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Published: March 13th 2023
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Blog 4 – Travelling solo
So Chris had gone off on his cruise and I was in Buenos Aires and the heat continued. I packed up my stuff and left it at reception as it was time to move to a different part of the city. I spent the morning walking around, first up to the magnificent Plaza de Mayo with the square where the Peron's made their speeches. Then into a fabulous art nouveau style cafe before a walk down Defensa soaking up the atmosphere of the San Telmo Sunday market. I went into the food market and it was too hot to cope with, I did see a bit of street tango but it was so busy. On any other occasion I would have done more but the heat and humidity are killers. I got back to get my bag and had walked 6km at half my normal speed.
Eventually I got a taxi to Up Viamonte hotel my place for 3 nights, it's in the centro area of BA, not far from Teatro Colon. The room was huge, a bedroom, bathroom and living/ kitchen area. Its a bit faded but clean , however it
is a working area and not much seemed open at night. Due to the heat I decided on a city tour in an air conditioned mini bus for Monday. I found a little local cafe and ordered Caesar salad and chips; the latter were enough to feed four. Full of locals and so local prices and little supermarket next door had stuff for breakfast.
Monday I was up bright and early for my tour, the tour guide Lionel arrived on time. The group was 11 in total and I was the only none American although 2 were originally Iranian and one Dutch. I enjoyed what I saw but not the experience.
Let me paint a picture for you. Two couples from New York constantly saying, gee that is just like something in some place in the US, they were moaning about the guide from the start. His English wasn't perfect but he tried hard. The “Dutch” American woman made derogatory racist comments about the lovely couple originally from Iran. The icing on the cake was when the foursome wandered off into Recoleta cemetery (going in was not on the tour). The bus was ready to go and they
were nowhere to be seen. The guide tried twice to find them and rang his office and we set off without them. 10 minutes later he got a call they had rung the office to say they had been left behind! They got on the bus and had the brass neck to say “Sorry you went without us". When Lionel started talking about the importance of the Casa Rosado during the Peronist era one of them said “ Jeez we've all seen the movie" I just ignored them the rest of the time, its not worth the aggravation. They tipped the guide 20$ nearly 20%!,(MISSING) and then said lets get a Starbucks ! I have met some lovely Americans on my travels over the years but sadly the majority are well described as "
Ugly American" which is a stereotype depicting them as exhibiting loud, arrogant, demeaning, thoughtless, ignorant, and ethnocentric behaviour. These aren't my words. On a positive note, the Chinese are not travelling!!
I walked back from the Obelisk through the park near my hotel where several families are living in makeshift shelters. I started thinking about where to travel next and my original thoughts about north to
Rosario went out of the window when I saw the temperatures. I plumped for going south to Northern Patagonia. Booked a flight to Trelew and an apartment to stay in, the area is where Welsh settlers came in the 1860s. My meal that evening was Peruvian, a pisco sour marayuyá to drink and tacucho, a rice and beans dish with fried egg and plantain.
Before we left on the trip a fellow traveller Glen, put me in touch with friends who were living in BA and I arranged to have breakfast with them at the cafe at Museo Evita. Jim and Gay are originally from the UK, lived for many years in Australia and are well travelled – way more than me. Jim was originally a radio journalist and then had a travel company, Gay worked in events management, became a tour guide and did proofreading. The garden of the restaurant was lovely, the desayuno saludable ( healthy breakfast) was a great selection of fruit, granola , yoghurt and toast etc. The service was a bit erratic but we eventually all got food. It didn't stop us chatting about our travels, they have a friend in Bolnuevo not far
from us so who knows. Jim was a big rugby fan. My Lions trip to Australia ( where we won the series) and 2015 World Cup Final was trumped by his 2003 World Cup Final where famously Jonny Wilkinson kicked that dropped goal.
I then went into the museum which was a fascinating insight into her life, amazing footage of some of her films when she was an actress and then her role as first lady. The displays of some of her clothes were stunning, she certainly had style. I needed more cash for my trip so got a taxi to Florida, the place where everyone changes money. It turned out to be quite safe, a guy said “cambio" we went into a wine shop in a covered arcade and 100€ became 39,000 ARS. I decided to try the ice cream at Freddo's , a BA chain and it was perfect in the heat.
Next day my flight was at 5.30am and had a very fitful night as the taxi was booked for 2.40am The flight was super efficient, not very full so managed an hour of sleep stretched out across three seats. I knew it
was going to be a long day between a 7am arrival and a 2pm check in. I had a leisurely coffee in the airport and then got a taxi to a hotel for breakfast, it was pretty average but under 3 € and spent a while using the free Wi-Fi. I walked into town and got some information and a map from the tourist office. I had a haircut for 3€ and found a place that would repair my broken zip on my travel bag. My taxi driver had recommended a cafe so I had a very nice sandwich and lemon cake. Eventually it was 2pm and time to go to my apartment.
On the plus side it was on 11
th floor so it had good views, it had a balcony – ideal for my washing and it was relatively cheap. That's where it stops as it was pretty basic, ill fitting curtains, hardly any crockery, nothing to light the gas with, no storage space for clothes. Basically poor attention to detail, no batteries in the air conditioning control. I unpacked everything ( it's a good job I use a cube system) and set off to get my bag
fixed. The lady was lovely and said she would replace the elastic in my money belt too. Buoyed by a nice feel to the town I did some shopping and started to think about what to do. Trelew's claim to fame is the Fossil and Palaeontology museum. The biggest ever dinosaur was found near there, but sadly its been renovated to better display the find. I'd planned to go back to the same cafe but spotted Jylgo, a craft beer place. I tried 3 of the 16 beers and had two small plates, a pumpkin “pasty" and a lukewarm polenta dish.
Big mistake cue Delhi belly, saw very little of Trelew and managed on Saturday to get on the local bus to my current location Puerto Madryn . Now in a fabulous 10
th floor apartment with stunning sea views and with a combination of lots liquid, light food and loperamide and some antibiotics I bought over the counter in China I am ready for action again. This is the premier whale watching spot May to December, now its just a fun place for the weekend. The disco was on last night, till 5am ,so the streets were deserted this morning. I went for a walk along the pier and spotted two Magellan penguins chilling in the water. Today there was a big swim in the bay and tonight a large and noisy political demonstration, plus a live band on at the corner bar warming up playing the Beatles.
Tomorrow I'm off to see Patagonian dolphins, I hope.
Till next time
Norma
PS Chris is en route to South Georgia, he loved Antarctica. He saw humpback whales breaching, not quite blue whales but spectacular. The ship has Wi-Fi, so we have kept in touch Today is his friend's 70
th birthday, the reason for the cruise so they are celebrating.
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