Buenos F%^*"!G Aires

Yes, you can actually buy t-shirts with this saying on the front, but the explicative is spelled out in full...

We left our beloved Eco Truly on the first day of Semana Santa, which is Easter but this holiday is bigger than Christmas in Peru so the Eco Park was buzzing with hundreds of visitors. Despite all of this, the devotees and other volunteers managed to send us off in true Hare Krishna fashion with pancitos, maracuya cake, a baby Truly statue and the Maha Mantra, as we boarded the tuk tuk off to catch our bus to Lima. I cannot even lie, but I got choked up a bit and had to put on my sunglasses immediately! By the time I composed myself, we were already on the Z bus back to Lima for the night before catching our flight to BA to get ready for my sister's visit.
The hostel we stayed in for our last night in Lima was like a giant clubhouse and due to over booking, we got our own private room. Unfortunatly, we read our emails too late and were unable to hook up with Becky and Kane who by chance were in Lima the same night we were. Our hostels were located on opposite sides of the city, as we read their email about where to stay after we booked our hostel...we were so sad to have missed them! We caught an uneventful flight to the uneventful airport and caught the uneventful bus to the apartment for an uneventful check in...seriously the entire day was simply uneventful and quite easy I might add. This was a blessing from other places we have travelled in South America.

Upon entering BA, we could tell we were not in Peru anymore...getting through the airport was just a breeze, just like back home in Texas and London! I couldn't believe how easy it was to get to a bus and get to the apartment. It also hit me how European this place was compared to the other countriesin South America where we have travelled...it was kind of like New York met Barcelona, courted for a few decades and made a baby they named Argentina. It is NOTHING like our eco village and the sound of the blarring horns, smell of cigarette smoke and endless rows of shopping demonstrated that. I remember talking with Brahma, a young Hare Krishna devotee from Argentina. She loved the simplicty of life on the eco village and told us of the material world she came from in Argentina and how it stressed her and meant nothing in the world of the Hare Krishna. She was right! This place is all material all the time...shop after shop of stuff (my eyes glazed over everyday with it all) and some of the people were so plastic and the ones that weren't plastic were dressed, make-uped and accessorized to the nines! I felt a bit like a homeless in my attire and overall appearence, but got over it pretty quickly when WEndy arrived and the three of us were whisked away on our 8 days of fun!

Finding a grocerry store was another story and not so uneventful...finding a groccery store in the whole of Buenos Aires is a challenge...one we would encounter every single day for 9 days. The apartment was perfection...minus the crappy kitchen items and teeny tiny bathroom; other than that it was ideal...oh and the WiFi caused serious damage to our health through the pain of patchy service. Wendy arrived in uneventful and easy fashion as well and despite the jetlag, was ready and raring to go...and so we hit the ground running...on loads of caffinated diet beverages. We spent the first two days touring some of the fabulous neighbourhoods BA has to offer and took several day trips throughout the rest of the week...

Day 1: Florida Street



A very touristy street with loads of shops and money changers, Feria Artesenal - a huge crafts and tatty shit market, though I do loves me some tatty shit, and so does Wendy so Alex just had to grin and bare it, as there was power in numbers that day. We also visited Cemetario de la Recoleta - a gorgeous sprawling cemetary where Evita is buried among other important political characters. The graves were mostly ornate mosaliums and we were touring around it when the sun was beginnig to set so there were moments when you could capture a snap of the sun behind a cross or an angel statue...very divine looking. And of course the challenge of finding a groccery store or fruit/vegetable vendor.


Day 2: San Telmo



Another lovely neighbourhood, Plaza Dorrego - antiques fair with loads of things to buy all handmade by artists and craftsmen/women...it reminds me of Nottinghill market in London, Iglesia Nuestra Senora del Belen - beautiful church next to a prison turned into a museum...not that great of a prison museum S21 in Cambodia was MUCH better, Defensa Street - where all the government buildings are and they are quite majestic in appearence. Casa Rosada - a giant pink building where Evita spoke from the historic balcony to her adorning people. We decided to eat out and celebrate Wendy's arrival and visit at Filo, a highly recommended resturant that just happened to be right next door to our apartment. We all decided to have steak and a Malbec to do it Argentina style. I swear I have never had such a delicious, juicy, tender well cooked steak before in my life. It came out on a late in tow medallion pieces with a brown mushroom sauce and a large dollop of creamy mashed potatoes resting comfortably beside them...sauce surrounding the white spuds almost enveloping them second by second. The wine complimented the steak to a tee, as if they were twins separated at birth. With each bite, we could not help but moan in ectasy and discuss how delicious it was...nothing could compare to this meal.

Day 3: Tigre



A lovely weekend spot for locals in a riverfront marsh land. We visited the Mercado de Frutos, which is really only buzzing on a weekend...we went on a Monday, though we were able to find a few open stalls so we could get fruit and sandwich making items. We did take a boat ride through the Delta and walked around the riverfront houses and bars getting eaten alive by swamp mosquitos, but it was really qutie beautiful. It kind of felt like you were in New Orleans or other parts of Louisiana when we were touring through the marshy water.

