Advertisement
Published: October 11th 2010
Hola from Buenos Aeries,
So after arriving at the BA bus terminal after our marathon 17 hour bus ride from Iguazu Falls (seriously, no where near as bad as it sounds) we had decided to treat ourselves and check into a rather nice boutique hotel in the fashionable district of Palermo in Buenos Aeries - It actually had a bath tub (our first since we have been travelling and Scott was very excited about this, it’s amazing how the little things we take for granted can be so pleasing when you have been without them for so long). So after a quick freshen up we decided to explore the area and have a bite to eat as it was now early afternoon - after a fairly pricey burger and chips and a bit of window shopping we decided to head back to the hotel and make the most of a bit of luxury, Vic’s sent a few emails and Scott passed out on the king size bed before getting ready and deciding on which restaurant we would choose for our first piece of Argentinean meat.
After a quick bit of research on TripAdvisor, we decided on the number one
voted restaurant called ‘La Caberra’ which was conveniently located only 4 blocks away. Now this particular restaurant is very popular and as they do not have a reservation system we had to wait, however, during this time we (and all the other customers) were given complimentary champagne and small bites of chorizo sausage which was a really nice touch. After a short while we were seated at our table and by this point, after seeing the dishes which had been bought out, were practically salivating at the prospect. For such an up market restaurant, the prices were incredibly cheap -Vic’s went for a 500g fillet (the smallest they did) and Scott chose the rib eye and was recommended a very good bottle of Malbec. The steaks arrived - cooked perfectly as ordered and this was immediately followed by which can only be described as a small avalanche of sides which could quite easily have fed a small nation, it was ridiculous, there were sauces, peppers, onions, fries, spinach, breads, olives, mushrooms . . . .the list goes on. The food, ambience and the whole meal was hands down the best we have had so far (and will unlikely be matched
the whole trip). After a shared desert of dulce de leche pancakes (an Argentine speciality) we decided to try and visit the apparent ‘in club’ of the night - a place called ‘club goooy’. After arriving and being ushered inside, we were in the middle of a fancy warehouse/airport hanger type place and were quite clearly the only tourists in sight. This however did not dampen our spirits and we spent a good hour on the dance floor with the locals where a DJ played a varied mash-up of commercial house music. We arrived back to the hotel about 2.30am after a great evening hoping our next few days in BA would be as good as our first.
The next morning it was so nice to wake up in a proper bed! But it was to be short-lived as we were checking out and into a hostel that day to be like travellers again. Breakfast was included so we made the most of it and had our fill of dulce de leche and bread (dulce de leche is a caramel type spread which is as common here as jam at home and so yummy) and packed up our bags.
Before moving to the hostel though, we had a full morning of plans and first we visited Buenos Aires zoo as it was really close and it was only £4 to get in, similar to the zoo in Rio, it was a fraction of the price of London zoo and had big spacious enclosures for all the animals which was really nice to see - Especially the huge Condor enclosure, which are now dangerously close to extinction. Everywhere else in South America so far we have seen loads of stray dogs, well in Argentina, much to Vics delight, it was all about stray cats! In the zoo alone we saw around 25 just walking around and chilling out in the sunshine, plus the usual zoo animals (elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, bears, snakes, crocodiles, bids and monkeys), and there were also deer- like animals wandering freely around and lots of otters in the many lakes.
After a couple of hours there we headed over to the district of Recoleta (on the ‘subte’ which is like the tube, and just 20p for a journey) to see the famous Recoleta Cemetary which is where Eva Peron, also known as Evita (as in
the musical), is buried. The cemetery was opened in the 1800’s and the last people to be put to rest there was as recent as the 1990’s. We expected it to be full of normal headstones, as a cemetery at home may be, but it was in fact full of huge vault type tombs, some which housed whole families in coffins, which was really strange to see. Some of them were so elaborate, in black or white marble and stone with engravings and carvings and over 10 feet high and 6 feet wide, like small houses, it didn’t feel morbid like a cemetery should and we spent a good hour looking round before heading to a cafe nearby for a lunch of all you can eat pizza. We sat outside to eat as it was really sunny but just as we finished the heavens opened and it started to pour with rain, so we jumped in a taxi and headed back to our hotel, where we then got our bags and got another taxi to the hostel where we would be staying for the last 2 nights.
