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Published: August 6th 2007
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Our Roomies
Ancrum and Kate, having dinner with us at the tango show. After a 15 hour-plus bus ride, we finally arrived in the city of Buenos Aires on March 14th. This is the South American city that Andrew and I had most been looking forward to exploring and it did not dissappoint...
As I mentioned in our last blog, on our bus ride we met a great couple from Perth, Australia, Ancrum and Kate, and we had all agreed to rent an apartment together for our stay in the city. Without too much difficulty, we found a perfect little apartment just west of the city centre which we were able to move into on our second day in town. We think we might have been the first group to rent the place, which was in very good shape, and had all the amenities including a TV (with cable!) and a balcony. The furniture was a mix of old and new, including a couple of antique-looking rocking chairs with teal coloured velvet upholstery - they were classic! It was especially nice to be able to unpack for almost a week and have a "home" to go to at the end of the day. We cooked a few meals which we hadn't been able
to do since we left Canada (and what did we make for dinner - pizza!).
The four of us got along really well, and spent the majority of the week 'en groupe' exploring the many barrios (neighbourhoods) that make up the downtown area. We strolled through the Rosdal (rose garden) in Palermo (but didn't stop to smell the roses as we were getting eaten alive by the bugs!) and had a laugh watching the paseaperros (professional dog walkers) walk through the parks with their dozen or more leashed dogs. In Old Palermo, we had fun looking through the many quirky and kitchy upscale shops, and one evening enjoyed a drink at one of the many trendy bars. In Recoleta we spent hours exploring the Cementerio de la Recoleta (see Andrew's blog entry and pics), after which we enjoyed all you can eat sushi (with four large platters of sushi, I don't think they made any money on us!). The boys could barely walk after eating so much....
One thing we learned very quickly is that in BA you need to watch you step while strolling the sidewalks: the city does not enforce (or has never heard of) the
"poop and scoop" rule! There was dog s*!@ everywhere (much to Ancrum's disgust!). Luckily it did not detract too much from the city, but it was unpleasant.
On Saturday we wondered to the city centre. With all of its European architecture, the city is beautiful and lots of fun to explore (I loved the buildings which were my favorite in South America). Our walking tour crossed back and forth over BA's widest street, Av 9 de Julio (12 lanes), and eventually took us to the Casa Rosada (the pink presidential palace) with the famous balcony where Evita spoke to her adoring crowds during her heyday in the 1940's. We also passed many tango dancers performing in the streets (it really is a sexy dance). We finished the day with a drink at Hooters in Puerto Madero (the Aussies had never been to a Hooters!). The area is currently the most trendy for real estate, with old brick warehouses that line the promenade along the water having been converted to high end condos. Nothing like drinking at a Hooters to bring the classiness of the place down!
After a failed attempt to get tickets at the gate to see
a Boca Juniors soccer game, we visited San Telmo to check out the famous Sunday antiques fair in Plaza Dorrego. While we had fun poking through stalls, we decided the prices included a noticeable "tourist tax", however Ancrum and Kate each picked up some unique pieces that they were very pleased with. We also enjoyed some free tango exhibitions. San Telmo is the heart of BA's tango scene, and we watched all ages performing for the crowds (the 8 year olds were doing a better job than I ever could!).
We spent almost an entire day shopping on Florida Avenue, the city's leather district. It was quite something to walk down the pedestrian only street where we were approached from every direction by sales people trying to get you into their stores. If you don't like the colour or size of a jacket, they will bring the raw leather out from the back, let you choose the piece, and make up a new jacket for you the next day! We ended up both buying leather jackets from the same store (mine is a gorgeous black leather blazer made of lamb skin, and Andrew's is a very cool bomber jacket)
where the longer you 'ho-hummed' the lower the price got! Andrew also picked up a really nice leather brief case (the sales lady was very good!).
Similar to Brazil, Argentina's parrillas (steak house) are amazing! Unlike the parilla at the falls, most of the Argentinian parilla's require you to go up to the grill, but for a very reasonable set price, you can have as much meat as your heart desires! We indulged in a couple of parilla meals during the week... sooo good!
On our last evening, we decided that we couldn't leave Buenos Aires without seeing a tango show. So the four of us got dressed up and went to the famous Cafe Tortoni for dinner and a tango show. The show was very entertaining and a very fitting way to end our stay.
A definite highlight of our time in Argentina was the incredibly cheap (and delicious) wine. You could pick up a bottle virtually anywhere, including the little market store next to our apartment building, with an 'expensive' bottle costing $5! Needless to say, many bottles were consumed in our apartment (as well as scotch which Ancrum and Andrew discovered was also a
Getting Artisitic
Ancrum working it for the camera deal).
The only frustrating event in the city was trying to find an ATM that would give us more than 200 pesos (roughly CDN $70). The most we could get was about CDN $300, which is really annoying when TD Bank (yes, my bank!) charges me $5 for every withdrawal!
We were very sorry to have to say goodbye to our friends after only a week... they made a huge difference to our stay in BA and we really enjoyed their company. But on the positive side, we were heading off to Patagonia!
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