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Published: April 17th 2010
Alvear Palace Hotel
A very beautiful and grand hotel. Not where we're staying.Well, what a lot has happened, most of it good, but also some bad, so this is going to be a looong post. Settle in and have a cup of tea. The potted version is: fine food, delicious wine and cocktails, wonderful birthday celebrations with lovely friends and lots of laughs, lots of fabulous shopping, and enjoying exploring the beautiful city of Buenos Aires. Then being robbed at gunpoint, but meeting some very kind people along the way. But all's well that ends well and for the most part we've had a fantastic time.
Lucy and I arrived in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, my birthday. Thank you to everyone for your messages and kind wishes, it was lovely to hear from you all! It got off to a slightly rocky start when the immigration official at the Uruguay border demanded a piece of paper that I didn't have in my passport (and I swear I'd never been given). So it cost me $30US to get out of the country. But then we arrived in Buenos Aires and to our apartment located in Palermo, which is fantastic, the
Jacaranda Suites , run by Lilian and Alfonso, who are very friendly and eager to
Birthday lunch
Just up the road from the hotel make sure we are enjoying their city.
For my birthday evening I had booked a fabulous, and very fancy restaurant called
Casa Cruz , which is one of Buenos Aires' best and most stylish restaurants. Clean clothes or not, I realised that my traveling wardrobe would not cut the mustard. So a shopping trip for a fine outfit was definitely in order. Shopping is definitely in my area of expertise, so didn't think that this would be a problem. Reunited with Stella, the three of us set out to buy a fancy outfit.
My first unpleasant discovery is that I am not a "small" in Argentina, and perhaps not even a "medium". Actually some of me perhaps, but most certainly not my bottom! Argentinian women are definitely built differently, for example when looking for jeans I discovered that the sizes mostly go from 23 - 26 (for reference, a 28 in NZ is about a 10, and the sizes usually start at 27 or so), although admittedly they do like to wear them tight. There was a brief moment of panic in one shop when I didn't think I could get the dress off and Lucy and Stella retreated to
Shopping!
In one of our favourite shops, Maria Cher. the street to ward off a fit of the giggles.
I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to find anything appropriate at all, but Stella however was very focused on finding me the perfect outfit. I was merely focused on finding any outfit. Finally however I found something suitable in a gorgeous kind of zebra print...then another outfit....and then another. The last, the most impractical, was a very snug sequined dress (possibly better described as a top), but of course the most perfect for a birthday night out. Somehow lots of our shopping has had an animal print theme, a genre which Lucy has very amusingly renamed "Cougar print".
The dinner at Casa Cruz was amazing. Opulent and rich decor, with gorgeous food. We had a fantastic time, with lots of laughter. My favourite comment of the evening was from Lucy, all class, who declared she never really liked all this modern foam nonsense that restaurants do these days and she thinks it looks like someone has hoiked on your plate! Not surprisingly she didn't want to try my oysters with the champagne foam.
At the end of the evening we asked the waiter
for a good bar suggestion, and he recommended the bar next door. In a continuation of the faultless service he actually escorted us next door to Isabel, a brand new and very swanky bar, with a marble courtyard, mirrored bathrooms and luxurious u-shaped velvet booths. At Isobel, you exchange your money for Casino chips, which are then used to order cocktails. It was all very grand, and very nice.
The loos are all a bit confusing though, where the washing facilities are in the middle and the men's and women's loos off to one side so you meet in the middle and you're not sure you've actually used the right side. Speaking from experience, I can say that the appearance of a urinal is a dead giveaway. At the washbasins, I met a guy called Guillermo who told me he was going to NZ next year for what sounded like "work camp". This sounded a bit odd, and I reported it back to the girls. Stella confirmed that she had read that language camps, where you go to an English speaking country to learn English were common. However in later conversations with Guillermo we discovered that "work camp" was
Cocktail, Bar 6
Having finally found a wearable outfit we relaxed before dinner with a drink. actually "world cup", and that after seven years living in New York he talks faultless English. We found this "work camp" story quite funny and it has provided us with much more laughter. Anyway, the night, or should I say morning, ended up somewhere between 4-5, which sounds like a very late night, although not at all by Buenos Aires standards, and given that dinner didn't start until 10.30.
Not surprisingly the next day we were a bit jaded. It was still raining, so we mooched about and believe it or not, went shopping again. After discovering that Lucy had a staggering 2-bag luggage allowance of 32 kgs each and that she would be kind enough to take back any of my purchases, between the three of us we embarked on a shopping spree like none other, racking up between us an embarrassing tally including 13 pairs of shoes, 9 handbags, plus belts, clothes, earrings, necklaces, wallets, books, a painting......
Lunch was unwittingly held at a "Dulce de Leche/ Mozarella" bar. Dulce de leche is a sweet caramelly delight that tastes exactly like sweetened condensed milk that has been boiled in the tin for several hours. Alongside steak
Dinner
At Casa Cruz, us in our finery. this seems to be the national dish as you find it everywhere. We were in fits of giggles as we looked about and realised we were in a hip lunch cafe and surrounded by mountains of dulce de leche and that all the coffee came served with it. Then we went through the events of the previous evening, which provided us with much more laughter. Without going into too much detail, let's just say that I found out the hard way why you don't throw your paper down the toilet in Argentina, especially in an old building when the pipes are old. Note to self - when the flooding stops and you check the bowl to see if the paper is still there - do NOT flush it again.