The hostel was across town in the San Telmo district, which is
where a lot of the tango shows take place, so when we arrived we decided to book to see one for our last night. When we got to the hostel we went for a walk to see the area and could see straight away how different it was to Palermo- not as glossy or upmarket but it seemed nice and we picked a steak restaurant for dinner that night. After a freshen up and a rest we headed out to dinner for our second steak in two days, and once again it didn’t disappoint. The ‘parilla’ (steak house) that we picked was quite retro and old world but once again the steaks were huge and really, really good - as was the wine. We went for a few quick drinks afterwards but as we were fairly tired and wanted another full day of exploring this great city we decided to call it a night at just past midnight.
On Friday we got up early-ish and decided to head over to the La Boca area of the city, which used to be a no go for tourists but has been redeveloped in recent years and is now a main
tourist spot, it is also home to Boca Juniors football club, where Maradona started out. When we arrived in the Caminita part (the name of the area we were visiting in La Boca), we were greeted by music, street performers, tango dancers, market stalls and the individual multi coloured houses which you always see on programmes about Buenos Aires. There was a really nice atmosphere about the place and we spent some time wandering through the small streets and people watching. Scott had heard you could do a stadium tour of Boca Juniors so we walked the 4 blocks to the ground and got tickets to the stadium tour as well as the clubs museum which was under the stadium. As well as Maradona, big football stars such as Tevez, Batistuta and Riquelme also play(ed) and started their careers for Boca Juniors and it is the most famous and well known football club in South America, plus the biggest in Argentina - Scott was in his element, getting a proper, full-on football fix. We had a guided tour of the stadium after the museum where we saw the changing rooms, the premier seats, the part where the hooligans stand (part
of the stadium is still standing only) and Maradona’s private box. Apparantly he tries to go to every game and always waves at the fans before kick off- he is like a God in Buenos Aires and all around the stadium and in the Caminita area there are statues of him, restaurants named after him and generally he just has a huge presence there. After the tour we stopped at a parilla for lunch and sat outside in the sun and had...steak! This time though we got a shared ‘asada’ which includes all different meats (steak, chicken, pork, ribs, sausages (plus heart and liver which we both decided to pass on) and was really good, and stupidly it was less than the pizza and burgers we had had for lunch the previous 2 days!
After our feast we headed back to the centre of town and hopped on the subte to a shopping centre we had heard about near Palermo. Most of the shops were out of our price range so we did a lot of window shopping but then treated ourselves in Zara- Vic got a new black dress and Scot got a white shirt- before heading back to
the hostel to get ready for the tango show that night. Tango dancing started in Buenos Aires and is huge out here, especially in the San Telmo area where we are staying, and they perform it for free on the streets and in restaurants, but we wanted to see a proper show, so booked one called Complejo Tango.
Dressed in our new clothes, we got picked up at 7pm and arrived in time for our Tango lesson- yes, we got a free Tango lesson included in the ticket before the show! So there were about 25 people in our class, a mixture of men and women, and one teacher who was great and taught us the 4 main steps to Tango, before making us put them together and perform them all at the end. Scott took to it like a pro while it took Vic a bit longer to get the hang of it, but by the end we were both Tangoing like pros and it was a lot of fun, although a bit cringe, but we can now say we can dance Tango! After the class we were ushered in to the auditorium where the show was to
take place, which had chairs and tables set out as there was an option to have dinner before the show, or just drinks. We had really good seats on a balcony looking down on the tango stage, and had just chosen the drinks package, but ended up being served the full 3 course meal at no extra cost as they had us down for the dinner package by mistake, result! We had great food and wine followed by the tango show, which was really interesting as it showed you through the different eras of Tango from the 1890s to 2005, before being picked up around midnight and being dropped back at the hostel. The evening was really good; possibly made better by the fact we paid so little for it and got the full dinner package - at the argentine equivalent to the opera!
On our last morning in Buenos Aires it was really sunny so we chilled out on the terrace at our hostel before leaving for the airport for our flight to Santiago, Chile - where we would spend just over 24 hours before leaving South America for our next adventure in New Zealand.
Scott had managed
to get us an amazing deal on first class plane tickets (for our 2hr 20 min flight) so we enjoyed the luxuries of the airport lounge, before boarding our short flight on a bed .
x
Advertisement
Tot: 0.046s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0244s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Hazel
non-member comment
First Class Plane Tickets
wow!!! - I have been following your venture and it all sounds so much fun!! I am definitely wanting to travel South America after reading all of your stories !! it is really making me miss my time away!! glad you are both having a brilliant time :-) and are still treating yourselves to a few luxuries - first calss plane tickets (very impressed!! wow, how did Scott get them?!) New Zealand is going to be AMAZING !! can't wait to hear all your stories ... lots of love to you both xxx