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We´d taken the best bus we´d ever been on from Paraguay for 16-18 hours, I can´t remember anymore and arrived around 10am in Buenos Aires and decided to find accommodation in San Telmo (named after Saint Elmo but they put the T from saint infront of Elmo?? too much vino me thinks). Found a hotel Bris del Mar @ 40 pesos a night - a bargain for a double ($16 AUD for 2).
The first thing I could say about this place is that I could live here in a second. I love it, its fantastic, the people are great, there are so many things to see and do, the food is excellent and cheap, there is culture and the romance of the Tango - I know a few steps now... I see why they call this the Paris of South America. The only downsides I saw was the proliferation of dog shit and that Argentinan´s have taken democracy to a all new level. The protest a bit to much, about anything. But apart from that I think it´s a must see destination and I will be back.
We were here for two reasons, 1 to see Buenos Aires
and 2 to learn Spanish. We´d scoped a few places out on the net and still weren´t sold until we saw a flyer for ELE Baires http://www.elebaires.com.ar for anyone interested, and it was the best thing we did, the Teachers are awesome, Nuria and Leo, Leo.... you champion! Leo es un muy bueno profesor de español. everyone and all the students and friends we made Gil, Amando the Italian Stallion, Christian the Loco activities coordinator who´s life is one long fiesta!
Their prices are great but that´s not important. The way they teach and their dedication is. Leo, one of the Profesors just loves to teach and when your around that sort of person, it makes the experience that much more rewarding. We studied 20hrs a week for 4 weeks and learnt alot but we have lots of stuff to go over. During our time in B.A. we went with a group of students from the school to Tigre, about 1hr north of the city which looks like a summertime getaway for the well to do, it has lots of old money clubs and cottages with heaps of picnic grounds or islands that make up the delta of the
river. We drank, ate Argentinian Parilla (sausage, beef and some unusual parts that we don´t eat) played volleyball and drank some more and more.
We stayed in the hotel in San Telmo for the first week before we found a place on the net that was within our budget and in a decent location. We went to http://www.deptostemporarios.com/ office on Avendida de Mayo, the main street of BA and asked to see the one we had looked so long for. It was gone. The manager had a brainwave, they had an apartment upstairs, a studio, cheaper than what we were looking at and on the corner of 9 de Julio Y Av de Mayo, the centre of the city. We took one look it was all new and we said muy bien, very good and it was done $100 US a week in the centre of one of the biggest cities in the world.
I also got to see my first futbol game live at Boca Stadium with La Boca v Columbia Cucuta in a night knockout final. It was the most Loco (crazy) game I´ve been to. We had tickets through our school with some of the
other lads in the populares section (standing room) which some Argentinians from the school thought was a bit rough. It wasn´t until we walked in and all we could smell was urine (no toilets here everyone goes on the stairs) and when we went around the next corner, everywhere, the stairs were covered in amber liquid running down and it wasn´t beer and the game hadn´t started yet.
The night had a really intense mist, at one point we could only just make out the goals that we were standing behind. But the crowd. They are crazy, it´s like a mosh pit at a rock concert with chants, flares going off and verbal abuse flying in all directions. It was unreal, have a look at the photos and video if I can attach it.
Other things we did were take a trip with some guys from the school (10 people) over to Uraguay (Montevideo & Colonia) for the weekend for more eating and drinking. We got to Colonia on a Fast cat that took an hour and then caught a bus to Montevideo (2.5hrs). The city of Montevideo seemed alot quieter than what we had experienced in Paraguay, but
it did have alot of clubs and a suprisingly high proportion of chicks (Rhett, Dave & Dowdell.....) Food was much hexier than BA and so was everthing else in general. Colonia, an old Portugese settlement has some great old building and good food, we are a paella at the resturant pictured. It was fantastic and worth going to if your in the area.
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