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Published: August 5th 2008
The American Airlines flight from Mexico City to Dallas Forth Worth, in the US is slightly late taking off which is a concern as we only have 1¼ hours for the connecting flight to Buenos Aires from there. After a mild panic & contradictory advice about luggage collection and security - we make it with 10 minutes to spare. We take AA again for the 10 hour (thankfully overnight) journey to South America which is uneventful other than they showed the worst film ever made - Penelope - (mostly Brits in it including Lenny Henry as a cop!!) - M gives up after 5 minutes & C hangs on till the bitter end - though to prove what point escapes us!!! We pay $6 per drink - which we go for to overcome the boredom - boy do they know how to wean people off flying - maybe it’s a Bush plan to combat Global warming - and we thought he didn’t care.
We arrive in BA to a sunny winter morning - 70° F - and catch a cab to the Hostel Suites Obelisco in the centre of the City in the heart of theatre land. The journey in
makes us feel as if we are back in England on the drive back home from Gatwick - the trees are bare and lots of 3 bed semis to start with. Then we pass an informal settlement with obviously self build (badly) homes with just bricks poorly laid with no render, and eventually come to high rise stuff near the centre which has an increasingly European look. In fact the centre could be a Italian city with a hint of Spanish & French architecture thrown in.
The hostel is a really nice place - even with shared facilities. The staff all speak English and are really helpful especially Gaby, who‘s Brazilian & runs the travel desk, & Nico who‘s full of info on Iguaçu (also spelt Iguassu in Brasil to confuse foreigners) as he worked there for a year. They also have a great stack of left behind LP travel guides & the ones on Argentina, Chile & Brazil are really helpful for us & save us a packet. They also have lots of English reading material. If anyone wants to stay here - book in advance as it‘s always full!. We are again in Spanish speaking territory with
a twist - not all the words are the same!! They even say Ciao like Italians rather than Adios or Hastaluego which is Spanish for see you later or bye.
We take an afternoon city tour to get orientated. The highlights apart from the many monuments of historical figures in the country’s history are the Plaza de Mayo where we witness the weekly protest/demostration by mothers of the many “children” who disappeared during the years of dictatorial rule in the 60s & 70s, and the area called La Boca. The latter is still very much a working class area with a very local feel - its also has a reputation for being unsafe in parts. Many people live in overcrowded conditions in tenement buildings with little or no amenities. The docks are now dead & the river is very polluted & smells. The area refers to itself as The Republic of La Boca & is the area where the city was occupied by all the immigrants (largely Spanish & Italians from Genoa) who came to work in the docks. It is a vibrant and very colourful area, famed for the Bocas Juniors football team (their claim to fame is
one Diego Maradona who played for them) and as the home of the Tango as it was “invented” here by the immigrant workers. The area is full of bars and restaurants, especially the area called Caminito, some with couples outside Tango-ing (and very elegant they look too - suits for the men with trilby style hats, stilettos and dresses split to the hip for the ladies) - a real display of elegance, sensuality and passion. (Interestingly, it started as a working class dance that men did together. It was only in the early 1900’s that women got to join in the fun). The charm of Caminito lies in the old houses - painted in bright multi colours - an accident really which has become it’s trade mark. The immigrants built their homes from timber & corrugated metal sheets - many still stand today - and then painted them using any left over paints from the docks & warehouses they could get their hands on. We loved it so much we go back there on our last Sunday here and it doesn’t disappoint - this time we have Llamas on show & folks playing the accordion - very well & Gaucho
country dancing in addition to ….. you guessed it, Tango!
Tango is the thing in BA and you cant help but get hooked on it - it’s graceful, elegant, stylish, dramatic and sensual. The music is also magical & a lot of restaurants have live tango music if not a show at night. All the markets have some superb paintings & photographs - black & white & in colour - of people doing the tango. It’s definitely BA & infectious.
Buenos Aires generally has an air of being a European - Italian - city with Spanish speaking folk (who speak it with an Italian rhythm). They even look largely Italian & according to the guide books aspire to be so. Italian restaurants abound - we try Broccolini’s as it’s recommended and have some great pasta. The rest of the country is apparently very different in terms of culture, style and social expectations. They regard the BA people, known as Portenos, as foreigners. We won’t find out till we are back in Feb next year when we will visit the lake district, Patagonia & possibly Mendoza (wine country with the best Malbec & oh so cheap) & the North
west.
It’s the middle of winter & quite cool when we arrive but the sun is shining , so it’s a bit weird that we are in T-shirts over a long sleeve top while others are in duffle coats, overcoats & bomber jackets. However as days go by & it gets cloudier & cooler - we resort to the only warm clothes we brought just in case - our thermals!!
