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After a long flight we were met at Eziza Airport by driver Marcos and taken to the apartment we had rented through Airbnb. Coming in from the airport our first impressions are of a city that needs a bit of TLC - broken pavements, graffiti and boarded up shop fronts. However, about 30 minutes later we were driving through the main heart of the city, marvelling at the old style Italian and French architecture, the apartment balconies spilling over with foliage and the tree lined streets. We arrive at our apartment in Palermo, north of the city. The area is full of character and has many boutique shops, cafes and Parilla (meat!) restaurants on most street corners.
Franco and Mabel met us at the apartment which is bright, spacious and clean. It's a one bedroom apartment with a small kitchen area and at £20 per night in the heart of the city it is amazing value. We have cafe's, restaurants, bars, metro and bus services right on our doorstep. They are a very friendly couple who gave us a very warm welcome in part English and part Spanish
As we go out for a walk we notice that in general people are very friendly and that there is a relaxed vibe for such a bustling city. It's a residential area and we sit outside a cafe absorbing the sights and sounds. It is in vogue to own a small dog and it also seems in vogue to let it do it's business in the middle of the pathway and to walk away leaving it there. BA's roads are pretty much built on a grid system with all smaller roads being one way. We can't get used to the politeness of the drivers stopping to let us cross and having the confidence to look one way only without the fear of being run down by a motorscooter. So very different from the roads of Shanghai!
A Subte card can be used on buses and the Subte (Subte being short for Subterranean ie the Underground). The Subte is 100 years old, and looks it, and as the temperatures outside are over 25 degrees, the train windows are wide open throwing dust into our eyes as it flies through the tunnels. It's a simple network to understand, but very hot and crowded.
The Subte card is also used on the bus. It is a great service, never having to wait too long and a good way for us to get a good overview of the city and get our bearings (although you need muscles of steel to hang on while it snakes its way at break neck speed through the traffic). On board we met an American who was working at the American Embassy who said that it's a prison sentence to work with the locals as salaries are not keeping up with inflation and so the workforce is disillusioned and disgruntled and basically becoming jobsworths. Inflation is currently at 25-30% so we can understand why!
Graffiti seems to be a national pastime and it certainly adds colour and definition to the city. Almost every flat surface has graffitti of some type, whether a tag or beautfully decorated mural.
The smartest place in BA is the racetrack where they are preparing for a Saturday afternoon's racing. The grandstands are plush and the grounds manicured, yet strangely, entrance is free. As the racing doesn't start for a couple of hours we head off to the parks for some more people watching and to absorb some green! A huge track that circles the park is full of roller-bladers, cyclists and joggers who make us feel knackered just watching. In London there is a saying that you are never further than 50 yards away from a rat, here in BA you are never more than 50 yards away from a chorizo (sausage) stand..and the park is no exception.
We go to Plaza De Mayo, location of the President's Casa Rosada - the pink house. We wonder if it was painted pink once they elected the current female Presidenta - but it is suggested that it originates from early settlers painting their homes in bovine blood. There are military statues all over the city and plaza's named after various military heroes, the most notable being General San Martin.
The whole place shows a vibrant life past and present. It is a sprawling city and each barrio (district) has a different feel from bohemian areas, to rich and leafy and poor and scruffy. It needs a good injection of money to smarten the place up -which is unlikely as the government is currently close to defaulting on a $1.3 billion loan to the US.
San Telmo is a barrio full of charm and character with it's cobbled streets and low rise buildings. The Sunday market covers the Plaza Dorrengo and there are market stalls selling antiques, bric-a-brac, arts and crafts and lots of coloured seltzer bottles across the square. There are also the small round pots and silver straws for drinking the national tea called Mate. This drink looks like the bottom of a hamster cage that has been cleared out and put into a pot with boiling water. It's apparently very bitter and something we are yet to try. The smell of street food fills the air and music is heard all around. There is a reggae band, a large band playing traditional latin music, a Maradonna tribute act (complete with a fat singer in an afro waving his cheating hand in the air) and the distinctive sound of tango music. We walk to where the tango music is playing expecting at last to see some fiery, passionate tango moves only to see an elderly couple clinging onto each other with as much fire as a smouldering ember, however, you can't help but imagine in their hey day they would have been doing leg flicks and kicks to amaze. It is a great area to wander on a sunny afternoon.
