Buenos Aires - RIP Nestor

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We arrived in Buenos Aires early morning around 9am. We had flown directly from London with a 2 hour long stop over in Sao Paulo where we were attacked by mozzys in flight, pleasant! We had also been sat next to an annoying woman with an even more annoying cough that lasted the entire 16 bhour flight. I was ready to kill when we landed. I was happy to see the ass end of that plane.. or any plane for that matter. I was done travelling for a few days and ready set up camp. We had engaged in sporadic conversation with an older lady from Scotland whilst flying, she was sat next to Blake so I can only imagin it was the ´old ladies loving Blake´ thing again that had started conversations. She had lived in Argentina for the last 40 years, apparently heading there to help a friend teach English - then just ended up falling in love with the place and now has 2 Argentinian daughters and several grand kids to contend with. She filled us with stories of an ideal retired life, driving from town to town exploring all that Aregentina had to offer. We were excited to finally be out of Europe and on to the South American Continent. We were also excited at the prospect of saving some cash here as Europe had put quite the dint in our savings. This sumation was quickly dispelled though by a whopping US$200 visa charge upon arrival. As Australians we must pay a US$100 reciprocacy fee when entering. Basically the Australian government along with the US and the Candaian governments charge Argentinians the same when entering Aus, so it´s pay back for any Aussie flying into (Ezeiza) Ministro Pistarini International Airport. However, this could have been avoided if we were entering the country via a different airport or by vehicle - something that we didnt realise at the time of booking our flights...

First chunk of money gone, we hopped a cab into the city. We had pre booked our hostel thinking we would be too knackered from travel to try and chance our luck in the big city, so Hostel Arribal it was. Not bad upon first impressions, it was clean and had a decent sized common room and kitchen and it was cheap, around 6 pound each per night for a dorm. Sold. The place was to be home for the next few days, although most poeple staying there seemed to be permanents, which is never fun for anyone other than the permanents. We later discovered that the hostel was yes, a hostel but also, student living quarters. Bum. Basically if you weren´t fluent in Spanish, you didnt get a look in on any social interaction within the hostel they tended to stick to their own. After a day or two in our dorm we realised that one of the guys was actually American but wanted so badly to speak fluent Spanish that when asked anything in English he would retort only in Spanish. Lame.

We spent the first night in a dorm with a struggling photographer from Columbia and a couple from Bogota in Columbia who ran a hostel there and were down for a conference. The other guy was Argentinian and snored like a banshy. So much so that we changed dorm rooms at 3am just to get away from him. We ended up befriending a Canadian guy named Kevin and two very Swedish guys named Sami and Jakob, both fluent in about 9 million languages, again putting us Aussies to shame. We really should be forced to learn a language all the way through school, it makes us look silly and naive when we are older and want to travel!

First impressions of Buenos Aires. It was pretty grand... in about 1940. It´s one of those places that at one point, like any great city, was very wealthy and had a lot of money pumped in to it. It was a successfull capital, strong and industrious - but was unfortunately never maintained and subsequently is now a bit of a dive. Not saying it´s not still successful, because it totally is, it´s a mecca for tourists and is thriving on a very young Argentinian populous. Still though, its South America and not like other western capitals. It´s different.

I wasnt particularly fond of it, the footpaths were all torn up, lots of homeless and thick smog tainted the air. At one point I thought a guy lying on the sidewalk was actually dead, walking a few feet further I saw an ambulance and thought, he probably was dead. No one seemed to mind though. I paint a grim picture I know, remember this was only my first impression and each to their own, I had a great time but it was my first look at a South American city so naturally everything shocked me this has become less the case since traveling further north. I wanted to know more about the citys past, in particular about the politics of the place. Argentinians seem to love their presidents current as well as ex, we had actually arrived the week after Nestor their Ex-president had died from heart complications. There were posters everywhere of Nestor and his wife Christina, lots of ´Viva Nestor´sprayed on the walls. This was such big news that the River PLate Vs Boca Soccor match was cancelled that Sunday - annoying for Blake as he had wanted to see a game in SA at some point. Another political figure that was splashed about was the famed Evita - a famous Argentinian icon and more widely known from the role famously played by Madonna in the 1996 film "Evita".

