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Published: March 4th 2007
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Here's the Argentina and Uruguay entry, courtesy of
Catherine and Patricks blog!
In this episode, Cat and Pat are joined by Annemarie, Cats little sister. They visit the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo.
Once arriving in Buenos Aires, after travelling up the east coast of Argentina, it feels like entering a whole new country. This city is all grand boulevards, huge colonial mansions and stunning parks. Nothing resembling what we had encountered on the east coast so far. The Portenos (port people) are brash, beautiful and busy. We didn´t have a whole lot of time to check the place out initially. Just straight to our hotel and the next morning we took the cheap bus (2.5 hours) to the airport to meet Annemarie. It only takes about 20 minutes in a taxi we later discovered. Such is the life of the backpacker though, lots of time, little money.
On the way to the airport Cat was practising her waves like crazy. Trying to choose a good one to greet Annemarie with. In the end she selected a kind of crazy two hand panic wave that worked a treat, and got Annemarie's attention as she entered the arrival lounge, looking a
bit bamboozled. Much squealing, giggling and hugging ensued and we all went for breakfast in the airport to calm down.
After cooling down the two excited Maddens we took the cheap bus back into town, another two hours, but this time in the afternoon sun. We realised that this may have been a bit harsh on Annemarie after arriving on a twenty hour plane ride from 4 degrees in Dublin to 30 in Buenos Aires!! Whoops.
We were staying in the San Telmo area of Buenos Aires which is famous for its street tango at Plaza Dorrego and its antiques fair. It was originally a wealthy neighbourhood but was evacuated by the rich resisdents when a breakout of Yellow Fever occurred. It was taken over by the bohemians and artists and became a small cultural centre in Buenos Aires. A really lovely place to stay.
We did our best to see as many of the attractions of the city as we could but were a bit unlucky on our walking tour, as both the Teatro Colon and Casa Rosada (Evita balcony palace) were both under restoration and closed to the public. Also the Cathedral Metropolitana had a
Buenos Aires Docks
The Calatrava stamp. dress code that wouldn´t allow Pat in in his shorts. Can´t remember "Thous shalt not where shorts" appearing in the ten commandments, but anyway.
Our favourite sights came when exploring the area of Boca - home to Boca Junior the former club of Diego Maradona. The Boca ground had a really interesting museum and the whole neighbourhood was alive with colour and Tango music, but a little over touristy for us. (I know, we are aware of the irony of us tourists saying that - but you know what we mean).
Also really enjoyed the Buenos Aires zoo which we went to because they just had three white tiger cubs born there. A very rare occurence in captivity and they were lovely to see. We saw endless amounts of street Tango but the highlight was going to the legendary Cafe Tortoni, which is a really beautiful cafe/institution in the centre of Buenos Aires. Here we saw an excellent Tango show with high speed live tango music.
In the evenings we managed to try a whole host of different local foods (i.e. meat). We got Annemarie to try the Parrilla, a huge plate of grilled meats and she
even tasted the weird intestine bits. In fact Cat and Annemerie´s Dad had given us some money to eat out with. I don´t think he realised how far his money would go in this city. Buenos Aires is such good value we ate out three times in fancy restaurants for his fifty Euros. Thanks Dad!
In the midst of all out racing around Buenos Aires we also managed to fit in a mini weekend trip to Montevideo, Uruguay. Montevideo is a really stunning city, if you like old colonial architecture, it´s a real must. It´s a lot quieter and relaxed than Buenos Aires, and much easier to get a round to all the sights. We did arrive at the time when most Uruguayans are on holidays though, so at times it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. It´s well worth the trip, but looking back I think we all wished we had more time to explore Buenos Aires. Our advice is to give the city at least a week/ preferably two and bring plenty of money from home and pick up some great bargains.
Next stop the insane Carnaval of Rio.
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