Two sides to this town

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We have seen different sides to this bustling latino metropolis and there is a lot to like about BA. On our first night we wandered into the San Telmo barrio in search of bars and restaurants. The bar we stumbled on was super cool with old radios, record players and other 20th century artifacts on the walls. It was grungy, with a hip vibe and we made friends with the owner and patrons pretty quickly.

There was one guy with terrible BO sitting at the table next to us. He was a pit tipsy too. He claimed to be Scottish, but the big smile on his face and the fact that he had dark skin suggested to that me he was joking. When I quizzed him on the part of the highlands he heralded from, his answers proved that he knew more about it than me, but perhaps he had done his research. It wasn’t until he spoke in English, that I heard his accent was in fact scottish and he could even speak gaelic. He then told us his background and how he came to be in Buenos Aires. His mother is Ugandan/Indian (Goa/Portuguese) and his father is English/Scottish. That is how he grew up in the highlands. He came to BA to visit his brother who has a PhD and is doing post doctoral work at a university here. His field relates to the adequacy of generic health metrics such as birth weight for individual communities throughout this big country. Sounds like useful research!

We could have talked to our new friend all night. He was really interesting and fun, just a bit smelly! But he had to leave with his brother and friends. Just after he left, a Croatian fortune teller turned up with her deck of tarot cards. She wanted 1000 pesos to tell us our future. But it was the same price for Nathan and since he has more future to tell than Leanne and I, I saw value in that. She asked us a few questions about ourselves (definitely not because she wanted to know what we wanted to hear) and then Nathan chose his ten cards that told her his future. By this stage he was being fed a never ending supply of popcorn by the bar staff. The lady kinda waffled on for a bit and to tell you the truth I zoned out to some of the things she said, but she says that Nathan will be a very successful individual and I interpret her message to mean that he will be captain of the Australian cricket team and probably Prime Minister. Nathan thought he was successful there and then, as he was eating as much popcorn as he wanted.

We tried leaving after that, but the sloshed, camp midget carrying a violin case, who had been serving us drinks and popcorn all night, with a really posh British accent still needed to tell us his life story. He also wanted to know if Nathan was a dancer or musician and which fine arts he preferred. He had lived in Canberra for a while with his diplomat parents and knew a little about Australia. It took a longer to get out of there but finally we went out to dinner at a pizza bar at 11 o’clock and got home by midnight. That was the end of our first day in Buenos Aires, Christmas Day!

The next day was important to Leanne and I. It was the 25th anniversary of the day we met in a bar in Caulfield, after the races. We decided to splurge and go to a nice restaurant. The area we were staying in is called Puerto Madero and it used to be a port of some sort. What is left is four bricked rectangular water ways that form a backdrop to a well planned residential and commercial district with wide streets, parks and medium to high end restaurants and hotels. We stayed in a large, but older two bedroom apartment with a pool. It was nice to have some creature comforts and still be able to wander to barrios like San Telmo and La Bocca when you feel like it. Oh, and our dinner in a lovely Italian restaurant called Cucina D’Onore was excellent. We both chose seafood pasta dishes, so had a Mendoza Chardonnay with it. One of the better meals we’ve eaten on our holiday.

We spent our days walking. No subway train travel for us. San Telmo is a really nice district to wander around. It is developing and there are new shops and bars that are more sophisticated that we remember from our 2015 visit to BA. Then La Boca is just like we remember. You feel on edge in that place, as if you're being watched by would-be pickpockets. The tourist zone is just a couple of streets with colourful but run down houses. They sell the usual tourist trinkets in this area and street vendors sell food. Attractive women in red tango dresses offer to pose for photos with you (for a fee) but I didn’t see much Tango being danced. In other parts of BA there are night shows where you can see Tango being done very well, but in general, people here don’t know how to dance the Tango. I don’t like this part of town as much as San Telmo. The huge blue and yellow football stadium is a landmark and we used it to find our way out of La Boca.

Here is a practical tip for anyone planning to travel to a place when you might be worried about pickpockets. I have two pairs of shorts with zips on the side pockets as well as zips or buttons on the back pockets. I feel a lot safer with my phone and wallet behind one extra layer of protection. Leanne always carries her handbag around her neck, not just over her shoulder. So the strap makes a diagonal sash across her body. This makes it so much harder for someone to take the bag and run/ride off with it.

At night we explored BA in a way that we couldn’t when Nathan was 4 years-old. And because of this, I have a much better feel for the place. I like it more for its character, than the attractions you tick off your tourist list.

After the excitement of World Cup Glory, the city seems to have settled down a bit. There are still lots of flags on windows and balconies, but apart from that it seems to be business as usual for BA. There are paintings and statues of their two idols everywhere you turn. Messi has achieved the same status as Maradona. I’m pretty sure these are permanent fixtures here and have nothing to do with winning the World Cup.



After our three nights in Puerto Madero we moved to a posh hotel for one night. This is north of the historic centre and is the first night of our Antarctica tour. We wandered the streets of Recoleta and saw the cemetary again. We've retraced some of our steps from 2015 and Nathan says her even remembers some of the places we are going to. Unfortunately, we will be up at 2.30 to catch a bus to the airport tomorrow morning, so won’t enjoy the facilities at our nice hotel. But we will have some sleep on the plane and get most of the day in Ushuaia before we depart on our cruise. Can’t wa

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Photos

Plaza de Mayo
Historic Centre of BA

El obelisco
That is where 5 million convened for the parade

Yacht Club
The low bridges rotate for boats to go in and out.

Tomb of San Martin
In the Metropolitan Cathedral

Boca Juniors
Famous BA Football Club. Maradona came from this club.

La Boca Caminito
It is a small part of La Boca where houses are painted and they have statues and paintings of their heroes.

San Telmo Artwork
A very good picture of Messi