Funds are now pretty tight, resulting in me booking a ridiculous flight from Mexico to Buenos Aires:
First leg- Mexico city to Sao Paulo (Brazil)
--- waiting time 16hrs 10mins ---
Second leg- Sao Paulo to Asuncion (Paraguay)
--- waiting time 5hrs 15mins ---
Third leg- Asuncion to Buenos Aires
Total flight time was supposed to be 35hrs. To say I was not looking forward to it is a bit of an understatement... Well, I was in luck! I sat next to an air hostess on the Mexico-Sao Paulo leg and mentioned it to her. When we arrived in Sao Paulo she took me to their check-in desk and rebooked me on the next flight to Buenos Aires, saving me a whole day!
But it's never that easy. While I arrived promptly in Buenos Aires ahead of schedule, my bag did not. It did the whole trip to Paraguay before joining me two days later. It was nice to get some new underwear after three days.
This city is nothing like anywhere I've been in South America. It really feels like I'm in the middle of Europe. The architecture is more Art Nouveau or Gothic than Colonial, and there are big music and cinema scenes. This is also the first place in South America that has had an awesome variety of food!
First up was a trip to the Sunday markets. The huge San Telmo market stretches a few kilometers along Calle Defensa, with stalls selling everything from paintings, to food, to antiques. There is even the odd tango show!
I also passed Plaza de Mayo with its huge pink government building. Every day I have been in Buenos Aires there has been some kind of protest. The standard method of protest in this country seems to be to shoot small fireworks at various government buildings. The police don't seem to care when this happens...
The next day I met up with Jonathan and Justin, who I met a few months ago in Colombia and happened to be in BA the same time as me. We went to see the posh Palermo neighbourhood and happened to wander into a horse-racing track. Bets were made. Hopes were crushed.
I spent an afternoon wandering around La Boca, home to the famous Boca Juniors. There is also the colourful Caminito area, where artists sell their paintings and sculptures, and couples dance tango for the hordes of tourists walking by.
I'd been waiting for some good Argentinian steak for a long time and was rewarded for my patients with a visit to La Cabrera, a great parilla (steak restaurant). Not only was the steak amazing, but it was cheap. Between four of us, we polished off almost 2kg of meat!
A popular thing to do here is visit the Recoleta cemetery. I was surprised that a cemetery could be a tourist attraction but went to check it out anyway. The cemetery is nothing like anything I've seen before. It is the resting place of the rich and important of Buenos Aires, housing various military commanders, politicians and Evita, Argentina's first female president. The tombs house all the members of the same family and are all huge. Some of them are so big that they could be churches in their own right.
Other than that I drank lots of mate, a traditional Argentinian drink similar to herbal tea, and took in the famous nightlife. A night out here starts at around 2am, and if you return home before daybreak then you haven't had a good one. I dunno how people manage this when they are working a full time job!
The best night out was at La Bomba del Tiempo, a live concert involving only percussion instruments. These guys were amazing - I was blown away by the range of sound that can be made using only drums.
I am just about to get on a bus down South to the Lake district town of Bariloche. Time for some detox, hiking and nature. A 22 hour bus ride stands in my way... If only I had money left to fly places. I'll leave you with a shot of the pink government building at night, when it's at its pinkest.
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