Advertisement
Published: August 13th 2007
We left Bariloche and it´s arctic conditions behind us and headed 850 miles north to Buenos Aires. We had made the most of some unbelievably cold weather but from here on in we would continue to head back up towards the equator and hopefully warmer weather at every stop until our journey´s end in 6 weeks on the beaches of Rio.
Leaving Patagonia also meant our last glimpses of the Andes and surrounding countryside that had been our home since arriving in South America some 2.5 months ago. The Andes had been a mystical place that I had dreamt of visiting since I was a kid and as we headed across the flat central plains of Argentina I realised they had surpassed all expectations and that I was really gonna miss the dizzying beauty and all that comes with it (Llamas, lakes with silly names, fat woman in bowler hats etc....)
We arrived in Buenos Aires only to be greeted by grey skies and a miserable cab driver, but after dumping our bags and grabbing a shower we headed out to explore, really hoping that the place was going to live up to the high expectations that we both had.
Carlos Gardel, Evita and the Fat Cheat
An Argentine Tango legend, a political Spice girl (who looks like madonna) and a Cheating coke addict (who looks like maradonna)The rest of the day was a bit of a wash out, the previous day/nights 20 hour bus journey had taken it out of us and trying to cross the World´s widest avenue (20 traffic filled lanes) and walking down the narrow pedestrianised Florida Street at rush hour (like playing British Bulldog with commuters) weren´t the best 2 activities to partake in when feeling a bit fuzzy. So after eating half a cows worth of steak we hit the sack at about 10pm which is about the time most Argetine toddlers go to bed.
Apart from eating steaks after midnight the 2 main passions of Buenos Aires locals are Tango and football - and the mecca for both of these activities is a small portside district called La Boca, so the following day after waking under a clear blue sky we headed off on foot to investigate.
First stop was La Bombonera the home of Boca Juniors, South America´s most successful and famous club with a notorious fan base including former player Diego Maradonna. The crumbling 1940´s stands surround a sloping uneven pitch with no more than a 3 foot gap between the bylines and mesh fences which
Go Team
After losing a game with a local team over who got to wear white strips, the Boca players went to the port and waited for the first ship to appear to decide their new colours.....the ship arrived from sweden hold back the 56,000 fans on match days. It was a shame we were in Buenos Aires in the closed season as when the place is full the atmosphere is meant to border on the unsafe and the noise can be heard for miles and felt within a 10 block radius.
After a tour of the changing rooms and a look around the museum dedicated to former players, including the fat cheat himself we headed further into La Boca on the hunt for some free tango.
The area is beautiful and retains the bright colours and narrow alleyways of it´s heyday, we found a small cafe and ate lunch to the sound of a three piece band whose combined age must have been 250 whilst a much younger couple danced the tango so passionately that I think she may have ended the afternoon pregnant.
We spent the next couple of days pounding the streets and trying to understand a bit more about the country´s history. The Evita trail took us to her resting place, Cementario de Recoleta, but it wasn´t the Duarte (Evita´s maiden name) family´s modest tomb that was the main attraction but the rows upon rows
25 hours in Uruguay
Our first sunset in months, washed down by a cold beer (as all good sunsets should be) of house sized mausoleums with doors and windows allowing you to peak inside at the rotting coffins. It´s big enough to get lost in, has street names and plazas and land prices higher than most residential areas of the city.
After this we went to the city´s main ´Plaza de Mayo' to see the Casa Rosada with it´s famous balcony from where she and Peron made their famous addresses to the nation and finished the day at the museum dedicated to her life.
Like the majority of South American museums we have visited it was really crap, making her out to be some sort of political Spice Girl who wore nice dresses and shouted "girl power" a lot rather than touching on the controversy that surrounded her and the country´s turbulent history during and after the Peron years.
This is a good reflection of the country as a whole and although Buenos Aires is a beautiful and captivating place its residents, like the whole nation, seem to have very little of an identity, especially in contrast to places like Peru and Bolivia who embrace their history and cultures.
Argentina has had an equally interesting history but seems to want
All canon and no balls
The ancient walls of Colonia to itself from it all acting almost embarrassed of its South American status. The worst culprits at this are the rising middle classes who call themselves Porteños and waltz around in huge sunglasses, leather mini skirts and fur coats, carrying the sort of ridiculously large bags sported by pointless celebrities called Posh and Paris.
This desire to flaunt their money sees most of the Porteños leaving the beautiful yet busy city behind on the weekends where they head for some peace, posing opportunites and a whole other country, so on day 4 we decided to follow them.
