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Published: November 9th 2013
First day in Buenos Aires!! Wow it’s hard to believe that after so long, I am finally here in South America. It is a trip that has been long in the making! Unfortunately my body clock hasn’t quite caught up with the fact that I am on holiday now and I woke at 0600. Since Ellie was also up at that time, we decided to get ready early. And then we had to wait for breakfast anyway!
Breakfast was a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting much really since it’s a fairly basic hotel, but the breakfast buffet was good. There was fresh fruit salad, fruit yoghurts, juice, cereals, 4 types of bread, ham, cheese, cream cheese, croissants, sweet croissants, a sweet lemon cake and some other type of sweet slice that we just couldn’t quite place the flavour of!! And of course tea and coffee. The only problem I have now, is trying to tell which tea is which! Only some of them have a picture on the front to give a clue…
We left the hotel before 9 and noticed that most of the shops were
Plaza de Mayo
Ellie enjoying the viewclosed still, which was expected. We walked along a couple of random roads trying to get a feel of the place. There is certainly a lot of concrete here. The paving is all uneven and every stretch seems to be paved in a different way. Concrete, paving, cobbles, and you can never be sure the sidewalk will stay still once you step on it. There were large concrete buildings next to narrow gothic ones, some boarded up and others with lots of modern glass fronts. Its all a mix of different styles and eras and is actually quite interesting to look at.
We headed for Plaza de Mayo (May Square) where we saw a large pink building with a fence around and guards out front. We had absolutely no idea what it was, but took some pictures none the less. I could really have used a map at this point, but the only Information centre we were sure of was a bit further on. I did discover later that this was Government House and it was an interesting building. Not to mention – pink! The square itself was not overly large and would
Metropolitan Cathedral
Mausoleum of General San Martin be a nice place to relax, except that it is apparently very popular to hold demonstrations and protests there.
On the north side of the square was the lovely Metropolitan Cathedral, which was first built in the 16
th century. Inside was large and spacious and quite a good choice for our first bit of sightseeing. Inside was also the mausoleum of General Jose San Martin, who was the one who lead the fight for independence from the Spanish Empire. He is a very popular figure here.
On the way up the street to the obelisk, where we were hoping to find tourist information, and therefore a map of the city, we finally saw the first bank we actually recognised as a bank – an HSBC branch. We needed to withdraw some money but we weren’t sure about the exchange rates or fees, or what. Only way to find out was to withdraw some money and check! So I put my card into the machine and then…what next? Seriously! It would only speak to me in Spanish!! I’ve actually never had this happen to me before. Usually
the machine reads that the card is Australian and the option comes up for English. Not this time though! Ellie’s was in English, but for some reason mine just wanted to speak to me in Spanish. So it took a while but I eventually, after a couple of false starts and accidental cancellations, managed to figure out what all the different options meant and got some money!!
The obelisk was a big column in the centre of the Av.9 de Julio, apparently the ‘widest avenue in the world’. And we saw our first McDonalds too, which we promptly walked straight past! We did find the tourist information though and acquired a map. The lady there recommended a transport pass if we want to catch public transport, as the buses only take coins and they are apparently very rare and hard to come by here. They aren’t worth much either, so I don’t particularly want to carry them around in my purse anyway!
The currency is interesting. Not worth very much at all. So far I have seen notes in $100, $50, $20, $10, $5 and $2
as well as coins in $2, $1, 50c, 25c and 10c. They use the $ symbol but they are actually peso’s.
From there we walked down to the waterfront and went past an old ship that we decided to have a look around. For the monumental fee of a whole $2, we went aboard the ARA Uruguay. And once on board I was reminded that Ellie doesn’t like ladders as she struggled a little going up and down them.
After this we thought we would take advantage of the beautiful weather and walk through the ecological reserve and have a look at the river from there. It was a nice walk but some of the path was inexplicably muddy. It’s been hot and sunny all day, a little muggy but not too bad – so where did the mud come from? By the time we made it to where we could see the Rio de la Plata (the river) we were ready for a break. Unfortunately, while there was plenty of grass around, there was a distinct lack of shade available. It was at this point
that we both developed that “are we there yet” look, though we did manage to refrain from actually verbalising it…
And then we saw a ‘salida’ sign (exit in Spanish) and, turning a corner in the path, could actually see the city again over the trees. There was an end in sight!
And here, right at the end, we finally see a map with the lengths of the routes marked out on it!! We could have used this a couple hours ago!!! We might not have chosen the 4.2km walk
in sandals if this had been at the beginning of the walk!!
On the way back to the hotel we saw a supermarket and having skipped lunch, we decided to stop there. And I really don’t think the lovely young lady behind the checkout appreciated the fact that we didn’t have any coins, if the annoyed glare she gave me was anything to go by… and I’m sure my bright smile and ‘no entiendo’ at her request helped improve her mood immensely. I think the lady at the information
office was right about coins around here.
We got back to the hotel just after 1400 and decided that would be it for the day. We had thought to go out and find somewhere for dinner, but we were kidding ourselves. Once we sat down and relaxed, there was no chance in the world that we were going out again!
And the plan for tomorrow? Definitely
sleeping.
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