Falling in love with Buenos Aires
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010Day 52, Wednesday Oct 20 Buenos Aires
We are late arriving in Buenos Aires. It probably didn’t help that we were stopped 3 times while the police entered the bus and asked for IDs. Once they got in with a dog, which was presumably sniffing for drugs! The traffic in the morning once we entered town was terrible, which added to the delay.
The Argentines seem to love their mate. I lost count of how many people had a flask of hot water and a mate jug in their hands. There was a moment when a man had a mate in one hand and a cigarette in another. I wish I had my camera handy then!
The metro here (subte) is, like in Mexico City, really cheap. It doesnt seem as extensive as Mexico City, but I have been walking everywhere and havent used the metro much!
Spent the first day wandering around the streets, gawking, gawping and taking photos. The architecture reminds me of Barcelona and Paris. It also has a New Yorky feeling to it. Quite the combination with a South American flavour!
Lunch at cafe Josephina´s in Recoleta. Nice food, but more importantly, a good cup of wine!
They had a free showing of an Argentine movie (Carancho) at Teatro Cervantes. I like Ricardo Darin, and thought he was really good in it. Managed to understand only about 30% of the conversations. Some parts of the story remain unclear to me.
People queue up in an orderly fashion to get on the bus. One of such queues I came across wound around one whole block!
Hope to pick up Spanish over the next 6 months in South America.
Day 53, Thursday Oct 21 Buenos Aires
Woke up with a bad throat and cold, so took it easy. Went for a walk for with my Brasilian roommate, Jorge. We walked aorund a couple of neighbourhoods! Florida Street, Plaza San Martin and the Cemetery at Recoleta were the main tourist spots. The cemetery is where a bunch of extremely famoous ARgentines are buried, including Eva Peron. There were cats wandering around the cemetery. They seemed at home!
Lunch at Napole’s, close to Plaza del Mayor. Really good food, wine, dessert and a pretty waitress. I started to fall in love with Buenos Aires. Only a month ago, I wanted to live in Rio. Now I would prefer to live in BA.
Day 54, Friday Oct 22 Buenos Aires
Purchased my ticket to Bariloche. Decided to spend a bit more money for a cama bus, which means that unlike the semi-cama, the seats will recline to almost 180 degree. They provide you with food, wine, champagne on board. The cama-suite is the most comfortable, where the seats recline all the way and you have your own TV. Didnt fancy spending another 20 hours in the semi-cama.
I walked a lot! Went to Palermo viejo by way of Recoleta. This time I stopped by Floralis Generica. It was given to BA by architect Eduardo Catalano. It has metallic petals, which open and close by means of a hydraulic device. They are closed at sunset and opened in the morning. Walked past a lot of plazas, gardens and the zoo to get to Palermo viejo, which is an old, pretty neighbourhood.
Had lunch at a restaurant called Krishna. Really good vegetarian food! There were quite a few vegetarian restaurants in the neighbouhood. I stopped at a local store to get some nuts and dry fruits, and was engaged in conversation by the shop owner. She wants to visit India some day soon and asked me questions about it.
Day 55, Saturday Oct 23 Buenos Aires
First order of the day was a visit to La Boca. It was the neighbourhood that the immigrants came to years ago. A working class neighboourhood and apparently the birthplace of Tango. Now, it is a poor neighbourhood and everyone advises against wandering away from the tourist spots. I have listened to stories of people getting mugged at gunpoint. My roommate witnessed a mugging while he visited La Boca.
Caminito is the street that tourists visit, and with good reason. It is extremely colourful! Photos of La Boca. A bunch of restaurants had tango shows; they event let us pedestrians watch without hassling us. There were also people dancing Tango on the streets.
I wandered away from the tourist spots just to get the vibe of the surroundings. Being a Saturday, there were plenty of locals on the street. I walked a couple of blocks around Caminito and felt very safe. Got some fruits at the local supermarket as I was extremely hunger. Apparently hunger can help overcome paranoia 🙂
After 3 hours in La Boca, I decided to head to the Palermo parks. I got to the boundary of Recoleta and Palermo. I stopped at a park to rest my feet, but ended up spending a couple of hours there! There were a lot of people out, playing football, sunning themselves, having picnics, playing music. I dont recall seeing a lot of that in Brasil. I sat next to the young folks playing music and read my book. A very pleasant evening.
For a change, I went out for dinner. Met up with a fellow traveller I had met in Foz.
Day 56, Sun Oct 24 Buenos Aires
I have had luck with weather in BA. Although the morning starts out a wee bit on the chilly side, it has warmed up during the day. More importantly, the rain has stayed away!
Met another co-traveller and walked around Puerto Madero, the port.
The neighbourhood is sparkling new, with some posh flats, businesses, restaurants.
Annesu is a South African living in Ireland, headed to Australia after 8 months in South America! She gifts me her jacket since I needed one and she is headed to Oz in summer. Very generous of her!
We made our way to the older San Telmo neighbourhood. San Telmo has a street fair and an antique market Sundays, and the streets were crowded with people. The highlight of the day was a flamenco show for lunch. The show was free and the was good! The artists put up a fantastic show. Free tango show on Saturday and Flamenco show on Sunday.
Day 57, Mon Oct 25 Buenos Aires
A day to do chores. Off to the laundromat, then the post office. Walked around aimlessly for most of the morning and afternoon.
Monday night was spent at Konex cultural centre, watching La Bomba del Tiempo. I love drums and the group was very good. A really good show. The only things that prevented the show from being perfect was the behaviour of the people around me. They ignored the no smoking signs, and started jumping around like they were in some mosh pit. I would have liked them to enjoy themselves, but not smoke around me or stamp my feet. Sigh; I must be getting old. My shirt & jacket smells of smoke now!
Buenos Aires has managed to capture my imagination. There is so much to do and see. I also feel extremely safe walking around. I didn’t do that in any of the big cities in Brasil. The places I felt safe to do that in Brasil were small enough that I could walk around the town in an hour 🙂
Off to Bariloche. The weather gods look to have turned against me. The forecast is rain, rain and more rain in Bariloche. The lake district is supposed to be beautiful and has a lot of hiking.
Damu