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Published: January 27th 2007
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Cabildo
Was main government house during Spanish rule. I think the airlines are trying to make Scott and I into morning people. We were told to be at the airport at 4:15 for a 7:00 am flight from Lima to BA. We made it at 4:30.
We are staying in Buenos Aires for a couple of days as we apply for visas to Brazil. This also the jumping off point for our trip to the Iguazu Falls. The hostel is close to the downtown district surrounded by clubs, restaurants and theaters. Like Lima the people here are here to party late into the night. It is quite apparent we are no longer the early twenties crowd driven to dance until the sun comes up. One of the workers at the hostel was an eighteen year old kid that loved three techno dance songs and would continuously play them over and over from midnight to four in the morning like a club DJ. The area we were staying in was close to the Centro district dominated by a giant obelisk. A mecca for shopping the area has two main intersecting streets that are pedestrian only. Laville runs for approximately six blocks and Florida runs for over twelve. The streets are
constantly packed and a great place to people watch. Since Argentina is famous for their steaks we found a good restaurant and was not disappointed. We headed to the Brazilian consulate to apply for our visas only to find out that it would take five days and they must keep our passports during that time. The person at the desk did tell us that the small consulate in Iguazu Falls could do them the same day. Since we didn't want to waste that much time in BsAs we opted for the Iguazu consulate. We spent the next day trying to find the Cathay office but had to settle with their Qantas partner. The agent at Qantas is incredible. Maria Laura Villar was extremely patient and helpful as was rerouted a few of our flights. We knew we were heading south but flights within Argentina are expensive so we decided to change our flight from Brazil to Santiago and use that leg to back from Punta Arenas. With our new routing scheduled we spent our third day in BsAs on a city tour. This tour was a complete scam. The tour was a half day that was to pick us up
at our hostel at 1:00 but didn't show until 1:45. We then loaded into a mini-van to pick up other people on the tour. We drove around the area for about an hour attempting to pick the other passengers but since they were so late several people didn't wait, something we strongly debated just before they showed up. After that the mini-van pulled up half a block from our hostel to try and load us into a large tour bus. A few couples were already complaining prior to arriving at the second bus. We went to get on the new bus only to find that it was almost completely full with no seats for the two of us and also smelled very bad. Halfway up the stairs Sam said "Hell no!" and stormed off the bus demanding our money back. We walked back to our hostel where we complained to the front desk. They said they would contact the tour company. About twenty minutes later a new tour guide appeared at our hostel to try again. We boarded a new bus a started the tour. The first stop that we were "fortunate" to see was the Sunday street market. This
was basically a two block stretch where hippies spread out blankets to see useless gaudy handicrafts. After a fifteen minute stop we were off to the La Boca area of town. Here we stopped outside the Boca Juniors soccer stadium where we could pay to tour inside the empty arena. The street surrounding the stadium is covered with souvenir shops sell mainly Boca Junior apparel and Diego Merodona jerseys. After wasting ten minutes there our next stop was heart of the La Boca district. This area is famous for being the home of poor immigrants that colorfully paint their corrugated tin houses. The area would be more impressive if not for the many souvenir shops that now dominate the street. The bus now sped by the new modern dock region where the upscale restaurants are and then past several parks full of sculptures. One of the great pieces that zipped by was a sculpture of a giant metal flower whose petals open and close with the sun. We also past a church and cemetery that holds Eva Perrons remains. The tour lasted about three hours and didn't show us anything you couldn't see yourself. Sam said that we couldn't leave
Argentina without see Evita's grave so the next morning we went in search of the tomb. The cemetery is enormous with tombs of every imaginable shape and size. Eva Perron's tomb wasn't as massive as some of the others but constantly draws attention and mourners. We also spotted several empty tombs and learned that if a family can no longer afford the plot the body is removed and the tomb sold to someone else. Later that afternoon we caught a taxi to the long haul bus station for the sixteen hour trip to Iguazu Falls.
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