Buenos Aires
Eight months we have been travelling and we have had no trouble whatsoever. Since arriving in Buenos Aires we have been the subject of repeated attempts at daylight robbery. As soon as we got off the bus someone plastered our bags with chocolate and then helpfully produced some toilet paper on the pretext of helping us to clean it off. He tried to take Katie´s small bag and anyway we had read about this sort of scam and told him to …….. off PDQ. Then later the same afternoon two men actually stole my camera while I was taking a photo. You are obviously off guard for a second or two while you focus on your picture but that was all my photos of South America gone as well as some from NZ – about 500 in all. We chased them for a while but they dived down an alleyway and we thought it wasn´t safe to pursue them any further. It took us an hour to find the police station. They have a special department for tourists who have been the victims of theft and believe me they do a roaring trade. I got a chitty for insurance purposes but clearly that was all they were prepared to do. Then today (Tuesday) while we were on the subway someone tried to steal things from my bag. But I didn´t have much in there and anything of value was at the bottom under a huge Lonely Planet guide and a litre of water. Thieving bastards! I don´t feel safe anywhere here.
However, we have done some sightseeing. On Sunday after we arrived we had a bit of a rest and then went to a market a short distance from the hostel. There were lots of stalls selling craft stuff and tourist knick knacks as well as clothes and antiques. Several groups of musicians were playing tango music in the street so the atmosphere was very lively. I bought a couple of things before we went back to the hostel for some lunch. We had not taken our cameras with us in the morning so decided to go back to the market in the afternoon, which is where my camera was stolen. Needless to say that put an end to our exploration of Buenos Aires for the day. We bought a very decent bottle of red wine for 6pesos (£1) to drown our sorows.
The following morning (Monday) we set off after brekky at the hostel (there is always chocolate cake here for breakfast) to explore the central areas of Buenos Aires on foot. First we went to Plaza de Mayo at one end of which is Casa Rosada or the Pink House where Evita used to address the crowds from the balcony. It is a rather nasty shade of pink. The square has the usual collection of pigeons and fountains and is surrounded by grand buildings including the cathedral, a neo-classical building. There was something military going on in one of the chapels, as there were lots of soldiers in long black shiny boots and red jackets stomping about in a Ministry of Silly Walks kind of fashion.We then walked down to the Plaza del Congresso which, surprise, surprise, houses the Congress building. We had wanted to do a tour of the Teatro Colon, which was the largest theatre in the southern hemisphere until they built Sydney Opera House, but it was close for renovations. Next on the agenda was Galerias Pacifico, a huge shopping mall full of designer shops – just our scene! But in the basement they had a food hall where we had a Chinese-style lunch. I had discarded my hiking books as they were falling apart and only had sandals so I bought some new shoes to avoid frostbite on my return to the UK. On our perambulations we had spotted a Western Union office so went back to the hostel to get the paperwork to try to sort out our money transfer. They said that they could neither amend or cancel the transfer so that was that. Take a tip from us: never use the Western Union. But we bought some tickets to watch River Plate play America ( a Mexican club) in the Copa Libertadores, which seems to be the equivalent of the Champions League and we booked some tickets on the ferry for a day trip to uruguay, which is only an hour away across the River Plate.
On Tuesday we tried to swap all the books that we had read for two new ones but after a 20 minute hike to the book shop we found that it didn’t open until 2pm. So we caught the subway to a district called Recoleta. The main feature of the area is the cemetry where Evita is buried. There are hundreds of marble mausoleums, in some of which you can see the coffins on shelves. There are also lots of cats which have homes amongst the coffins. We also visited the Museo Nacional de Belles Artes. One floor has works by European artists, from 14th century onwards. It was interesting to see the changes in style as time progressed. The other floor was devoted to Argentinian artists and was mainly 19th century onwards and had a lot of really modern stuff which doesn’t do much for me. Lots off different coloured squares don’t seem to be all that different to a Dulux colour chart to me! About 2km further we found the Evita Museum. This was interesting as we didn’t really know that much about her, not being big fans of either musicals or Madonna. It was all rather one-sided of course although it did mention that she had her enemies. The exhibits focused on her work for with women and children, setting up homes for them, and schools and orphanages etc.
