Buenos-Aires

Argentina

January 2007
11 days

Buenos Aires (Good Air)
4th to 15th January 2007

Woohay so here we go with part two as we enter the final four and a half months of our trip.

We left Cusco (Peru) if you remember and had three flights lined up for that day.... Cusco to Lima, Lima to Sao Paulo where we were supposed to be staying for a few weeks to check out Brazil but due to recent gang voilence, we spotted on Google, we purchased an extra flight straight to the hot cosmopolitan city of Buenos Aires for a painful 550GBP...ouch.

It turns out that the money was very well spent as since, we have met numerous backpackers each with their own horror stories about Brazil... Lots of people say they had been mugged or know people who have been mugged in Rio/Sao Paulo at knife or gun point nice... but thats getting off likley providing you simply hand everything over. Even worse are the stories we heard about gangs stopping night buses inbetween towns and robbing everyone. Or worse still on one coach people were taken hostage for ransom except the lucky Ozzies who were all wearing flip flops and were left behind as their footwear was not suitable for the jungle hideaway the gang had in mind to take them too... jammy... gotta wear flip flops guys!

We made our decision and are now glad we trusted our instincts because it turns out later that Argentina is to be our new favouite place on Earth. Buenos Aires is a lively city and it´s really so different to Peru, it seems continents away. It reminds Sarah of a mixture of San Fransisco, France and Miami...with more added!! Don't know what it reminds me of because I'm so damn busy looking at all the ladies here.... they are truly marvellous and have almost earnt me a few slaps from Miss Young already. : )

Cracks Me Up!
So we get yet another taxi from the airport to our great hostel on Avenue Corrientes, the theatre district, and once again we get a taxi whos windscreen has more cracks in it than a rhinos armpit... It even has what looks like a few bullet holes in it although this not being Bhagdad I assume they are instead from stones flying up at the screen. They are so bad that the taxi driver is actually having to sit slouched badly to one side just so he can look through a clean unbroken piece of glass. Why do that you inbecile... I´m sure the new windscreen will be a hell of a lot cheaper than the chiropractor bills after your backs slips out of place in a few months. Guess thats why you're driving a taxi and not working for NASA.

Whats up Dock?
First day and we walk to the Docks to eat nice food by the water and enjoy the scenery. They were very similar to St Catherines Docks near Tower Bridge with penthouse apartments which looked very exclusive and expensive. On the way back we watch DeJa Vu with Densil Washington which was a great movie full of twists and turns that were original and unexpected. Got a feeling we are going to like it here..... and make sure you go see that movie.

Day of the Dead
Next day we walk down to the first major cemetery in BA and see Eva Peron (Evita's) tomb site, far from being morbid the place is actually very peaceful and nice. Its not how you expect it to be with grass and tombstones. Instead this is a place for the rich and famous who spend thousands upon thousand for plots in one of the little paved walkways and have beautiful or scary looking tombs built. Some are about 15 feet tall and with the cellar can hold up to ten or more coffins, which you can peer through and see sitting on shelves inside covered in cobwebs, spooky!

For a change of mood we slipped out the cemetary and straight in to the Hard Rock Cafe for a jug of beer and a stack of Nachos whilst admiring the memrobilia and listening to classic pop from Eric Clapton et al. Then we walk to and peruse a small artisan market/craft fair and finally spot some wooden salad sppons that we promised to buy Sabrina and Martin so hope they've arrived now guys!!!!

Girls Day Out
SY: Next day myself and Suzanne adventure via the Metro to the famous antiques and antiquities market...and try on hats and have a laugh at the &Quot;Arse&Quot; pizza on sale in the restaurant where we had lunch (no not arse, red wine and pasta) - thanks Suzanne for a great idea and a great day!!.

That night Jon and I went to see Michelangelo, a raunchy tango show that is performed only after you have drunk the free champaigne and sampled the appetisers. During the show you are served delicious food and here Jon got his first sample of the great beef and red wine that Argentina is so famous for.... It was fautless as was the dancing so we left having enjoyed a great evening.

