Don´t cry for me Argentina

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Hola amigos!

Well for those of you who didn´t know, we are now in Buenos Aires! Arrived on Thursday (it´s now Saturday) after what seemed like an extremely long flight from Heathrow. It didn´t actually hit me until we were wating to board, where I was actually going, and then the excitement hit! I was also really floored by the fact that I was going on a long-haul flight which didn´t somehow incorporate Asia. This also seemed weird as we were flying and I was watching the flight progression on the screen, we were flying over countries and cities I had never really even thought about that much.

Flying with a plane full of South Americans rather than Asians was also obvious. There were 3 Argentinian blokes sitting in the row in front of us, part of a bigger group who seemed to be unaware until they were waiting to board the plane, that the others they knew were on the flight (they were all delighted by this fact) One guy who seemed to be the most popular, Jose (we later found out his name and all) turned up to board the plane wearing an over-sized beret and carrying a duck soft toy which "quacked" when he squeezed it. So there was a lot of banter and excitement amongst the ranks on boarding the plane, especially as he had to go up and "quack" to everyone he knew. We had bareley been seated on the plane then the bloke sitting in front of me immediately put his cushion on his head and stood up, turned to the back of the plane, yelling "Jose, look at me, I´m the Pope!" John and I thought this was hysterical, even more the fact that he wasn´t even drunk! He sat in his seat with the bespoke cushion on head (he really did look like some kind of papal version!) - he was doing the hand signals and everything. Such impromtu caberet I can´t imagine ever getting on a plane to Malaysia, Singapore or Japan!

So apart from The Pope and "Hombre de pato" (duck man) the flight was relatively normal. We had an hour stop-over in Sao Paolo but weren´t allowed off the plane. Buenos Aires was a 2.5 hour flight from there. We were delighted to arrive, the flight seemed really long and although John managed to get some sleep, I was extremely uncomfortable and didn´t get any.

We got a 2 buses and then a taxi to our hostel, all drivers were really helpful and friendly. We did a little exploring of our area in the afternoon, as much as jet-lag and tiredness would allow. We are staying in Palermo which is a stones throw from some really groovy little shops and cafes, and my eyes lit up when I saw the cool threads on offer in some of the places, planning to go back today!

Yesterday we walked to the area of La Recoleta which is really posh with all the 5 star hotels, Tiffany shops etc. We visited the cemetary there which is huge and quite overwhelming with all the sarcophogi - amazing huge structures with elaborate statues - some looked like small houses! We saw the grave of Eva Peron as well as a few Irish blokes who were involved in establishing the navy in Argentina. We also couldn´t get over the amount of "dog-walkers" in the city. All over the place we saw people walking with up to 12 dogs at a time! We saw at least 10 people being hauled along by huge packs of all different sizes! Unfortunately there is no law regarding picking up what is left behind! Thus a lot of dodging along the footpath! Healthy looking cats were also living in large numbers in the botanical gardens and a few enjoyed the sun and the warmth of the marble headstones in the cemetary as well!

Last night we (illegally) drank some of Argentina´s finest vino in our room (an "expensive" bottle - worth over a fiver!) and went for dinner and drinks around Palermo.

Our impression so far has been really great. We both keep kicking ourselves that we are actually here. Everything is extremely cheap, as John said, it´s 3rd world prices for 1st world goods.

We´ll do a little more exploring today, maybe try and catch some tango tonight. We are flying to Santiago tomorrow.

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Comments

[Antoine]

BA
One of my favourite places in the world, beautiful city, lucky things. Antoine (buddy of John's..used to beat him in athletics comp's as an 8 yr old, seriously! he caught up with me by 10 tho ;)