Day 4: Back to touring neighbourhoods La Boca



There are only a few things to do in this area, but what a long walk away from our apartment. We visited the Bombonera Stadium where Boca Juniors (most popular football team in BA) play their football games and then strolled down and around Caminito street taking in all the sites of the brightly coloured buildings and artwork for sale all around the area. We popped into the Fundacion Proa, which was my idea of a perfect museum...small with cutting edge comtemporary art and sculptures with a rooftop terrace. It is one of the poorest areas in BA and Lonely Planet warns you not to walk around too far from the touristy areas, but we didn't really feel unsafe at any point...though you could tell a marked difference between La Boca and San Telmo and other areas in BA. We found ourselves sitting in an outdoor cafe sampling a delicious coffee beverage and watching dozens of people dressed in full tango regalia dancing around with those moody sexy faces on...so Argentina. We decided that since we had already walked about 15 miles, we sould round out the day with a few more miles of walking along the water where all the posh shops and resturants were and a very cool bridge created by an artist/architect...we were very tired after that and a bit over it by then as well.


Day 5: Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay



We caught the 3 hour ferry ride early that morning and rode it directly to Uruguay...quite easy to get from one country to the other and you don't even have to change your money. Quaint, quiet and comfortable little waterfront town with loads of cobblestone streets and shops to explore. You can rent bicycles or golf carts...we wanted to rent a golf cart of course, but none of us had brought our driver's liscence. We strolled along the water taking snaps, explored each and every touristy shop on the quest for the perfect souveniers, climbed up a light house, sat in a cafe to have a lovely coffee, explored a derelic construction site building. We would have visited a museum or 2, but they are all closed one day a week...a Thursday, and what day did we chose to visit Uruguay...a Thursday.


Day 6: Belgrano



A tour around my favourite neighbourhood in BA. It reminds me a bit of Brooklyn really. We just walked all around it and explored the Barrancas de Belgrano - a man made park in the middle of the area with trees and sprawling hillsides to lounge, there is also a very hip looking bandstand. We meandered to Chinatown, which was only a few blocks long, but there we found the best groccery stores in BA hands down...well Palermo had some good ones too. We also visited the Museo Casa de Yrurtia - a gorgeous little neo-colonial house where the sculptor, Yrurtia, lived with his painter wife and when they died, they left the house to become a museum of thier work and their private art collection...very cool indeed. You weren't allowed to take photos, but Wendy sneakily found a way to do so...by just pretending she did not understand Spanish, though she did...clever.


Day 7: Palermo, Evita and Graffiti




We wanted to attend the Evita Museum that morning, but Natwest had put a hold on my bank card...again...rendering my unable to debit any cash, so we had to race all around Palermo to find a computer that had Skype so I could call them. Since that took a while, we had to race through Palermo to the meeting point for our Graffitimundo Tour. This was certainly a highlight of the trip. THe Graffitimundo tours were created by two English women who were visiting BA and kept seeing all of this amazing street art everywhere and wanted to learn more about it and the artists that created such amazing work, but they could not find any organized tour or information. They then created these tours that put people in touch with the artists and taught people about street art and the political and emotional meaning behind so many of the pieces. We had a tour guide and a mini-bus that took us all around to various neighbourhoods, mostly around Palermo (very Manhatten). We ended the tour at bar/gallery dedicated to street art and street artists where we met some of them and purchased their work. Wendy purchased a piece directly from the actual artist himself...we got a photo of course! Al and Wendy also dug through the trash outside of one of the artist's studios while we were on the tour and found some pieces of artwork that they kept...I am far too high class to be digging around in the trash...honestly, they left me in charge of taking the pics of all the graffiti so I was quite busy. We rounded out our last night back at Filo for the EXACT same meal we ate the first time around, but this one tasted even better than the first one...if that was even possible. The best part, was after eating the meal and feeling that Thanksgiving type sleepiness, we just had to walk right next door up a few flights of stairs to our apartment for our last night all together.


Day 8: Palermo and Evita Take 2



We were scheduled to ride bikes in a park in Palermo, but due to the rain we decided to head back to Palermo to mooch around and also attend Museo Evita, as we planned the day prior. On our way to the museum, we saw dozens of hardcore dog walkers...by hardcore, I mean they walk up to 12-15 dogs at one time. We had heard rumours about these dog walkers, but it was myth until the moment we saw them...amazing. Then onto the museum. Depsite the fact that this museum was bright and colourful and displayed many of her gorgeous outfits and accessories, it didn't tell much of her childhood or her husband's for that matter and left out the story of how they met and fell in love and became such a force to be reckon with in Argentina. We raced back to the apartment to secure a cab for Wendy to head home...what a whirlwind trip!


We had such a great time exploring Buenos Aires and the surrounding area. Initially, I thought it might be a long time to spend in just one city, but I was so wrong. BA has so much to offer and there are loads of day trips to keep you busy and perk your desire to travel around. We LOVED it there and having 8 days in one place really gave us the feel for the area and I discovered a few intersting characteristics of BA that seem to carry themselves through other parts of Argentina. This will be discussed in an upcoming blog...