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Published: December 18th 2008
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Getting to Buenos Aires was a bit of a slog, it has to be said. Ever conscious of “the budget”, the best deal we could get was from London via Toronto, so about 25 hours after we set off from Manchester, we finally hit Argentine soil. Again, I used the flight as an opportunity to watch films Lynne would never contemplate going to the cinema to see, so Hellboy II and the Incredible Hulk did it for me this time.
After all the faffing around to get from the airport to our hostel, it was late afternoon. Our hostel was a themed affair which kind of transported you back to 1930’s Buenos Aires, an interesting feature being a washing line sporting very large knickers! It was based in the older San Telmo areas of the city, so our introduction to BA was a quick walk around there. We stumbled across a traditional looking café and armed with very little Spanish, managed to get a great meal of meats, cheeses and bread washed down by cheap red wine. The trip was off to a good start.
San Telmo is a great little area about a 15 minute walk south of
the city centre. Many of the streets are a bit dog eared but apparently the lower rents have attracted lots of boutique style shops, antique shops and trendy restaurants, so at night we didn’t need to venture any further! It’s also the home of tango and so there is plenty of the traditional music playing and a few street performers.
Exploring the city
As is now tradition, our first day proper in BA was spent having a walk around the city centre. First impressions were how European the city is. The architecture, the look of the people and even the graffiti on the walls was like being in Madrid. It was also as hot as being in Madrid, so our wandering was cut short by an ice cold bottle of Argentine white wine and postponed until we could hire bikes the next day.
Now complete with bright orange bikes, we set off relatively early to explore the city in comfort. Our first stop was an area called La Boca. I’d heard of it because of Boca Juniors footy team but Lynne had heard of it because of a street called Caminito and Tango. Caminito is famed for
Boca Juniors Mad
In this part of town they love Tevez but hate Mascharano because he played for River Plate. its collection of brightly coloured corrugated metal buildings, which are pretty cool. The surrounding streets were pretty rough round the edges but with the Boca Juniors stadium walking distance away, it means there are lots of footy murals on the walls which give it a charm. The Caminito is pretty touristy, with loads of touts trying to get you into their restaurants and a bloke who looks vaguely like Maradonna asking if you want to pay to have your picture taken with him “English? See, I can do the hand of God!”. The touts quickly get onto footy, all of them loving Tevez and then telling you that Mascherano (who played for arch rivals River Plate) is “gay”!
From there we cycled to a nature reserve, Constanera Sur, which is right on the seafront by the city. The weather was stunning and it seemed like half of BA must have been out there, jogging with tops off around the dirt paths. Nearby, a number of docks have also been converted, Albert Dock style, with bars, restaurants and hotels. These were a bit out of our budget, which we quickly realised is not going to get us that far in
Argentina. Loads of people have said it is really cheap here but prices must have risen massively in the past couple of years and things really aren’t much cheaper than Europe! That is apart from huge steaks and wine, so you don’t need to worry that we will starve or go thirsty.
Instead we carried on North of the city centre to an area called Recoleta, where a big craft market is held and had sandwiches in the sun. The cemetery here is a major tourist attraction, I think largely because Evita is buried in one of the tombs. The tombs themselves are huge and must have cost a fortune to construct, and in many of them you can see the racks of coffins if it was a big family. Still, we both agreed it’s a bit of a strange attraction.
The day was still young so again we went further North to the Palermo area. This is the rich neighbourhood and you can tell! There is loads of open space, parks and sports clubs. These are pretty cool and all seem to have outdoor pools, tennis courts, footy pitches and social clubs. We ended up in the
park for a gentle cycle round the lake, avoiding the hundreds of roller bladders and joggers. It seems to be a pretty healthy city but I suppose you need to get rid of all that red meat somehow?
Mini carnival
We were lucky enough to happen across a carnival in San Telmo when we realised we couldn’t get to the street to drop the bikes off because it was packed with skimpily dressed women with feather head dresses! The carnival seemed to focus on a type of dance/music called Candome. We’re not 100%!s(MISSING)ure exactly what it is but it has an Afro-Uruguayan origin.
All the groups follow the same arrangement. They have a bloke at the front carrying a banner with the name of the group. He’s followed by a few blokes who wave massive flags, usually into the faces of the crowd for some extra fun. There are then some younger girls dancing and behind them is a bloke dressed as a very old man with a white beard and walking stick, usually with a few older ladies dressed in mop caps and petticoats. Lines of dummers bring up the rear, frantically pumping out the
beats with the scantily clad women dancing in front. We’re not sure what it all means and whether this was a competition, but it was great to soak up the atmosphere, clap and shake along with the rhythm and have a cold beer on a balmy night with the Portenos (BA residents to you and me).
Tango and trinkets
San Telmo holds a massive street market on a Sunday, so we made the short walk from the hostel (called Ayres Portenos, which we’d recommend and it has a great steak house next door) to soak up the atmosphere. Like the carnival the night before, it was crowded and buzzing. Lots of the stalls were much like a car boot, selling stuff nobody really wants. However, there was lots of street tango to watch, so we grabbed a table and watched the dancers with a critical eye - Lynne was Arlene and I suppose I’d better be Len! We’re not sure whether the tango was good or bad, but they made it seem effortless and there was even a bit of arse slapping to portray the emotionally charged atmosphere.
The following day it was time to prepare ourselves
La Bomba
Lynne lent this girl her new outfit! for a 19 hour bus ride south to Puerto Madryn. Let the South American adventure begin.
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