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Published: February 4th 2011
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Jazz Band
The jazz band playing at the end of Defensa market. Our journey to Buenos Aires began by driving from Iguazu Falls to Puerto Iguazu bus terminal in the pouring rain. Hot, jungle rain - the sort of downpour that doesn't exist back home. Unfortunately neither do the safety regulations - the van had neither seat belts nor windscreen wipers.
We survived all the way to the bus station and waited an hour before boarding our 'cama' service to Buenos Aires. Due to there not being an extensive railway network in Argentina long distance overland travel is best done by luxury coach; we had reclining seats, dinner and breakfast, champagne and they even played a couple of movies. Cheaper by the Dozen is more amusing when you can't understand what they're saying!
We arrived in BA at around 1pm on Sunday - again the heat was something else, especially when carrying around our huge rucksacks looking for the 'Subte' (underground) station. After checking in to our hostel we went for a stroll down the Defensa market, which is concluded with a jazz band at Plaza Dorrego.
On Monday we walked around the centre of BA, taking time to go to as many little parks as possible. We went to
El Ateneo bookshop
Carina on the first floor balcony at El Ateneo. Behind her is where the stage used to be; it is now a cafe. El Ateneo bookshop, which was formerly a theatre. Apparently The Guardian called it "the second most important bookshop in the world." Anyone know the first? No, me neither. I bet it doesn't do as tasty guacamole in their cafe though!
On Monday evening we went with other travellers from our hostel to a night of tango, which involved a lesson, a three course dinner and a tango show. It was fantastic, it was the first time I really felt like I was in a South American city. It showed BA is so much more than what you can just see and admire; if you look a little deeper you can find the real soul of the city, where they love to show you their tango steps...and watch your two left feet try to keep up.
Tuesday morning was a huge panic - I awoke to discover I had lost one of my bank cards. I racked my brains and concluded I must have left it in an ATM in a bank down the street. We headed back to the bank and they still had it! Lucky lucky lucky, I won't be doing that again! Actually I probably will.
El Ateneo bookshop
Looking up at the tiers. After this drama we headed to La Boca and its exotically coloured houses and La Bombenero, home to Boca Juniors.
The following day we set out on a huge walking mission to Recoleta and Palermo. The Recoleta cemetery is a must-see; 4800 decorative mausoleums for important people and families in Argentine history. It almost feels disrespectful to be walking around photographing graves, but these were made to be seen.
From here we made our way to Parque 3 de Febrero (stopping off in Volva ice-cream parlour), which seemed like a mix of Hyde Park and Regents Park in London. Except here it was 30-odd degrees! So there. We walked through the rose garden toward Palermo, which we had been told had good bars and restaurants. After enjoying walking around the area we decided to find a good steak by referring to our Footprints guide book. This didn't prove successful so we decided to dive in somewhere before we starved - after all, we had walked miles on a small breakfast and some ice cream.
We had unwittingly dived in to 'Don Julio', what tripadvisor.com called the 11th best restaurant in BA! I got a rump steak the
Tango lesson
Carina dancing with Alejandro the Tango teacher. size of my head for about £8 and it was...I have no words to describe it! Carina's quarter chicken must've come from a giant bird also. We definitely got lucky, although we had earned it after the amount of walking we had done!
That just leaves today, which was spent 32km outside of BA in Tigre, a relatively quaint resort town which is a favourite haunt for Buenos Airiens in the summertime. We had a relaxing two hour boat ride around the deltas, looking at the houses on the edge of the river. A great way to spend a ridiculously hot day - no way could we have done much walking. We got the train back in to the city and took an obligatory trip to Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in BA. The vegetable pie felt good as our diet has mostly been bread and cake!
BA is a great city; very European in appearance, especially around the centre, but if you explore the city in detail you can find places that make it stand out...and all the while that wonderful smell of barbecued meat lingers. Just don't leave your debit card in an ATM.
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jennifer
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Caminito
Looks like Cameron made good use of those paints you (or Steve) gave him for Christmas!