Craving a real good steak (for which the country is famous) we take a day out to an Estancia (ranch) for a bit of a gaucho experience. The place is Don Silvanos ranch in Santa Susanna, 80 km north of BA. We are greeted with a glass of Mendoza red & an awesome Empanada (it looks like a small pasty - very light & full of savoury beef filling - the staple snack in BA other than fresh pizza slices) then take a short horse riding trip around the farm. This is just to build up an appetite for the wonderful asado - sides of beef fixed to a metal frame and roasted against an open fire, together with chorizo, morcilla (blood sausage) and chicken that is the
best we’ve ever had! whilst being treated to superb singing and dancing from all the regions of Argentina & South America (many of the tourists here are from Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil, Ireland, South Africa, Canada etc). The day finishes with Gaucho’s displays of horsemanship skills and a hot mate¢. This is THE local drink. A herb tea that’s addictive. Everywhere you go you see locals carrying small gourds of the brew sipping it through specially made metal straws.
Weekends in BA are very special starting early Friday. It’s also school holidays so its theatre season with the Casi Angeles - Argentina’s version of S Club 7- appearing in a place opposite our hostel. Families with kids are queuing at 7am each day - and the screams when the gang arrives take one back to the hey day of Take That etc! Families with kids stay out till very late - they eat out at 11 or 12 pm (yes midnight) or even go for a show at that time. They love eating out a lot - and the thing to do to make it affordable is to have one main and share it between two adults or a family
of 3 - washed down with a litre of coke or water. The restaurants don’t seem to mind. Also, to tell if a place is good/great watch for the queues outside - pretty common if a place is worth it’s reputation.
We go to the cinema to watch the latest batman movie - The Dark Knight. It’s Heath Ledger’s last film & it’s quite good - action packed with twists galore. Then we enjoy a late supper at our favourite local eatery, Las Cuartetas - just next door to the hostel - stays open till 3-00am. Great pizzas (muzzarella as they call it & Fugazza) , spinach pies and empanadas - washed down with Quilmes beer or Vino Tinto - are just what you need after a night out on the razz. We definitely improved their profits.
Typically, bars and clubs stay open all night - the latter not really getting going until 2-00am in the morning! In fact, as we’re getting ready for bed many of the young ’uns staying in the hostel are just getting showered for a night out. And as we’re getting up they’re just getting back in! We must be getting old ………?
For a catholic country their social attitudes are rather more liberal than one might expect as they introduced civil partnerships here in 2002 way ahead of the UK & the US who are now being dragged into doing so by the supreme court. There is also a lively gay scene and transvestites come out at the weekend in Palermo. The new agents on every block openly have various gay & girlie magazines & pornographic DVDs openly on sale.
Sunday is the day to visit San Telmo an area which has a large antiques market and lots of street stalls and entertainers. There are some really good bands playing including Andean, criolla and classical guitar and jazz. It’s an area of cobbled streets and lots of neighbourhood bars & restaurants. We’ve been recommended to go to Desnivel for a good steak and justifiably so. Superb fillet, sweetbreads, side dishes and half a bottle of very quaffable vino called San Felipe (no we’re not getting abstemious - we’d already had a half bottle at a café!) all for £12. We love it here so much we come back at least 3 times to try the various grilled dishes (kidney, chorizo,
bife de chorizo, chicken, pork etc) - all fantastic - washed down with either a San Telmo or Rincon Famoso Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon. However, despite the reputation M is still to be convinced that the Argentinean steak is the beast in the world! He has had better!!
Drinking coffee is the other big past-time - its lovely coffee & relatively cheap which is why Starbucks will never make it in BA - they just couldn’t compete. Other than local cafes, there is a chain of places called Havanna which we frequent - they give you free almond chocolates with your coffee - yum! We breakfast there a lot & have medialunas dulce (sweet croissants) which is cheap & a great start to the day - another BA tradition.
As you’d expect from any major city, BA is full of all the usual designer shops here - Boss, Armani, Ralph Lauren etc and there are also lots of leather goods shops. Not that cheap but excellent quality. C has to be restrained! The main shopping street is called Florida which also has a night market each day with a lot of craft, accessories & musicians in the middle
of the wide street. Mac Ds & Burger Kings also prevail as ever!
Puerto Madero by the Rio Plata is the trendy newly regenerated part of BA with many bars & restaurants. It has yachts moored & the most expensive river side real estate - surprising as there are some wonderful old French style mansions lying derelict in the centre of the city which could do with some TLC. PM is supposed to be the safest part of the city as it has private security on every corner and it even has it’s own tram service that only travels the length of the 4 docks of PM.
Recoleta is the top end barrio (neighbourhood & they have 48 of them) in BA. It’s leafy with loads of open spaces & wide roads & a host of professional dog walkers as the owners are too lazy to walk them. This doesn’t help the amount of dog shit that is left behind - however not as bad as some areas which we mention elsewhere. The area has some chic bars & eateries & looks pretty good as a residential area. It also has the Cathedral of our Lady of Pilar
- an impressive church with lots of gold & silver & Spanish style tiles. Next door (it used to be the abbots vegetable garden) is the most amazing cemetery you can ever come across. It’s mausoleums are ones that kings would be proud of - they have a distinct Italian feel in style and some are huge. The whole place seems like something out of a Hollywood set - yet its real. Eva Peron ( Evita) is buried here & her coffin can be seen as can many coffins of the other rich & famous of BA - some going back nearly a century. Some of these structures would cost about £100k - £500K back home. Boy do they have egos and we’re not sure trying to ingratiate themselves with the Almighty with this sort of affluence is going to work in the after life!!!
