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Published: February 18th 2007
Well the time has come to leave South America and finish our 6-month trip with a few days in New York. I am gutted to be honest because amongst other things I flipping love Argentina. Far from my preconceptions of a country filled with dirty cheating footballers (which it is) and people with a dislike of the English because of the Falklands war, it is a beautiful place with the nicest people you could meet. Buenos Aires is one of my, if not my absolute, favourite cities in the world and Iguazu falls have to be seen to be believed. I even managed to fullfil a dream and watch some of the afore-mentioned dirty cheating footballers playing in a game between Boca Juniors and River Plate.
Arriving at Buenos Aires is a bit of a culture shock at first glance and the size of the place feels quite overwhelming. It could not be more different to the Welsh villages if it tried. We stayed at a fabulous old hotel that looked and felt like it hadn't changed for the last 70 years (except for the TV). It was run by a lovely old couple who were deaf as posts and
this lead to some very amusing conversations. Buenos Aires manages to mix old and new in a stylish but relaxed manner. The buildings range from modern skyscrapers to fabulous old buildings, some of which are in great condition and some of which are fairly dilapidated. The city has numerous pockets which all seem to have an atmosphere all of their own. The longer we have stayed here the more we have come to love it. Victor has even embraced the insane nightlife (to a degree), which runs all night. The food and wine are fantastic and even vegetarians have a huge variety of options. From Eva Peron to Tango shows there is just an enormous amount to do and we soon realized that we just didn't have enough days to take it all in. The laid back coffee shops proved very atmospheric and I ate an inordinate amount of apple pie. The people are so friendly and will constantly approach you to help with directions when you even begin to look lost. Something I have never known happen in comparable size cities around the world. There is poverty here, which can be seen from the groups of people ransacking the
rubbish at nights, but at the same time it feels like a city with a soul and more compassion than others we have visited.
We did have one more thing to do in Argentina though, so taking yet another internal flight we went on up to the Iguazu falls, which are a set of enormous waterfalls on the Argentinean and Brazilian border. They are absolutely breath taking and well worth the trip all the way up there. I have always thought that it would be very difficult to match Victoria Falls but these were at least as good. The falls can be viewed from both sides so we firstly popped over to Brazil for the day (I love saying that), which we heard, was the least good of the two sides. Its was still awesome and getting a view of the first part of the falls which resemble some ornate Victorian fountain but on an unbelievable scale. It was pretty jaw dropping and it took some effort to move from the first vantage point to move along the path towards the thunderous ‘Devil’s Throat’ fall at the far end of the trail. You could here this fall from a
good distance away and see the huge plume of spray that it threw up in the air like an exploding volcano. The Brazilian side is a little overdeveloped to the point of having a lift to the top of the waterfalls but that didn’t detract at all from how spectacular they were.
The Argentinean side was a different kettle of fish altogether. It was much better laid out with more trails which were along raised metal walkways that allowed you to see all the falls and plants below. Parts of the walkway system were pretty new after floods had washed the original paths away in the late 90’s. We could get much closer to the falls on this side and having got there early in the day many of the paths were fairly uncrowded. The set up is much less intrusive towards nature on the Argentinian side and I guess this is reflected in the signs warning you to give way to any snakes you might see!
One of the many highlights of the day was taking the powerboat ride. It goes against the pounding current right up into the gauge so that you have waterfalls crashing down
Going under the falls
This was one of the smaller falls we went underon either side of you. I had anticipated getting a bit wet from the splash but when our driver went right under a smaller waterfall I was instantly soaked through. Something my trainers didn’t really recover from for a good few days. Thinking I could get no wetter our driver then shot under one of the larger waterfalls from which I was glad to come out of still in my seat. It is only a short ride but one of the most exhilarating things we have done on the whole trip.
Despite being so good it was not the highlight of the day though. This came as we followed an extremely long walkway over rivers sporting basking caimen. We walked along as multi coloured butterflies zipping round our faces until the walkway bursts out to the very edge of the Devil’s throat waterfall. Once again you get absolutely drenched as the cloud of spray that shoots up from the base of the falls gushes back down all over you. To stand so close to such a powerful waterfall is just hypnotic. The noise is deafening and you just can’t take you eyes off the power of the tumbling water.
