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Published: July 10th 2008
I last wrote to you as we were boarding a bus from Corrientes to Buenos Aires.
Tuesday 24th June Isabelle's 3rd Birthday (my niece)
Arrived at Buenos Aries at 0730 after a night on the bus. Travelling by night is best 'cos you don't have to pay for any accommodation! We quite easily used the Subte (subway) to get from the bus station to the area our Hostel was in. As usual we walked in completely the wrong direction. For some reason my sense of direction is exactly 180 degrees out. I think it's maybe because we're in the Southern Hemisphere! Got Lonely Planet out to look at the map and within seconds were approached by a Porteño (as the locals call themselves) asking what we were looking for and offering assistance. Obviously (we thought), this old pensioner is some sort of hoodlum, intent on slitting our throats and stealing our wallet! We backed away and "discreetly" covered our pockets, but no. She
actually wanted to help! And she spoke English! We thanked her for her help, and continued in the correct direction (once again checking our pockets as we walked away).
There is a little unrest in Argentina
El Obelisco
In the middle of an 18 lane road!at the moment which we knew a little about before we came here, but not much. Not sure what it's entirely about but it's apparently unusual because some of the locals actually agree with the government and so it's not quite as straight forward as "The People vs Authority." We saw a sign advertising a "gathering" that would take place that evening near to the Plaza de Congresos. The sign had photographs of baying mobs, and riot police. I pointed the sign out to Aimee and quite loudly laughed and said, "Look at that! They're advertising a riot!" Wrong move! The locals looked me up and down and I thought they were going to cut me! They must have recognised my Burnley accent though, because a dirty look or two was the worst it got. Lucky buggers! They'll never know how close they came!!
Turned up at our Hostel to be told, Sorry mate. We're full. We felt like Joseph and Mary! However, as we had a confirmation e-mail from the Hostel, they arranged for us to stay at a hotel nearby(ish) for the same price. We said we'd think about it and be back in an hour to
let them know. We craftily looked around town for a cheaper alternative and decided that in the long run, the deal we already had was pretty good so we had to stay at a Hotel for two nights before moving to the originally booked Hostel.
Had a quick look round the local area before getting indoors, away from the "riot!"
Wednesday 25th June Had a lie in - breakfast's not included in this deal and I'm not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth!
When we finally arose we had a good luck around the Micro-centre of Buenos Aires. It reminds me very much of Seville - tall, ornate buildings with slim wrought iron balconies. It's a lovely city to look around. We saw Plaza Congresos (home to last nights riot), Evita's house, The Cathedral and Universities, and many other random buildings!
Thursday 26th June Moved Hostels, back to the original one. Took a walk up the "new" riverside area. It's quite posh!
Friday 27th June William's 32nd Birthday (my brother)
Lazy day. Took it very easy! That's why we planned on a full year to get around. We don't feel like we have to
Casa Rosada
This was Evita's house. rush!
Saturday 28th June Blue sky and not a cloud in sight! Perfect for a stroll through Palermo and it's parks. Took the tube and walked to the first park. Closed due to the Tramp Kicking-out season. If only I had a gun!
Walked to the next plaza (Plaza Italia) and saw a huge statue of the one and only, "Garibaldi." I have no idea! Is he the bloke who invented the biscuits?
Saw many stautes and the Planetarium. Didn't bother with the zoological gardens, or the Japanese garden's because you had to pay to see them. We walked around the outside and peeked through the fence. God, I'm my mother's son!
Oh, did I mention that as soon as we got off the tube in Palermo it was cloudy and freezing? I looked a right tit in my shorts and flip-flops!
We have cable TV in our room at the hostel. I really pushed the boat out and bought
three bottles of beer, then watched all three Matrix movies back to back! In case your wondering, they were litre bottles, ABV 5%!,(MISSING) and cost about 45p each!
Sunday 29th June Walked down to San Telmo and
Puente de la Mujer.
"Ladies Bridge" in the docklands area. Boca. San Telmo is home to an antique market on Sunday, and Boca is...........er.........rough!
It was fun looking at the antiques. The market itself wasn't terribly antiquey, and we didn't know if it was real antiques or just a garage sale! There are lots of genuine antique shops though. You should have seen some of the furniture and chandeliers! It was definately time to keep my hands in my pockets (mother trained me well - I'm not allowed to touch in this type of establishment).
