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Buenos Aires came as a bit of a shock to us. Having arived from the plaits, bowler hats and panpipes of Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, we were suddenly back in the throws of a huge cosmopolitan city. I could be in london or New york, that is until i fall down a hole in the pavement, then i remember im still in South America. It took a while to adjust. We´ve got used to weeing behind bushes (you cant do that here) and not showering and wearing the same clothes for days. Everyone here is very smart and business-like.......and clean!
On the first day we went the area called, La Boca. Home to the famous Boca Juniors football team....no I hadn´t heard of them either, but here they´re huge, well football´s huge full stop. We walked Along the river, it was baking hot, the hottest place we´ve been yet, it reached about 36 degrees today. La Boca was lovely, with colourful tin buildings and street markets. In the evening we waisted no time in finding our first steak. Apart from football, oh and wine, it´s what the Argentinians do best. U´ve not had steak until u´ve had one here - amazing.
The next day we took a bus tour around town, to get our barings. Unlike London, the main attractions and areas here are really far apart and impossible to walk between on foot. In the afternoon I went to the Malba museum and went to see a really amazing steel flower art installation, which moved. It opened as the day went on and closed at night. I loved it. I chilled out for a while in one of the beautiful parks before attempting to head back to the hostel. My problem being, i only had a P$50 note to get transport with. There´s no way they would take it on public transport. Even the shops will rarely take tham, which is bazaar as for us it works out at less than ten pounds.
Today we moved hostels. The Portal del sur could only put us up for a few night so we moved to one called Limehouse. Although the other hostel was really nice, it was almost too nice and had a really poor unsociable layout. we´ve really learnt that the right hostel can make such a difference. Within 2 hours at the limehouse we had met and spoken to more people than we had in 3 nights at the portal del sur. The afternoon rolled into the evening - into the night and into 2 bottles of red wine (incedently they´re about 1pound a bottle, and thats good wine!) and before we knew it it was 3.00am. Everything happens really late here lots of people were only just going out. Its so easy to lose track of time.
Gees it´s just so hot here. I woke up sweating. It was already 37 degrees. Today we headed to San Telmo. Sunday is the big market day, similar to spitalfields in London. Antiques, crafts, second hand stalls and new designers. It was easy to spent the day here. Such an amazing atmosphere with people dancing tango in the street and musicians and street performers entertaining the crowds. I think everyone here knows how to tango, there was even a chav joining in, he was amazing, in his baseball cap and gold earrings. Also saw some of the most bizaar characters i´ve ever seen here! - Think the funny farm must have a sunday release day. Check out the photos.
So on our last day we set off into the area called Palermo. It´s the wealthiest area in BA, full of beautiful gardens and lakes. My favorite was the Japanese garden mainly because it housed the most amazing fish ive ever seen. They were huge and brightly coloured, some of them like tigers and they had the biggest wide open mouths. I was hooked on just watching them. We also visited and amazing cemmety. The one where Evita is buried. There were not gravestones, just massive granite and stone tombs of wealthy and important Argentinian famillies. They were the size of houses and you could look right in and see the coffins- a bit spooky.
In the evening I had one of my best nights yet. A group of us from the hostel went to see a percussion band called La Bomba Del Tiempo. It was in a kind of open-air warehouse, yard, in the middle of no-where. The band were amazing and played on a staircase above a crowd of funky Argentinians and travellers who just danced around wildly below. I was one of them. You couldn´t help but dance. It was a shame it had to end. But a great way to spend our last night here.
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