Day 2

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We awoke after a wonderful nights sleep. The lack of sleep on the flight the previous day and the relatively active day we had had assisted in this. On waking we wandered around the dark apartment seeking out the kitchen where I promptly went about making us a couple of cups of coffee. Anna in the meantime made her way to the windows and opened the curtains. What greeted her was a complete surprise. After a day with 30 degree temperature and not a cloud in the sky the last thing either of us expected was the grey sky and downpour that now appeared out of our 12th storey apartment window.

I made the coffee and returned to the lounge where Anna, not surprisingly, was still staring out of the window; without a coffee she doesn’t usually have the energy for much more. We sat down at the desk and drank the coffee and waited for the tiredness to lift from our bodies. Gradually we began to discuss the options for the day. Our initial plan had been to spend the day doing a bit of a walking tour, catching some more of the sights that we hadn’t had the opportunity or energy to see on the first day. However without any wet weather gear to speak of we quickly gave this a miss. Instead we decided to utilise the morning the best we could by planning and researching the rest of our stay in BA. We were both confident that the rain would stop before lunch. Needless to say, we were wrong.

The first thing that we both wanted to be sure we did was see a tango show, we felt it was a definite must do. So we consulted the Lonely Planet and decided upon one particular show that looked perfect for us, though it was relatively expensive. Since we had access to the internet we decided to Google the tango club just to be sure. This is perhaps the “Pandora’s box” of the traveller. The internet and the reviews. I mean how seriously should you take the reviews? Who are the people who left the review, are they old or young? What nationality, what sort of budget are they travelling on? All of these things affect the type of review they’ll leave about the exact same show and the exact same meal. But still we couldn’t help looking at them, and there it was, the “kiss of death” review for any club, that is: “a tourist trap”. Not once but three times out of maybe 18 reviews. What were we to do? Research the reviewers, see what else they had reviewed, try and get an idea of whether or not they were “our sort” of people? Whatever that might be. No, that would take too long, so we researched some other tango shows, since we had the computer on and the internet at our service it seemed natural. Another show another negative comment or two. Maybe we should take an average I suggested to Anna. However what would that prove? I think it is safe to say that most people don’t leave comments, and of those that do they’ll be spread over numerous sites. So you already have the “response bias” to deal with, that being that only those who are motivated to respond will respond, and they are generally the ones who are upset about something, because complaining is so much more fun and rewarding that leaving a positive comment. And are we looking at a site where people our age and with our interests and with our budget would leave a comment. Well after approximately two hours or so of searching and trying to find that perfect club that was in our price range and didn’t have any negative comments, or maybe enough positive comments to give us a better feeling, we gave up. We found a cheaper club to the one we had originally selected and decided that if it was crap at least we hadn’t spent all that much money on it. In the end the tango show was impressive, we aren’t experts by any stretch of the imagination, but we enjoyed the show. The food however was terrible. So for anyone going to Buenos Aires if you decide to see a tango show, don’t worry too much about the dinner, if it is included, or if you do decide to eat at the show expect the food to be terrible, it is a tango show, not a restaurant. As for the tango show itself. Well I’d say look around a bit, if you’re an expert you’ll invest more time to see the perfect show, but if you’re like Anna and myself, as long as there are some positive reviews about the show itself you’ll do well. After having said all of that, we went to the show on the 20th, that is tomorrow.

So back to today. After booking the tango show Anna decided that she wanted “Empanadas”. For those who are unfamiliar with them imagine a small Cornish pastry, and if you’re unfamiliar with a Cornish pastry think of a really, really small calzone (folded pizza) and if you’re still having trouble, Google it. When the woman requests food, it is best to obey, so with the rain still pouring down we headed out. As Anna didn’t have a jacket I decided not to take mine as I thought I’d suffer and get wet along with her. Only about five minutes later did I realise what an idiotic idea that was, but by then it was too late, we were marching down the street searching for empanadas. A few minutes later we came across a man on the street selling umbrellas, however I decided that we didn’t need one, I was on a role for bad decisions that day. Along the street there were various patches of pavement that were protected by small terraces, in a pointless effort to stay dry we ran from one patch to the next. However as our hair and then shirts and then trousers succumbed to the rain we finally gave up on this and just walked in the rain. Eventually we found the perfect restaurant and took our seat.

While we had been out and about in the rain we had enjoyed and laughed at the experience. With the empanadas we had warmed up a little and with the rain was still pouring down the thought of re-entering that weather was less than amusing. So I proposed that we buy an umbrella, this we did, along with an Argentinean SIM card. I? then thought about where we were and how long it would take for two people to walk back to the hotel huddled under an umbrella, realising that it would take hours I decided to grab a taxi. As I mentioned above, not my best day for good ideas. So we jumped into a taxi and set off in search of something else to see. As it turned out, Anna had read about this shopping mall in the Lonely Planet, it mentions that there are murals on the walls to see. It paints quite a nice image of it, so we decided to go along. Well murals or no murals, it is just a shopping mall so after five minutes we decided to move on and try and find a place to have a drink. Again Anna turned to the Lonely Planet, and located what by all accounts sounded like a lovely bar with lots of atmosphere. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it, or more to the point I decided that I didn’t want to keep walking on the off chance that this was actually a really nice bar. So having spotted what looked like a nice bar across the road I suggested that we take our drinks there instead of blindly following the guide. As it turns out, it was the best decision that I took that day. It was a small bar with maybe five tables and a bar to sit at. There they specialised in Argentinean beer, beer that wasn’t exported. So while we munched on a bowl of olives we sampled numerous beers. While neither Anna nor myself are beer cognisors we both thought the beer we had was excellent.

All of this brings me to another point. A point I think everyone is very familiar with, one that Anna and I know well. And that is, there is no point in relying solely on a guide. Most of the best restaurants I’ve eaten at I’ve stumbled across. Most of my best memories come from things that aren’t in any guide, or at least none that I’ve read. The idea of a trip for me is to explore, to discover for myself. Nothing is new, nothing is unique, nowhere you go will you be the first, nor the last. But if you stumble across something for yourself, then it is new for you and if you’re lucky it might even be unique for you as well. For this reason I try to avoid relying too much on a guide. For if you’re read about a place already, some of the amazement and wonder are already gone.

All in all, not too bad a day for a rainy day.

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Photos

Plaza Congreso
Plaza Congreso