Boca is the wrong end of town so to speak. It has a lovely little area in the middle though. Camanito. It has really colourfully painted tin buildings and street tango shows. It made a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the city. Couldn't help sneaking a look at Boca Juniors stadium as well. So what if Lonely Planet says, "don't wander from the beaten path?" I'm a Henaghan. My dad says I can go where I want as long as I look like I'm meant to be there! I wasn't prepared to roll around in crap and lose my shoes though! So we just sneaked up the train track!
BEER!
45p a litre and 5% ABV Got back to the Hostel just in time to catch the European cup final. What are the chances of that happening? As you probably know, the Spanish took a leaf out of our book and spanked the Gerries!
Fernando Torres, El Niño. Now there's a fella that can find the onion bag!
Monday 30th June Yet another lie in and lazy day. Though it was my job to go downstairs and steal breakfast so we could have it for lunch!
Tuesday 01st July Did Lonely Planet's suggested walk around Recoleta. Started in the cemetery - Eva Peron is in here somewhere. Her tomb is a lot smaller than I expected. Some of them are amazing though. Like mini Colosseum's!
Saw Gothic Engineering Faculty, past the Law School to the Church of Our Lady Pillar, and the Palacio de Aguas Corrientes, which we sneaked through and came out the back door! Also saw the Floralis Generica, a big man made flower whose petal's close at night. It was day though, so the petals remained open!
The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes was free to enter so we had a quick goose. It's allright - if you like art!
Garibaldi.
So famous they named a biscuit after him! Wednesday 02nd July Lie in and chill out.
Thursday 03rd July Travelled North, to Rosario. It was AR$45 each (15 quid for the two of us) and took four hours.
Friday 04th July Looked around Rosario. It's a bit dirty! We saw the Monumento Nacional a la Bandera. It has the crypt for Manuel Belgrano in it - he's the bloke that designed the Argentine flag (three stripes - genius!). It's on the AR$10 note. Rosario has lots of nice buildings around. The streets are quite narrow though so they're difficult to photograph. We really wanted to see the Museo Provincial de Ciences Naturales Dr. Angel Gallardo as it gets a good write up. We arrived at the building to see it boarded up and surrounded by scaffolding. We popped inside an adjacent building to see what was happening. We were given no explanation, but told the museum had "moved." It wasn't far though, so we set off to see it.
It was crap!
We started at the bottom and made our way upwards. There were lots of huge rooms, with very little in them! When we got to the top floor though, it all became
Cemeterio de la Recoleta
and me playing dead. I'm well respectful! clear. Basically, in 2003 there was a huge fire and most of the exhibits were destroyed. Fair enough then! We'll let them off.
Spent the evening wandering the streets looking at menus for a nice meal out tomorrow.
Saturday 05th July A nice easy day. Thought I'd be local and try a drink of "mate" (pronounced mattay). For the inquisative amongst you, Mate is an infusion, containing stimulants including caffeine prepared by steeping dried leaves of yerba mate in hot water. It is the national drink in Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay, and a common social practice in parts of Brazil, Chile, eastern Bolivia, Lebanon, and Syria.
By Christ it's BAD!! Imagine drinking spinach juice and fag ash! I'll stick to tea thanks!!
Took a stroll down the river front and went back to the best of the restaurants we'd seen the night before to book a table for tonight. Managed to do it fine in my Spanish and asked to see the menu again to remind us what was on offer, and how much. The English menu (which we perused yesterday) had gone missing, but never fear, my amazing Spanish would be fine, so we got a Spanish
La Boca
Colourful Caminito. menu. Everything was OK until we saw the prices. Things weren't this much yesterday! Turns out that they couldn't be bothered updating the price in the English menu, so the prices we saw yesterday were about 15 years old! It was
well pricey! We were a bit annoyed so we booked a table anyway with no intention of turning up.
Sunday 06th July Travelled further North to Cordoba. It cost AR$53 each and took about six hours.
And, here we are. Still in Cordoba. It's Argentine Independance Day on 9th July. I'll blog again soon with the Cordoba stuff in it.
Hope you are all well. We're enjoying it all so far. Just as a reminder we're continuing North, through Bolivia, into Peru, then back down South through Chile (and maybe Argentina again) before flying on to Christchurch, New Zealand from Santiago, Chile on 02nd October(ish). Anyone got any places you think we should visit just let us know.
You can e-mail me at
stephen.henaghan@yahoo.co.uk or I'm on Facebook.
I look forward to writing again soon!
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