Buenos Aires (14-18 Oct 2010)


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South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires » Buenos Aires
October 19th 2010
Published: November 9th 2010
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Thursday 14th October 2010

Managed to check our baggage on the ferry to Buenos Aires so we didn’t have to lug them around which was handy, but we still had to put them through a scanner when we arrived at the other end. Joanne spent the entire crossing in duty free putting various moisturisers on her neglected traveller’s skin.

On arrival at the port, Tourist Information gave us the wrong directions to the metro. We walked for what felt like an eternity with our heavy backpacks, only to encounter a ‘closed’ sign when we finally did find the station. We hopped on a bus towards San Telmo, but couldn’t pay for it as the machine didn’t take notes (even though a 2 PESO note is the equivalent to about 30p). The bus driver must have taken pity on us as he let us ride for free, and eventually, after a little more walking, we found our hostel ‘Pax’. We later discovered taxis cost a pittance here - oh for the power of hindsight. Kaylee, a lovely Aussie, welcomed us with a fantastic introduction to the city and what we should do, all jotted down on a map. We headed
French ArchitectureFrench ArchitectureFrench Architecture

Buenos Aires is a VERY European looking city
straight out for lunch, wandering around the San Telmo area until we found a great little restaurant on the square with 3 courses & a drink for just £12. Doggy bag in hand (as Joanne never finishes a meal) we took a long route back to the hostel via a little antiques market.

Pizza night was on at the hostel with all you can eat between 9-11pm + drinks for just £5... We signed up and chatted to our two roomies, while filling our faces before taking them on in a game of Beer Pong. As Joanne ‘doesn’t do beer’, Richard chivalrously agreed to drink her share - unfortunately this would be our downfall as it greatly reduced his ability to play... Joanne valiantly took out the opponents one glass at a time, but Richards dwindling aim meant we lost by 1 cup!

Friday 15th October 2010

Thanks to black-out-blinds we didn’t wake up until 9.30am (possibly our longest lie-in yet) and had to quickly pack our bags to check out by 10am as Pax was full. We spent half the day wandering around BA, taking in the sights while looking for a hostel. A nice hotel
Painted window facadePainted window facadePainted window facade

It's more obvious in the picture - but when you're there it looks so real.
with a pool crossed our minds, but all the ones we checked out had swimming pools the size of Jacuzzis so it just didn’t seem worth it. We finally found somewhere, just an hour before our evening tour. Joanne quickly threw her left over cannelloni down while Richard (continuing to protest that Joanne is starving him) resorted to a chocolate lunch.

Sol, our BA Free ‘City Tour’ guide, appeared at San Martins monument just before 5pm and explained his significance as a national hero who helped Argentina gain independence from Spain. Sol was really bubbly and could easily be mistaken as Italian in her looks and bold mannerisms, a hand-me-down from the European Immigrants who poured in during the mid-late 19th century and subsequently turned it into the most European city in South America. Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world at the time, mainly through beef trade. They used to send beef packed ships to Europe, and the rich erected replicas of their beloved streets and palaces with marble and other building materials imported from their home cities, weighing down the vessels on their return journey.

We saw monuments for those who lost their lives in the fawklands, and learnt about the dictator who started it and surrounding propaganda. We crossed over ‘Av. 9 de Julio’ often referred to as the ‘widest avenue in the world’ as it is up to 14 lanes wide (approx 110m - not the easiest road in the world to cross!). Its construction was made possible by destroying an entire city block, save 3 palaces, including the current French Embassy. Most of the tour took in history of the extravagant houses (or palaces) which are virtually all now embassies.

The funniest thing was hearing that those with good health care plans get free plastic surgery, usually every 2 years! This part of town was also littered with gifts from other powerful countries at the time...

