Buenos Aires part 1

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Of all the cities I was planning to visit in South America BA was the one that excited me the most. Maybe it was the Tango, the cobbled streets and all night café’s, the Red wine and steak houses or the football matches and it didn’t disappoint!! I arrived early on Tuesday 21^stFebruary after a 7 hour flight from Quito which stopped briefly in Guayaquil. I remember the immigration cue was very long and it seemed to take ages to get my passport stamped and pass through customs. Having spent three months with family Vallejo I felt very alone and a little disorientated but also excited with the upcoming travels through Argentina. However the shuttle bus trip to the Ayres Portonos hostel was really easy and the weather was pleasantly warm compared to Quito.

I liked the hostel straight away and the room was spacious and overlooked the street. I was staying in San Telmo which is full of narrow cobbled streets and low story colonial housing. I really liked Plaza Dorrego which is the main square in San Telmo with lots of cafes and steak houses. It was also close to the Gibraltar Pub, an English style pub selling real ale and serving fish and chips and English breakfasts so I really felt at home and soon got chatting to travelers and locals when I popped in during early evening on the Wednesday for a few hours. It soon turned into my local and they showed the six nations England vs Wales game on the Saturday which was good fun.

On Thursday I went on a cycle tour of the La Boca area, Reserva Ecologica Costanera park and the dock area. It was really interesting learning about how the city was originally settled and grew with immigrants from Europe. In the evening I had my first Steak-Bife de Chorizo it was huge and tasted so good and only GBP 15!! The Recoleta cemetery was next on the list for the Friday. It’s an amazing place where the BA wealthy buried their families. Some of the crypts were incredible and Evita Peron was there. I was really impressed with the central barrios (areas) of BA including Centro, Recoleta, Congreso and San Telmo. I didn’t make it to Palermo unfortunately but will hopefully stay there when I return in April. It was really nice to walk all day around these areas stopping at the café’s . The eight days in BA went really quickly and it was soon time to get the flight to El Calafate in Patagonia for the start of some serious sightseeing and hiking…

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