Recoleta, San Telmo & Palermo

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Hi Everyone,

Hope all is well at home. Sorry for the lack of blogging from us lately, we have not had a spare minute over the last few days to sit down and write! We're having a great time and have met some wonderful people here at the hostel in Buenos Aires. We are trying our best to speak some Spanish - the phrase book is our friend! We are actually quite surprised by the amount of people who speak some English - even if it is only the basics.

We have had a packed last few days!

On Wednesday we visited a suburb called Recoleta where we walked through a beautiful park with a massive, beautiful, Morton Bay Fig Tree. The architecture is gorgeous in Recoleta - it has a french feel about it. We then went to a Cemetary where Eva Peron's grave is. The Argentinians seem to think Eva Peron was/is their queen, there are photos of her around the city and they even have her face lit up on a building in the middle of the city!

We also saw some 'dog-walkers' who walk 12 dogs at a time. These walkers are employed by full time workers who do not have time to walk their dog/s. It is quite amazing to see this all happen - some people's version of dog walking is sitting on a bench, iphone in hand and the dogs roaming in a park OR tied up to a fence! Not really 'walking' the dogs as such! But then there are the others who are so good at what they do.

Yesterday we visited San Telmo - the earliest area of Buenos Aires. Here we saw very old (obviously!) buildings and visited some cool antique shops which were absolutely chocca-block of antiques. Matt added to his elephant collection by buying an antique elephant! We also visited a Museum that had SO much history. To give you an idea, this Museum was originally opened as a house for the society of Jesus intended to help and educate poor people. Then it became a place where people who were to be deported were locked up. Then it became a warehouse. Then it became a hospital. After that is was a house a prostitutes and abandoned women. Then it was a military hospital, then a mental hospital, then a prison for men and women and finally a women's prison. Quite an amazing place!

We also visited a beautiful Cathedral yesterday - absolutely stunning! Explaining it would not do it justice so will have to show you photos when we get back. Just beautiful.

Today we went to another area called Palermo where we walked through botanical gardens and a stunning rose garden. We also went to a place which is a shop during the day and a pub at night - way to make the most of your rent hey?! We just got back from a yummy yummy dinner (tasty meat!) in Palermo. Tomorrow we are heading back to parts of Recoleta and Palermo for the weekend markets - can't wait!

Each day (apart from today!) we have enjoyed a short siesta to recharge our batteries - we blame it on the jetlag!!

Sorry about not having any photos attached to the blog, the photo uploader does not seem to be working. Hopefully we will get that sorted soon.

Tomorrow night we start our first tour which takes us to Iguassu Falls, Ilha Grande, Paraty and ends in Rio. Not sure when we will have wi-fi access again, but will be sure to blog as soon as we can.

Chat again soon,

Ciao

P & M xxx

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