Days 1 - 8 BA, Iguazu and BA again


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South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires » Buenos Aires
November 1st 2009
Published: November 3rd 2009
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Here is the first entry in our much debated blog. James' view on blogs is similar to anything else to do with technology ie they are rubbish. Having enjoyed reading what my friends have been up to on their travels, I don't agree and think it is only right that we should bore you with what we are up to during our 9 weeks away.

I was going to promise to keep it short and sweet, with pictures if we can work the technology (this could be a challenge given the trouble we had installing skype onto our laptop), however, anyone who has ever read anything I have written will know that I don't know the meaning of the word succinct so I suspect you will just look at the pictures. I have also tried to give some detail about where we stayed etc for future travellers.

25 October (day 1) - From home to Buenos Aires

After the mad panic of getting our work finished (Sarah at 7pm and James at a slightly less sensible 5am), we turned our attention to packing. We were very proud of ourselves for managing to only have 13.5kg each.

Nigel and Linda very kindly dropped us off at the airport and we headed into the terminal at Heathrow with our backpacks on ready to go. Our first thought was to get some food, so after wandering round the terminal we settled on Chez Gerard - clearly this level of luxury will be short-lived.

The flights to Madrid and then onto Buenos Aires were pretty uneventful, mainly because we slept pretty much the whole way. Never ones to turn down a free meal, we happily tucked into the dinner they served at 3am, which we have since learned isn't an uncommon time for Argentinians to eat their evening meal.

On landing at 8am, we checked our phones to find a message from Jules, a friend who happened to be in BA, saying that we needed to be at a hostel in Palermo at 11am to go to watch River Plate v Boca Juniors. Slight panic set in (for me, but not for James) and we fell at backpacker hurdle number 2 by getting a taxi to our apartment (Callao Apartments - nice apartments although noisy, with an average breakfast served by the least enthusiastic waitress ever). After much room number confusion, we managed to dump our bags in our room, change in front of the maid (literally!) who was still cleaning it and get another taxi to meet Jules. As we have now come to realise is completely normal here, having arrived in a bit of a rush at 10.50am, we were the first people there and the buses didn't leave until 11.35am.

There was plenty of waiting still to be done before the 4pm kick-off. Having not eaten since our 6am breakfast on the plane we were starving so went for the only food option available, a burger. In my opinion it tasted delicious, but James who had gone to buy them was not so impressed having seen the fine Argentinian beef (or rat!) being prepared by a guy who obviously was working on a sell one, eat one basis!

The game itself was averagely exciting, being a 1-1 draw, but there was plenty to keep us entertained. The crowd were kept busy before the game blowing up long red and white bags and frantically waving them in the air whilst hurling abuse at the away fans throughout the entire game (they did not even flinch at the 2 sending offs and 2 goals). At half time, entertainment involved ripping newspaper into strips ready to throw up in the air at the start of the second half. We managed to end up with a porn magazine in our newspaper collection which caused great hilarity for the people near us (and Jules and James who giggled like 3 year olds whilst still ripping it up and throwing it into the crowd - they can safely say that they will never do that again). Final entertainment was a fire that broke out at the end of the game.

Given the only drink you can buy in the stadium is coke and you can't take bottles in with you, by the end of our 7 hours there (yes 7 hours) I was pretty dehydrated. By the time the away fans had all left, which was a very slow process as they were in no hurry to stop their singing and abusing of the home fans, and we were allowed to leave we were both exhausted and a little sunburned.

After a minor false start (going to a closed restaurant!), dinner with Jules and Ally revealed our lack of culture as we ordered white wine (James) and a beer (me) to accompany our first steak of the holiday. When we get to Mendoza we have vowed to try some red wine. Getting back to our apartment after the football I realised what was clearly going to be a problem on this trip - James' feet. After 24 hours in the same pair of socks I nearly passed out with the smell.

26 October (day 2) - Buenos Aires

We had a false start in our attempt to start day 2 in a more healthy fashion as we went down to investigate the gym. A few weights, broken cross trainer and very flimsy running machine didn't look particularly appealing so we went for a run around the streets instead (James twisted his ankle so this could have been a bad start to our trip). We were amazed by the number of dogs and dog walkers. The most we counted with one man was 15 but most people had at least 3 dogs.