We decided to have a sort of half day on Wednesday to keep our strength up for the footie in the evening (8.30pm kick off). So we went to Palermo, a very posh part of BA, which has lots of parks and gardens, including the Japanese Gardens, where they had some horrible carp with gaping mouths. We visited the Rose Garden and watched incredibly well off middle-aged lycra-clad women “keeping fit”. Most of them were walking no faster than us and we were just out for a stroll! We gather that style is the all important factor here.
Professional dog walkers abound in BA. They bring about 7 or 8 pedigree dogs each to the park, mostly large breeds like Alsatians and retrievers. We had a bit of a siesta and then went off to the footie at about 6pm. Our tickets included transport to the ground so it was really easy. The stadium is huge; circular with high terraces of seats and holds about 72,000 people. The home end was packed and the noise was phenomenal. The Coca Cola people were on strike so there were no drinks so we had to buy ice lollies to quench our thirst. No beer is allowed in the ground or for 10 blocks all around it. During the first half River Plate defended really badly and gave away a really easy goal. But they equalised just before half time to tumultuous applause. Their manager is Simeone, the guy that Beckham kicked to get himself sent in the World Cup. He must have had words at half time because the 2nd half was much better, played at a hectic pace and really quite exciting. But no more goals until about two minutes before the final whistle when River scored again. The noise was deafening, with flares going off and chanting and dancing etc. Quite an experience.
Thursday – my last day in Argentina and also of the whole trip. We had our day trip to Uruguay, to a small town called Colonia del Sacramento. It is an historic, quaint little place with little houses all painted different colours, a lighthouse and various fortifications. There were also some nice leafy squares to relax in, far away from the stress and bustle of Buenos Aires. And every other building is a souvenir shop. It was a very pleasant day and we got back to BA to find that they had had about 5cm of rain and lots of places were flooded. Then to mark the end of the trip for me we went out for dinner to a restaurant called Desnivel which everyone recommends. We had beautiful steaks, so tender and juicy, with salad and a bottle of wine. Followed by pancakes with dulce de leche, which is a local sort of caramel sauce, extremely thick and sweet and probably very bad for you.
After bidding a tearful farewell to Katie (anyone would think she was going to miss me!) I got a taxi to the international airport yesterday (Friday) morning. As I sat in the departure lounge I thought that this moment seemed a very long way off last June when we set off from Glasgow Airport at the crack of dawn. We’ve been to places that have been on my wish list for a long time (Siberia, China, Mongolia); places that I’d read about or seen films about. It didn’t seem possible to actually go to them though, certainly not all in one trip. We’ve been to places that I always thought I would go to one day, such as St Petersburg and New Zealand. And places that weren’t on my hit list at all, like Australia, Chile and Argentina. There are places that have lived in my imagination since I was a child: the Kremlin, The Great Wall of China, Ayers Rock (as we used to call it), Botany Bay, the River Plate, the Straits of Magellan. Also places that I became aware of later for various reasons such as Tiananmen Square, Sydney Opera House and Harbour Oridge, the WACA, Bondi Beach, the Milford Track. Places that feature in moutaineering and climbing legend (Mount Cook, Fitzroy, Cerro Torre, Torres del Paine). And now I’ve been to them all. We’ve followed in the footsteps of Captain Cook and Darwin. We’ve taken many forms of transport: buses, boats, planes, cars, trains. We’ve biked and hiked, climbed, kayaked, snorkelled, sailed and surfed. We’ve met some great people and the odd …………… (well, there is always one, isn’t there?) . We’ve seen kangaroos, emus, rheas, penguins, sharks, dolphins, whales, snakes, crocodiles, condors, sea lions, huge lizards and dingoes. Our perceptions of people and places have changed enormously and we’ve learned a huge amount about history and different cultures.
But it’s not all over! There are lots of places we must go back to and new places to go. And Katie is carrying on her exploration of South America. So if you want to follow her progress she will taking over the blog. I can accept no further responsibility for the quality of the spelling and grammar (it hasn’t been that good anyway!). So this is Ann signing off – except that now that I when I get home I will try to put some photos on the blog.
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