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Published: August 7th 2007
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Welcome to Buenos Aires - the city of wow!
Well folks, we can safely say that Buenos Aires is living up to our expectations. This city is extremely cool! So many beautiful old buildings tower over the busy streets. Everywhere we turn we see another cool shop with funky clothes, a lovely looking restaurant with delicious cakes and pastries and gorgeous people on every corner.
It seems beauty is almost an obsession here. Skinny is in. Designer outfits are in. Long flowing dark hair is in. Funky boots and leg warmers are in. Apparently daggy backpacker attire, however, is out. I am feeling sooo uncool right now but dont give a toss because there are so many other great things to focus on. Sezza just bought a sexy new pair of black cord pants for about $12 so she is in now too!!
One thing we do notice here, in one of the biggest cities we´ve ever been in, is the pollution. The Buenos Aires skyline often looks somewhat out of focus due to the rising smog. We have been doing some serious cruising on foot these last few days and after a little while we can feel
Sezza G
looking way too happy for a cemetery! We giggled all day.our throats getting kinda clogged up which is a tad yucky. We will push through the pain though because we are tough little chicas!
Sarah and I have been walking everywhere. We cruise a few blocks, take a left, take a right, see some cool shit and get totally lost! Thank god for maps and for sarah who can read them unlike me who seems to lose her sense of direction a little more each day! We think we are starting to get the hang of the place though. We have successfully mastered the bus and the subway and are quite proud.
Sights we have seen so far include the gorgeous and famous Recoleta Cemetery, the Japanese Garden, a huge metal sculpture of a flower, Plaza de Mayo (the main square where countless historical events went down) and Florida Ave - a mega busy pedestrian mall.
On Thursday we witnessed the weekly protest of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of plaza de mayo). They gather to remember their ´disappeared´children and family members who were taken away during the 1970s when the military government
in power eliminated anyone from the left wing who didnt share their
Recoleta Cemetery
views. This is just one of the many turbulent and controversial times in Argentina´s history and apparently people who were not even that political, they just happened to be in the address book of someone who oppossed the government, mysteriously disappeared.
When all the shit went down, it was illegal for the mothers to gather in protest so instead they slowly circled the statue in the middle of plaza de mayo. Although this was some time ago, the madres continue to do this every thursday around 3pm as no explanation was ever given as to where their children went.
We have also discovered the old cobbled streets and aging mansions of San Telmo. This area is tango central and we have sussed out a few places we might return to to see a tango show. There are also heaps of antique shops and radical retro clothing stores, and i didnt buy a thing!! can you believe it!? There´s also many parrillas (or steakhouses) in this area and we have vowed to return to one of them to chew on a big hunk of cow,
something you apparently HAVE to do in Argentina. (Since last writing we have actually
Recoleta Cemetery
devoured the best steak we´ve ever eaten at El Desnivel, a very popular steak house in San Telmo. Sooooo good!)
There´s a massive antique fair/flea market in San Telmo tomorrow so we will go back then.
We also ventured to the working class neighbourhood of La Boca today. There they have this crazy area Caminito, where brightly coloured corrugated iron buildings line the streets and artists display their impressive works. The walk there got a little seedy, we were followed by a random homeless dog and got a bit freaked out but survived the journey. Unfortunately my dodgy memory card decided to die and take all my photos of La Boca with it to its grave so i cant show you any. We might go back and take more at a later date.
That´s it for this blog entry. Better get it up along with the photos.
Stay tuned amigos!
Recoleta Cemetery
Massive flower sculpture
The petals actually close up at night time!
Japanese Garden
very pretty
Sarah and kiwi buddy Nathan
getting crazy at the Japanese Garden
Japanese Garden
Avenida De Julio
Apparently the widest road in the world
Gorgeous old buildings everywhere
Plaza de Mayo
Plaza de Mayo
Abstract chillin in Plaza de Mayo
Casa Rosada (the pink house)
Abby still chillin in Plaza de Mayo
Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Cute old ladies still pining after their disappeared children and family members
Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
Madres de Plaza de Mayo
Random night time photo shoot
San Telmo market
San Telmo market
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Alice
non-member comment
Dead Memory Card
Hey Abs, dont know how easy it would be over there, but there is this thing they can do with memory cards which can bring back photos you have lost or accidently deleted. as long as you dont write over the photos on the card, they can do some kind of auto recovery thing, so your pics might be saved afterall. maybe hang onto it until you get to the states or something. loving your blog!! im living south america through your adventures so keep them coming, xx