We spent the rest of the day walking round the city. We planned to take the subway for some of the journeys but in keeping with our fitness drive, we decided to keep walking. We visited all the main areas, Recoleta, Retiro, Microcentro, San Telmo, Boca (ghetto) and finally Puerto Madero. We stopped in San Telmo for a lovely lunch of pizza with stir fry vegetable topping - original but delicious. We also had our first taste of Argentinian ice-cream - I am sure the first of many.

Six hours and a number of blisters later (my new sandals were comfortable in England but clearly I should have broken them in gently) we returned to our apartment to try to access the internet. To cut a long story short, the cable in our room didn't work and the wifi didn't work on our floor so we sat on the floor in the corridor two floors down with the light flicking on and off for 2 hours until our bums were numb.

For dinner we took a cab to Palermo to the restaurant (all you can eat place) that had been shut the night before. Unfortunately it was still shut so we wandered down to a restaurant Jules had recommended. Luck wasn't on our side as this had a huge queue and no tables until 10pm. Starving (James - he has even learned to express this in Spanish with tengo hambre!) and annoyed (me) we got another taxi back to near our hotel and went to an all you can eat place which had a massive parrilla (grill with hundreds of slabs of meat of all varieties). Although the place itself was nothing special the meat was amazing. We will now be living by the rule that eating anything accompanying the meat is a waste of space.

27 October (day 3) - Iguazu Argentinian side

Today we were up early again, this time heading to the domestic airport to fly to Iguazu. Although we took a taxi to the airport, by the time we landed I was determined to get into backpacking mode and negotiated 2 tickets on the bus (15 pesos each, about £2) rather than getting a taxi (£12). James laughed at me for trying to save money, but he is slowly coming round to my way of thinking. We have even started to book into hostels for the rest of our trip.

Before leaving England, I religiously did my 8 hours of Spanish tapes, making note of key phrases and packing both a dictionary and a phrase book (James has told me to point out here that I am a swot but you all know that anyway). James attempted the first 2 hours, got fed up and insisted that everyone would speak English so it would be fine. On arriving in Iguazu (which is a pretty touristy place) he was a bit shocked to find that 'habla Ingles' was usually answered with 'no' and followed by an attempt by me to communicate in pigeon Spanish. I was very proud of myself for booking us onto a tour to Brazil and Paraguay for the next day without any leaflets or hand gestures to help. James is still on sign language and basically smiles and says “si” to everything anyone says to him.

We spent the afternoon at the Argentinian side of the Iguazu falls. Words (and pictures) can't describe how amazing they are. We walked around the whole park, seeing the falls from hundreds of different angles and taking heaps of photos. We also saw loads of butterflies, lizards and cat badgers (more commonly known as coatis but they look like a cross between a cat and a badger). Devil's throat, the last part we visited was mesmerizing (basically a massive hole in the ground with millions of gallons of water pouring into it) and we could have stood for hours watching the dulche de leche coloured water cascading over the edge whilst spraying up at us and soaking us completely. We saw the falls in all their glory as the river levels were at their peak due to heavy rains in Brazil.

In the evening we headed to a restaurant called La Rueda which served divine river fish and great puddings - we have not yet managed to get out of the habit of eating 3 course meals in every restaurant. James has now decided that he needs to learn some Spanish so on trying out the phrase I gave him, the waiter gave him a very impressed look and congratulated him for trying. Hopefully this will mean he does more of the Spanish speaking from now on.

The lonely planet gave our hotel (La Sorgente) a great write-up but we didn't think much of it. The aircon was noisy, the hotel pool smaller than most we saw and the water pressure terrible (in fact non existent). None of this stopped us having a good night's sleep though.

28 October (day 4) - Iguazu Brazilian side, Itaipu dam and Paraguay

Although the hotel wasn't great, breakfast was. We did our usual of eating way too much and then stealing some food for lunch. Sebastian, our driver for the day, picked us up just after 8am. We realised immediately that no-one else was joining us so we had our own private guide for the day. The only slight obstacle was that he didn't speak any English, spoke very fast and had some very old school songs blaring away in the back of his car so hearing what he said was tricky. We soon managed to slow him down and were surprised by how much we (well I) understood. He was very keen to tell us lots about where we were going, what we were seeing etc and was very friendly and helpful. As we were on our own, we could do everything at our own pace (which given our short attention spans is usually faster than most when it comes to culture).

