Buenos Aires, Uruguay and a couple of hours in Jerusalem

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Reluctantly we left the nice cool ten degrees Celsius of Patagonia for the scorching summer weather of Buenos Aires where we were reunited with Rory. Typically we arrived right in the middle of a heat wave, even the locals were glowing. Our hostel was located in the very nice area of San Telmo famous for its antique shops and Sunday market. The market had a fantastic array of vintage clothing, bric a brac and jewellery, well fantastic if you´ve the funds and the backpack space to hold everything!!Despite the 36 degree heat, there was oddly a large amount of real fur coats and jackets for sale. Later in the evening the sqare emptied and we were treated to an outdoor milonga. Milonga´s are places where people go to tango. Fun to watch, but there was one two many elderly men dancing the tango with someone who looked young enough to be their granddaughter for my liking.

Buenos Aires is the place for odd tourist attractions, the oddest of which I´ll get to later. The first we visited was Museo de Armas a museum dedicated to weapons. On display were hundreds of guns, knives, canons and a gas mask for a horse! On the same day we visited Recoleta cemetery, the final resting place of the rich and famous. Its most famous inhabitant is Evita. We spent an hour wandering around the cemetery viewing the crypts which were more like houses! Many of the crypts were very ornately decorated, others have been abandoned. We found Evita´s due to the big crowd circling it, but it was unremarkable compared to others in the cemetery.

We managed to fit some culture in by visiting MALBA, an interesting museum which houses latin american art. Some really interesting work, very tactile and playful pieces and included one or two stars such as Frida Kahlo.

Buenos Aires looks like a mish mash of the major European cities. Parisian architecture and wide avenues, Spanish colonial buildings- it even has a version of big ben (which obviously the British plonked it there). The area of La Boca makes for pleasant change, as the style and personality of the area is very much Argentinian. The main roads (caminito) are very touristy, but has allowed the colour of the area be maintained. The corrugated metal buildings are painted in vivid colours. It is also the area where the tango thrived, and dancers were preforming at every restaurant and cafe. The area is also home the the famous La Boca juniors- Maradona´s team. We visited the stadium, saw all the trophies and got our picture with a giant bronze statue of Maradona!! The stadium itself is actually quite small. Unfortunately for us, January is one of the few months where matches arent played in
Argentina so we missed out on some authentic south american football. That evening we attended a milonga in what seemed like a village town hall. there was some great tango, but it was a very voyeuristic. My shuffle would definately not have passed the test at this milonga.

Given how close Buenos Aires is to Uruguay we couldn´t resist going on a day trip to visit a new country and get a new stamp on the passport. The city of Colonia can be reached in 50 minutes by boat. It´s a small little beach town, the centre of which is Unesco heritage site. We opted for a city tour which only lasted an hour but gave us a bit of a insight into the city. The place is a mix of Portuguese and Spanish architecture due to a to and froing of power. Oddly at the turn of the 19th century a bull ring was built to seat 10,000 people (bear in mind current population of Colonia is approx 25,000!). Unfortunately bull fighting was made illegal about 5 years later! The town then renovated the complex to house a casino which was also made illegal. They don´t have much luck in this town. We rented a bike and cycled to the beaches and had a nice day.

The final attraction in Buenos Aires is by far one of the strangest places I have ever visited. Located about 200m from the domestic airports main runway (seriously) Tierra Santa is the closest thing you
can get to Jerusalem on the continent, (It´s their own claim, not ours!). Main attractions include the creation, the nativity and the resurrection which is held every half hour on the half hour. Each scene includes light and sound shows. We sat an watched the last supper unfold, albeit in Spanish but a moving experience. Oddly the main stage featured a scantily clad belly dancer...the real nuns who
were their on a day trip did not look pleased. The highlight, by far, was the resurrection where a 18metre Jesus rose from a mountain and greeted the audience below. He apparently has 36 different mechanical moves.

Yes we are heathens....

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