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Published: August 7th 2007
I meet a very nice samba dancer on my first night in Buenos Aires!
"Me, in a samba club in Buenos Aires, with lots of nubile latin american dancers, with MY reputation?!"Hola from Buenos Aires everyone.
What a fun city this is - the past two weeks have zoomed by since I arrived here from Ushuaia. I've just said goodbye to my old mate Terry, who came over to join me for 10 days from London. We squeezed in a lot in that time, including a three day jaunt to Iguazu Falls, but more on that later. It was good to see a familiar face.
My first night in Buenos Aires (before Terry arrived) was quite eventful. I was on a 7.30pm flight on Saturday evening from Ushuaia that got me into BA for 12.00am. I had an email earlier from my Torres Del Paine buddies, Wayne and Danny saying that Saturday was their last night in BA before heading for Peru, and that we had to have a farewell drink or two. Not wanting to disappoint, I slept for the whole flight up to BA, got a taxi from the airport to the hotel, ditched the bags and ran down to meet the boys at their hostel in the centre of town! It was great to see them again and I was pleased I made the effort to make
the reunion! Wayne's girlfriend, Katie had just arrived from Manchester to join him for the rest of his trip, and it was great to meet her. By the time I got to their hostel bar it was almost 1 in the morning, and everyone was around 4 hours ahead of me in the drinking stakes! Katie gave me a big cuddle, then gave Danny a big cuddle, then me another big cuddle, until Wayne had to say politely "That's enough cuddling for one night!" - all good fun!
Wayne and Katie crashed out around 3ish, good old Danny led the nightclub charge, along with a nice Brazilian girl called Paula and a Dutch guy called Arjen. There was a general exodus from the hostel, and we all piled into taxis to a Brazilian club called Maluco Beleza (at I think that's what it was called!) for some serious samba. We got there just after 4am and there was a big queue to get in. Luckily Paula, our Brazilian friend spoke the right lingo and we managed to go straight through.
One thing I have found difficult to adjust to in South America is the time a night out
actually starts. Nobody but nobody goes out before midnight, and there is no point going to a nightclub much before 2am as there will be hardly anyone there. Nothing livens up until around 4am, and the locals will keep going until 7 or 8 in the morning! It's all a bit crazy, but after a while you adapt. Talk to a Chilean or an Argentine about meeting in a pub at 6 or 7 like in the UK, and they will laugh in your face!
The club was absolutely packed full of sweaty dancers - we tried our best to look like we knew what to do on the dancefloor, but failed miserably! It was hilarious though, and at one stage I got on stage with the professional dancers in a vain attempt to learn some latin american moves. A very attractive dancer tried her best to show me how to wiggle my bum to the beat, but I spent more time watching her bum than trying to wiggle my own!!!!
At 7am it was time to go home. Danny and I had one last bear hug goodnight, but at that stage in proceedings it wasn't the cleverest
idea, and the next thing I knew we were both laying flat out on the dance floor!! It's been a long time I have had a night out like that though, so I'm not feeling too guilty about my drunken antics!!!
I got back to the comfort of my hotel bed sometime around 8am on Sunday morning, only to be woken by the telephone at 1.30pm.
"Your minibus is here to take you to the football sir" said the receptionist at the end of the line. I had totally forgot that as I ran out to meet the boys the night before, I had mentioned to the hotel receptionist I would be interested in watching the Boca Juniors game on Sunday! Oh dear. I jumped out of bed, splashed some cold water on my face, pulled on some clothes and ran downstairs and climbed on board the mini bus. I still felt drunk!
We got to the Boca stadium (called La Bombonera) and made a bee-line for the hamburger stand - it was only after wolfing down a cheeseburger and coke I started to feel human again. Never again! I away chatting away to the other punters who
had come in the minivan - Stuart was a Sunderland fan over on holiday, and Luke and his sister Lisa were over to see their cousin who was working in Buenos Aires. Luke (bless him - he was only 17) came out with a classic comment when we first walked up the stairs in the Boca stadium to our seats. I admit we could not see the whole ground as we walked up the staircase, only the hospitality boxes in the opposite stand, but Luke's comment "It looks a bit like Kenilworth Road don´t it?" had me chortling to myself for quite a while! I can't think of many occasions La Bombonera has been compared to Luton Town's home ground. Maybe they should get twinned or something!