Desperate to see some real tango we booked in to a show at the Borges Cultural Centre. It wasn't quite the smoke-filled, dark and smouldering bordello's that we would have liked to have experienced, but the show was amazing, as were the costumes and make-up. There was an old trio band at the back of the stage and the members looked as if they had been around since tango was born in the 1880's - but very good nonetheless. Apparently, the tango orginates from when the European male immigrants arrived and were looking for some company in the city's bordellos. A dance that was made up to ensure a close intimate dance, as they were missing their wives. Hmmmm!
Rising up in the dead centre of town is Recoleta Cemetry where you can 'meeta Evita'. Avenues of huge marble mausoleums, statues and sarcophagi are crammed in with bronze epitaphs for the many family members. This is the Manhatten of graveyards. The cemetry dates back to the 1870's. As you look through some of the gated crypts you can see the decaying coffins covered in cobwebs with lids askew making you feel there must be escapee corpses all around the town. Then there are also some that look like they are being used as garden sheds with pots of paint and garden tools piled up against the coffins. Of course, the main draw for tourists is the mausoleum where Evita is entombed. It seemed to be the only one with fresh flowers, but otherwise nothing grander than some of her neigbours.
There are so many warnings about La Boca being one of the poorest neighbouhoods and therefore, the most dangerous. However, the pedestrianised Caminita Street is a huge draw due to the colourful buildings and character of the place. It is close to the ship yard and docks and the story goes that the locals grabbed the left-over paint that had been used for painting the boats so they could paint their houses. This is why you can often see so many different colours used on one house. Of course, it is a tourist trap and it's a little sad that the history has been replaced by tacky gift shops and over-priced restaurants. We watched a kids football match and there was defintely an over use of hand-ball but the ref didn't see a thing! Despite lacking a local feel, it was defintely worth seeing and we got some great photo's due to its vibrancy.
There's an offally lots of offal on the menu's but, the steaks are so good we have stuck to those, however, it apparently tastes amazing. Instead, we love the Parilla's that serve huge slabs of grilled meats and the steaks are as good as the reputation suggests. Empanadas which are sold everywhere are small pancakes filled with savoury fillings of any variety and are a good cheap snack to have on the go. One thing that is so good is the Dulche De Leche ice-cream which is the flavour of caramelised condensed milk. Minute on the lips - lifetime on the hips with that one, but wow! The bars and resturants are quite spaced out and it seems that the Irish bars are the most lively bars in town - although that does seem to be a given pretty much worldwide. Bottles of beer seem to come by the litre although you can buy them in chop (1/2 pint) size. The wine unsurprisingly is inexpensive and good quality.
We wanted to see a Boca Juniors game. The cheat we mentioned before used to play for this outfit. For anyone not English reading this,we were robbed in a game against Argentina in the 1986 World Cup because Maradonna punched the football over keeper Peter Shilton into the goal. For anyone English reading this, sorry about the reminder. Anyway due to an incident by Boca Juniors (that couldn't be published), as a punishment the team were made to play without any spectators so we had to look for another team to watch. In any case for non-members ie tourists they were charging $250 per person. Cheaper for a World Cup ticket.
Checking online we were able to book some tickets for a game at the River Plate ground against Godoy. We got to the ground at the alloted time between 10am and 7pm to collect our tickets for the 9.30pm kick off. We asked so many staff members where we should go to collect and circled the ground to see if we could find the ticket office, but everything was closed and all we kept receiving were shaking heads and 'no'. We returned home assuming that if we went back nearer the time of the match all the box offices would be open. We got the bus which was mainly packed with fans and listened to the singing and cheering and shouting out the windows to other passing buses packed with fans. We followed them towards the ground and after being split up, made to go through security checks and finally getting back to the ground we were still unable to find anyone who could help us get our hands on the elusive tickets.
After much effort, we eventually turned back feeling dejected with our spirits only rising again when we heard they had lost the game 2-1. Now to try and get our money back!!
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