Wednesday was Stella's last night, so we had a reservation at
La Cabrera , a BA institution which boasts the best parilla (bbq / meat house) in all of the city. It was certainly delicious and fabulous and the best I've tasted.
The next day Lucy and I had a big day of site seeing, now that the sun was finally out again. We went to the
MALBA , a museum of
contemporary Latin American art. I absolutely loved it, and the brief time we could devote to it was certainly not enough. Then we headed to Recoleta, which is where the very famous cemetery is located. I couldn't quite imagine why it was such a tourist magnet, but then I saw it and it really is quite sensational. We continued on our walking tour around Recoleta, taking in more statues, monuments and art installations, until finally we were ready for another delicious dinner at Lo de Jesus, also a local parilla.
Lucy's last day turned out to be a very dramatic one, although it started peacefully enough. We did a lovely walking tour in Palermo, where we have been staying, without incorporating more shopping! Then we set off by taxi to La Boca, which is a very famous but working class suburb in BA. It is best known for the brightly coloured houses and tango dancing on the streets, and nearly every promotion about BA will include a shot of them. It's very touristy but outside of the main areas it's not recommended for tourists, as it is politely described as "gritty".
There is a very famous restaurant near
the port in La Boca called
El Obrero (The Worker) which is one of the best known in BA and everyone from Spanish royalty to Bono has eaten there. It is recommended by one guidebook as unmissable, and our landlady, Lilian, insisted that we go there. However all recommendations also include a warning that you absolutely must not walk in the area and that you should arrive there by taxi only. So that's exactly what Lucy and I did.
However on the way as we were driving a young guy just a few metres away, suddenly, just like in the movies, pulled up a t-shirt and pulled out a gun from his pants and came running towards us. He pointed the gun at us and put it at the taxi driver's head, then was quickly joined by about 3 others, surrounding the car, 2 of whom opened my door and lunged at my bag. The first and almost the only thing that I could see was the gun, and so throughout the whole thing I was strangely calm, handing over my handbag without a struggle. Lucy meanwhile was on the other side of the action and never saw the gun, and didn't
quite know what was going on. She started yelling and shouting at them and held on to her bag for grim death. I was so focused on the gun that I said to her "Just give them your bag" and leant over to grab it, but then there were two of them grabbing for it and all too quickly, it was ripped off her. Then while we were all still in the cab, they quickly searched us for money belts, and demanded more money from our pockets. Of course everything was in the handbags (might I add the beautiful new Argentinian handbags purchased in Bariloche) so of course there was nothing else to give them. It all happened extremely quickly and was pretty scary.
At first we weren't sure if the taxi driver was involved in it or not because he had hidden his money from them, but it turns out not, as he stayed with us all afternoon, gave us his contact details, and was really very kind. First up he took us to the La Boca police station and explained to the police what had happened. He turned off the meter and said he'd take us back
Desert
We decided to share a cheese platter for desert - but was completely different to what we were expecting. It was cheese, but presented with different things, such as milk ice cream, as a desert dish. Delicious. to our hotel and not to worry about paying him, and he waited for us everywhere we went. Of course he didn't speak any English and our Spanish is not that flash, so we didn't really know what was going on. Despite being in the police station, we were both desperate to get out of the neighbourhood. The police in La Boca said it would be several hours, so they gave us the address for the NZ Embassy and our taxi driver took us there. Then he waited for us while we went up.
Should you be robbed at gunpoint, the NZ Embassy is really very helpful, and even give out free hugs. They gave us water, tea, accompanied us to a nearby police station (this time in the more upmarket Retiro), lent us some emergency cash, gave us their home phone numbers for me to call if I needed to, as Lucy was leaving that night.
Actually the trip to the police station was not as grim as you might think, as the policeman couldn't quite help being an Argentinian man. He asked lots of questions from a set form, (luckily we had the lovely Federico from
the Embassy to help us translate) including - single, married, divorced? Single I replied. Oh he said with eyebrows raised and a twinkle in his eye. I spotted his wedding ring and said - you're not, to which he replied by pointing at the ring and saying, "well, so-so". We all laughed at that. Then he asked my phone number, "I might want to say goodbye". And then at the end he asked us both for a kiss on the cheeck. Lucy surprisingly obliged, so I did too. However during the very long interview it was interesting to note that several of his colleagues came in as they were arriving or leaving or work and would give him a kiss too - men and women both - so clearly it is the accepted Argentinian way.
Lilian and Alfonso, and our upstairs neighbours who are also guests in the small apartment, Gordon and Carol, were extremely kind to us when we returned. My biggest concern was that the keys and the address of the apartment was in my handbag, and I had two nights on my own. But by the time we got back to the apartment Alfonso had arranged
for the locks to be changed, and later Lilian came to see how I was. However when Lilian said that she felt terrible and would take me herself in her car to El Obrero the following day a look of absolute horror must have crossed my face, because she took one look and then said, "Well perhaps not then".
The people we have met have all been so proud of their city and so eager that we enjoy ourselves and see the best of their beautiful city. After the robbery we were both very shaken up and they were all so kind to us and anxious that it did not detract from our experiences. And with the exception of the robbery, we really have had a fantastic time. I still recommend BA as a place to visit though....just skip La Boca!
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Ness
non-member comment
Oh no
Rach, hope you are ok? , I can't imagine what it would have been like. Held my breath reading it, sending more nz hugs! Xxx