The football itself turned out to be a brilliant hangover cure. The Boca stadium is incredible, with both ends behind the goals made up of three massive tiers of terracing. The atmosphere was electric, with dozens of banners draped over the three tiers in the "home end", and constant banging of drums and chanting. The first half was pretty turgid with no goals, and watching the Boca fans continue to jump up
and down and sing was far more entertaining than what was happening out on the pitch. The second half was far better though, with Boca bringing their big guns Riquelme and Palermo off the bench. Boca ran out 3-1 winners over Gimnasia LP, with Palermo scoring an absolute rocket finish the match. It was great fun when Boca scored - I was hugged by half a dozen burly Argentine blokes I sitting with who liked the fact I was wearing a Boca scarf!!!
I got back to the hotel after the game and had enough time for a few hours shut eye, then Terry arrived around 9.30 in the evening. It was great to see him again. I was quite relieved to return to normality after a mad 24 hours in Buenos Aires, and just pop across the road from the hotel for a pizza and a catch up!
Our hotel was pleasant enough, but Buenos Aires was in the middle of a freak cold snap (coldest May for 45 years apparently), and we had no heating in our room. As a result I was getting flashbacks to my Torres camping experience, waking up in the middle of
the night freezing my knackers off!!! Luckily we got hold of some extra blankets the following night before hypothermia set in. We did re-christian the Hotel Frossard as Hotel Frigid though because of the antartic conditions in the rooms! Poor Terry spent the first 3 days in BA shivering as he didn't think he needed to bring a winter coat with him!
We managed to get through a lot of touristy stuff over the next couple of days. On our first full day we went for a walk around the cobbled streets of San Telmo in the old part of Buenos Aires and it's maze of antique and bric-a-brac shops. Terry and I went to the atmospheric old Cafe Dorrego near the plaza in San Telmo for a submarino - a glass of hot milk with a bar of chocolate on the side which you break into the glass and stir for a seriously yummy hot chocolate drink!
The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) was an interesting enough modern art gallery with some good exhibits, including a photo exhibition by pop artist David LaChapelle - but it wasn't Terry's cup of cocoa (he's more of
a traditionalist!), and an hour in there was more than enough!
We also went on a city bus tour stopping in Recoleta to look at Eva Peròn's tomb, Plaza de Mayo and the famous Casa Rosada (the presidential palace where Juan and Eva Peròn, and countless other politicians have preached from the balcony to throngs of impassioned Argentines), and on to the Boca neighbourhood. I can honestly say that Buenos Aires has more statues and memorials per square mile than any other city I have been - it is Statueville!!! I stopped taking photos after statue number ten - it was getting a bit boring!! It was interesting visiting the Cementerio de la Recoleta - it was a complete maze of mausoleums for the great and good of Buenos Aires. Luckily we had a map otherwise we would never have been able to find Evita's memorial!
It was interesting reading about Eva Perón - I've never seen Evita, and had no idea she died so young (she was only 33). She is very much revered here for all her work, especially by the poor for whom she helped so much through housing projects, education for children, and pushing
through pension laws for the elderly. And she played a big part in women's rights in Argentina - forming a a seperate political party for womens rights. Not bad for a woman who was only married to the president! Her husband Juan Perón, ruled Argentina with an iron fist however - and many opposition leaders were jailed and opposition newspapers shut down during their time in power - so it wasn't all sweetness and light.
The Boca area was really colourful. I had driven through it on the way to the game, but have to admit that day was all a bit of a blur! The Caminito is the main area where there are plenty of arts and crafts to buy, but I must admit I found it all a bit too touristy. The houses are clad in colourfully painted corrugated iron and it all looks very pretty, but there were so many tourists wandering around I had trouble spotting any of the local people.
One thing Terry and I wanted to do was go to a tango show, and our wish came true on our second night when we went to a show at El Alcamen -
one of the oldest tango clubs in town. I have got to say I have never seen a more complicated dance in my life - the men take the lead and basically drag the women around the dance floor, while the women jut their chests forward, stick their bottoms out and try their best to keep up with the man. While this probably doesn't sound like a very alluring description, in practice it is breathtaking to behold and very sexy. There is something about the music too - the double bass, the piano, the violin and the accordian - that make it mesmorising to look at. The atmosphere in the place was very claustrophobic, with the tables close together and very near the small stage. Add in the dim lighting, the cigar smoke and the raucous applause at the end of each dance, and the whole experience was like going back in time, when tango was the height of fashion.