The tour ended near to the cemetery where the rich and famous are buried - most notably Evita - on a square with a huge tree, its trunk measuring over 7m in diameter. We tipped Sol and headed to buy tickets for Fueza Bruta, a show Sol highly recommended. We explored the city further and happened upon a nice restaurant near the centre, where Richard sampled his first (world renowned) Argentinean Steak. A huge fillet later, at least double the size of anything you’d get in the UK, and off home (not, however, before our camera broke, which meant no camera for tomorrow’s tour and lots of wasted time shopping).

Saturday 16th October 2010

We checked out of Sabattico (our temporary hostel) and made our way to the square where congress offices are situated for our 10am BA FREE ‘Political Tour’. Our guide was Sol again, and many others were also there form yesterdays tour. Joanne handed out some slips of paper with her email address on in the hope that someone might send us some pictures (although so far no-one has). We learnt all about Argentina’s fascinating political history while walking down the long road which links congress and the government buildings, La Casa Rosada (their version of the white house, although the current president doesn’t reside there).

We were led past the oldest coffee shop ‘tortonis’ whilst Sol explained Argentina’s long and unstable political leadership and gave us an insight as to why Argentineans are super sensitive over political matters and freedom of speech. This road was once very grand, but it has long been run down and neglected with the old flats covered in graffiti. The wealthy residents fled many moons ago, often replaced with squatters, due to up to 7 protests a day in BA, most of which follow the length of this road. Argentineans are fiercely patriotic, but have gone through centuries of political instability, including their cruellest ever dictatorship from 1976-1983. One of these protest groups, The Grandmothers, have been meeting at the Plaza de Mayo outside La Casa Rosada, fighting to re-unite families ever since. During this dictatorship, innocent citizens were abducted, tortured and killed while their babies and young children were often given to military families. To this day these children (now adults) do not know that they were abducted and their ‘parents’ were actually behind the deaths of their real families. It really is a terrible reality, but there is still hope - one person was reunited with her relatives just last year.

In addition to the political history, Sol talked about some fun quirks of Buenos Aires. Our tour finished at the Obelisk, but just prior Sol asked if anyone had seen a house... unanimously the response was ‘no’ as you only see flats - to which she pointed out a house built on top of a high-rise block of flats - apparently the owner had become fed up of commuting to his country home! She also recommended we catch a show at the Theater Colon, which was once the world’s premier opera house and has some of the best acoustics in the world, if only to see the beautiful decor. We headed straight over to see what shows were on, to our surprise, the tickets we were enquiring about for the following morning - Trio Luminar - were free, great news for skint travellers, so we took our tickets and made our way to the docks, the new part of town, for lunch where we managed to grab a table overlooking the river.

Back at Pax we changed and grabbed a taxi back to the centre for a tango show ‘Tango Porteno’. We had cheap seats at the back - a great value option as most tickets offer dinner and drinks but at a cost. As it is a dinner show, we were seated sideways to the stage behind a table. It was an awful set up as you not only have to twist your neck, but everyone is lined up so we mainly just saw heads. Joanne, resourceful as ever, re-arranged our chairs & table so we were sat centrally and had the best view in the house, and this tactic was shortly imitated by the couples seated either side of us. The dancing was very impressive, although we didn’t really follow the story line in Spanish. After the show we stopped for a snack and Richard hasn’t stopped raving about his midnight Toastie and Milkshake since.

Sunday 17th October 2010

An early start to buy ourselves a camera wasn’t very fruitful - we had lost track of the days - being Sunday nothing would open until around midday, so we found ourselves walking around a deserted ghost town. We had tickets to Trio Luminar at 11am so we wandered regardless; peering through barred windows astonished by the prices, electronics were at least 50%!m(MISSING)ore expensive than the UK, in some cases double the price. We eventually made our way to the Colon Theatre... Our tickets took us to the very top of this large open space, but the acoustics were so good that it certainly wasn’t a problem sitting up in the gods. The Trio - a violinist, harpist & flutist - were really good, if a little sombre to start as they worked their way through composers from the 15th Century. The Colon Theatre, recently renovated was a grand space with a massive chandelier, but I think maybe we are spoilt in London with some beautiful old theatres and the Royal Albert Hall so it didn’t make as much of an impression as it would do for visitors from South America.

