Stevo and lel’s adventures

Hola! 

And a very warm welcome to our honeymoon travel blog! We’re travelling  around South America (Argentina, Brazil & Cuba) over a period of about 3 weeks and have set this up as a reminder of where we’ve been what we’ve done. Getting on a bit afterall and the memory’s not what it was ;o). There are no pictures as yet however I’ll add them when we get back **promise**.

Okay, where to start? The holiday got off to an amazing start with Stevo chancing access to the BMI lounge and fluking upgrades from Edinburgh to Heathrow (go Stevo!). Terminal 5 was, as always a complete delight with way too much champagne,  too much food, coffee overload… etc etc etc and  the London / Argentina flight (which I was really, really dreading as I’m very bad on anything more than the 1.5 hour Edinburgh / London commute) was actually okay. Surprisingly better than expected.  Stevo even scored some honeymoon champagne which was an unexpected bonus 🙂  And a sign of things to come…!

After 13 odd hours flying, a stop over for AGES in Sau Pauo and 4 in flight movies and a private pickup and chauffeur  we have arrived at our first location; Hotel Madero http://www.hotelmadero.com/ in Puerto Madero, Argentina.   So we’ve arrived, have been here four days now, and have done all the usual touristy things. Our hotel is in quite a posh exclusive bit, and though absolutely lovely and very contemporary chic,  you couldn’t really say it was overly Argentinian. Save the location not  veryArgentinian at all really! We are flanked by pristinely manicured lawns, spacious walkways, a chocolate brown (sediment) river and sparkling high rises. In this area there is, apparently, 1 policeperson to 5 people. In the rest ot the city it’s 1 to 500, or maybe even 5000?!?! I forget.  Anyway, its something ridiculous and it goes to highlight that its really safe around here.

Day one

Ah, this one was a bit of a non starter as after the long long flight as we both really tired.  Stevo, poor poppet suffered a it as I was really narky (whats new  haha!).  We had a wee rest then were picked up again by our personal tour guide and driver at night to go to a Tango show we’d  booked – Tango Los Angelos. It’s a meal / tango show deal and the meal was AMAZING!  I had a massive succulent steak accompanied by wee roast potatoes cherry tomatoes and and, for once was unable to finish it all which is absolutely unheard of for me!  Stevo had steak too which surprised me as he doesn’t generally eat read meat but then, this IS Argentina and the meat is exceptional. If you are going to eat meat this realy is the place to do it! The show was okay, very staged and overproduced. The Tango dancing was really fast, complicated and just plain  fantastic.  The show however seemed to be punctuated by some weird singing where some old bloke and then some middle aged woman would come on and sing, I think, about an acordian?!? I’m assuming it was an accordian as there was one centre stage with a light shining on it? All very strange and all conducted  in Argentinian so we were pretty clueless!!. Thats another thing about B.A, English isn’t so common, its all Spanish so if you’re coming I’d at least try to cover off the basics. We never and it was a bit of a struggle at times! 

Other eventful first night stuff – my Tom Collins (gin, lime, sugar) super strong cocktail in the hotel bar &  our executive superior room (lush!)

Day 2

A scrummy breakfast – fresh melon, pineapple, grapes, kiwi, oranges – all the fruits you’d want really.  Cold cuts, cheese, many breads – brioche, cooked option (stevo had a fine herb omlette, whats the difference between fine and normal herbs I wonder?), freshly squeezed orange all served whist sitting at cool wee low tables ( I want one!) – was followed by collection  by our tour guide and driver for our private city tour.  Buenos Aires has a really busy thoroughfare, there are tons of massive lorries importing and exporting and few in city travel restrictions making car travel challenging!

We saw:

Plamero with it’s beautiful French buildings (e.g. The white House) and its spacious parkland which, at the time of our visit seemed to be hosting an exhibition to some porn star!!   There is a massive steel flower sculpture in the park which is really cool and different.

Ricoletta which has  a beautifulwhite church, very clean serence and calm  with interesting sculptures (Indian / spanish faces) and the cemetry where Eva Peron is burried. Despite my best efforts I actually went into this graveyard in the end as I was unsurprisingly needing a loo stop and they were located in there (along with a rather pointed sign informing me that my tip was the attendant lady’s salary). Graveyards freak me out.  Like eggs there is just something  wrong about them however this one is just built up Mausleums – all concrete wee house things and statues. There was a poignant statue of a young girl and her dog, very eye catching, she apparently died on a sking trip in the 70s and her parents comissioned a likeness of her and her dog who, at home miles away died the same day….kinda  creepy stuff. Anyway..

