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Published: March 25th 2012
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Where do we start with Buenos Aires... to say our trip was eventful would be an understatement!
Day one - We arrived after a casual 2hr flight from Puerto Iguazu and headed outside to catch a bus to Centro. After waiting for 45mins we realised something was wrong and walked to the taxi rank only to discover a HUGE queue! In total we waited 3 hours, and once in a taxi the driver (who luckily spoke good English) explained that there was a demonstration blocking the main road, meaning no buses and traffic was awful. We finally arrived to our hostel in San Telmo, the old area of town, after 2 hours in traffic!
Day two - We arrived on a Friday which worked out really well as there is a market in Recoleta on Saturdays and an antiques fair in San Telmo on Sundays so we got to do both. Saturday morning we left earlyish to visit Recoleta cemetery, which might sound like a strange thing to visit but it is full of grand statues and memorials to past presidents, generals and other important people including the famous Evita! It was an interesting experience; quite strange and eerie
but fascinating at the same time. We then checked out the weekly market right outside the cemetery, full of arts and crafts such an tango paintings, leather goods and jewellery all made by local people. We treated ourselves to something that caught our eye & that is also relevant to Argentina; a ´magic´wine bottle holder! That night we booked a Tango Show, we chose one of the more modern shows which included a 3 course meal, endless wine and a lesson (350 pesos but definitely worth it!). We had our first taste of the amazing Argentinian wine and steak, which didn´t dissapoint, and the lesson was great too.
Day three - We decided to move hostels as Che Lagarto gets a bit much after a few nights! We loved the area we were staying in as it´s just below Centro so we moved just a few blocks away to a great hostel; Tercero del Sur (highly recommended, especially the double room). It was right on the corner of the road leading down to the antiques fair, so we slowly made our way down stopping at most of the stalls on the way. It was another really cool market and
we spent hours looking around! On the way back to the hostel we stopped at a starbucks for a drink and unfortunately we were (nearly) robbed! Lucy´s bag was under her chair (rookie mistake!) and a man sat right by us sneakily put it in his jacket and strolled out. Luckily we spotted him straight away and ran out onto the street shouting! Obviously it was busy so it caught a lot of peoples attention, including some helpful market stall owners. He tried to kick the bag under a stall and pretend he didn´t take it but we saw it and Lucy got her bag back =). We were being sensible and wearing money belts so nothing too valuable would have been lost! After a stressful end to the afternoon we retired to our private room and watched zoolander on our TV!
Day four - Our fourth day was unexpectedly stormy, and subsequently lazy! Luckily we still had the room with the TV so we chilled there until we had to brave the storm to get food. That night we had heard from a friend in BA about a really good percussion show called La Bomba. We really didnt
know what to expect but it ended up being amazing! We were right by the barrier at the front so danced for most of the show without getting too caught up in the crazy mosh pits around us!
Day five - We spent our final day shopping and sight seeing around Av de Mayo, Av Florida & Av Corrientes. That evening we met up with a friend and went to a restaurant that all travellers seem to hear about! It´s called La Cabrera and is a great, pretty fancy, Parilla (mainly because if you go at 7 it is considered ´happy hour´ so you get 40% off the bill!) Naturally we both ordered expensive (15GBP) steaks, which were absolutely huge and soo tasty. Our friend knew some other people sat near us so we all ended up going to a few nice bars around the Palermo area, we had a thoroughly great night filled with a lot of wine!
Day six- Our final day was another eventful one, we were heading to Patagonia so headed for a taxi with our bags. We climbed in & he offrered to put our large bags in the boot, once round the back of the car we told him we wanted to go to the bus terminal and he spent about 15 minutes trying to explain in spanish that there was a 2 day bus strike! After drawing a few pictures and getting the help of another guy we finally understood and thanked him for his help. We spent a few minutes discussing our options for the next 2 days until we finally realised that the taxi had gone and we were missing one of our day bags. Again, we were wearing money belts so didn´t lose anything too valuable except our digital camera! Lucy spent about 2 hours stood outside convinced he would come back but we never got our bag back..
We got on a bus the next evening! Even though our trip ended fairly badly we absolutely loved the huge, lively BA 😊
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