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Buenos Aires Bus Tour
Listening to English guide as the sights roll by.Another good start to the day with sunshine and blue skies (I think about 22 degrees celcius). We get into in the city centre and board the Buenos Aires bus tour! With headsets provided we hook up to the English tab and view our map. As we start moving through the city we notice we appear to be on the wrong side of the bus to take photos of the main sites - oops! Quickly scrabbling acoss we settle down and enjoy the journey. A few of the pictures are from the bus journey itself however the main ones are from when we actually got off at a registered stop and wandered about ourselves. The bus takes a total of 2.5 hours to do a complete circuit but with 12 different stops Brim and decide to get off at the Boca area to see the colourful painted houses. The reason for the colourful houses is because when the original owners arrived in Buenos Aires they did not have much money so used whatever paints they could find to try and finish off their homes! The bus stops right at the heart of the Boca district (passing the stadium we had been
to the previous day). We wandered the cobbled streets and viewed the stall holders artwork and crafts. Some of the pictures and photos were brilliant and if we had more room in our bags I am sure we have purchased a few things. There were a number of locals trying to sheppard us into their cafes and a couple in Tango dress who were posing with tourists - Brim convinced me to give it a go, but Jane Brimelow please note, they made me wear the red hat! A high five later from one of the cheeky cafe owners and a quick side step around a Maradonna look alike we decided to move on with the bus tour.
We boarded the next bus to the dockland area of the city so we could book our fast boat tickets to Colonia Del Sacramento. Having finally walked down the right side of the docks area (oops) we located the ferry terminal for transportation to Uruguay. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing at various desks in a mixture of English and Spanish we managed to book the tickets for the next day. That sorted, we were not entirely sure exactly where
the next bus stop was but walked in the general direction. We ended up running along a main avenue as we saw the bus appearing in the distance. We outrun the bus and (much to the driver¨s delight) had to back track a few meters to get on the bus at the alloted bus stop. Slightly out of breath and laughing at oursleves the bus took us to the Recoletta area of BA.
Recoletta is one of the poshest parts of BA and is the home of the cemetery of the rich including the mausoleum of Evita! In locating the cemetery (surrounded by very high wall) we located a local cake shop and agreed on the way back to stop in and purchase some of the fabulous looking pastries 😊
It seemed a bit macbre visiting the grave of a person we had never known or met but decided we couldn¨t come to BA and not do it (the day before Alan had confirmed he had done it in about 5 minutes as it had feaked him out - at the time we had laughed!) but as we entered the place it was certainly a strange atmosphere. For
A view of the cemetary
it is like a mini city but it feels a bit strange a start the crypts are massive, more like sheds or mini houses than gravestones. Through the doorways and windows you could actually see graves, pictures and flowers. The noise of BA seemed to dissipate and as we wandered leftwards in the search of family Duartes (Evita) site, Brim was getting more and more uneasy. The place was also full of cats. I jokingly said they were carrying around the souls of the deceased but as it transpired a local lady came twice a day and fed them so the stray cats of BA had simply sent word around that free food was on offer!
We located Evita¨s mausoleum (there was a map in the entrance with a list of each crypt and the family name - the door was covered in flowers, and as we stood there, I simply couldn¨t bring myself to take a picture. It seemed too strange. I decided to keep wandering for a bit and Brim made a hasty get away outside into the "real" world. In no uncertain terms she informed me that she had decided she would want to be cremated and not be buried in Recoletta. I said I would make a note,
and have passed it onto to you all!
The cemetery tour complete we purchase our cakes from the Princess (real name I promise) cake shop and wait an hour (should have been 30 minutes maximum but the bus driver may have been caught up in stopping for his afternoon tea!) for the next bus to arrive to take us back to the beginning of the route in the city. A long day on and off buses but it was worth it. We get back with cakes (one a rich chocolate and cream and the other an apple with crumble like topping) and hot chocoloate (sorry Brim for dargging you all over the shopping centre looking for hot chocolate) and rested ourselves at the hostel. I was meant to take a picture of the cakes before devouring them - but totally forgot until after I had scoffed myself. Sorry. I can assure you though they were fit for princesses 😊
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good lunge