You've Been Tangoed!
Sarah being a girl and one who is in to Tango and Salsa, could not resist shopping for some Tango shoes which to be frank, took up a lot of the next day...the night found us in Brocollini, the best pasta place ever with over 27 different toppings of pasta and fab house red wine. What with being so comfortable in Cusco and eating well over Christmas and now coming here where the beef, pasta and wine are irresistable I start to notice that my jeans are getting that little bit tighter... note to self... stop bloody eating so much!

Next day with Sarah itching to put her new shoes to the test we venture out to Tango school. I'd promised Sarah a long time ago that I'd go if she went to the dentist for the first time in 8 years, which she did, so I couldnt very well refuse. It was a beginners class with 7 girls, me and one other dopey looking lad. He turned out to be rubbish as he plodded around like Forrest Gump. I got the gist of it straight away learning the basic eight step and asked several of the girls to practice with me as the teacher said I was a natural.... huh! Who needs special shoes when you are born with feet like mine! He heee.

All You Can Eat Buffets
Now we'd decided to cut back on the pasta and meat so we headed to the Granix Resturant for an absolutely amazing Veggie buffet where you can eat yourself to death (nearly) as all the food is amazing. But although we were eating healthier ingredients, being free, we ate more than usual so we left feeling a little unsure as to whether or not this had been beneficial to our waistlines.

The following lunchtime we tried the Chinese buffet near the hostel as it looked busy which is always a good sign that it probably doesn't serve rat or cat posing as chicken. It was great and only 2 quid for as much food as you can get inside you and washed down with a beer and ice cream.... I left feeling like Homer Simpson with a bulging belly and headed of in search for some yellow paint to colour myself with! Doh! Diet starts tomorrow.....

That evening we headed out at 11pm and jumped in another taxi to one of the two floating casinos down near the docks. These are two old stylie steamer boats parked next to each other... one loaded on each floor with noisy slot machines and the other providing the more sophisticated tables where you could play Black Jack, Roulette and Craps. We stayed there until 4am and this was on a school night, bus as we don't go school no more, it was great fun.... and better still we only lost about 20 pounds in total.

City Tour
We spend the morning lying in after our late night and skulk around the hostel. Its a beautiful 100 year old building that has been carefully restored back to its original state. Large rooms with high celings and ornate windows and wooden floors. It has two superb old internal elevators with the slide across metal criss cross gates and the whole lift and elevator are see through.. and move up and down within a spiral staircase... and its.. well.. just quaint and I like that.

The afternoon arrived and we jumped on the City Tour bus which allowed us to venture a little further beyond these central streets to the outskirts where people were not so fortunate. We visited the Boca Juniors football stadium where Maradonna had once played. They have a large statue of him here although we´d already seen his face on a hundred T-shirts all over the capital, so we knew he was still worshipped and thought of as a hero. The other face we see on everything is that of Che Guevara, who is now dead but once Liberated Cuba from a corrupt military dictatorship.

Boca itself is a poor neighbourhood where all the houses are made of cheap materials mostly corrugated tin or other metals. That being so dull, everyone here cheers up the streets by painting their houses bright bright vivid colours which gives it a cool vibe. Small streets with bright houses, balconies, trees, markets and restaurants so its now a places for all tourists to come and take photos.

Later we the slums that reside under the motorways in the underpasses, where we see young kids kicking an old football about in their bare feet maybe dreaming of being like Maradonna one day.

The trip ended and dropped as back near Recoletta, which is by that famous cemetery and here we have afternoon tea in one of the outside cafes that sit under these huge trees.... By huge Its hard to describe but they are wonderful to see but hard to capture in a photo as the thick trunk is not that tall but just over head height it chucks out these thick branches horizontally and they expand for well over 30 feet to create this shady canopy. We walk back via the streets lined with expensive shops for those that like Gucci and Prada and get back to prepare for our flight down to Ushuaia at the very bottom of the world and at the base of Argentina.... Bye for now.