Buenos Aires
After a lot of time in and around mountains it was time to finally hit the big city (or “the jungle” as the hotel tout called Buenos Aires). We decided to go Super Cama which is about the poshiest bus you can get (after all it was 20hrs from Bariloche to BA).
The seats are only three across the bus and you can lie completely flat – and having also tried the cheaper seats (semi-cama) you get more leg room on all the different types of bus than you do on a long haul, cattle class, flight!
We based ourselves in San Telmo – described as a hippy area in BA – with an antique market on Plaza Dorrego on a Sunday and tango dancers on other days and wonderful grand old buildings with hidden courtyards behind old wooden doors.
Unfortunately the weather wasn´t kind to us – lots of heavy rain – but it cleared up enough to enjoy a football match Boca Juniors vs Nueva Chicago. I believe that Maradona used to play for Boca.
We were in the stands very early (probably to get the tourists in before the true fans arrived) and it was interesting watching the preparations that went into putting the flags & banners up – people climbing over fences and sliding down banners into different parts of the stand. The match was a football match (Boca won 2-0 with both goals sorced at our end) it was the crowds that were the most interesting. They just didn´t stop singing – and I´m fairly sure most of it wasn´t rue or hurling abuse at the opposition, but songs about how much Boca means to them.
I particualary liked the fact that they made the opposition walk out through one of the tubes you can see on the pitch – having now seen a football match on the TV it appears that cameras and all sorts are also in the tunnels!
Having watched Boca paly we felt it appropriate to visit the La Boca area – famous for its colourful buildings. In fact these only make up a couple of streets – it was nice sitting in the sun (for a change) and watching the hords of tourist buses pull in (La Boca is one of the poorist areas in BA and as such crime is rife, but we didn´t have any problems) and see the locals try and extract money from them – have your photo taken with tango dancers etc. I particularly liked the have your photo taken with a Maradona lookalike.
We also visited the Recoleta cemetary, which amongst other famous people, has the coffin of Evita. Recoleta was very similar to Punta Arenas – lots of mausoleums – but just on a far grander scale.
Tags: Argentina, Buenos Aires, Travel
Jenni
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