Finishing our bus trip

Buenos Aires is the same latitude and Sydney and with that comes a similar hot, humid and wet climate. The weather is predicted to be particularly hot but we are up and ready to conclude the ride from yesterday given we didn't start until after 1pm. It's already over 30° and we have to walk a little way to get to the right bus stop. The top of the bus has an air conditioned cabin so not too uncomfortable as the temperature rises.

This half of the trip is further out from the main center and takes us along the river. We begin near a garden that has a large silver metal installation in the shape of the national flower. It's quite a beautiful sculpture and people are enjoying the space and the cool having picnics under the trees. The most amusing part was a small airfield where we were told that on the weekend people come with a picnic to watch planes take off and land. This part of the route is less historic with more modern buildings. Even in an air conditioned cabin it was hot.

La Boca was a really interesting and important part of the bus ride. Early European settlers came here because, like Melbourne, it was a cheap place to live. There's a major soccer stadium here, a game massively important to the Argentinians Today it is really colourful and alive and very popular with tourists.

It is fairly obvious that where the bus goes and where we are staying are the best parts of the city. The main city area has a population of 3 million people. However, the urban area is close to 17 million. It is probably safe to assume that in the outer fringes life is a lot harder than what we see in the city and the poverty is greater. The large concrete apartment buildings in poor condition we saw coming in would suggest a poorer area. We were warned about being careful with our things obviously because, although we can't see it, the crime rate is high.

By the time we leave it's really hot 36-37o not great for walking. We head back to the apartment to wait out the heat. That night there is a massive thunderstorm and torrential rain. Now it's just humid.

Back to the first restaurant for dinner, we've had our low key experience in terms of food, that said their wine was really good. The entree was a dish of tomatoes with a large burrata sliced so it was nice and gooey on top. An interesting way to serve it. My dish was gluten-free penne, I'm always happy to see gluten-free pasta on a menu. This one however, was disappointing pieces of fairly dry salmon and hardly any sauce. Bob chose pumpkin for his side dish, large pieces roasted and served with shaved parmesan , too much for one person it was really good. Wine was expensive.

There appears to be two menus, often the English menu does not have prices. I suspect they make something up when you pay. This was certainly the case at breakfast which always seemed expensive for what we had.Läs mer