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Published: October 18th 2018
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Late start today to plan our next four days in Buenos Aires. On recommendations from others we decided to do a hop-on hop-off bus and I decided to book the official Buenos Aires Bus service. There are 3 routes which are all connected at certain stops.
We had a late breakfast at a chain café called Havanas which we later learnt sell very popular chocolates so I guess they are a bit like Max Brenner. Coffee was also pretty bad like at Max Brenner as well. Then just another 2 minute walk down the road to the local laundromat and left our clothes to be washed and dried, only cost about $4.50AUS.
We then walked about 20 minutes to the Recoletta stop which was the closest to us. We’d bought our tickets online because it’s cheaper and had them on our phones but they didn’t even bother checking our tickets and never did when we hopped on later.
We didn’t have a real plan so decided to just stay on the bus and see how the time went as it was 12:10 by the time the bus arrived. We were at the end of the Blue line which
then changed to the purple line which went through the business district, San Telmo (heart of the tango). La Boca which is the poorer area of BA but has a famous soccer stadium, and then to the Puerto Madera area which is a modern port for BA now. We decided to get off at the Galerias Pacifico shopping centre for lunch but is also a wonderful old building restored into a shopping centre in a similar vein to Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building. The shops are also similarly expensive, the food in the food court was cheap by Aussie standards. I did manage to buy myself a sun hat, however, as I needed one this morning sitting on the bus' open top deck.
We then hopped back on the bus and stopped at the Palermo area to look for street art and it didn’t disappoint, plus the area has a suitably bohemian atmosphere with lots of cafes, bars and restaurants. Also had our best coffee so far in Argentina and it was actually called and looked like a flat white.
Generally the city has a very French feel to it with its architecture, open air cafes, statues and parks.
I should also mention that so far on this trip, our lack of Spanish hasn't been too much of a problem as many of the young people have some knowledge of English even when they say they don't. Google translator has also helped on a couple of occasions.
Walked around for about 90 minutes and got back on the bus for our trip home as we had to pick up our laundry by 8pm. Did a bit of shopping for breakfast at a local supermarket and got to the laundry at 7:40 but unfortunately it wasn’t ready. Not to worry, we headed off home, had a short rest and at 8pm, decided to go to a chain restaurant called Fechoria. Looks like we’re getting use to South American dinner time. Daisy had a spinach and ham lasagna and I had a very nice fillet steak medallions in burgundy sauce, plus we took home a fruit flan for dessert.
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Bob Worsley
non-member comment
BA
It looks wonderful Ray. And great street art too.