Blogs from Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America - page 8

Last weekend was the final round of matches in the Apertura Season and I went to the Estadio Diego Armando Maradona in the La Paternal Barrio to see the Argentinos Juniors v Newell's game. Argentinos was Diego's first profesional club and his prescence is everywhere in and around the stadium. Argentinos were originally founded as the 'Martyrs of Chicago' in homage to the anarchists that were imprisoned or hanged following the haymarket riot in Chicago in 1886. The clubs ability to produce world class players such as Maradona, Riquelme, Redondo, Julio Arca, Coloccini and Cambiasso has seen them been given the nickname 'El Semillero' (the seed garden). Argentinos have not had the best of seasons and in the week leading up to the game some local newspapes had reported that the Bravas had been threatening the ... read more

Today we headed to La Boca, the working class region of Buenos Aires, and home of Boca Juniors Football Club. We caught a speeding Argentinian bus and toured the stadium, before strolling through the streets taking in the street art and unique graffiti. We stopped for lunch and enjoyed a tango demonstration from a number of passionate argentinian dancers. then we went to Camonita, the little area with all the colourful houses and cobblestone streets. Somehow I (matt) managed to resist the temptation to buy Argentinian soccer merchandise.... read more

On Sunday night it was off to the Liniers Barrio to catch the Velez Sarsfield v Boca match. Velez were top of the league by 3 points with 4 games left to play. I went with a few guys from the Spanish school led by one of the teachers who is a big Velez fan. It was really easy to get tickets - we just arrived at the stadium a couple of hours before kick off and went to the ticket booth. It was 12US$ for a ticket, not bad for a top of the league clash. We left at 4 and got back at midnight and thats without any pre or post match beers! This was my first experience of standing in the popular section (the area behind the goal) and I have to admit ... read more

The 18 hours bus from Santiago, Chile to Cordoba, Argentina was pleasant. Cordoba is an okay city, you only need a day or two there if you are not into winter sports. I met two Chilean sisters and together we explored Cordoba. The most interesting museum I visited was the Women’s Museum. After two nights here and I left for Puerto Iguazú – the city that house the amazing waterfalls. The plan was to stay one night in Puerto Iguazú but that changed. The bus from Cordoba to Iguazú was 20.5 hours. This meant that I arrived in Iguazu at 8.30am the next morning. I dropped my bags at the hostel and went straight to the Iguazú waterfalls. The waterfall is simply amazing. You really have to experience it. The pictures I took don’t quite capture ... read more

Cafayate is one of the best wine area´s in Argentina.....we obviously sampled quite a few wines whilst we were there, especially the Malbec and Torrentes - yum! We decided in our wisdom to do a wine tasting bike ride to some of the wineries and waterfall, however all of the wineries were closed which dampened the mood somewhat. Not only that, but it was only two days after horse-riding so needless to say bums were still extremely sore. Tasha´s rant after going uphill for what seemed like forever was priceless... ´That´s it, i´m not f*%king doing it anymore´ She then proceeded to get off her bike and walk. Tracy had to do the same as she was laughing so hard that she nearly fell off her bike! We then sat down to have a little break ... read more