This woman seemed to still encapsulate the general public some fifty odd years after her death from cancer. Every newspaper stand, almost every shop window, displayed a picture of her or sold her image. I guessed that maybe it was for the tourists, perhaps the film had made her even more famous than ever - but even out of Buenos Aires, there were a plethora of statues of Evita, or Eva Peron as she is known in Argentina. So I assumed she must have had great political input. I did a little research on her and found that she was the second wife of President Juan Perón and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. When her husband was declared president in 1946 it was then that Eva began gaining support with the masses, working classes or ´shirtless ones´she was a people person, in short. She gained support for her husband by speaking on behalf of labor rights for the poor. She gained so much support that she started a campaign to run for Vice President, along side her husband but due to her ill health she withdrew. She subsequently was given a state funeral even though she had never been head of state - a particularly high honour for a woman in the 50´s I thought. I could see why the masses still reverred her, she did a lot for politics and women. I have also read that the rich, or the bourgeousis werent too fond of her though I guess the poor out weigh the rich in Argentina though.

We visited Evitas grave site at La Recoletta, a great big mausoleum in the centre of Buenos aires. It was built in the early 1800´s and is the resting place for most of Argenitinas noteworthy residents - doctors, ex presidents, Napolean bonapardes grand daughter and of course Evita. it was a spooky place, with each person having an enormous almost chapel like structure for a grave, these were so big that you could walk inside them if you had a key. Most were kept well some were victims of grave robbers, with smashed windows and clearly issing items inside. You could peak through the broken windows and see coffins. It was an eery feeling so we didnt stay long. It was free to get but 8 pesos for a progrmme which is basically a map of the cemetry - much needed.

The next stop was San Telmo markets. Great on a saturday even better on a Sunday. These markets were full of antiques and mobile empanadas ( small pastry parcels filled with ´carne´or meat in english) these were fethcing for around 2 pesos about 30 cents. We wandered for hours, checking out some strange antiquities, finally stopping for Choripan for lunch (a massive chorizo on a bun) Delic and for only 8 pesos - about $1.50. we stayed for a while then perused the markets a little more. These markets are famnous for their antiques, I even saw an original coronaton programme for Queen Elizabeth II Don´t ask me how it ended up in an antique market in Argentina.

We took a stroll down to the water front for something different, only to be met with a stench coming from the water and a myriad of dead fish - some on their way to death. We both thought this a little embarrassing for such a large city, BA was one of the richest capitals in SA and it had poisoned fish in its harbour. This deterred us from visitin the tigre a large Delta outside BA, we had heard reports that the smell was so bad that you wouldnt dare light a smoke on board one of the boats. We quickly headed back to the hostel for beers and siesta.

The next day we were on our way to meet Kyle and Tahlei in Cordoba, an overnight bus ride out of the capital. We werent about to skimp on the seats as in Argentina there are three different grades of seating on buses, semi cama - the most budget, cama- a little plush with service nd food and Suites which were like travelling first class. We went for the suites - a little pricey but well worth it for a 12 hour bus ride and we figured the further north we headed the worse the buses would get. Since buses are the most affordable way to get around SA, the buses are usually prtty well equiped but a semi cama which is basically a seat for 12 hours is just not worth it, so Suite it was. We were shocked when a little guy came bumbling up the stairs with trays of food and drinks. We were settled in for night and couldnt wait until the morning where we would have friends to play with for the next two weeks. We had also hoped that Cordoba would be a little cheaper than Buenos Aires had been, wishful thinking in Argentina.

Next Blog: Reunion with Kyle and Tahlei and Cordoba, oh and Helados!

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