not knowing what the fr*g was going on, we joined the crowd. Several secret service and SWAT teams showed up but we never found out why, the best we could gather was that there was some connection to Chile. It was deemed newsworthy enough that just about all of the Argentine TV channels gathered amongst the throng. Still we didn´t make it to youtube.

For the rest of the day we got to experience the Argentine driving from the perspective of pedestrian. Waiting patiently for the little green man to wave at us means nothing here since the cars still belt round the corners without indicating anyway. We tried to mimic a couple and cross when they crossed, only to be thrown a dummy of Jay Jay Okocha standards and get stranded in the middle of oncoming traffic. Not sure if our travel insurance covers jaywalking. Taking a trip back through the pricey Puerto Madero we checked in to the hostel and passed out for the night, disappointingly missing the free Tango lesson that was on offer (disappointing for anyone who was choosing to film it anyways).

Right, back out into the sunshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.

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Photos

The MOD...
...or is The Rocker?

Comments

[Bloomer]

I enjoyed reading this - keep it up!

[pacoloso]

Hostel
How's the hostel working out? any older people ?

[Carole Bull]

1st day
Well you sound shattered but you are no doubt enjoying yourselves, take loads of photos and have a good time, missing you both x x x

[BullyandSpence]

Any older people?
Yes there were people of all ages there, we are 27 but weren´t the oldest or the youngest. It was a nice chilled out hostel, not in the best area for access to the city but is okay if you like to walk (about 8 blocks to subte or 12 to the centre of the city).

[Chewi]

Keep it coming SpencerBulls

[John]

Fame at last
Sadly, nothing in the Malta Times I can find. Who was der man touting for your tome? I see from your latest entry that you have cocked up a few times. As I always say, spontaneity is the best way to travel, but you do have to plan it. No mention of beer names or beer cans ("beer can" -sounds oddly like a Caribbean asking for breakfast). I need to be informed of the alcohol consumption (Hayley - no red Bull for him please) Keep up the good work.

[BullyandSpence]

Booziness
Hasn´t been much booziness in truth. Had a lot of wine in Mendoza, that´s another blog to come. Finally started drinking red wine as it´s so good over here. Been all over the Quilmes and the Escudo and Cristal in Chile. Just got to Salta and they drink beer called Salta. They´re all beers with dinner though, no heavy nights really. I´ve grown.

[Sean SD]

@Waiting patiently for the little green man to wave at us means nothing" Haha that reminds me of here. I stopped at a pedestrian crossing only to have cars honk at me and drivers angrily drive passed for slowing up traffic. Apparently people on the roads are bowling pins. However when a cow crosses people stop. Solution – you and Haley need a cow outfit. Enjoyed the post!