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Published: February 7th 2010
4 January to 8 January
We flew in from Salta to a sultry afternoon in BA and joined a huge taxi queue at the airport to get into town. We turned up downtown to the apartment we had booked over the internet. 13 floors up in our penthouse junior suite (!!). Lots of space and less money than a decent hotel. First stop was the local laundry. Chilled out for the early evening and then went to a Chilean restaurant down the road. No tourists except us. Great old fashioned service from a waiter who looked like he should have retired years ago.
The weather forecast promised that Tuesday would be a hot day and so it proved. We had decided that we would fill in gaps in our BA experiences by taking day trips to local destinations. Today we took the train to La Plata from Constitucion. Tickets were a bargain 4.8 AP return (about 80p at home). the station was amazing (think Paddington style and size) and the trains were not as bad as anticipated. I think they had been fitted with new seats and were clean. Air con was the old fashioned type: doors and windows
open. We trundled out of the station on time and spent the hour and a half of the journey by looking out of the window or listening to the various travelling sales people who jumped on and off the train. We missed out on buying toys, icecreams, sweets, pastries, ID card holders and various religious tracts.
La Plata was very hot, thankfully it is flat and has lots of trees. The big reason for coming here was to see the anthropology museum. Lots to see in a huge building in the park and an enjoyable couple of hours wandering. We then walked around town seeing the impressive provincial government building behind its riot proof fencing and the huge cathedral that looks like it has dropped in from northern France. We caught the train back to BA and as we approached the city we saw the trains coming the other way with hordes of people jammed on board, when we got off the train the concourse was crowded like any other commuter station.
Wednesday was a BA shopping day. In the morning we walked to the Patio Bullrich shopping centre, converted from a warehouse/slaughterhouse to create a very impressive
La Plata Cathedral
across the very very hot plazamall complete with cinema. Only problem was that the shops were mainly European designers with European prices. The clientele wandering about looked like they were mostly ladies who lunch and had cosmetic surgery.
After leaving the shopping centre we were meandering along and came upon leather and bag shop where Susan was able to fulfil her ambition to get a new laptop bag. Not cheap but worth it. We then walked along Santa Fe doing lots of window shopping. In the evening we met up with Terry and Cesar at our apartment before going out to a local restaurant that did regional food from NW Argentina: empanadas, locro etc
Thursday was Tigre day. More sun and another train ride, this time from Retiro to Mitre then the Tren de La Costa to Tigre. Tigre was nice and relaxed, lots of riverfront, cafes etc and normal shops as well. We skipped the funfair and went for an afternoon tourist boat ride around the Delta. It was great to see how people lived out here with boat shops and buses plying their trade and some lovely houses. Back in town we popped into the local Carrefour Express and stocked up
La Plata: BA Province Government House
Notice the unfriendly high fencing, I guess they may not always be too popular on empanada skins to take home for the freezer and to the wine shop for some bottles to take home.
For our final dinner in BA we returned to Mirasol in Recova. Only a ten minute walk away and the food was as excellent as it had been before and this time Susan even managed to get sweetbreads for a starter.
Friday was sadly going home day. We had plenty of time at the airport to reflect on the holiday. I had been a bit worried that I would have been disappointed and that my great memories from the two previous trips here a bit rose tinted.
Not a bit of it: Argentina is still a fabulous country with lovely people, slightly dodgy politics, bizarre economic policies, the best steaks and great wine.
We are already starting to think about when to return.....
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