We also visited the very very VERY wide 9th July street (named after Argentina’s independance date from Spain) and saw the massive white obleisk.  We saw the Plaza de Mayo (pink building where the president gets choppered to every day – we saw the chopper actually – very OTT can you imagine old Gordon getting away with that one?). St Martin’s Cathedral crypt thingy which is flanked by guards. I gave this one a miss. I mean I really dont get why people would want to visit dead bones. Plus it smelt really musty.  Haha I am such a philistine…

We also ha d a riveting visit to  La Bombarina?!? Is that how you spell it? A monstrous blue and yellow football stadium where the ‘Boca Juniors’ train and play. That was especially interesting, so glad I paid that a visit 😉

In the late afternoon we walked about Puerto Maderno scouting out the area, there were cool turtles which we originally thought were statues on an overturned rusty ship base, until they moved that is! We ate Empindas at a wee cafe for 3 pesos and had a look at an old clipper museum boat across the water. There is a real mix of French Colonial architecture and modern here .. the Customs house and the imposing military HQ building being great examples of the former.

We spent a couple of hours in Florida – a pedestrian only shopping area, surprisingly I never bought anything save a hairclip! Stevo however fot some kinda football top (don’t ask me – it was blue and white striped) and we indulged in some heavenly icecream, chocolate & rum and bananna split for me toffee and coffee for Stevo. Mine was waaay better.

Due to the exessive walking we headed into a McCafe (McDonalds coffee) – yes seriously – and had an unusually nice coffee in there and we hadn’t really had any good coffees in BA yet. Which was surprising..  We then headed home where stevo went off for a run to an Ecological park up the road and I went for the more relaxing option of a sauna 😉    

We visited a Steak House at night – La Siga Vaca –  one of the recommeded ones from our guide book where I had the best steak ever, rare oozing blood and flavour. Stevo got served an intestine which was hilarious (he’s asked for chicken!). One thing to note is that when then ask you what you want to drink and you say red wine, you get the whole bottle!!! This place is great, the meat is exceptional and it’s well worth a visit if you ever make it out here.

Day 3   

After the ice cream / red meat excess I started the day with a roof top treadmill run in the gym on the top of our hotel. Breathtaking views. Stevo was still sleeping and I wasn’t quite brave enough to venture out alone. We then stuffed ourselves in the buffet breakfast ( came to be a bit of a regular occurance) with a certain someone haveing 2 omlettes!! Then hopped on the public bus to La Boca. Our hotel advised us against public transport but our tour guide had said it would be okay. It was, and it was super cheap – 2.2 pesos for both. You need to be sure you get off at the correct stop though as there are some bad areas surrounding the touristy bit and apparently a high likelehood of mugging!!

La Boca is a multicoloured chaotic collection of thrown together houses and bars and shops. It is meant to represent how the houses grew when the immigrants decended, there is a lot of tin. Its all very haphazard but pretty abnd bright. We stopped off to buy the usual magnets and postcards, the locals are a bit pushy but not overly so.

There are 3 or 4 wee streets in the tourit part of La Boca and on one of them you can sit and have a beer and watch the tango dancers. You can even get a photo (which Stevo did)! Another street is home to a myriad of talented artisits, we bought two painitngs, oils of La Boca, they are really beautiful and will have pride of place at home.  There is also a mural of the Boca Juniors which you can get your photo next to – not one for me ;o)

So far we’d done all the usual touristy stuff and I really felt that we hadn’t seen the real argentina, just the gloss covered version so after a quck shared pizza at a waterfront cafe near our hotel,  we headed across the river to  San Telmos. This is more representative of Buenos aires i think . We walked for hours up and down the cobbled streets with their bohemian shops and antique dealers. We visited Plaza Dorrego – the market square where there are many stalls and street artists which wasn’t so busy as it only is very busy on Sunday apparently  then had the best coffee so far at a little corner cafe opposite the youth hostel. San Telmos is beautiful, all Italian architecture and faded grandeur which makes it all the more enthralling.. the peeling plaster, the cracked windows….

We finished the evening with a bottle of very dry cava (lovely!) and a bit of a fight about where to get a late supper which ended in a call to room service by lesley – good call actually as I had an excellent club sandwich which came with a flower and soem mints!

Day 4 last day 🙁

Stevo started the day with a run around the Ecological park again – I just never felt like it so settle for a nice long breakfast followed by a pamper and a soak. We were getting picked up at 3.30 for our Mendoza flight so we didn’t go to far – across the rive to Hooters for beer!! We had a later lunch at a private university however this was jsut school dinner stuff and not so nice, filled a gap though. Then back to the hotel to write this up!  

So that’s Buenos Airea over. Other things to note – the weather – so hot despite it beign oficially  ‘winter’ – 28 degress today for example.  It’s a vibrant, pretty, dynamic mixed up city with lots to see and do. The only thing I kinda regret is not makingit to a Tango dancing club, a proper wee unstaged one.. mibbie next time ?!!