25 hours in Uruguay
When we realised that for 20 odd quid we could visit another country and a UNESCO World Heritage site and be back in Buenos Aires the following day we thought it too good an opportunity to pass up. It was a very quick and hassle free journey and after arriving at the port we handed our passports to a stern angular Argetine lady who stamped us out of Argentina before handing them to a chubby smiling Uruguayan chap sat right next to her who stamped us into Uruguay.
We then spent the next 50
minutes on a boat crossing the no man´s land that is the Rio de la Plata and arrived at the Port of Colonia del Sacramento before searching for our dirty rucksacks within the hundreds of Louis Vuitton cases on the luggage claims conveyor belt.
We had been told that the Uruguayans were much more chilled out than their Argentine neighbours, so much so that the people manning the receptions at the hostels we rang couldn´t even be arsed to answer the phone. This meant arriving without a bed but the first place we visited had space so we dumped our bags and headed to the historic old town just a few blocks away.
The contrast to the noise and pace of Buenos Aires was noticable immediately especially as very little traffic moves through the cobbled streets and most tourists get around on rented golf buggies. As with all our previous UNESCO towns it didn´t disappoint and as we sank our first Uruguayan beer and watched our first sunset since Lake Titicaca it was hard to believe that this tiny town had seen so much death and destruction since it was originally colonised by the Portugese in 1680.
A
"So Danny (murphy) what are your thoughts on signing for Boca?"
"Er...well its a game of 2 halfs, the lads are just gonna take it 1 game at a time like" lighthouse, some decent food, a good night´s kip and the ever present crappy museums later and we were back at the port feeling relaxed and recharged for our return to the big city.
What had we learned about Uruguay? very little really apart from its residents are addicted to mate (sort of like Golden Virginia in a silver cup, soaked in hot water with a straw in it) and appear to be just a little more laid back and polite than their very near neighbours.
Back in B.A.
Our return to Buenos Aires saw us heading for a new hostel in a new part of town - San Telmo. After the hustle of the central district San Telmo proved to be much more laid back with narrow cobbled streets, second hand clothes shops, historic cafes and street markets. We chose a hostel based on its location and trendy decor but after checking in we were escorted over the road to an art deco(ish) apartment block where one of the hostel´s double rooms was located. Bizarrely it turned out to be an actual apartment, complete with lounge, kitchen and bedroom which sounds great - but the place
The next Maradona, Tevez, Veron or erm... Nobby Solano ?
Will this local Boca fan go on to join the long list of Boca Junior greats ? smelt and looked like an old lady, complete with ornaments on a shelf and lace hat in a drawer. The kitchen was so scary that we shut the door on it and never ventured in again for our whole stay.
San Telmo has a great cafe culture especially on Sundays when the markets and free tango shows fill the streets bringing the history of the place alive. We just walked round, drank hot chocolate and started to understand why so many people we had met had ended up staying weeks if not months in this place.
After returning to Granny´s house we headed out for yet another steak but this time to an infamous place called El Desnivel that got the locals queueing up down the street every evening in search of a cheap piece of cow.
Buenos Aires loves its food, although the culture is based more on quantity rather than quality and everything ordered from a steak to a salad (order just a salad in Argentina and watch the locals stare at you!) comes with a huge basket of bread and butter as well as other such nibbles. Being a northern lad something in my DNA
25 hours in Uruguay
Colonia, yet another great UNESCO town means that I simply can´t refuse free food so my entire Buenos Aires diet consisted of bread, monkey nuts and huge steaks (how these people live past the age of 35 I will never know).
The T-bone at El Desnivel however was the best of of the trip, if not the best of my life and even Carla devoured hers, finishing ages before me (although I had eaten half a french stick for ´starters´).
On our final night we met up with Oliver who we last saw covered in icicles in Mendoza and I ate a rarely seen Argentine animal called a chicken which is the equivalent of eating a Do-Do in this beef mad country (I had decided to go on a 'steak break' for a week as I had started waking in the night with meat sweats).
Buenos Aires has been fantastic: beautiful, colourful (as the photos hopefully show) and completely captivating - A reminder of why we love big cities and a great way to remember Argentina as we now head 700 miles north towards the Equator, Iguasu falls, Brazil and please god, hopefully some warmer weather.
Paz
MandC
Hanging out in the park
Leafy Plaza San Martin, a break from the hussle and bussle of BA
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 9; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0642s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Tasha
non-member comment
Fab pics again dude, Matt really does look like Danny Murphy in the pic (if my sum total of footie knowledge is the Ok mag wedding to 'one of' the blonde birds from hollyoaks??) Love y'all Tasha