Arriving back at the shops we found a camera, but this time were thwarted by the lack of a passport so they wouldn’t accept a credit card payment... some things are never simple!

Later in the afternoon we headed over to the culture centre for our 2nd show of the day, Fueza Bruta. It was an amazing show - like nothing we’ve ever experienced, very crazy - we’re not going to spoil it for you though, just go and see it for yourselves and try to avoid any advertising - apparently it’s heading to London and other major cities soon.

We finally purchased a new camera after the show and then went for a well deserved meal after such a strenuous day. It was a quaint little restaurant with a slight Italian feel. Great food with steak again for Richard which he struggled to finish.

Monday 18th October 2010

Our last day in Buenos Aires, we wanted to squeeze in as much as possible - 5 days just isn’t enough! We hired bicycles and they were certainly a step up from the death machines we had in Colonia! 1st stop La Boca, just past ‘the juniors’ stadium where there is a famous colourful street seen on most postcards of Buenos Aires. Extra cautious as La Boca is notoriously unsafe, the street was actually a tourist hotspot with people mingling in the shops and sitting outside cafes while the police kept the underworld away. Feeling safe we stopped for hot chocolate and churros and were delighted when a live Tango show began at our restaurant on a small stage next to us. Once the pros had finished their first set, the male lead beckoned Joanne up and on the 2nd attempt she accepted, taking the floor impressing Richard and lots of passing tourists. A very enjoyable morning over, we made our way over to the nature
Rhino in the ZooRhino in the ZooRhino in the Zoo

From our private viewing point 'outside' the railings.
reserve which we had planned to cycle around, only to find it was ‘cerrado’ (closed) on Mondays. A change of plan, we checked the map, got back on our bikes, and headed over to the largest park in the Palermo district. On our way we diverted to the Cemetery - entering the graveyard was like walking into a city of monuments - towering 15ft above us with ornate fortresses and stained glass windows, it was the who’s who of the Argentinean dead and the amount of money spent in there doesn’t bare thinking about. We found Eva Perones (Evita’s) understated tombstone among those of her family - this is ‘the’ main reason many visit the graveyard, so it was a surprise to find such little fanfare.

Our next stop was the zoo, but it was also closed - Mondays are obviously not a good day to sightsee or explore - though we managed to see lots of animals through the fence, including Giraffes, Ostriches, Rhinos, Hippos and Flamingos. Around the next corner was the botanical gardens where we were refused entry with our bikes - BA’s no Holland - so we smiled sweetly at the security guard who let us leave our bikes by the main gate and kept a watchful eye for us. We wandered around taking in the many weird and wonderful plants and avoiding the wayward sprinklers, which almost got us, and more importantly, our new camera.

Our journey back to the hostel was slow as we timed it perfectly to hit the start of the rush hour (not something we would recommend) and Joanne had a flat tyre so had to be extra careful. We got back in time for our final night out at ‘La Bomba’ with some others from the hostel. We took the Metro only to be turfed out at the interchange meaning we had to take a cab, and it was now further than if we’d gone direct from the hostel. The venue was in a very basic warehouse; on stage were 12 people with various drums following the beat of the leader. The drumming and percussion band was like a mix between a concert and a rave. The whole crowd were bopping to the beat and it got louder and funkier for the next two hours as the leader regularly changed with a new style, rhythm & beat. We’d planned to meet Bindy, Joe & Lucy from Iguacu but failed to locate them - not for lack of trying with an interesting venture into what appeared to be ecstasy corner based on the dancing! It was an early night, finishing at 10pm which suited us perfectly with an early flight the following morning.


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9th November 2010

BA
is def on my list of places to visit, although sounds like I'll need at least a month or so. BA sounds great. Congratulations on passing PADI course

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