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I woke up at 4.30am this morning after 3hrs sleep!I think the wine that I had all night got me quite drunk.So I woke up feeling tired and seedy.By 6am I decided that I was not going to sleep so I got my laptop and updated my diary.
At 7.45am I got out of bed and got ready for the day.I had booked a city tour for the morning (9.15am - 1.15pm) and a Tigre Tour (2.15pm-6.30pm).
I decided that since it seemed like a nice day I would wear shorts.Big mistake!
I walked downstairs, got my vouchers for the tours and set off for my 20mins walk to the Hostel where I would be picked up.I was about a block from my hostel when I started getting comments yelled out from cars by men.I was whistled at by men I passed on the street. Or just plainly stared at.Even some of the women were giving me looks!I felt sooooo uncomfortable.I got to Calle Florida and decided to get some breakfast.Walked into Burger King and could not see a breakfast menu.When I tried to talk to the shop assistant she could not speak any English and I could not understand anything she said.I walked out and went to McDonald's where I found the breakfast menu and read it out to the girl behind the counter.That was easy!I had breakfast and started to walk back, all the while feeling very uncomfortable as I was still get stares!My shorts were not even that short!!I walked into the first shop I could find open and asked the girl to show me pants.She said something along the line of "Si, no shorts"!!! I happily bought a pair of 3 quarter pants and walked to the Hostel to wait to be picked up for my tour.NO stares and NO feeling uncomfortable.
The city tour was disappointing.First of all we spent about an 1 ½ hr picking up people and transferring to another bus. Our first stop was the Plaza De Mayo.We had 20 mins to take pictures etc.I had been chatting to a couple from Germany sitting next to me on the bus, so I walked around with them.I had already been there on Saturday so that was not exciting for me.Then we went to La Boca where we made 2 stops.That was the best part of the tour.La Boca is lively and colourful.It is where the tango was born.The buildings are painted with bright colours, all different colours.Our first stop was near the soccer stadium-La Bombonera, the second biggest in Argentina and it sits about 500000 people.It was the former club of Diego Maradonna.There are souvenir shops near it so I did some souvenir shopping.Then we drove to Caminito Street where we stopped again. Caminito Street is the barrio's most famous street and tourists come here by the busloads to take photos and to shop at the small crafts fair and to watch tango dancers perform. It is the main tourist area of La Boca and the only area visitors should go to as La Boca is not a safe neighbourhood.However Caminito St is guarded by police but only where the tourists go.It is such a great place to visit.There are Tango dancers and paintings and even a guy who looks like Diego Maradonna. For a fee you can get your picture taken with him!
After La Boca we drove around Palermo, Recoletta and the tour ended at Calle Florida.By that time I was late for my next tour.I mentioned it to the tour guide and since it was with her company she arranged for me to be picked at 3pm at the front of the Marriott Hotel.
The Tigre Tour was better.We drove to Tigre which is a riverside suburb of BA.Another beautiful area full of trees.We took a ride on a tourist boat up the delta where we had a chance to see some of the riverside houses, mostly on stilts, which apparently are very expensive! The people of the delta travel to and from home on boats.I met another couple, from Sydney although they emigrated from Colombia. They spoke Spanish of course.Lucky me had someone to help me out with my ordering and shopping. Haha. We stayed together throughout the tour.After the boat tour we went on the Tren De la Costa which took us down to San Isidro station which is another beautiful area full of beautiful tree lined streets. We visited a Cathedral there and did some souvenir shopping at the souvenir shops near the train station.After that we caught the train to Olivos where we got on our bus and drove past the Presidents house before the tour ended at 6.30pm.I walked back to my hostel, dumped my bag on the bed, layed down and slept until 9.45pm when I woke up and started packing.
It was another late night for me and I had no dinner as it was too late and I couldn't be bothered.
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