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Published: March 14th 2005
BA is absolutely fabulous. I just don’t have enough adjectives in my vocab to explain to you all how great it is. Though not comparable everyone says it is between BA and Rio as to which is the best city in SA. If it was not for my love affair with Rio then BA would probably be at the top of my list too... well lets see where it is at the end of this trip!
We arrived on the Buquebus (I love the word!) from Colonia. A very organized efficient service which got us in to the new port area of BA. From there we took the commuter train and ended up in San Insidrio where Gin´s cousin and wife live. K & G were the best hosts we could have had. You can imagine what I thought when we were immediately whisked off at 10.30 at night to go eat beef and have all the different cuts of beef explained to us! That is all we ate - beef and then these amazing desserts with a hell of a lot of dulce de leche!
First full day in BA and of course we took ourselves off to the heart of it to Casa Rosada. I have to say that it is a fairly violent pink colour. The story goes that there has been a lot of discussion as to how the paint was such a strong colour. Sure enough if you look at the back side of Casa Rosada you will see that it is a much lighter, gentler shade of pink!
We got there by walking along Avenida Florida (another point to note lots of streets here are named after places - especially countries, or people). It is THE street for shopping. As always it is fun to see the fashions of where you are. We also had lunch at this cafe on a street corner which was fab for people watching.
What hit me the most about those first couple of hours in BA is how European the architecture is. Fair enough I had been told this. However to hear it and to actually see it are two different things. We then just tool twists and turns and see what we fell across and got a fell for the city.
In the evening we were invited to a birthday party with our hosts. We went to this flat with most stunning view of BA (the flat itself was pretty amazing too!) It was on the 40th floor of the tallest building in Arg and had a panoramic view of BA including the Casa Rosada. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, Gin did so photos will be posted soon....
Saturday and it was a day trip to Tigre (more beef) and a boat trip. Beautiful houses on the border of the river and again you can image yourself somewhere in Europe. With the Tudor styles - England. The evening was spent eating some fantastic seafood (not beef!) - but cazuela de mariscos which I have been trying to have since the last time I had it was in Colombia (yes I am country dropping here!). Afterwards we were having a drink in la plaza which was simply buzzing. Everything here starts late and goes on till even later. We went to the ´local at three, with the bar staff dancing on the bar by the time we left at 4.30 ish....
When in BA on a Sunday the thing to do is to go to the San Telmo flea market. So that is what we did. It was also the perfect weather to wander round and soak in the atmosphere of the street vendors and tango dancing and music playing. We then wandered over to Recoleta, the chique (posh) part of town for a spot to eat. Grabbed a taxi and found ourselves in La Boca which is the slum part of town! From the photos you will see that they have made it super colorful and it has now become quite the tourist thang to wander the streets and admire the differently painted houses.
We were treated to a fabulous home cooked meal and beautiful wine to go with it.
Monday was just a chill out day as we prepared to set off to Mendoza.
Time was short and sweet in BA. I think we got a fabulous overview and feel for the city. Having fantastic hosts of course made it even better and it is always great to have ´locals to show you round and help give you a feel of what it is like to live in such a city.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/foodiefloozie/
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anonymous
non-member comment
Ouch
Hiya Natalie, It tears my heart out to see you suffer like this, you clearly miss us and afre already sad to have left us... NOT If your trip is as good as it sound and continues to be, we'll give up our fabulous lifes at Nalco to join you. No, have fun, and we'll follow your fantastic advantures as you go along, drewling over our keyboards... Love, Peter - Peter