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Published: October 21st 2009
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It was only four and a half months ago, and I am back to where I started. Being back in Buenos Aires seemed like a breath of fresh air compared to some of the places I have visited and certainly after that bus journey from La Paz. After that journey from La Paz, the only thing which was keeping me sane was the thought of drinking some nice wine and eating some of the world best steak.
As it so happened, I wasn’t the only person that was having a bad journey. My friend, Sarah who was coming across from London to spend a couple of weeks travelling with me had an 8 hour stop off in Sao Paulo which was increased to 12 hours because her onward connection to Buenos Aires was delayed.
Sarah eventually arrived at 9.30pm. After a quick pit stop by the hostel to dump her bags we were heading to one of the restaurants that I visited the last time I was here, Siga La Vaca, or follow the cow. It is an all-you-eat restaurant in the Puerto Madero area of the city. The last time I was here I ate much earlier and it
was during the week, so the restaurant wasn’t that busy. As it was a Friday the queue was flowing out of the door, with at least an hour wait. After the journey we both had just undertaken, cow and vino couldn’t wait. So it was into another taxi to another restaurant that I went to, which luckily wasn’t too busy. The food was excellent and the wine even better.
The last time I was here, I bought tickets to watch Boca Juniors play, and they were at home again that weekend. As I knew very little Spanish the last time I was here, the tickets were bought through a tour company and were expensive. The typical South American tax was included, as it is with everything that the ‘gringos’ need. This time I knew to head down to the stadium and pick them up in person for a fraction of the price. The queue for the 30 peso tickets was large, so I opted for the 60 peso ones, which was much smaller. So, two tickets to watch Boca Juniors vs. Velez, evening kickoff were purchased, and also Chelsea vs. Liverpool (Sarah supports Chelsea) was on at mid day
Buenos Aires time, so it was going to be a day of watching football. We managed to find a bar that was showing the game so we watched Chelski beat Liverpool 2-0 and then headed across to watch Boca Juniors. On the way, I thought it would be good to visit the Sunday market on Avenida Defansa, which is the street which leads from the Plaza De Mayo up to San Telmo. The market was busy, full of people looking around the stalls, trying to pick up and bargains and sampling the local food. On the way we both bought a leather wallet from one of the stands. Ten minutes later as we approached the Plaza at San Telmo, Sarah turns to look into the bag she has been carrying and realises that, one, the bag has been opened, and two, her pursue has gone. Well, she has only been in Buenos Aires for 46 hours and has managed to be pick pocketed (and also been sick in a restaurant at dinner that afternoon). In the bag were other possessions which hadn’t been taken, so it was just her wallet they had taken. After a few moments of trying to
work out what was in her wallet, which only contained cards (thank god), we decided to still head to the football and then make some phone calls when we got back to cancel cards etc.
Boca won the game 3-2 and it was a game that the home fans didn’t deserve to win, but three points is three points. We walked back from Boca Juniors down the same street that Sarah had been pick pocketed to see if there would be her wallet chucked to one side, but alias nothing. We picked up a couple bottles of vino from a shop and headed back to the hostel. Sarah made the necessary arrangements to cancel her cards. HSBC (known in the UK as the world local bank) would only send the replacement bank card to her home address. Not much use when you are in Buenos Aires, even though there were three HSBC’s on the same street as our hostel. Barclays were a little better and said it would take two weeks to get a replacement card sent out. Taking this into account meant only one thing, I would be paying for two on this adventure. The only reason I
asked Sarah to come out was so she could pay for me (Only kidding Sarah).
The next couple of days were spent visiting the many attractions in Buenos Aires and then Tuesday night we got a night bus (which is probably the best bus I have ever travelled on) to Mendoza. Suite Cama Class awaited Sarah and I, which could only be described as aeroplane first class on a bus. Huge seats, dinner and breakfast served. The only thing which was disappointing was the wine which they served us with the dinner. For a country which produces very good wine, for cheap, the wine we were served was sub-par.
By nine am, the following day we had reached Mendoza. Sarah had made friends with a couple of Kiwi guys who were staying at hostel in Buenos Aires and they caught the bus with us. All of us got a dorm together at a hostel next to the bus station. The hostel wasn’t that good. Sarah and I decided to venture out to find out what Mendoza had to offer, and also see if there were better hostel available which was closer to the centre of town. When we
got back to the hostel we found out that the kiwi guys had checked out and not sure if this was a coincidence but the hostel seemed to be a lot better due to them not being there. Also the fact one of them used to wear socks and sandals didn’t do him any favours either. Sarah and I decided to do the wine tour the following day, so as we were going to have a stomach full of red wine the following day we decided to just go out for a meal that night and also enjoy some wine to build us up for the following day.
The following day we changed hostels early to a place that was only two blocks from the centre plaza and then headed via bus to an area just outside Mendoza called Maipu. Maipu is one of the areas where a lot of the wine yards/bodegas are located. The set up for the tours in Mendoza is very simplistic. You can hire a bike and cycle around to the different bodegas, either taking in a tour at each one, trying some of the wines which they produce, or both. Sarah had her
reservations about cycling, but she was fine. In fact it was me who on the last bodega (and probably the largest bodega in the region) had a few too many vinos and cycled past it. The equivalent would probably be cycling down the Southbank and missing the London Eye.
There are over 2,000 wineries in Mendoza; even trying to visit 1% of them would have been hard work. Our first stop was the wine museum. We turned up, and upon arrival you receive a free glass of red wine. What a great start. The time was only 11 o’clock in the morning and we had already started on the red wine. The day was only going to end up going one way. There was an opportunity to look around the museum and see how wine has been produced through the ages. After the walk, I helped myself to another glass of wine. One of the women, who were handing out the wine, came across and hid the bottle which I helped myself from away. Obviously, they were being strict with the one glass of wine rule. It was a little cheeky considering the tour
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The Shref
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Hello mate i see you were at opposite end of the ground above all the loons!! bet the atmosphere was even better??? im sure that band were there when we went past as well! we should have came suited it for sure......