Our first stop once we entered Brazil was the Itaipu dam where we did the panoramic (outside) tour. Thankfully Fernando our guide on the bus spoke English. He told us that the dam had 7 times the amount of water going over the Iguazu falls, which James doesn't believe. The dam was pretty impressive and worth the visit.

We managed to persuade Sebastian to take us into Cuidad del Este in Paraguay as although half of the dam is in Paraguay we didn't feel like we had visited it properly (no passport stamp). The drivers on the road into Paraguay were crazy. There were boys charging 5 pesos for motor taxis to take you through the queues but Sebastian held his own and we barged our way through. Unfortunately there was no real border so we still didn't get our passport stamped. The city was as chaotic as the traffic with markets all over the roads with people trying to sell anything from paddling pools to scopes for guns. It took all of thirty minutes to get a feel for the place and then we were back in the car and off to the Brazilian side of the falls.

First stop was the helipad just outside the park. The 10 minute ride over the falls had been recommended to us and it didn't disappoint. What struck me first was the number of trees and how red the land was, but I was soon fully absorbed in looking at the falls from every angle as the pilot twisted and turned to give all 4 passengers the best views.

The park itself was much more organised than the Argentinian side and although we had planned to do a long walk and a boat trip, when we discovered the walk was guided and the boat trip was triple the price of the Argentinian side we decided to give it a miss and just did the main walk instead. As the guidebook promised, the views from this side were spectacular. You get much better panoramic views of the whole falls. We couldn't resist joining the crowds of crazy tourists getting drenched on some of the walkways and I had a slight panic when our camera got wet - luckily no harm done.

Once back at the hotel, we spent a couple of hours on the internet planning. When I say planning, we tried to book polo lessons, tango lessons, a tango show, a day at an Estancia (massive ranch) and a trip to Uruguay all for the next 4 days - we are going to be busy!

Dinner was nothing spectacular, we chose a place called A Piscara and for once only ordered a main each. I wasn't feeling great and we were both getting bitten again so we headed back for an early night. When we got back I took a look at my ankles which have still not recovered from the flight over here (another reason not to fly long haul economy) and were now also covered in bites and blisters from my sandals. I am hoping that the cooler weather in BA will help them recover.

29 October (day 5) - Buenos Aires

After having written about the first 4 days, I asked James if he would like to take over and write a day. His response, which may be familiar to anyone who has worked with him, was 'no, I think it is best if you write it and then I can review it and just add any comments I think are appropriate'. Good to know he hasn't got out of work mode yet then!

It appears that James´ midnight eating habit has also travelled across the Atlantic with us as I woke up to find that the rest of the packet of biscuits we bought last night had disappeared. I will clearly need to be more inventive with my hiding places for the rest of the trip.

As is becoming common on this trip so far, I spent a good 5 minutes thinking how to say something in Spanish, this time booking the bus to the airport, only to find that I wimped out as soon as I got to the desk by asking if they spoke English, which they did. I need to be braver, especially as most people seem to think I look Spanish and gabble away to me at 100 miles an hour. James on the other hand is getting very into his Spanish and has even starting trying to talk to me in Spanish. Clearly our conversation will be pretty limited if he sticks to this given he only knows about 15 words.

The highlight of the morning for James was trying to explain to Egg that we are away for 9 weeks and having his card activated for use abroad for 2 days at a time is not enough. He was very upset that he didn't manage to reason with them.

We got our flight back to BA and returned to the same apartments as before, it is amazing how quickly somewhere starts to feel like home. When we left BA 2 days ago it was 17 degrees but today it was 30 degrees and very sticky, no hope of my ankles recovering any time soon. We walked to the Recoleta cemetery (James teasing me the whole way as I once told him I like sitting in graveyards so he thought I would be getting very excited). We went in search of Eva Peron´s grave (more like a huge marble house) only to find that James had forgotten to put the battery in the camera. As we hadn´t heard of anyone else there we didn´t stay long.

Our afternoon was spent in the supermarket (we both quite like looking round foreign supermarkets and this one didn´t disappoint), ice cream shop (actually this is a daily occurrence) and searching out tango lessons. We found a great place where the people didn´t look too professional and left with the timetable, agreeing to return one evening when we had had a few drinks.

