Patagonian Peregrinations - Day 2 (Buenos Aires)

---

No dramas getting from plane to hotel. Rucksack showed up on the carousel - always a bonus! Booked "remise" taxi from counter in airport lobby. Big posters everywhere warning not to take a taxi with a tout. Could be the last taxi you ever take!

Driver was called Hector. Nice bloke, no habla Ingles, but was determined to tell me all about B.A. Surprisingly, I actually understood some of what he said. Asked him who he supported. "River Plate", says he. Asked me my team. "Charlton Athletic in Ingliterra", says I. "Oh", says he, "yes, but what is your team in Argentina?" So, obviously I had to follow a team that mattered as well! And they call us parochial! Fobbed him off with Independiente. "Campeones", says I. You don't often get to say that in SE7.

Got to hotel & met Jo. Had a couple of hours kip and then we headed out for a look at the place. Wandered through the main shopping area, through the banking district (dead on a Saturday, much like the City) and down to the docklands. These have been done up in the same kind of way as London's and Liverpool's have, though you can see where the money ran out. Wandered about down there for a bit among the sun-bathing Porteños before having a beer (Quilmes, pronounced "kill me") and then moseying back into town.

Went to the Plaza del Mayo where the mothers of the "Disappeared" gather outside the Presidential Palace of a Friday. The Presidential Palace is bloody pink! Silly colour, if you ask me.

Saw a load of anti-bank & IMF graffiti that had been left in the wake of a demo Jo had seen on the previous day. Visited the Cathedral and saw the mausoleum of "El Libertador", General San Martín and then headed back to the hotel for a nap before sampling the nightlife of B.A. on a Saturday night.

---