Plaza de Mayo

26-27/06/17 & 02/07/17 Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires in the afternoon after an overnight bus ride from Puerto Madryn. The journey was made longer by the heavy traffic in the city. Not surprising I guess for a capital.

After a stop for lunch, we spent the afternoon having a nap and catching up on some z's after neither of us slept very well on the bus.

That evening we thought we would sample some of what Argentina is famous for, and enrolled in a tango lesson! We weren't very good, but it was a laugh, and nice to pretend we were competing in strictly come dancing.

That evening we went to a really nice tapas restaurant, which served amazing wine and great food.

The following day we did a walking tour of the city. It was interesting to find out some more about Argentina's history, and see some landmarks in the city. One thing that became very apparent to us both was how much Evita is idolised by Argentinians. We got to see some of the places she worked, lived and gave famous speeches etc. There are lots of monuments to her all over the city and her face is painted on some of the towers in the city. We learnt that when she died there was a fourteen day long funeral and the whole of Argentina ran out of flowers! Although the Argentinians respect the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, they don't think it is an accurate portrayal of her, and they entirely despise the movie version with Madonna in it! Neither of us could get "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" out of our heads throughout most of our time in BA!

That afternoon we caught a plane to Mendoza. This was a very stressful experience, even for me who is a professional when it comes to catching flights late.

Due to protests in town, a lot of the roads were closed. The journey that should have taken 20-30 mins, took 80. Our taxi man was a sweet old man who could barely see over the steering wheel. He could not speak English. He was an angel and drove like a mad man to get us there. He definitely went through some red lights to get us there. We were already making alternate arrangements as we were so convinced we weren't going to get there.

Once we arrived 30 mins before take off, we ran through the airport with our huge rucksacks (which felt like we were in boot camp), managed to check in and had to run through security, pushing in front of the huge queue. We ran to our gate, red and sweaty and out of breath to a crowd of people sat down, relaxed and staring at us as if we were crazy. Our flight was delayed by 30 mins.

The lady at the gate was the same lady who checked us in, and congratulated us on how fast we got there.

We spent three nights in Mendoza (see next post) before returning to Buenos Aires for a day.

On our return we started by visiting La Boca, a riverside community famous for its brightly coloured buildings and artwork. It was very pretty and colourful.

For lunch, we went to a traditional restaurant where we both enjoyed a massive steak. Before we arrived in Argentina we associated it with good steak and good wine. On leaving, our presumptions have not changed. If there is one things Argentinians to very well it steak! We have had a lot of steaks here... easily the best I have ever had in my life! In fact, Tom has enjoyed them so much he has had steak every day of being in Argentina!

That afternoon we visited some of the "must see" things in Buenos Aires, which included a book shop in a converted theatre which was beautiful and the Ricoletta cemetery. The graves are bought by families and so multiple members are in each mausoleum, which are all decorated very elaborately. Many of the people buried there are famous or politicians. We visited Evita's grave there, which was covered in flowers.

That night we went to see Fuerza Bruta. This was a show at the cultural centre and was highly recommended to us. It was a cirque de solei style show, with lots of trapeze work, props and lighting. It was very creative and like nothing either of us had seen before!Lue lisää