Eva Peron who we knew little about before our visit, is worth a special mention - she died of cancer at the tender age of 33 in 1952 but made a huge difference to the country’s women & children. She got women the vote and introduced social housing for the poor, started the feminist
movement in Argentina, and introduced various welfare policies & programmes for the poor & needy who she visited personally to give out food and clothing. She is considered a saint here & the Pope has been petitioned many times to canonise her. The anniversary of her death is celebrated each year & her mausoleum - small by BA standards - has fresh flowers on it everyday from well wishers
They hold a lively Saturday market just by the Cathedral which is well worth a visit with arts & crafts stalls & live music. One thing we don’t find a lot of is street food in BA which is surprising. We do however, discover a lovely place for lunch in Recoleta called Cumana - an Italian joint with a twist - Cazuelas being their thing (sort of shepherds pie topped with potato and cheese but spicier & with chunks of meat not mince - baked in the pizza oven).
Palermo is the place to be we are told - it’s the middle class enclave - the happening place. Owing to our cancelled crossing to Colonia in Uruguay we have to spend the night in a hostel there - so
we check it out. It’s an up & coming area being gentrified as the aspiring middle classes can’t afford anything else. The pavements are crumbling and have pot holes everywhere, rubbish is strewn all over & the place is full of crap - dog poo to be exact. Clearly the aspiring middle classes here need to learn a thing or two about cleanliness. The place has about 2 streets where some chic bars & restaurants have opened up along with some boutique clothe shops. There are some nice houses though. A 3 bed apartment costs about £45K and a whole house £125K. This has to be put in context - the average wage here is 1,300 pesos or £230 per month!
The other side to BA is the poverty of some - there are many street and park homeless - the city is full of lovely parks where the roofless crash out. There are a lot of children who beg - even coming into cafes, bars & restaurants. It’s surprising that they are not discouraged by the owners of these establishments. There are very young kids who sit in the middle of Florida - the main shopping street -
playing or trying to play mini accordions as a way of making money encouraged by their parents. Some of them are so young they should be in kindergarten not here!! Folk also hawk their wares on the tube & buses & restaurants - items ranging from lighters, hair bands to nail clippers, sewing kits etc.
As we have some time on our hands we decide to catch the local fast Ferry to Colonia - a UNESCO Heritage town in Uruguay - an hour across the Rio de la Plata. We are checked in and customs stamp our passports 3 times. However, its rainy & blustery so we sit onboard for 2 hours before they cancel the trip and give us our money back - and cancel our outward bound passport entries. Interesting experience. Ah well - we might try another day!!
With the weather forecast looking better we try again & this time do make it to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. Colonia as it’s commonly known is a strange place built on a peninsular. Most of the town is nothing much to right home about, however, the final 6 streets are the old town which has been
declared a UNESCO Heritage site & it transforms into something quite quaint & picturesque. A photographer’s dream.
After some sight seeing and many pics we come across - El Drugstore - a local eatery with a difference. It’s got old abandoned cars outside, looks like classic French bistro & has a menu ranging from local specialities to Japanese fayre. It’s lovely & colourful inside - a great vibe with good music - then live classical guitar while we had a homemade burger & Creole loin sandwich washed down with some Uruguayan Don Pascual Tanat wine - very good & reasonable.
We continue our wandering through the cobbled streets and then chill out - or rather warm up! at the Hostel Viajero (near the old town & 3 minutes from the Ferry Terminus). Despite the weather forecast, it’s a bit grey & cold (14°C) so the warm air con is a relief. Colonia’s not a place for more than a one night stop over as there’s not much to do here once you’ve seen the place so we decide to catch the morning rather than evening fast Ferry back to BA. As they are full - we have to
pay a bit extra to go first class. Nothing like travelling in style eh!
After putting up with the cold here & in Uruguay we decide to postpone a planned trip to Mendoza which is near the Andes & the main wine growing region (Malbec is the wine here) and also the gateway to some of the best Ski resorts in Argentina, as it’s likely to be even colder. As the temperature in Brazil is 29°C + we decided we’d better make our way Foz do Iguassu which is a 16 hour bus ride away.
This is a huge country but they are definitely geared up for travel & have the infrastructure in place. They have frequent bus services both for local transport & cross country - all at reasonable cost. Traffic in BA can be noisy & peak times pretty clogged up. There are masses of taxis - which are pretty cheap but they drive like madmen. The city also has a limited underground service which is very cheap, clean & efficient - there are only 3 lines but they take you to most of the key areas except La Boca.
As we couldn’t get a
bus to Puerto Iguazu on Sunday night we hang around for another day making various arrangements for our trip to Rio (which proves to be quite difficult as the better hostels are all booked up a month in advance - especially around Ipanema) however, after various reviews of our plans we manage something more definite to give us some peace of mind!!
Unfortunately Desnivel is “unrepentantly “closed on Monday so after lunch at the La Estancia (a touristy joint near the hostel) - which was twice the price of Desnivel & half as good - we take a taxi to Retiro bus stop for the 7pm bus to Brazil ………. See you by the Falls - on both the Argentinean & Brazilian sides!!
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