We went for our second run of the holiday, which was possibly the worst run I have been on. The pavements were packed, it was still about 25 degrees, there was water dripping on us from every balcony and we both twisted our ankles, not good given the current state of mine anyway. The pavements in BA are in poor shape and there are no parks to easily run around (this is probably why there are no famous Argentinian athletes that we can think of).

We had dinner at La Cabrera, an absolute must for anyone visiting BA. Our waiter was very old, deaf and could not speak a word of English, so ordering was a challenge but we thought we did pretty well sticking to just a steak each and chips and salad to share. We also had a bottle of champagne for only 12 pounds - bargain. When the food arrived there wasn´t enough room for it on the table, we didn´t know where to begin and we certainly didn´t look like we had eaten any of it by the time we had finished.

We checked the weather forecast for tomorrow, it is meant to be 32 degrees, could make polo a bit sticky.

30 October (day 6) - Uruguay

Lessons for the day - Don't trust polo teachers and Uruguay is an hour ahead

Today was our first real test of the trip as things didn't go to plan. We had an early morning e-mail from the polo man asking for our address and once provided we got ready and headed to the hotel reception for our 10am pick up. As everything so far on our trip had been late we didn't start worrying until 10.20am. Unfortunately none of the lifts in our building were working so 10 flights later we checked our e-mails - nothing and phoned the number on the website - answer phone. At 10.40am we tried again and this time got through to someone who told us that they had already left BA without us - very friendly!

We quickly put plan B into action and got a taxi to the ferry terminal to go to Uruguay. The traffic was a nightmare but we made it in time to buy the only remaining tickets (first class) and sprint through customs onto the ferry with 2 minutes to spare. On entering our first class lounge we were presented with a glass of champagne - not quite what we felt like just before midday but we couldn't turn away free champagne.

Colonia is nothing special, it is a very small and quite pretty town which we walked round in about 30 minutes then found a place in one of the squares for lunch (Pulperia de los Faroles). At lunch I made a throw away comment about whether the time was the same in Uruguay as Argentina but promptly forgot to check. We then had 2 hours to kill before our ferry home so decided to spend our 200 Uruguan pesos on some veg for our dinner (and some biscuits of course). We then sauntered down to the ferry at 5.10pm stopping for the odd photo on the way. We didn't realise our mistake until we tried to check in and were told it was 6.10pm. Annoyingly the ferry was still there but they wouldn't let us on, although I suspect we would have been jumping across water by the time we got there. Typical that the only thing to be on time so far this trip was the one thing we were late for. We were told the next ferry wasn't until 9.30pm. I was not a happy person, James was much more calm and collected and suggested we found an internet cafe to kill time which we did.

Typically the 9.30pm ferry didn't leave until 10pm. We read a sign on our way through customs that said no fruit/veg to be taken into Argentina - lucky ours was well covered then (in a see through plastic bag). I think they were past caring and didn't confiscate it though. We got talking to a man in the queue who clearly wanted to practice his English and bored us with football chat when all we wanted to do was sleep. We headed the opposite way from him on the ferry so we could continue our tradition of sleeping on any moving vehicle.

Back in BA, we weren't done yet and headed to a tango show to book it for the next night then tried to sort out rearranging polo for Sunday.

31 October (day 7) - Estancia de la Candelaria

We dragged ourselves out of bed before 7 to go for a run. This time the pavements were clear but everyone was out washing their little patch so we had to avoid lots of hoses.

For the first time this holiday, our pick up was early. We had been booked on as Mr and Mrs Brentnall, which I suspect will be the case for most things now as we are using my old yahoo address. Although we had planned to sleep on the journey, Nila our tour guide had other ideas and spent most of the 1.5 hours telling us about BA, Argentinian agricultural areas, the pampas, gaucho history and a whole lot more. It was actually very interesting and for once she spoke very good English.

Our few hours at the Estancia were action packed. It started with some empanadas (they really like their food here), then we wandered the grounds and found a polo practice match to watch. We had a tour of the castle and learned about the history of the Estancia then managed to negotiate a ride on horseback. We were asked if we wanted to go out alone and the look on my face must have made it clear this wouldn't be a good idea. My horse tended to plod along behind James' but occasionally decided to trot which was definitely fast enough for me. I am not sure we are fully prepared for what may be in store for us if we get our polo lesson tomorrow.

