Argentina - Buenos Aires

---

I arrived in Buenos Aires at 10am on Sunday 28 June after a 19 hour bus ride from Puerto Iguazu.

During my 10 week stay, I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment in the neighbourhood of Once with a local Argentinean girl Alejandra. I went to a school called Expanish in the Microcenter to learn Spanish. For 7 weeks I was in a group class and then for 2 weeks I had private lessons. My beginner group class was made up by my teacher Italo, Gill (a Canadian girl who started and finished the same day as me) and a few others who came and went over the course of the 7 weeks. Classes were from 9am-1pm Monday to Friday. Generally, students would go to lunch together after class and then I would either walk around different parts of the city or go back to my apartment. I went out for dinner most nights and steak was always the preferred choice as they were the best I had ever tasted and also very reasonable. Every Friday at 5pm there was a 5-a-side football tournament with around 8 teams each week. I managed to make it to 5 or 6 of these and it was really enjoyable and you got to meet people from all parts of the world who were in Buenos Aires for one reason or another. I went on a weekend trip to Uruguay (see blog posting) and also a day trip to Tigre, a town 18 miles to the north of Buenos Aires city. Other weekends were spent by walking around the city, going to house parties and bars, staying in to watch English football on TV or going to watch local games. Highlights included going to Boca Juniors first game of the season at the famous Bombonera where it was nice to stand behind the goal (felt a bit like English football in the 80s). Argentinos Juniors were 2-0 ahead at half time (goals scored at our end) and then Boca levelled to 2-2 and then hit the crossbar (again all action at our end). So after an exciting 2-2 draw, it would be hard to beat the following week when we went to River Plates first home game of the season. The stadium was huge and the atmosphere behind the goal was amazing as we stood in the 30 degree heat (in the winter). River scored an early goal but Chacarita Juniors levelled after 22 minutes. Then River was 2-1 up before Chacarita scored a penalty just before half time. River then went 3-2 down before drawing level again after 68 minutes. With 3 minutes left in the game, Ariel Ortega scored the winner with a precise lob to send the home fans crazy. After watching 2 great games I hoped that we had not used up all of our luck as the following Saturday we were going to watch Argentina play Brazil in a World Cup qualifier. I had paid a tour company 500 pesos for a ticket to this game and had been looking forward to it for weeks. However, on the Friday night I got a call from the tour company saying they had been unable to get any tickets as they were let down by their supplier. I felt like a kid on Xmas eve being told that Santa wasn't coming in the morning. Gutted!!

In my last week in Buenos Aires I went to La Recoleta Cemetery which includes graves of some of the most influential and important Argentineans. The cemetery was like a grid system of tree lined streets with each of the graves like a small house. I also visited the neighbourhood of La Boca where I walked around Caminito, a small street where all the houses are painted with lots of different bright colours. Then I went to the Bombonera for a stadium tour and to look around their museum which includes lots of reminders that Diego Maradona once played for them.

I finally left Buenos Aires on Tuesday 8 September and caught a bus to Puerto Madryn.

NOTE: I will probably add some more comments and photos to this blog at a later date.

---

Photos

La Boca
Don´t leave your car parked outside Boca Juniors stadium.