Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hola! and greetings from Buenos Aires. The more observant amongst you will notice that the accompanying picture is of La Paz, rather than Buenos Aires. There isn't a picture of Buenos Aires on this site, strangely. Anyway.
Buenos Aires is a big city with wide streets - the widest being about 12 lanes wide - 6 lanes of traffic going in each direction - that's the biggest but most of their streets are much wider than you'd find in most cities.
Cars? Well, fans of Renaults are well catered for: 9's; 11's; 12's; 18's; 19's and 21's in addition to current models, obviously. The only other place i know where you can still see Renault 12's is in Turkey - where there's a preposterous number. They even have Hillman Avengers here - renamed Dodge (but ought to be Dodgy). Peugeot fans will be pleased to know that there are lots of 504's and 505's still running here - although all the 505's are in pretty ropey condition. With regard to new cars, there's a neat Citroen C4 saloon that we don't see in Europe (shame) and Ford have a compact 4x4 called Eco-Sport - rubbish name but neat car - again we don't get it in Europe - and a Fiesta saloon, which we don't get but wouldn't want.
Books are jolly expensive in Brazil and almost as expensive here in Argentina - but there are lots of book shops in BA whereas i only came across 2 in Rio. I bought a book by an African author i'd never heard of before - Mia Couto - set in Mozambique - took a while to get into but very enjoyable - for anyone who can cope with the idea of spirits / native religions - in a modern setting then you might also enjoy....
Yesterday morning i did a city-tour - which was a bit of a shambles, it has to be said - but at least i got to see something of the city & get my bearings. Stuart might be interested to know we stopped alongside the Boca football stadium - which is in the heart of an area known as Caminito - which is a bit of a tourist-trap. It is where the Tango originated, apparently.... - in the afternoon it rained like billy-oh - but today it is bright and sunny and i have been out & about just wandering.
One thing i should also mention is that the beer here is much better than in Brazil - so long as you don't drink Brazilian beer, obviously. Hurrah for that...
Like Rio, dog-walking seems very popular and you often see people struggling to control 6 or 7 dogs. Buenos Aires has even more pigeons than Rio and while they don't appear to be as skanky i would advise against eating outside, otherwise you'll soon be inundated. It is quite a nice city to walk around and gawp - the women (of all ages) here are just stunning - it is quite a chic & fashionable place - people take pride in their appearance & wear smart clothes. You can tell because i got pulled up by the police yesterday and given a caution - i was wearing a green tee shirt with light blue trousers and no colour in between. If i get stopped again for any fashion misdemeanours then i'll be forced to go shopping for clothes - and it would be just my luck to have go with an officer who wasn't in plain clothes..... (boys - you'll need to get a girl to translate that last bit)....
I'm not doing justice to Buenos Aires but have to admit i'm a bit bored - sorry - maybe it's just the big city thing - i'm missing my old job and my friends - anyway i'm off again tomorrow - sailing across the Rio Plata to Montevideo...
So until then - adios amigos!
- comments