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Buenos Aires - 1st to 4th August
Almost 7 months into our trip now and we have made it to South America, our 4th (yes Europe does count) and final continent, so it feels like a good time to share a few random stats with you. Here goes:
1. Mileage - 46,500 miles (just under 75,000 kilometres)
2. Number of beds - 85
3. Number of taxis – 77
4. Number of boats – 52
5. Budget – smashed!!!
After our farewells to Emma, Toby and Euan at 5.50am (Karis and James had enough sense to stay in bed!) we caught the train and headed back to Sydney Airport for our 10.00am flight to Buenos Aires. We checked in and were told that our flight was delayed by 3 hours, so we collected our courtesy refreshment vouchers ($30 each – very generous) and treated ourselves to tea, egg and bacon baguettes and huge chocolate and blueberry muffins for breakfast. Very nice – we like a healthy start to the day!
After a further 1 ½ hours delay we finally boarded the plane (a huge jumbo decorated in aboriginal artwork – tasteful) at about 3pm and had a pretty good flight to Buenos Aires with plenty of good films and free wine to keep us entertained. The flight time was 13 hours and 20 minutes but after factoring in the time difference and our crossing the international date line, we landed 20 minutes after we took off on the same day! As a result we had a 37 hour day with 2 nights, 2 breakfasts but only 1 dinner because we didn't have enough energy for a second one – and to be fair we had probably eaten enough for one day! To make things even more disorientating we went from being 10 hours in front of the UK to 4 hours behind. Dan really did think he was Marty McFly!!
Once in Buenos Aires we caught a cab to our hotel where we passed out in our room for a few hours then, yes you guess it, lay awake all night! Needless to say the next morning we both felt terrible. We only had 3 days to spend in Buenos Aires, we kept it brief because we knew it would be cold, so not much time at all to see all the sights but we were both so wiped out from the travelling that we didn't have the energy to go exploring so we opted for a long lay in instead. At 4pm we finally headed out for some food but by 6pm we were back at the hotel trying very hard not to go to bed to avoid the prospect of another sleepless night.
Whilst having dinner we watched various groups of protest marchers heading down the street from the Congress building towards the offices of the President, each group with its own political agenda. We have only been here 24 hours but already South America is feeling very different to anywhere else we have been on this trip.
Back at the hotel we went to bed fairly late but with our body clocks all over the place we couldn't sleep (I guess this is what jet lag really feels like!).
Determined to see Buenos Aires we were up bright and early the following morning and headed down for our first Argentinian breakfast of tea, orange juice, bread, croissants and toffee sauce! We then wrapped ourselves up in our thermals (its 5C outside!) and headed out for our first full day of sightseeing.
Our hotel was located on Avenida de Mayo which leads to the main square in the city, Plaza de Mayo, so very central and a great location for sightseeing and for bars and restaurants. Before heading to Plaza de Mayo we set off in the opposite direction to our first stop, the Congreso de la Nacion, a beautiful Greco-Roman style Congress building which owns the city's largest dome which emulates the one in Washington. A fabulous building.
After a mooch around we headed back down Avenida de Mayo towards Plaza de Mayo, taking a small detour via our hotel to add another layer of clothes! Plaza de Mayo has been at the heart of the best and worst moments of Argentina's history – military coups, the fanaticism of Evita, desperate crowds after the economic crisis, and today (or indeed yesterday) ongoing political protests.
The Plaza itself boasts some of the most beautiful buildings in Buenos Aires including: the Catedral Metropolitana (Cathedral) completed in 1852 which on the outside reminded me of the Pantheon in Rome but inside has a beautiful baroque alter; El Cabildo – one of the only examples of colonial architecture left in this part of the city and home to a museum of historical artefacts; Piramide de Mayo - the first monument in Buenos Aires which commemorates the May 1810 Revolution; Casa Rosada - a large pink building home to the offices of the president and the executive branch of government and the famous balcony scene from the Evita film and last but by no means least the Banco National (National Bank of Argentina).
Sadly, whilst architecturally the buildings are quite magnificent, the evidence of political unrest in the city is apparent, no less by the graffiti sprayed across the plinth of the Piramide de Mayo and indeed on the side of any political building (not guarded by security) or any closed shop shutter along Avenida de Mayo. A stark reminder that we are in one of the most politically volatile continents in the world.
After exploring Plaza de Mayo we headed down Calle Defensa (so named because the residents would pour boiling oil from their balconies over the invading British soldiers below) with its myriad of antique stores and junk shops, towards the old district of San Telmo, We stopped at Plaza Dorrego in an old converted grocery store for tea and croissants before heading into Casa de los Ezeiza (an antique stall market square) where we purchased a couple of reasonably priced traditional style tango posters (yep, more tat!).
Next we headed to La Boca (past the Boca Juniors football stadium who are currently in the UK playing some friendly game or other against Arsenal – hoorah for me!) to see Caminito – a small area of brightly coloured buildings along the river. Caminito is a really pretty part of town and we were treated with our first live tango exhibition which was very exciting. After wandering around the shops, and buying a small colourful oil painting of the area by a local artist, we headed back to the Plaza Dorrego for dinner and a tango show in a little cafe bar. We rounded off a great day with some good food, a cheap bottle of Argentinian wine and some very moody tango dancing.
After a long day of sightseeing we headed back to our hotel where we crashed out but still the jetlag was apparent and after about 3 hours sleep we were both wide awake again!! Fingers crossed we we will be back to a normal sleeping pattern soon..
The following morning we were up and out, but walking around like a pair of zombies. We took things a bit easier today but it was our last day and there was still so much that we wanted to see so we pushed on to our first stop, Calle Florida – the main shopping street in Buenos Aires. Very nice, very hectic – we made it a brief visit.
Next stop was the regenerated river front which gave us a taste of the modern Buenos Aires with modern skyscraper buildings on every corner – such a contrast to the rest of the city. After some lunch we headed down to the nature reserve at the rivers edge where we wandered round for a couple of hours. Nice but unremarkable. Dan thought we would be able to see Uruguay across the river but someone must have moved it because all we could see was water! In fact, I think it might have been the Atlantic!!!
Our final sightseeing stop of the day was the district of Recoleta, an upper-class suburb most famously home to the Recoleta Cemetery. The cemetery is packed full of great monuments of dark granite, white marble and gleaming bronze and is immensely popular as the resting place of some of Argentina's leading celebrities, including Evita herself. There is a map available at the entrance to guide you round the but we really didn't need a map to find the resting place of Evita, the small crowd of tourists with camera's was enough to know which tomb it was. Next door to the cemetery is the second oldest church in Buenos Aires, the Basilica de Nuestra Senora del Pillar – a beautifully restored 18th century building.
After all our sightseeing we headed back to our hotel stopping on route for the biggest slice of chocolate cake, a slab of lemon cake and a couple of much needed mugs of hot tea. All we had to do now was stay awake for one hour until our Tango Show at the famous Cafe Tortoni started.
I am pleased to say we made it. Despite being totally knackered we headed to Cafe Tortoni at 8.00pm for the 8.30pm show. We took our seats, ordered a bottle of wine and spent the next hour watching some fabulous Tango dancing intermingled with a bit of Argentinian comedy (we didn't have a clue what was going on!) and some tantalising live music. Brilliant.
So that was it. Our very short but very sweet 4 night stop over in Buenos Aires. An amazing introduction to Argentina and definitely leaving me wanting to see so much more of this incredible country.
Adios amigos. Hasta luego!
Sue & Dan xxx
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