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Published: January 11th 2012
Day 87 Friday 6
th January
A real lazy day with us spending most of it beside the rooftop pool reading. Went for a bit of a swim to cool down as the temperature today was 37 (feeling jealous all you people back in Sydney) but it got crowded by the afternoon. There isn’t a lot to do in town and I didn’t want to be just wandering around in this heat just for the sake of walking. By the end of the day we were both completely stir crazy and now realise that we could never have a holiday lazing by the beach in Fiji. I hadn’t planned this end of the trip very well and we were now paying the price by being stuck in a town with nothing much to do. To avoid this happening in the future I spent the afternoon pouring over the Lonely Planet putting together a plan of action for our time in Buenos Aires and Uruguay. We knew the time over Christmas and New Year would be a bit slow but we are now well and truly over it and need to move on.
After the day wasted by
the pool we headed out to a bar downtown for dinner and some drinks. We wouldn’t have normally headed down till around 8 but we just needed to get out of the Hotel. Found a great place called El Cairo that was a large cavernous café/bar and we settled down for the afternoon with beer and wine. The food was only mediocre and it didn’t help when they mixed up the order. We stayed for the night and on the way back to the hotel we came across a large group of people doing the tango in the plaza across from the hotel. There were about twenty couples and they may have been part of some amateur performance group and they were dancing away the night while a large crowd watched. Most of the dancers were extremely good and Shelley enjoyed the opportunity to watch the art of tango at a lovely street level environment. I however am missing that piece in my brain that finds anything to do with dancing entertaining and so was just about falling asleep on my feet.
Day 88 Saturday 7
th January
Our last day in Rosario, thank
Christ. Today the boat river cruise was supposed to be operating so after breakfast we headed down through town to the river. Along the way we stopped once more at the Monumento Nacional a La Bandera and discovered that the lift to the top of the 78 metre high tower was open so we took the opportunity to check it out. After buying the tickets we had to climb 8 flights of stairs before we came to the lift and we both started thinking that there wasn’t any lift and that we had to just climb the stairs to the top. The views at the observation deck were nice out over the river but the city side has now been built in. Whilst there we noticed that a performance stage was being set up by the river and sort of guessed some sort of function/party maybe happening down there tonight so we decided we would head back later to see.
After the tower we wandered down to Estacion Fluvial where all the tourist boats leave from and discovered that the river cruises weren’t operating till tomorrow. A couple of days ago we had been told Sabado (Saturday) but for
some reason it is now Domingo (Sunday), so once again our plans were scuttled. We could have easily just walked to the nearest bar and drowned our sorrows but instead we headed back to our hotel and spent the afternoon looking at the accommodation options for Uruguay.
By late afternoon we were getting stir crazy again and so headed down town to another bar/café called Newport, where we got a table outside under a terrace that had fans and sat back with some great cold beers. Argentina is such a great place to have a cold beer on a hot day, not only do you get chilled glasses, but they put your beer bottle in a bucket of ice to keep it cold. You generally (but not always) get peanuts with each round as well and if you are lucky to cop happy hour you can pick up 2 beers for the price of one. The most common beer here is Quilmes which is brewed by Pepsi and hasn’t got a strong flavour but it is easy to drink, especially on days like today when the temperature was once again hitting 37.
As we sat there we noticed
hoards of people heading towards the river and so we headed off in that direction. Got down to the park next to the river and discovered it packed with people and although there was a stage set up, most people were looking out over the river. I kept joking with Shelley that maybe this was the second coming and that Jesus was going to appear walking down the river. Eventually curiosity got the better of Shelley and she asked one of the policemen that were standing around. He couldn’t speak English but he pointed her over to one that could a bit. Sort of found out that something was going to happen around 8.30, but was none the wiser to what.
Found a table at a café that was right on the river and sat down to wait to see what was going to happen. Around 8 heaps of light planes started buzzing up and down the river, and one little ultra-light was flying down at head height. From our table it was a bit hard to see the surface of the river but around 8.30 there was a huge commotion, so we went over to look and found
the river full of all manner of boats. The bulk of them were small ski boats and such but there were also sailing boats and passenger ferries and all were flying around in all sorts of directions blasting their horns. Shelley bumped into a guy who could speak English and he explained that this happened every year and it was a kind of blessing of the boats, but we think it was just maybe an excuse for a party. The whole river was churned up with hundreds of boats and it was at this point I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera, so sorry for no photos. Later on at night a huge freighter sailed through all this bedlam with a small laser show on its deck, and I wondered if everyone managed to get out of its way.
By the time we got a feed the park and cafes were jammed packed and there were people lining up everywhere. Around 9 the sky erupted with a firework display that went for about 30 minutes, and later on live music started on the main stage. We had to laugh that after having spent 3 of the most
boring days of any of our trips, we get this great extravaganza just as we are leaving. We contemplated about kicking on into the early hours but we had a bus to catch in the morning so we headed back to our hotel around midnight.
Day 89 Sunday 8
th January
The day we had been waiting for finally arrived, we are leaving Rosario. The town hasn’t exactly been bad, and in fact there are worse places in the world to be stuck in, (Jaipur, Agra, Aleppo and Bulladelah spring to mind) but unfortunately we were here at the wrong time of the year and just stayed here longer than we should have. We got up early as we didn’t get a chance to pack last night and was forced to do it first thing in the morning feeling very tired. Paid our bill and was outside waiting for a taxi by 10. Being Sunday the whole town was dead with a hardly a soul stirring and so it took 20 minutes before a taxi came along and took us to the bus terminal.
