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Buenos Aires! Home to the tango, Boca Juniors, European style architecture and some of the world’s most beautiful
mujeres (women). As for the
hombres, they all look like Maradona! Buenos Aires (BA) has none of the Bad Attitude that Mr T displayed in A Team. It’s a beautiful and safe city, with so many areas to get lost in; during our week here we got to explore some of its charms.
We left Puerto Iguazu, travelling by bus for 14 hours super cama style, translation: travelling in the lap of luxury. It was only a few pesos extra to be wined, dined, served champagne by our not so friendly waiter. Best bit, the seats reclined all the way back! Worst bit, we were teased with movies in English (with Spanish subtitles) only for the sound to be turned down five minutes into the movie. In broken Spanish, we managed to get our unfriendly waiter to turn it up a notch, but it was barely audible. We gave up, reluctantly listening to our ipods, but laid back at a 180 degree angle on a bus, we couldn't complain. After a night of somewhat uninterrupted sleep, we arrived in Buenos Aires relatively
bright eyed, set for our next adventure.
After checking into our hostel, we went into the microcentro. Truth be told, the city centre does not hold much of the wow factor of the BA that I had read so much about in travel books and blogs prior to coming here. It’s worth strolling down Avenue Florida, checking out the makeshift markets and going into the upper class Galarias Pacifico, remnisicient of Galeries Lafayette. For me, a must see was Edifico Kavanagh, a massive skyscraper in central Buenos Aires named after me! However, all this could be done in a day; there are much nicer areas to be explored outside the city centre.
Recoleta, a stunning, upper-class neighborhood of Buenos Aires, where in death as in life, generations of Argentina’s elite rest in style. It is here; in the Cementerio de la Recoleta that Eva Peron is buried. The sepultures were small, elaborate houses with stairs, tables and chairs, all collecting dust. It was sad to see some of the older sepultures that had been at one time so ornate, having faded over time; with the glass broken or the ground caving in, probably due to the fact that
the surviving members maintaining the tomb have since passed on also. Besides the cemetery, there are museums and beautiful European style architecture to marvel at. Walking in Recoleta is like taking a stroll through one of the arrondissements in Paris; its cemetery could even rival the magnificence of Père Lachaise.
In the evening, we went to see the Florias Generica, a giant metal flower that opens and closes as the sun rises and sets. People darted in and out to get their photos whilst fighting off mosquito swarms; while we sat patiently waiting for the petals to close. Much to our disappointment, they never closed and we sat like a couple of muppet’s in the darkness before finally giving into the fact this contraption was not going to work, we left braving fresh mosquito bites, disillusioned that the flower didn’t close its petals but quietly content to watch the sunset over this fast paced city. We later read that all the gears need to work for the petals to close. Nothing can rival Mother Nature!
San Telmo, another famous neighborhood was conveniently located beside our hostel. This allowed us to spend several days and nights enjoying what this area
had to offer. There’s a weekly antiques fair on Sunday’s which seems to go on for miles, full of interesting bits and pieces, my pigeon Spanglish managed to get me a nice cap, (MK style), at a reasonable price. At night, we enjoyed the cheap, delicious meals they had on offer. Best deal: 2 steaks (each big enough to feed two people) and a bottle of wine - €20 altogether.
After speaking to some people in the hostel and remembering some friend’s tales of the weirder things to do in Buenos Aires we decided to go to Tierra Santa, a Jesus themed park. Initially, when I heard about this, I expected roller coaster rides with Jesus the Resurrection at the end, the intrigue of what it was about had me hooked. In the place of roller coaster rides, were scenes from the Bible, including the Creation and the Resurrection. The most startling of all was a 20 foot Jesus that rose ever hour, on the hour to the blaring Hallelujah chorus. It was hilarious, quite a surreal experience and difficult to understand if people were taking it seriously.
Boca, mi buen amigo
We went to a Boca
Juniors game in La Boca, a working-class area of BA. We took a tour there, which took us to the back of someone’s house for a BBQ. About 50 gringos piled into this tiny alleyway, where we drank back some beers, trying to figure out how to set up something similar at home and watch the money roll in. After this, we went to the very steep stadium of La Boca, jammed to the brink with fans and good atmosphere. Unfortunately Boca Juniors lost, so sadly, our experience was nothing like it was at the Maracana in Rio.
Flying solo for a day, (Simon stayed in bed), I decided to go to Caminito. I had read about it when we were going to the Boca game, a colourful district also in La Boca full of local artists displaying paintings equally as colourful as the surroundings. While it is beautiful to look at, it’s difficult to get a moment to take a picture, as I had every waiter in the area pulling out of me, trying to get me to eat in their restaurant. At one point, two waiters were talking to me simultaneously. I could only laugh! Eventually, I
sat down at one of the cheaper restaurants and was amused by tango dancers, who even got me up to do a few moves for a minute or two. While colourful and alluring, the constant harassing of the waiters took away from my experience in Caminito. The waiters reminded me of the artists Place du Tertre in Montmartre, except instead of artists fighting to draw your animated portrait, waiters are pulling out of you to eat in their restaurant.
A beginner’s guide to Mate
One hungover morning, I went down to reception to ask to book another night, (we were too wrecked to think about how to get to Uruguay). As I was booking, the guy at reception offered me
mate, I had briefly heard what this famous Argentinean drink was, and was eager to taste it. (
Mate is a traditional Argentinean drink, similar to tea, but to a much a greater extent than even the biggest tea drinker in Ireland or England could imagine.
Mate drinkers, carry a thermos of hot water, yerba and the traditional mate cup with them at all times, throughout the day. I had to see what this addictive
mate was all about.)
I graciously accepted and pulled the metal straw to my side of the reception desk. Error no. 1: You can’t do that; you must drink it from the same side as the server has. Feeling slightly ashamed, I drank a quick sup (tasted like a sweet green tea) and then promptly said ‘gracias’, ready to make my quick exit back to bed. Error no. 2: Once you accept
mate, you have to drink the whole thing. Ok, no problem, I liked it, so grand, finished it, then confused, I said: ‘So, I don’t say gracias?’ Error no. 3: following this was an uproar of laughter from the staff of the hostel adding, ‘you want some more?’ Apparently when you have your fill, you say gracias. Makes sense, I suppose. Too many rules, give me a cup of tea any day!
In summary, BA is great, don’t spend too long in the city centre and try to get out to the smaller areas. Even from my short blog, I have drawn several comparisons with Paris and it is surprising to see how much Europe has influenced this city. Within a week, we didn’t even get to cover half, still not quite comprehending the size of the city. And so, in the words of a wise alien: ‘we must move forward, not backward, upward not forward and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom.’
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