We also managed to link up with Sarah - a friend I first met on the Stray Bus in New Zealand. We also bumped into each other briefly in Santiago before going our seperate ways. It was good to
A plaque on Eva Peróns tomb in the Recoleta Cemetry
It reads in Spanish - "One day I shall return, and I shall be millions" A plaque on Eva Peróns tomb in the Recoleta Cemetry
It reads in Spanish - "One day I shall return, and I shall be millions"see her again. She has been learning Spanish and working at a hostel for poor kids in Buenos Aires for the past month, and we met up at a nice bar in the Recoleta area with a bunch of girls from her Spanish school. A good night was had, with me introducing Terry to the Pisco Sours and having a heated debate about the merits of skiing over snow boarding! Unfortunately I was the wrong person to ask as I haven't done either!!! Sarah was off on the Inca Trail in Peru next, so I told her to keep in touch with any tips for when I get to Cusco next month!
Next up for me and Terry was a short 2 hour flight to Iguazu Falls. We stayed in the Hostel Inn - a HI place around 5km from town. After staying in a nice (albeit freezing) hotel for 3 days I thought Terry needed some hostel experience to really get back into the travelling routine! Unfortunately Terry took one look at our six
A passionate pose at the climax of one of the tango dances
Is it me or does that look like Roy peering out in the background?! bed dorm and said that he'd prefer a single room!!! Perfectly understandable as he is on holiday and not back-packing around the world on a budget, but I gave him a lot of stick telling him this place was luxury compared to some of the places we stayed at in Israel travelling together many years ago!
The great thing about staying in hostels of course, is that you meet loads of people - and so it proved in Iguazu. We got to the hostel around lunchtime, and I overheard an Aussie guy arranging a trip to see the Brazilian side of the Falls that afternoon. I thought that we may as well hit the ground running, and asked if we can join him. In the end, there was around 8 of us that went across the border, including Pete and his son Oscar from Australia (top blokes), and Paulina from Holland (like all Dutch - completely crazy!). We ended up having a great afternoon. It was only a 30 minute drive across to the Brazilian side, with a brief stop at the border to stamp our passports, and we were at The Falls
The Iguazu Falls are a
majestic sight when you first cast your eyes on them. On the Brazilian side you get a real perspective on their size - just a panoramic view of dozens of waterfalls as far as the eye can see. It was very strange standing there watching them for the first time - the sheer magnitude of the scene is amazing, with dense forest leading down to the roaring water, rainbows forming in the mist on a blue sky, and dozens of eagles gliding around on the air currents generated by the force of the water below. We strolled along the walkway taking far too many photos every time we turned another corner - each time we were confronted with another amazing vista. Towards the end of the walkway, there is a pontoon that takes you right out into the middle of the river, called The Devils Throat. It is a wonderful experience walking along with the water spraying everywhere, but we all got seriously soaked! Terry was a brave man joining me at the end of the pontoon without a raincoat on - it made for a good picture even if he did get very soggy!
We got an open
top bus back from the Falls to our minivan, which seemed like a good idea until the freezing wind picked up and everyone on the top deck went a delicate shade of blue!
The next day we visited the Argentine side of the falls. I had an email that morning from my friend Angela telling me that the Brazilian side is good for getting a perspective of the falls from a distance, but the Argentine side was better for experiencing the sheer power and scale of the falls close up. I couldn't agree more. The walkways on the Argentine side almost took you into the waterfalls, with stunning views up close of the awesome volume of water cascading into the frothing chasm below. We went up with Pete and Oscar again, and a nice girl we met from Colorado called Kim. The Argentina side had it's own "Devils Throat", and it was even more spectacular than the Brazilian side. This walkway went on for around 2km, and by the end you right out over the falls - definitely not a good walk for anyone suffering from vertigo! The view at the end was out of this world. Terry, Kim
and I just stood there in front of this deafening, roaring torrent of water, getting completely drenched just gawping at the power of nature. I have never experienced anything like it on my life. I just grinned like a cheshire cat thinking how lucky I was to be there watching this breathtaking scene. I didn't want to leave, but after 20 minutes of noise and spray not dissimiliar to someone throwing a bucket of water at you, we signalled to each other to head back.
We ended up having a raucous night out after our falls trip. About ten of us went into town to visit the local parrilla (the Argentine word for steakhouse), and ended up drinking far too much. Terry and I ordered the mixed grill to share, and when it turned up it looked like half a butchers shop on a griddle! I was given tasting duties on a few bits of offal that Terry did not like the look of. One of the Spanish girls who was with us pointed out that I was eating cows intestines, and cut a piece of it apart revealing bits of grass just to prove the point!! Everyone was
on good form, and Paulina and I had a real laugh with the live band complete with lead singer wearing a mauve v-neck jumper! Rock and Roll!!! "Cuando Cuando Cuando" was my favourite song of the night I think!! One girl who was out with us, Kristen from USA, was telling me about her collection of rock and roll classics played on pan pipes. Apparently her favourite is "Appetite for Destruction" by Gun n Roses - have to look out for that one in the shops. That's what I call elevator music!!