Our bus arrived around 10.45 and we were underway
at 11. The trip to Buenos Aires was only 4 hours long through fairly flat boring countryside, and once again Shelley tried her best to doze while I did my Suduku puzzles. Around 3.30 the bus hit the suburbs of Buenos Aires and it took 30 minutes to battle through the traffic to the monstrous bus terminal. Manage to get ourselves off the bus and into a taxi with no hassle whatsoever and our driver took what seemed like a sneaky way to our hotel beating a lot of traffic and getting us there in record time. It seemed weird being back in this town and knowing the area so well and passing the places we have already been to.
Got to our Hotel, the Aspen Square where the guys on the front desk tried on a swifty to down grade our room but Shelley’s flat refusal to budge had them hopping around on one foot a bit and then confirming our original booking for a king suite….yes we are really slumming it here in BA. The room is huge, beautiful and has a small balcony and kitchenette. On the roof is a small pool a funky large terrace
and a gym complete with modern new equipment, which I will do my best to avoid.
We dropped off our bags, had a quick shower and then hit the streets of Buenos Aires again. The hotel is located in Palermo where we were staying before so we know the area well and it felt great to be wandering our old stomping grounds again. From my rough reckoning I think we have done about 7500 kilometres since we were last here on a huge journey down to Ushuaia and back and all of it by bus.
Day 90 Monday 9
th January
The breakfast in this hotel is one of the best we have had in Argentina everything was fresh and lots of choice. Today we are looking for a hairdresser so I can get my hair done and I am scared that things could go wrong with the translation. We started walking around the area about 9.45am I had an address of a Hairdressers that I got off the net, but when we walked past about 10.00am it was not opened. We decided to continue on and look around the suburb by about
11.00 things were opening and we headed back to the hairdressers to see if they were opened and before I could hesitate Scott was saying goodbye and I was sitting in the chair. Thanks to Traudy writing out my hair colour details before I left Australia the hairdresser said everything was OK although I thought I heard him mention a bowl and do a scissor action. Soon I had two men standing there separating my hair in all different directions and discussing for about 10 minutes. Then all of a sudden they were putting colour in my hair, it appears to take 2 men to do the job Traudy does, I was concerned at this stage if the two decided to cut my hair at the same time I might end up lopsided but only one tackled this task. The blow drying did take the two of them and I was finished since the process went quite well I asked about getting my eyebrows done and I was lead to rooms at the back. The results for the hair and eyebrows are not as good as home but I did not end up with a bowl cut either.
I
met Scott back at the hotel and he did not scream or laugh and he agreed to go out for a walk in public with me so I must look OK. We ventured into the shopping outlet district to see what bargains we could pick up, well it was more window shopping as nothing else will fit in our backpacks. Although I should get 2 more T-shirts as the cleaning at the laundry is a bit dodgy we have got back a long sleeve shirt of Scott’s with scorch marks and a T-shirt of mine with what looks like coffee stains that will not come out and were not there when I put it in. All the other clothing is looking a bit beaten and faded as well so I am glad I did not bring good clothes or we would be spending all our time hand washing. Now back to the shopping believe it or not we brought nothing I resisted all the shoe shops and still have no luck finding a summer dress that is not a super mini, see through or a maxi dress.
For Dinner we strolled to Antares Bar which we had been to last time we were in Buenos Aires and I had the Mediterranean Salad that had feta cheese that looked and tasted like mozzarella, but it was still good. This place is always busy and very noisy no matter when you go there.
Day 91 Tuesday 10
th January
This morning we got the metro to the city so we could buy ferry tickets to Uruguay for Friday, we had heard that this time of the year the tickets sell out quickly. Yesterday a travel agent told us we could buy tickets at the Buqabus office on the corner of 9 de Julio or the port so standing on the corner we could not see any office and started the long walk to the port. Lucky a block and a half down the street we came across the office which was packed so we joined the queue and within half an hour we have our very expensive ferry tickets. The temperature today is 37 degrees so we decided to walk to San Telmo through Florida Ave (the main mall full of shops and crowds) and guess what, I finally found a summer dress.
The walk to San Telmo took about an hour with the stops at the shops on the way, this area has narrow cobbled street and lots of antique shops and some interesting clothing stores it was great just walking around looking through all the shops. Scott brought another book to read; he could open up his backpack as a library. Near the bookstore we found an old English pub which we would normally avoid but this one said it served Thai food. After we finished looking over San Telmo we went to the Gibraltar for a drink and dinner, the Jungle curry was full of flavour but not that hot and Scott had a beef & ale pie that was also good.
At about 8pm we walked back to the metro taking photos on the way and caught it back to Plaza Italia the closest station to our hotel. Across the road is a café so we stopped for a drink and to eaves drop on a nearby table that was having a heated although quietly spoken conversation about the police being involved and being convicted we could not hear what they had done, but they left and about a block away the woman started to scream at him. At this point we decided it was time to go back to the hotel and to bed for the next day’s adventure. It was around midnight when we got back to our room and within a few minutes the sky was lit up with lightening and it started to pour with rain so we had timed the day perfectly.
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Sue
non-member comment
Happy New Year
Just wanted to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR! I love the blogs, so keep them coming! Laughed out loud about Buladelah. Couldn't agree more! Stay safe