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Well, here I sit listening to No Woman No Cry in a hostel in Colonia, Uruguay. When I first planned this trip I wasn't sure that I would get to see Uruguay. Actually, I wasn't convinced that I would have time at all until very reccently. And yet here I am. When I was a little girl I would spin the globe and put my finger down and try to imagine traveling to that country and I remember distinctly having Uruguay many times and not being able to conjure up an image of it. Now I have my image. I arrived here this morning by ferry and have wandered a bit around this super picturesque, charming city with tree-lined avenues and cobblestone streets, a lighthouse and a couple of docks-that-pretend-to-be-marinas. It's lovely. The sun is shining and I'm heading to the beach to watch the sun set after I write this little message about my experience in Buenos Aires.
BsAs, as the local porteños shorten it, showed me a pretty good time all told. The city is another masive metropolis, like so many others, but it offered plenty to explore. Really my travel plans are so heavy on the walking,
The Buenos Aires police station
Maya and I spent some quality time in the police station to report her bag being stolen. We met some pretty cool locals and heard some great stories.the wandering about, the getting lost, the narrowly dodging crazy drivers, the sitting in the sun in parks, the taking of the metro off my map and trying to find my way home, etc. that I'm probably not about to give the greatest impression of a standard trip to Buenos Aires. For instance, I did not go to a single museum. I thought about it, had an idea of a plan to go, but then really just felt that I should explore the avenidas and plazas instead of being inside. When I was traveling in Europe last summer I saw so many museums that I think I've reached my quota. I'm jaded. Plus, what can really compare to the Royal B.C. Museum with the mammoth? Ha ha.
So what were the highlights? I met some really great people in my hostel, first of all. That's the thing about traveling by myself for me - I want to be by myself but not properly alone. I had a really good mix of doing my own thing and also meeting Americans, Israels, a couple of Swiss girls, Argentinians, a woman from Uruguay who I ate breakfast with one morning, a few
Aussies, a German who was living in the States, many Brazilians, and so on forever and ever. In a crazy coincidence I met a Canadian guy from Salmon Arm a few days after I arrived who had actually been on my flight - just on the other side of the plane. We then discovered that we have the same birthday! Que mundo pequeño, eh?
As far as sightseeing, the La Recoleta cemetary was worth my while for sure. If you had heard of this place it's probably because Eva Peron, of Madonna's Evita fame, was buried there. I eavesdropped on a man giving a tour to local schoolchildren and got to hear a bit about the context for Peron and Eva's adoration. Mostly, though, I loved walking by myself through an open air record of history with so many Spanish literary greats and heros and other people who immortalized themselves wih mausoleums and monuments that are so visited today. There were loads of people there but I imagine after dark it would be very eerie as the crypts create little alleyways that in some cases twist around and then suddenly in cut-off corners.
I explored all of the
barrios (neighbourhoods) of the downtown city and enjoyed walking through San Telmo and La Boca, even though the latter was a bit dodgy. I happened upon everything from awesome street art (sorry Daddy - this was good graffiti, I promise!) to a transgendered prostitution street to a domestic violence dispute that got very physical, to kids playing football (that's soccer to us Canadians) and all sorts of other things that are not on the standard itinerary if you stick to the areas deemed safest.
Buenos Aires is called the Paris of South America, likely for its wide avenues and many monuments as well as European expat community and that culture has seeped into the cracks in the pavement. The Avenida 9 de Julio has sixteen lanes of traffic (eight in each direction,) which makes it allegedly the largest avenue in the world. A bit dicey to cross, to say the least. They sell croissants everywere, although they look a bit wimpy, and the little plazas with a fountain or monument in the middle are quite European seeming. One of the monuments is a massive flower in an enormous pool of water that puts the YYJ airport flowers to shame!
It is nice to stumble upon these things and sit for a moment admiring them.
Porteños, the people of B.A., do things like go running and buy unnecessary but potentially adorable clothing for their dogs and go out to eat in lovely restaurants and sip coffee in cafes with bistro tables on the sidewalks. It's a laid back sort of culture. And then it gets to be dark and it's not so laid back. Buenos Aires is known for its night life and they mean business with the clubbing scene. Dinner isn't eaten until something like 9 or 10, then drinks begin, and by the time you go to the club it is past 1a.m. for sure, likely 2 a.m. I went out one night, to a place in the Palermo barrio, called Araoz, and it was packed. Part of the reason for the busyness was that it was the Thursday of a long weekend so most didn't have to work the next day. We arrived at 1:30 or thereabouts and had to line up around the block and wait for ages before someone ended up knowing someone else and we actually got in for free. The music at
this club was probably the best playlist I've ever heard out dancing. A lot of it was in English but also some Spanish, some old, some new. The downside was that while you would love to dance your heart out there was hardly any room to do so with approximately the entire young adult population of the city squished onto a large-but-clearly-not-large-enough dance floor. In this madhouse everyone was smoking and lighting cigarettes with lighters and even matches right there on the dance floor. Crazy. There is really no comparison to this sort of clubbing in Fredericton, or potentially in all of Canada. If you go home before dawn, you're made fun of for being weak. The Argentinians aren't really drunk, though, they're just having a good time being out.
One night we went out to a really lovely dinner, although I haven't yet eaten any meat (I really don't know if I will or not - everyone laughs at me here for not enjoying what they are convinced is the best steak in the world but it just isn't so appetizing to me) and I haven't had to drink any bottled water (yaaaaay!) We also headed to an
Irish pub, which is in every country in the world at this point, creo. Oh! I nearly forgot one of my best nightlife experienes - the police station. I spent over four hours one night in the police station helping a Swiss girl to get a report drawn up for insurance purposes after she had been robbed. I chatted with loads of characters for hours, hearing their tales of being tricked and cheated and listening to complaints of corruption and so on. If you want to think that a city is safe, don't spend any time in the police station hearing about the worst aspects of it! There was a crazy old Chinese woman who saved our lives with some sesame crackers after we hadn't eaten all day. Characters. All characters in this story that is life.
So now I'm going to explore Uruguay a bit. My Brazil visa took some bureaucracy (a super nice travel agent helped me fib a bit to the consulate) but my passport was returned to me in only two days, which was amazing as I thought I could be stranded in Buenos Aires or at least Argentina for far longer. I could use
a day to lie on a beach after breathing in so much smoke and exhaust and these cobblestones are a nice trade from the endless concrete of the big city. Write me, please, to update me on your lives! I love getting e-mail so much - especially when I'm far away.
Best wishes from Uruguay, where the leaves are beginning to change colour on the edge of autumn, where the sea air is fresh, where the people are lovely, where I am safe and sound and happy!
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Daddyo
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BsAs trippin
I love the "wandering" method of visiting a new place. My best experiences were mostly happpenstance, and where else will you see those very telling slices of life ? I'm glad you have the adventurous spirit ! The graveyard sounds like New Orleans... Love the stories, thanks for the effort.