Terry and I had an absolutely bizarre final day in Iguazu. We had put our names down for a day long jungle safari into the nearby rainforests, but ended up being a surreal experience. Firstly our guide (who bore a spooky resemblence to Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean) turned up in a taxi, informing us in Spanish that his jeep had broken down. That meant four blokes - Jack Sparrow, Terry, Israel from Brazil, and a French guy called Sebastien all had to get in the back of this taxi, with yours truly lucky enough to get the front seat courtesy of the length of
my legs! Poor Terry didn't look too happy in the back with some big Brazilian guy with his arms aroung his shoulder!! The driver, Sergio didn't look too happy driving along the bumpy muddy roads - probably concerned with the damage being done to his suspension. We drove along this mud road for around 30 minutes, when Sergio came to a stop and Jack Sparrow told us all to get out. He muttered something in Spanish to Sergio, who then drove off down the road, and we proceeded to walk along on foot. As we plodded along the heavens opened, making the already muddy road more like a ice rink. "It's okay", I said to Terry - "we'll be turning off this road into the jungle in a minute". But we didn't - we just kept walking up that muddy road, having to move to one side every now and then when a local bus or a moped sped past. Every now and again Jack would call us over to look at something. First it was a dead butterfly - it was obviously very colourful but it was definitely dead - probably the victim of a bus windscreen. Jack had
a butterfly book with him and was able to show us a photograph of what a live one should look like -Terry and I just started giggling! There were a few live butterflies that were pointed out to us, along with sightings of toucans in distant trees that could have been pigeons for all I know, and animal prints in the mud, but by now people were starting to wonder when our jungle trek will start. After an hour of walking, we came up to Sergio's parked taxi on the side of the road. "Right back in the taxi again everybody!" Jack shouted. We all piled back in and went off for another drive along the muddy road in the rain. We stopped off again a while later, and the same thing happened - walking along the same road looking at insect roadkill and dubious animal prints. As Jack could speak limited English, it was left to Israel from Brazil translate. "These prints are from a tapir" we were told, "It passed here not half an hour ago". By now the animal prints (we'd already seen the prints of a deer and a wild hog) were getting Jack very excited
Our first view of Iguazu Falls on the Brazilian side
You can just about make out a few eagles gliding through the mist - unfortunately the excitement was not rubbing off on anyone else! I had a theory that there were no animals here at all, and Sergio the taxi driver was hopping out ahead of us up the road with some paw-print contraption feverishly leaving prints in the mud. The funniest instant was when Jack spotted what he thought was a singular jaguar footprint in the mud. I asked if it was a jaguar, should there not be lots of prints, or at least four, but our guide could not answer that one! I had images of a jaguar hopping through the Iguazu rainforest on one leg, in order to confuse anybody on a jungle safari!! Because the weather was so foul, we all had to get back into the taxi. We drove around for another hour or two, stopped for lunch, and finally made it on a 45 minute jungle walk in the afternoon (where suprisingly we saw nothing!) before being driven back to our hostel soggy, muddy and bemused!! All in all a very strange day, but one that me and Terry were laughing about for days afterwards.
We flew to Buenos Aires the following day. It was good
to be back there again, and there were still plenty of boxes for me and Terry to tick.
We had planned for a big night out on Saturday - Paulina and Kim from Iguazu were both in town, as well as Melissa and Rachael who I met a few weeks ago in El Chalten, who were coming up from Ushuaia. It ended up being a slightly strange night though. There were mayoral elections in Buenos Aires on Sunday, and because of this, nowhere was licenced to sell alcohol past 7pm the night before. I guess the powers that be in Buenos Aires are worried that people will drink too much the night before and vote for the wrong party or not vote at all. Can you imagine that in the UK? "I was going to vote for Labour, but after 8 pints of Stella I think I'll go for the Lib Dems instead!" Very funny. Anyway, as a result of this, the only place selling any booze was the bar at the Milhouse Hostel where Paulina was staying. We all went there, and of course it was absolutely heaving. After getting out of the hostel at 2ish, we hightailed
it to the trendy Opera Bay nightclub in the dockside area of Puerto Madero. Paulina had an Argentine friend with her called Mika who managed to get us all on the guest list, which was just as well as there were hundreds of people queuing to get in. The whole experience was fun but weird in that the only drinks being served were Red Bull, Sprite or water. The music was good though (especially when me and Terry had found "The 80s Lounge"!) - and a good night was had. A slight dampener was put on proceedings at the end of the night when someone nicked my bag containing my fleece, Lonely Planet and address book - nothing valuable but just annoying. I rang up the club the following day though and the bag had been found minus the fleece - at least one local went home warm from the club on Saturday night!