Butterfly around the falls
The whole place was packed with thousands of butterflies of different colours. Huge rainbows surround the falls in the bright sun. Even the mildly annoying fight for position in what was now the best part of the day could not detract from the experience. We spent a long time just staring over the rail and the squelch back to the park entrance flew by as we were on such an adrenaline rush. It was one of those places you didn’t want to leave, as it seemed quite tragic that in all probability we’d not get the chance to see such a magnificent sight again. I know I have eulogized to a fairly drastic level about this but it is THAT good.
After another horrific flight back to Buenos Aires in which the turbulence induced what I hope was only a little squeal from my mouth we once again met up with Roxanne for what proved to be a very entertaining and drunken night watching Tango. We met up in Café Tortoni, a well-known arty establishment in Buenos Aires. Roxanne’s travelling spirits had been dampened a bit by a combo of British Airways shafting her and various toenails falling off but it was great to see her and I pretty much blame
Pre-tango drinks
Cafe Tortoni where we met up with Roxanne. her appetite for booze for how bad I felt on the arduous day to follow. The tango show that complimented our drinking was fabulous. I’m not one to go to dance shows really but this was really stylised with great music and the girls really wore pretty little in the way of costumes. It was so good that it prompted us to go and see another tango show a few days later and I hold my hands up to being a convert to it. It really does capture the essence of Buenos Aires very well in its kind of dark yet stylish routines.
As I mentioned we got up at 6.30 they next day after 3 hours sleep for what I had billed to Nos as my highlight of south America…a trip to watch Boca Juniors play River Plate. The footy season was over but there was a summer tournament on so the game between the two Buenos Aires rivals was being played at the coastal town of Mar de Plata. Getting on the bus with a big group of Aussies and Irish who seemed to be more excited about the prospect of tipping a bus over than watching
football, my fears that a painful, hungover day lay ahead of us looked justified…. The promised 3 1/2 hour journey proved to be seven hours long after our Muppet of a tour leader managed to get completely lost. There was one nice couple form the UK on the bus who did actually have an interest in footy and not just in hooliganism. After spending a few hours on one of the most packed beach resorts I have ever seen we headed up to the ground. The temperature nose-dived and had I not wrapped my beach towel around me I would have frozen. The atmosphere at the game was fantastic. The crowd spent most of the game jumping up and down and the crowd welcomed the teams onto the pitch with a really dramatic display of flags and flares. We were in with the Boca fans and were tightly packed into a pretty large terrace. The whole ground was packed and the noise was terrific. As the game wore on the cold began to diminish the enjoyment of the game a little and the final whistle ended up being a welcome relief. We rushed back to the coach for what proved
to be an even longer return journey, getting back to Buenos Aires at 7am the following morning. To her great credit Nos bore the pain of the day pretty well considering her apathy to the beautiful game. Getting back into a bed never felt so good.
We had another couple of days in Buenos Aires and got to visit Boca's home ground, the Bombonera. It had a very interesting museum inside and we got a tour of the stadium. It was interesting to see how revered Diego Maradona is , in the whole of Argentina , but in Boca particularly. Half the club shop was dedicated to him and people spoke of his drug addiction as an 'unfortunate dependency'. The surrounding area is the more working class area of the city and has some distinctivly coloured buildings dotted about. The atmosphere in the cafes down by the docks was more bohemian with old blokes just singing along to street Tango performances. We spent a whole afternoon down there slowly getting drunk and taking in the sun.
The only problem I have had here is that not only can people not understand my Spanish, which is not uncommon; they
The foot of god
Diago Maradona's footprint out side the Boca Juniors stadium. can't understand my English either. All of the following descriptions have to be read in the context of Nosi leading me round like some kind of Rainman while I blurted incomprehensible noises in every direction. In fact the Welsh villages (or villages that cater for the Welsh tourist market) were even worse where there were three languages that people couldn't understand me in. Even so, I can honestly say that I would have happily stayed in Argentina forever more. It is my favourite of all the countries we have visited and I would come back at any given opportunity. The final couple of weeks have really flown by and I can't believe we have reached the end of the trip. I really wished we had not changed the flights to get a few days in New York as I would rather stop in Buenos Aires now but its too expensive to change them again. Still, it’s good to leave a place not wanting to leave and with a determination to come back some day. I think learning Spanish for a month early on has really paid off for us and we have gained more from the trip for doing it.
Boca's new signings
In the press room at the Boca stadium. I can't believe how much I disliked South America when I first got here. It’s a tremendous place and this has been an incredible six months. We’re really looking forwards to seeing everyone at home and dreading going back to work!
Hasta luego!
Joe and Nos x
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thewiderview
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Nice blog
Trying to get there later this year What was the name of the old hotel you stayed in?