Ballet and fireworks - a BA Christmas

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So the journey back to BA from Torres seemed to take for ever - about 5 hours on 2 private buses was fine and border crossings straight forward but we arrived at El Calafate airport about 4.5 hours before our flight....and there's not a lot to do there! That's where things started to go wrong... While checking in, I managed to trip over my backpack and twinge something in my back, to the extent that I could barely walk at first. We queued up to go through departures with me in quite a lot of pain, only to be told once we got to the (single!) bag machine that we were too early and couldn't go through yet. Back landside we went to the only cafe for some greasy empanadas and I tried to walk off the pain up and down the airport.

When they finally let us through security we were tired and bored but there was still another hour to go. The lounge was quite crowded and the woman sat next to me decided to turn towards me to have her long, loud phone call, not at all embarassed that she was pretty much shouting in my face! As we got onto the plane, we realised that, despite asking twice, we did not have an aisle seat - I'm quite claustrophobic and am much happier when at least one of us is in the aisle seat so that I can easily get out. The seats were also quite tight and covered in the debris of the last passengers so I was already unhappy by the time we sat down. Then the 2 passengers in front of us sat down.....2 brothers, probably aged 10 and 12, both large, but one extremely so, apparently travelling on their own, who proceeded to fight for the next 3 hours. They ignored all seatbelt signs, wandering up and down the plane and must have called the cabin crew at least 10 times during the flight....why did they keep giving them more coke?! Hugh had his knees cracked a couple of times as they kept trying to put the seat back until we managed to get through to them that his legs were in the way. It was only at the end of the flight that we realised that the young guy sitting next to them was actually with them...he'd not said a word to them all through the flight!

Hugely relieved to get off the plane, we set out into the sweltering night of Buenos Aires and hopped in a cab to our apartment...or what we thought was our apartment! There we were, taxi gone, at 10pm in a side street ringing a doorbell that nobody was answering. Eventually H managed to get through to the owner of the apartment (who lives in Turkey!) to be told that she'd given him the wrong address! Luckily it was only 2 blocks away but H wouldn't let me carry my pack after my back trouble earlier in the day and it was meltingly hot. The final blow was that the apartment was in an old building with a lift to match, ie. only fits one and a half people. That's a challenge too far for my claustrophobia and so I limped up to the 9th floor!

Luckily the air conditioning worked and we slept well. We woke to warm rain which was actually quite a relief though rather sticky. We only had a couple of things we wanted to do in Buenos Aires but weren't sure how Christmas would play out. The main aim was to do a tour of the Teatro Colon which has always been closed for renovation when we have previously been there. After a few chores we arrived to discover we had just missed a tour in English...but they were opening a free dress rehearsal of that night's performance of The Nutcracker ballet in the afternoon. We'd actually tried to book tickets for a performance a few weeks ago but there had only been restricted view seats available so we were delighted! We grabbed a quick lunch then headed back to the theatre. We were obviously late in the day so our tickets so were 6 flights up in the gallery but had front row seats. The orchestra were not playing and we think that they did not do the full ballet - seemed more like edited highlights - but it was lovely, if a bit uncoordinated in parts! The theatre is amazing and the atmosphere was great - what a lovely way to spend a wet afternoon in BA!

From there we headed home to change in time for dinner at our friend Gabi's. We went to her house once the last time we were in BA about 7 years ago and it was lovely to visit again. Gabi is such a generous and welcoming person and had made a lovely dinner for us. We told her all about our trip and discussed her upcoming trip...to London to see the new year fireworks, something neither of us have ever done! Her 15 year old son joined us for dinner - he is a budding musician and also speaks extremely good English so cleared up some of our misunderstandings! Unfortunately we are not going to be able to see Gabi while she is in the UK as between us the timing doesn't work but I hope it's not another 7 years before we see her again.

The day before Christmas Eve we spent some time ensuring that we had enough food in the apartment for the next couple of days, it not being clear what and when anything would be open. We walked up towards the main central shopping area late in the afternoon to be overwhelmed by the people and the temperature. It didn't feel like chaotic Christmas shopping, just like what BA is always like, but we escaped to sit in Plaza San Martin for a while. Dinner was a big steak for H at a place I had been to previously after he left on his cycling trip....was this to be his last one?!

Christmas Eve started warm and got progressively hotter. We walked down to Puerto Madero, the poshed up area around the old port that now has offices, apartments, restaurants and cafes. In the shade it was pleasant and you don't have to watch the wide pavements for dog mess (an unfortunate part of most BA streets!) so we had a relaxing stroll trying to work out what had changed since we were last there. Walking back it was clear that the city was starting to shut down and after a late lunch we headed home. Aside from the 9 flights of stairs (!), having an apartment high up turned out to be a real bonus as with windows open front and back a cooling breeze blew through. But it really came into its own on Christmas Eve. H had cooked a very unseasonal but lovely veggie curry for dinner and we celebrated with a bottle of fizz while listening to the parties starting up around the city. It wasn't until midnight that it all started to happen with fireworks going off all over the city. A couple of unfortunately positioned buildings meant we didn't quite have a full panorama but we were dashing from one end of the balcony to the other trying to see everything that was happening at once. It seems that none of this is formally organised, just individuals setting off their own pyrotechnics. A lot of it was just huge bangs from firecrackers but there were all sorts of others, big and small. I must admit, I was quite pleased not to be down on the street as fireworks seemed to be going off at all angles from all over the place and a couple of times I shot back into the apartment when things seemed very close!

The show finally started to die down about 1am and we went to bed, and I was woken with thumping heart at around 4am by what sounded like fireworks immediately outside our bedroom window! There was still music playing when we woke next morning and it was clear that many had still not gone to bed - they certainly know how to party in BA!

And so Christmas day! A stroll around empty and traffic free streets enabled us to see buildings and views much better than usual and get some good pictures. We also popped into the pope's old gaff - Buenos Aires cathedral. Lunch was in a Basque restaurant nearby that we had checked was going to be open....and we were the only ones dining in the restaurant part! But the food (and wine!) were excellent and we strolled home feeling we'd done Christmas well, even if it felt nothing like Christmas. Getting a snack in the evening proved more challenging but finally it was our last night.

Boxing Day dawned even hotter and we wandered around the flat rather listlessly pulling the last of our things together. The taxi to the airport came at 2pm and so started the last long leg of this part of our journey. We were incredibly lucky to have bagged extra leg room seats on the flights and both slept pretty well on the long haul to Frankfurt. A few hours in the airport, another couple of hours to Manchester, a train to Leeds (the line not flooded, thank goodness!) and a final taxi and we were back home.

It's been an amazing and memorable trip and we've learnt lots about a region that doesn't get much attention in Europe. So while the UK news is dominated by flooding in the north, tens of thousands of people in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay have had to be evacuated from homes around their borders due to flooding - not all of the stories are so different.

A couple of weeks at home to come catching up with family and friends and then there'll be a whole new set of stories...

Happy New Year to all of you.

S + H xx

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Comments

[Mandy Care]

Happy New Year
Sarah & Hugh It has been fab reading about all of you adventures travelling. Welcome home and a Happy New Year, I look forward to the next instalment. Mandy xx