Europe in South America

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Geo: -34.6118, -58.4173

Today we bid goodbye to Brazil. We woke for breakfast in Iguazu, checked out and met Bruno from G Adventures for a transfer to the airport. We'd cross the border into Argentina and board a domestic flight from Argentina Iguazu Airport to Jorge Newberry Airport in Buenos Aries. If only all economy seats were so comfortable and roomy as this particular LAN jet. Yeah, we had emergengy exit seats which afforded us extra leg room, but even still. The seat width, comfort, was great.Two hours later we touched down in Buenos Aries, capital of Argentina. Being a domestic flight, there were no hassles here. We gathered our bags and some cash before proceeding to international arrivals to order a "radio" taxi (prepaid).The currency here in Argentina is the Argentine Peso (ARS). 1AUD$ = approx $11.5ARS, so everything SEEMS expensive in high numbers. Once the radio taxi was eventually organised it cost us $250ARS or around $22AUD for half hour to the city centre. There was a massive delay getting this organised with their card reader playing up but it seemed a legitimate malfunction rather than scam.

Our taxi ride to the hotel was a bit of an eye opener. I expected Buenos Aries to be fairly different from Rio, but not THIS different. Initially, coming from the airport there were plenty of poor shanty style homes, brick built on top of each other, with open spaces and missing walls. Not too dissimilar from Favela or District layouts. However, as we got onto the highway to the city centre, things changed. Shades of Melbourne, Barcelona, and America combined. The city is huge; skyscrapers spread throughout, waves of people crowding the streets, hurrying about, giant billboards and computerised advertising, Western themed ads and themes, European style architecture and craftsmanship, gargoyles, ornate carvings, grand cathedrals and cobblestone roads.Our cab wound us around some back alleys to our hotel. You would hardly know it existed without the street numbers - Hotel Moreno. A little doorway to a desk, with an old fashioned metal grate, manual sliding elevator door. Up to reception one floor for checkin. We were a little dissappointed our room here for 2 nights was on the same floor as reception, just 20 metrres from the checkin desk, but the room is huge and bed comfy. Its pretty noisy here and the view from the window is a floor down to an alley with a garbage bin being raided by a hobo, but no matter. The guys from reception did drop off a tiny bottle of champaigne which was a nice gesture.The hotel is 7 floors and offers breakfast and a lounge with quite a view from the roof. The skyline of old and new architecture and seemingly endless cathedral domes and sculptures was pretty impressive!

Being 5.30pm now, we decided to go for a bit of a walking adventure. We just got out and walked to the nearest main square, a monument here before a governmenf building was surrounded by dozens of protesters, tents, what looked like graves and an ominous siren sounding. We proceeded on past down a large crowded main street towards an even bigger towering pillar monument at Central Square. It felt like a central meeting spot at peak hour after work. The streets didnt feel particularly unsafe or anything but we were cautious. We wound our way back trying to take it all in and grabbed some water and yoghurt from a supermarket. Ive a couple days left of surgery medication and its starting to make me feel tired and sickly.Here in Argentina the language is Spanish rather than Portuguese in Brazil, and it really feels like a part of Spain. Styles, attitudes and architecture all seem more Spanish/ European. People seem alot more arty, concerned with fashion, hipster, rushed, and highly strung at first glimpses than in Brazil. Everyone seems to smoke. Not just tobacco. Restaraunts open for dinner at 8, til quite late. Tonights feed was a French influenced cafe down the road, recommended by the hotel called Brasserie Petanque. Tripadvisor showed it as #42 of 3500 restaraunts in BA. The food was a massive improvement from much of our Brazillian experiences but not breathtaking. Snails, a couple glasses of an Argentine Malbec, some steaks and dessert cost us all up around $1000ARS or a bit under $100AUD. 7/10? Language barriers aside, staff seemed a fraction snooty and dismissive of us as foreigners.We returned back and collapsed into a comfy bed. Noisy surroundings didnt bother us too much except what sounded like a train above us at 1am. Tomorrow we have a full day to explore the city by open roof yellow bus.

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Comments

[Keith]

poor bling looks exhausted! what have you done to the poor thing!

[[e-mail]]

Hope you gave him a massage?