The next day Terry and I went back to San Telmo - this time with the market in full swing. It really is a great place to spend a Sunday - lots of stalls selling all sorts of bric-a-brac, jewellery and clothes. We had a
great afternoon wandering around, and Terry went into serious tourist mode buying hats, masks, paintings, wallets and mugs (!). I must admit though the gaucho leather cowboy hat at 80 pesos (about 12 quid) was too good for me to turn down! We went went a slap up steak dinner in Puerto Madero bt the dock area in the evening.
Another box that Terry wanted to tick was a visit to a football match. Boca were playing away from home, but River Plate, the other big team in Buenos Aires were playing. Unfortunately because of crowd trouble, they were not playing at their normal home ground, and were instead playing at the Vélez Sársfield stadium some 30 minutes out of town. It was still a fun evening though, despite the slightly strange atmosphere of a neutral ground. Apparently the stadium hosted a lot of matches during the 1978 World Cup in Argentina - it didn't look like it had had much improvement to it done from then! There were lots of rugby markings on the pitch as a result of the Pumas vs Ireland rugby match that had been played at the ground a couple of days ago. The
game itself was pretty awful. River Plate have had a bad season and the crowd are not happy with the manager or the board (sounds like West Ham earlier in the season!). River were playing a team called Goya Cruz, who were fighting relegation, but despite lots of possession they couldn't score a goal. Then in the last minute, Goya ran down the other end and scored the only goal of the game. Cue lots of disgruntled River Plate fans singing "Sack the board" in Spanish! Terry bought a River Plate scarf at the game, and I told him he should be supporting a decent team like Boca Juniors!
We joined Rachael and Melissa the following day for a day trip to Colonia in Uraguay. It only took one hour to get there on the fast boat from Buenos Aires. The sleepy little seaside town made a complete contrast to the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires. The old town is a Unesco listed site, and with it's cobbled streets and colourfully painted houses, the setting was like something straight out of a postcard. We meandered around the almost deserted streets, pottered around the souvenier shops, and went for
a nice alfresco lunch in the town square. It was all very nice, but I must say one afternoon there is more than enough time - there really wasn't that much to do. We got the boat back to Buenos Aires later that afternoon and left Rachael and Melissa, who were going on to the capital of Uraguay, Montevideo, and Punta del Este - another seaside town close by.
In the evening we went to Cafe Tortoni, a very elegant old place full of character, with chandeliers and lots of mirrors. We were ushered to the back and asked if we would like to see a tango show - and who were we to turn another tango show?! It turned out to be another goody, in even more intimate surroundings than the last one at El Alcamen. The music and the dancing were brilliant, and we were very close to the dancers. I can see Terry taking up tango lessons when he goes home - he was loving it!!
On Terry's last day we went to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in the Recoleta area. Great stuff in there, including paintings by Van Gogh, Monet, Degas, Pissarro
and Le Trek. Very nice way to spend a morning. A last minute bit of tourist shopping in the afternoon, and it was time for Tel to go home back to Blighty. It was sad to see him go. The 10 days he was here simply whizzed by, but at least we managed to cram a lot in. It's been great that he was able to come and join me again. I have been very lucky that during my time away good friends like Terry, Jill, Alexy, Vince, Leanne, my Dad, and Karen have all been able to link up with me. And I still have one more visitor to come - Marnie is coming out to Cusco in July to spend 3 weeks in Peru and Bolivia with me, which will be brilliant.
I have a few more days here in BA before getting a bus across to Cordoba and the Central Sierras. I need to get back in the outdoors again - two weeks in a big city and I am missing the mountains and the lakes! I am suffering from trekking withdrawal symptoms I think!!
So ends a massive blog - thanks for staying with
it all the way to the bottom! I'll try and keep the next one a bit shorter!
Until the next time...
Kim and I pose for a photo on the Argentine side of the Falls
Doogs
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Jilly
non-member comment
You going for a world record for photos with different women ;-)