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Obelisco
Nuff SaidOK, so third blog of the trip and things are getting hazey, mainly due to the popularity of the Argentinian beer Quilmes, much better than the Brasilian Brahma, but back to the trip!
From Puerto Iguazu travelled to to Posadas, which borders Paraguay, not much to see other than the waterfront overlooking the border, but stayed in a cheap hotel, Residencia Da Misiones, where a very helpful Swiss man who has been travelling for 15 years basically lives as a long term guest... he has to border hop to Paraguay every 90 days to continue to stay in Argentina.
Sunday travelled to Santa Fe arriving at 5 am at the Terminal de General Belgrano... for all history buffs out there does 25 Mayo 1810 ring any bells?.... Answer: start of the revolution when Argentinia fought for independence from Spain. Belgrano is a hero from that campaign and did other good deeds in the area. A lot of streets in Argentina are named after significant dates.
This stop proved to be a mistake as it was a public holiday so Santa Fe was dead, and there not a lot to do in the town which is rundown, dirty and cold when we
Plaza De Mayo
Downtown Buenos Aires were there.... Give this place a miss!
Tuesday travelled to Buenos Aires (Good Air literal translation), spent first two nights near Saint Elmo, which is the Tango quarter of the city. Moved to a hostel called Millhouse on Thursday which was the downtown partying hostel.
Spent the week days exploring the different areas of the city: Saint Telmo, Recoleta (where the rich live, with many plazas more like parks, Le Boca (the old port, with colourfully painted buildings and home to Boca Juniors, the Argentinian Football League Champions)
In Recoleta visited the cemetry where Eva Peron (Evita) is buried... it was a very eerie place full of rich dead people, some buried with their pets!
Ate very well in BA with good steaks and plenty of cheap Vino Tinto de Casa (Red House wine). The Argentinians don´t seem to do vegetables though so probably not the healthiest of diets.
On Saturday went to the football and watched Independente play Boca Juniors. It was an amazing atmosphere and Boca won the match 2-0 to become league champions. We were in the home fans Independente, who did not take defeat graciously and threw missiles (torn up benches and other objects) at the
Stunning Architecture
Just a building I liked the look of Boca players, who to be honest should have known better than celebrating in front of the home fans! To top it off the police retaliated to crowd trouble outside the stadium and fired tear gas at us as we left the stand.... pretty exciting day all in all, and definately as much passion in the Argentinian game as back home.
On the downside BA is noisy and heavily polluted and from a health point of view it was good to leave, but at the same time this is a city with stunning architecture, amazing nightlife and excellent food.... Definately worth a visit!
The bus journeys are mounting up.... Iguazu to Posadas 6hrs, Posadas to Santa Fe 11 hours, Santa Fe to BA 7hrs, and the longest yet BA to Bariloche a gruelling 22 hours!!.... bizarrely you get used to them after a while, although watching DVDs when the conductor not only turns on Spanish language but also Spanish subtitles can make the films a bit hard to follow and annoying when wanting to sleep.
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Alan Smale
non-member comment
Footie
Independente v Boca Juniors sounds a bit like Saints v Pompey ;-) I predict a riot!