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Published: June 15th 2009
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Hey Guys,
Well we´ve arrived at the second biggest stop on our South American tour - Buenos Aires! We decided to stay in the San Telmo district since it is pretty central and is also the oldest part of the city. Our hotel "Hotel Bolivar" was super old but kinda cool and kinda cold but really cheap so that suited us just fine.
Once we got settled we decided to start our first of many super walking tours, we started in Recoleta which has one of the craziest cemetaries I´ve ever been too. It is right in the city and it is where all the rich people, past presidents and Generals are buried. Evita Perron is also buried there and most of the tombs are larger and nicer than many homes we´ve seen so far, I´ve instructed Tyne that I expect the same treatment when I pass, she said she´ll probably stick to her original plan of dumping my ashes in the Bow River hahahahaha
Anyways moving on we made our way down to the plazas and parks in Recoleta where we saw "Floralis Generica" which is a huge stainless steel flower sculpture set in a pond which
actually opens and closes everyday with the sun, it was really cool. That evening we had plans to meet up with Margaret who is one of Tyne´s Friends/co-workers, she is currently living down here and studying dancing. Her boyfriend James was also down visiting and they had invited us to a "Milonga" (Tango club) to watch a local band and enjoy some dancing. We end up meeting her that evening around 11pm which is huge for us since we´re normally in bed by 10! Anyways the club was really cool, the place didn´t even have sign out front and inside was dark and smoky, right out of a movie. The tango band takes the stage and they were really good, they had four accordian players which was really good since traditional tango bands have only one. It is hard to describe their style but it was almost like underground Tango if there is such a thing. We really enjoyed their music, and the people dancing in the club were awesome. Tyne and I decided it would be best that we not take to the floor since our skills are too good we don´t want to offend our hosts😊 hahaha Anyways
before we knew it it was past 3am so we called it a night.
The next day we decided to check out Central BA, our day got off to a late start and once we arrived downtown we decided to quickly check for Futbol tickets for a game we thought was the next day. Well once we got talking to some agents it turned out the game was actually tonight and since it was a cup game with Boca Juniors vs. Paraguay tickets were rapidly selling out! So we spent the better part of the afternoon trying to get tickets, we finally got tickets and finalized arrangements with Margaret & James who were going to join us for the game. Boca Juniors are probably the most popular futbol team in Argentina next to the national team (obviously), the area in which the team is from - Boca, is also the most dangerous part of Buenos Aires so we were brought in on a shuttle bus 3 hours prior to the game since the area surrounding the stadium gets completly shut down with traffic/cops/fans. Once inside Boca we decide we should have a drink some where, well being totally naive
Canadians and not realizing that alcohol and futbol go together as well as gas and fire, that there is no where to buy alcohol within 10 city blocks of the stadium, so we just waited and enjoyed watching as the local fans poured in. Our seats for the game were awesome(and for the money we paid they should´ve been!) we were in the international media VIP section so we had great views of the pitch. And the fans, all we can say is Holy Shit!!!! To say these guys love their team is an understatement, both end zones of the stadium was for die hard/rowdy fans completely fenced off from other areas and the visitor section was on the top tier in one corner and it was totally fenced off complete with barbwire and surrounded with cops, totally crazy.
So they start announcing players and people in stands who are already singing and screaming at deafening decibles start shooting off fireworks and running around with flares. Then they drop a flag which covers the entire end section of stadium, it was the biggest flag I´ve ever seen. The game was awesome although Boca lost 1-0, we really wanted Boca
to score because I´m sure you would have heard it in in Calgary. After the game the four of us went out for some drinks downtown.
The next day was another colossal streetwalking day, we counted on the map that night and it was over 150 blocks not including parks! We started in Palmero which is the very beautiful since it is where all the rich people live, the area has several large parks and botanical gardens which are still full of flowers even though it is winter here. After Palmero we continued back through Recoleta and onwards to downtown.
Since this was our last night in BA Tyne had her heart set on seeing a Tango show, so we did some research and instead of going with an expensive tango show/dinner package we opted to go to restaurant offering a free show, big mistake. I phoned to make reservations and everything seems fine, he tells me the show starts at 10:30. We arrive around 10 and order dinner which turns out to be pretty shitty, so we´re waiting for the show to start but we are sitting out on a balcony and another tango band start to
play in the plaza below, so our waiter asks us if he can close the balcony door which prompts us to ask when the show here starts, he goes on to tell that there is no show this week but maybe next week. I don´t know who wanted to hit this guy harder me or Tyne but we were choked, so I tell him we want our bill and then we get the bill and there is 5$ service charge for cutlery??? needless to say there was no tipping and tell evere toyon never got to "El Balcon" restaurant because it SUCKS!!!! Anyways trying to save the evening I convince Tyne that BA was too good to end on that note and we need to find her a Tango show, so we find a place close to our hotel with a show just about to start, so we go in and it turns out only to be a band and singer with no dancing. The music was good but now we just have to make it back to BA so Tyne can get her show! I´m not going to complain.
Our last day in BA was a Sunday which
worked out well since there was a huge antique market in San Telmo which turns into street markets which lead all the way downtown. The markets had some really cool stuff and it would have been good to bring some with us but of course it´s not going to happen. So we walked around all day checking out street preformers and vendors until regretably we had to leave beautiful Buenos Aires on another bus 😞 So sad but we´ll definetely be back, it´s just too nice here not to!
So next blog Iguazu Falls and the Devils throat!
Take care
Matt & Tyne
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