“Don’t cry for me, Argentina”

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Sunday 1^st February 2015



Today we stood in the Government´s Pink Palace in Buenos Aries, looking out of one of the three windows which lead to the famous balcony, from whence Eva Perón spoke to her people, who were gathered in the Plaza de San Martín below. To stand where this remarkable woman had stood, was quite moving. The Palacio Rosado (The Pink Palace), is to Argentinians what The White House is to Americans; that is, the office of the President. What is remarkable in Buenos Aries, is that on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays, the public can visit the Pink Palace free of charge, including a free forty minute guided tour, in either Spanish or English. What is even more remarkable is that during the tour, one actually gets to walk through the President´s office. Her desk and white swivel office chair, are roped off of course, and the three telephones on the desk are covered over, but nevertheless, tomorrow morning she will be sitting there working. Quite remarkable! The palace is painted pink because it represents both main parties, government and opposition, red and white. We asked one of the guards if we could take his photo and with a big grin, he held out his arm inviting Viv to have a photo taken with him. Imagine one of the Lifeguards in London doing that!



The Women’s Bridge and the statue of a young girl with her arms raised in anguish, are reminders of the plight of the ‘Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo’, an association of women who have tried in vain to find out what happened to thousands of “disappeared” children, during the military dictatorship 1976 – 1983. The military have confirmed that 9,000 children disappeared. The mothers say the figure is closer to 30,000. Every year in May, they hold a rally in the Plaza de Mayo.



Buenos Aries is a city where, as they say, leisure is an art form. City-dwelling Argentines linger over meals, spend hours strolling along the tree-lined avenues, and the tango dancers entertain in cafes and in the plazas. It is an elegant, youthful and stylish city, often referred to as the Paris of the Southern Hemisphere, and indeed much of the architecture is French in style. We are staying in a really nice hotel in the Puerto Madero district, which is a great location. Apart from being in walking distance to all of the main tourist sites, the Puerto Madero is the most vibrant district at night, full of bars and restaurants and people strolling along the promenade by the old renovated docks. It is similar to Canary Wharf in London, with a mixture of warehouse and wharf conversions and modern skyscrapers, offices and new hotels, the Hilton, the Radisson and so on. Several of the old cranes have been left in situ, lit up at night and looking like modern artistic sculptures. Beautiful! Buenos Aries is an outstanding city; it is also a city full of trees, with tree-lined boulevards, tree-lined docks and parks full of trees. “Buenos Aires” means “Good Air” in English, so named, because it was good compared to the rest of this once swampy, mosquito infested region; there are still quite a few mossies in the evening, so one needs to spray up, but it is no different to at home in the summer. We love it here, but shall be moving on in a few days, because there is still so much to see and also, Buenos Aries is rather expensive.



When we got off the ship yesterday, we had come to the end of our loosely-planned route. We knew that we still wanted to see more of Uruguay and Argentina, also to maybe pop into Paraguay on our way up to the Iguazu Falls and then on to Brazil, but we hadn´t really thought too much about what route to take. Today, therefore, we bought a map and also spent some time online, and now we have a plan, for the month of February, as follows…



We are going to get a ferry from Buenos Aries, across the Rio de la Plata, to Colonia de Sacramento, the oldest town in Uruguay. This is a popular day trip for Argentinian tourists to Uruguay. We shall just get a one-way ticket, then stay in Colonia for a few days or so, depending on how nice it is, before making a series of bus journeys all the way up to Iguazu, over 1,000 kilometres away. We shall travel up the western side of Uruguay, following the Rio Uruguay, visiting towns like Fray Bentos, Mercedes and Paysandu on the way; yes, there really is a town called Fray Bentos, where they used to make corned beef and pies. Nowadays the old factory is a museum. Having eaten Fray Bentos corned beef since we were children, we thought this might be an interesting place to visit; also, according to the Lonely Planet, this really is the “real” Uruguay, with unspoilt scenery and a bit off the usual tourist route. Then we plan to cross the river back into Argentina to the El Palmar national park. Then we plan to travel on up to Paraguay, then to Iguazu, before entering Brazil. The Iguazu Falls are situated where the borders of three countries meet, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. We need March and April for Brazil, being such a huge country, especially since we want to fly north to the Amazon and then need to get back down to Sao Paolo by 20^th April, to catch the ship which will carry us back across the Atlantic and home. So, that is the plan. Tomorrow we shall be doing more sightseeing here in Buenos Aries and we shall also try to buy some ferry tickets.



Monday 2^nd February 2015



Today involved a lot of walking! We bought the ferry tickets ready for tomorrow morning and then went to the International Post Office to buy a box to send some souvenirs and clothes home (the warm gear, which we shall no longer need). It took hours and the postage cost a fortune. We are not going to buy any more stuff, the postage makes the souvenirs not worth buying (unless they are things that are small and lightweight, then we can carry them, now that we have made some space). Initially, we went to a post office not far from the office where we got the ferry tickets, in the city centre. No good! OK if one wants to send a parcel to anywhere in Argentina, but if it is for an international delivery, then one has to go down to the docks, to the customs house and go to the International Post Office. It was a long walk! When we got there, we had to take a ticket and wait nearly one hour just to buy the box, go back to the hotel, pack the box, and then return to the post office to wait another hour to post it! We did do some sightseeing on the way, so the whole day wasn´t wasted and our rucksacks are lighter, which is what makes it all worthwhile, even the cost of the postage, because from now on in, the weather is just going to get hotter, as we make our way north.



“Adiós, Buenos Aires, hasta luego Argentina!”

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Photos

The balcony
The Pink Palace

Plaza de las Palmeras
The Pink Palace

The English Tower
The English built the railway station and this tower in front of it.