Lunch was an asado (BBQ) with huge amounts of salad and more meat than we could cope with. We still managed to find room for some pudding though. This was followed by the typical tourist gaucho show. First came the dancing, which was fine until they called for audience participation and we were dragged up one by one. James seemed to be loving it and did at least twice as long as anyone else (those shoulder moves seemed to amuse the crowd!) The second part of the show was horseback games which ranged from racing round barrels to trying to catch rings on sticks and then horse musical chairs. The grand finale was a game which involved one person sitting on a mat being dragged along by a galloping horse which was racing against another horse. James must have had sucker written on him as he was volunteered to sit on the mat. I am not sure health and safety has made it to Argentina as it looked pretty dangerous but he returned in one piece and more importantly won the race(I added this before he had a chance to).

We had time for a final quick bike ride before stuffing down some pastries and getting the transfer back to BA. There was a huge thunderstorm all evening with very dramatic lightening. We made use of our cooking facilities for the first time and had a very plain veg stir fry then headed out for our 10pm tango show.

Estani, the unreliable polo teacher, has promised to pick us up at 9am tomorrow but we will believe it when we see it.

1 November (day 8) - Buenos Aires

As expected, no polo for us today, although it took an early morning call from us to confirm this. It poured all night and the thunderstorms carried on well into the morning so I think it is probably a good thing it was cancelled. We were at a bit of a loose end, not having had any spare time so far this trip. We went in search of a gym but clearly noone does exercise on sundays as they were all shut. Instead we had a free metro trip to the Plaza de Mayo and went into Cafe Tortoni, an old style cafe with loads of memorabilia on the walls and very good lemon pie.

By the time we left, the weather had cleared up so we went back to our apartment to go for a run. Linda spotted us on skype so we spoke to James' parents for a while then headed out in search of a park. We ran past a small park with a few stray dogs in it and when we left the park, we realised we had made a new friend. James joked that the littlest hobo was following us and he was right. We did the next 30 minutes of our run with the dog in tow. We tried to palm it off on some other tourists by stopping and hiding but the dog was too smart for us. I drew the line when it got into a fight with some other dogs and tried to use us as a shield to protect it.

Back at the apartment we caught up on sleep and washing then cooked ourselves some dinner which included the sweetcorn we have been using as an icepack on our swollen ankles. This was of course followed by the obligatory daily ice-cream - bad choice of flavours today though as one had hazelnuts in it.

Our excitement for the day, well night, was a tango lesson which started at 9.15pm. I don't know how anyone does any work in this country as they are up so late and on a Sunday night, I am obviously getting old. The lesson was great fun, the teacher luckily spoke English and the others in the group were a real motley crew so were good to laugh at. There were about 30 people who turned up just to watch the lesson, very odd. We don't think we were too bad and left thinking we would like to have some dancing lessons when we get home - who knows, it might happen. After the lesson there was a milonga (tango music is played and anyone can join in). We didn't hang around long but as we were leaving (just before midnight) there were still people flooding in.

Looking back on our first week, we have really enjoyed BA. The city reminds us of New York. We are loving the steak and ice cream eating but are struggling to get used to everything being late. We have also realised that packing as much in as possible and not allowing any time for anything to go wrong is quite stressful so we will definitely be having the odd day to relax as we go along.

Next stop is coastal Patagonia to hopefully see whales and penguins. We are not looking forward to the 5am start to get there though.

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3rd November 2009

Nostalgic already
Love the blog Sarah - it's making me nostalgic already! Glad to you finally made it to La Cabrera and also really glad you got a photo - I never got a photo of all the side dishes so might just steal yours and claim it's me in the background ;) Have fun in Patagonia and say hi to Bill at the Erratic Rock :)
3rd November 2009

Great blog Sar!
Loving the pictures and commentary. I'm very jealous. xx
4th November 2009

good times!
It was great meeting you guys! Glad you guys are enjoying Argentina so far... the best is yet to come! :) Jules sent me your blog so I'll be sure to follow along! I love your pics... that one with the box is priceless :) Good Luck and enjoy!! Ally :)
5th November 2009

Photo
Hi We will send you some of the photos from the football when we are back in UK - yahoo appears to be incapable of sending more than one at a time. We are off to Torres del Paine tomorrow, it is freezing here! Sarah and James x
14th November 2009

Great update!
Keep up the writing - it's lovely to read what you are up to! Seems like you are having a great time so far!

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