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Published: March 2nd 2006
La Boca
JGirl & Dunx looking the partWe had been looking forward to this part of our trip following endless recommendations and backpacker hype. We are pleased to report that BA met and exceeded all our expectations, Its a wicked city and heres why...
The city has a distinct European feel to it and walking around the streets, you could almost be in Paris or Barcelona. The architecture is impressive and the streets (in the main) are clean and safe. There are endless wicked bars, restaurants and funky shops and everything is dirt cheap!!! Locals are friendly and fun loving and despite the trecherous 80´s with Mrs Maggie T doing little for Anglo-Argentinian relations, we were welcomed with open arms and smiley faces.
On advise we stayed at the Garden House Hostal in San Telmo, which was like living with yer mates in a big comfy house. We loved it there so much we ended up staying for around 3 weeks off and on; We left BA a couple of times, once to go camping in Tigre (town on the edge of the Rio de la Plata, outside of BA) and once to go camping and partying in Uruguay, both times returning to the hostel. More
Buenos Aires
Some of the grand mauseleums in the Recoleta Cemetery on both ventures to follow.
I had been looking forward to try out Tango, Argentinian´s famous dance. To get in the groove, we went to see Tango Por Dos which is basically a show telling the history of Tango through dance. Theres narration too but most of it went over our heads (Argentinian Spanish pronunciation is a bit tricky to get your head round...at first). On Wednesdays, you can get top price tickets for 25 pesos (4 quid ish), so off we went. The show was absolutely amazing, one of the best dance shows i´ve ever seen. It´s a very sensual, powerful dance, and we left feeling all geared up to learn some. Dunx actually was keener than I thought he´d be, although I think his inspiration may have came from from the sexy costumes the gorgeous Argentinian lasses wore (or what little there were of them!) Highly recommend this show to anyone in BA..
We also went along to a group class with some of the Garden House crew. Obviously the professional dancers made Tango look easy, flowing and rythmic... but its bloody hard! learning the first, most basic step took us all the whole class and
Buenos Aires
JGirl outside Casa Rosada (the paint used contains Ox´s blood to get the pink colour...nice!) we were then let lose to practise our newly acquired skills at a Milonga later that night. Milongas are basically where locals go to Tango. The backpacker contingent were a bit timid and most just sat and watched in awe. Not us, oh no! I dragged Dunx up and we awkwardly made our way around the dance floor bumping into amorous couples wrapped in their dramatic embrace, generally getting in everyone´s way. This amused us and some of the locals but I think infuriated many more. Its all a bit serious at Milongas you see and obviously a place for novices to watch rather than participate in. Determined still to feel the whole Tango thang, we decided private lessons were the way forward...
Our teacher, Thomas, had the patience of a saint. We booked 2 one hour classes but both times the classes overran by quite a bit... I think he saw our potential and wanted to see it flourish... te he he. In Tango, the man takes the lead and to be honest, I found being the passive party tricky. I really tried not to take the lead but after a few minutes, completely subconsciously my feet began
Buenos Aires
Music in Plaza Dorrega to resist and be stubborn. In theory, I love the concept of being lead by the man and feeling the dance intuitively but I´m just not cut out for that yet, I need to work on that. Dunx impressed me (and himself) with his ability to remember the steps and after 4 hours or so I think we managed to get it together enough to dance a little routine. Although, Im writing this now, some days later thinking its all been forgotten. I´m trying to persuade Dunx to take it up in Brighton with me...um....not sure how sucessful i´ll be! For those wanting to learn too, contact Thomas at UNI TANGO, www.uni-tango.com, he is an excellent teacher.
There are many street markets selling artesan goods in BA (ferias), all of which are very good. Our fave being the feria outside Recoleta cemetery. It is huge and bursting with incredible talent. We spent many an hour just wondering around soaking up the atmosphere and checking out all the original artwork, clothing and jewellery. We couldn´t resist buying some pressies for folk back home, and have since had to buy another bag to fit them all in!
Another excellent feria
Buenos Aires
Re-united with Annie! We love this gal! is the Antiques market at Plaza Dorrega, San Telmo. The streets are lined with stalls selling all sorts of antiques and even to an untrained eye, the goods seemed to be a real bargain. There is live music and dancing just to add to the atmosphere. There is also, a well-known cafe on the plaza, I think its called the Plaza Dorrega cafe (unimaginatively) Anyway, the floor is completely covered in monkey nut shells as the custom is to shell, eat, then toss the shells on the floor. It was all a bit odd throwing our rubbish around, to begin with at least, but after a while we thought what the hell, and the floor around our table was inches high in monkey nut shells when we left.
La Boca is a district where the first immigrants settled. They came mainly from Italy and upon arrival built a number of houses out of wood covered in corrugated iron which they then painted in a variety of very bright colours. Locals are football mad and La Boca is home to the infamous Boca Juniors. Its definitely worth a visit, but the only street of interest is Caminito.
The cemetery
Cafe Plaza Dorrega
License to make a mess in Recoleta is also well worth a visit. It was similiar to the one we visited in Santiago, in that it was full of huge, impressive mausoleums. The most visited, houses the remains of Evita, along with her family (La Familia Duarte). Rather embarrasingly, this was the only Argentinian we´d heard of who was buried there (and I know we weren´t alone) but judging by the size of all the tombs, she was not the most famous. Ironically, it was one of the least interesting and modest mausoleums in the cemetery but this didn´t stop it being surrounded by happy snappers, myself included.
We though we´d go and learn more about ´Evita´, Argentina's most famous first lady, as our only knowledge of this legend is based on Madonna´s portrayal of Eva Peron in the film Evita, and I´m not convinced she did her justice. The Museo Evita is interesting, and although the English translation was comically very poor, we got the general gist. The museum is worth a visit. More info for those interested, www.evitaperon.org
Shopping in BA is a whole new experience, especially in Palermo Viejo, an area full of boutiques and independent shops. The norm for
La Boca
Colourful buildings these kind of shops in London is very snobby, with looks up and down as soon as you enter, followed by dismissive gestures if you´re not up to scratch. Here it is quite the opposite. Many of the shops are run by the designers themselves, who are genuinely friendly and couldn´t be more welcoming. We arrived during the Sales too, so everything was cheaper even still. We had a lot of fun mooching around the shops and replenishing our wardrobes... There is also a beautiful park in Palermo and the Japanese gardens are also a tranquil place to get some R n R.
Dining in BA was also another great pastime of ours during our stay there. There are many, many tasy places and lots of choice, for veggies too! Sushi became a bit of an obsession, with regular trips for Sushi Libre (you can order anything off the menu, and as much as you want, or your stomach can handle) at the shockingly low price of 8 pounds each who could blame us!? ´Grants´ was another excellent find... a buffet with every kind of food imaginable, very fresh and cheap to boot! Krishna too (Palermo Viejo) was a
regular haunt of mine... lots of tasty, spicy, veggie food.
For Valentines we packed our bags and headed off to camp in Tigre, a suburb of BA located on the banks of the Rio Delta with our newly purchased tent. This we though would make a romantic break, but in soaring temperatures of 36-38 degrees, a tiny tent and our campsite being the favourite haunt for trillions of mosquitos it didn´t quite work out as planned. We kayaked around the delta of the Rio de Plata which was a laugh and It was nice to get out of the city for a couple of days.
Unperturbed by our encounter with the mozzies and the Great Outdoors, we decided to make a break for Uruguay to spend some more time with Mother Nature....
There are a few photos missing, which we´ll download soon
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Harvey
non-member comment
prezzies....
at last evidence of gifts for the workers back home. Nice pictures. Looking forwards to seeing your dance routine when you get back...