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Published: March 27th 2008
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Day 115: Buenos Aires
With 'the longest day ever' coming to a close, I finally got here at one in the morning and set about the rather tedious but important task of trying to trace my luggage. Even when quite dazed and confused, I was able to make myself understood in spanish when explaining what had happened, unfortunately it turned out that I couldn't actually understand a word that anyone says in response, but after asking several people and taking some detours around the airport, including through police controls and back offices, I finally saw my backpack amongst a pile of other unfortunate lost bags. (It's since occurred to me that my backpack, despite having travelled all over the world with me over the past ten years, has (unusually for me) not yet been named, something that may be quite difficult to remedy given that we've been together for so long. I may just have to call him 'bag'). Anyways, it was a very welcome sight, and after a happy reunion with bag, and having given up on the idea of getting the bus into town, I found the taxi booth and was soon on my way into the city.
The taxi ride was thankfully fairly quick, and managing not to get ripped off, I was dropped outside the right hostel, where I was relieved to find that the reception was open twenty-four hours. After checking in, I passed through the still heaving hostel bar, and accepting that few places in Buenos Aires were likely to be any quieter, head up to the girls' dorm on the floor above. Despite having had a good few hours kip at Santiago airport, I managed to sleep for a couple of hours more before waking up boiling hot and covered in mosquito bites at four in the morning. There on, I wasn't going to be getting back to sleep and subsequently spent the rest of the night swatting mosquitoes and listening to the raucous happenings and traffic going by outside. I got up at half six and after a shower went down to the bar where a party of eight backpackers (mostly british) was showing no sign of abating. I had my breakfast out on the balcony, before leaving the revellers and heading out into the city.
Despite the streets largely being laid out in a grid system it took a
little while and a few wrong turnings to get my bearings. Nevertheless, I was soon walking around the main streets, past fantastic bakeries and amazing chocolate shops, which I'm no doubt will receive my full attention at a later date. I thought I'd have a fairly easy day wandering today and headed to Recoleta, the posh suburb of Buenos Aires. The morning was spent boutique window-shopping and people watching in parks overrun with children (and their nannies), and the occasional professional dog walker, yanking a dozen leads. One of the most well known attractions of the area is the Recoleta cemetery, where the rich and famous are encased in fabulous decorative mausoleums. It was quite bizarre, with not a standard grave in site, there were small buildings housing coffins, alters and candles, packed one next to another, lining paths inbetween. Some looked really old, with broken glass and crumbling walls, others were gleaming marble with polished statuettes on top, and following the crowds, it wasn't long before I happened upon Evita's little family plot, sandwiched between Argentina's famous doctors and politicians. Certainly a different kind of morning.
By lunchtime I was already flagging but continuing my tour of Recoleta,
I attempted to make it round the art gallery there. A few croissants later, and I was finally in the cool indoors, admiring paintings by Picasso, sculptures by Rodin, and various artworks by some Argentinian painters previously unknown to me. Although it was a good collection of work, I had to give up before I got through the modern stuff, and unable to stop even for Rothko, I took a slow walk back to the hostel through the afternoon sun.
Despite the noisy hostel, I managed a four hour siesta, waking up hungry in the early evening. Back outside, I wandered around for a while trying to search out some food. There are plenty of cafes and bars around, but none of them looked particularly inviting for me to visit on my own. Eventually, I happened upon what looked like a small corner shop, but actually opened out into a full-on supermarket. Selling diet coke, fruit, cheese, olives and bread, it had everything I needed, and having stocked up, I was soon back at the hostel pigging out. I got talking to one of my dorm mates, Janaina a Brazilian girl doing a two week course at the university
here, and we went for a night time wander. Being fluent in spanish as well as portugese, she was able to shed some light on the language problems I was encountering, and soon explained that some syllables in Argentina are pronounced completely different to the rest of South America. So as well as not being very good at spanish to start with, I now have a whole new accent and way of speaking to get my head around. A bit like going to Newcastle to learn English I'd imagine.
Anyway, we took a wander down the main shopping streets that came alive by night, with people selling various arts, crafts and jewellery, and stopped to watch people dancing the Tango to an audience in the square. The evening was finished off with her introducing me to the best heladerias (icecreameries) and chocolate shops in the area. Probably not a good move, but at least I know where they are when I need them (yes, you can need chocolate)!
Day 116: Late nights and early mornings all merged together
After all of two hours sleep, I woke up at four and read by torchlight until breakfast time.
Exploring town in the opposite direction, I walked down to Casa Rosa, a big government building (that you´re not allowed in), overlooking the main plaza. It was worth the visit just because it was pink, a fact that automatically makes me a fan of the Argentinian government! Just round the corner from the Casa Rosa was the city´s main cathedral. Being a catholic country, it was a fully functional building, and with mass going on inside, I didn´t venture in on this occasion. After a wander round the shopping district, I needed to book a boat (I´m off to Uruguay tomorrow), so braved the travel agents where I sorted out a return ticket leaving early tomorrow for Montevideo, and since I don´t want to be spending too much time on buses over the next couple of months, I checked domestic flight prices for further travels in Argentina in the near future. By lunchtime, temperatures were well into the thirties and rising, being quite humid as well, walking round town wasn´t too pleasant and I headed back to the hostel for a siesta.
Managing to sleep for the best part of six hours, it was thankfully quite a bit cooler when I finally woke up, and so I joined Janaina for a walk down to Puerto Madero, the posh harbour side, lined with nice bars and restaurants and crossed by the rather big, white bridge, Puente de la Mujer. After a good walk round, we stopped off at the supermarket on the way back to the hostel and got some food for dinner (that would be bread and cheese again, although this time with some beer as well). Sitting around talking with another girl in the dorm, it was decided that we would head out to Palermo, one of Buenos Aires suburbs with a lively nightlife, for the rest of the evening. After much procrastination, we left the dorm at one in the morning, although only made it as far as the hostel bar, where after another hour, we had managed to increase our number to fifteen. Finally leaving at two, it took four taxis to get us across town to the Plaza Serrano in Palermo where we found a bar and after a bit more procrastination, we eventually got some drinks (Hurrah!), although more expensive than most Argentinian establishments, cocktails were still cheap enough for me to tuck into some daiquiris.
Since Janaina and I both needed to be up at half six, we didn´t end up staying so long and left early at half-four (ahem). Back at the hostel, I slept for an hour and a half before getting up, throwing my things into a bag, and setting off down to the port.
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