Time travel across the international date line was interesting...arriving in a place 6 hours before we took off!! And although our connection in Santiago was 3 hours, I was only awake for 40min - it is amazing how comfortable airport chairs can be when they need to be.
We arrived in Buenos Aires at 7pm, so that would translate into ´late afternoon´ for them. Easily enough time for a nap and then out for early dinner at 9pm! But instead we went straight to bed and only rose again at 11am on Saturday! The day itself was rather uneventful, some wandering around San Telmo (where we stayed - very gorgeous old part of town with cobbled streets et al) and finding a Spanish teacher to help us get started with the lingo. The evening on the other hand was delightful. We joined Florencia and her friends in Palermo for dinner (at 10pm!) and sampled some of the best Argentinian beef and red wine. It was a perfect way to get into the spirit and they chose all the local specialities for us to try and designed a whistle-stop Buenos Aires tour for our next week. I do also have to mention Dulche de Leche - a sweet caramely type dessert that is a local speciality - too much of this dining (beef, Dulche and red wine) and we are in deep trouble! Flo and all her friends on the other hand are as thin as reeds - we don´t know how they do it?
Flo, me and Meeeeeeaat
Sunday we were treated to a local tour by Florencia and her parents. After the 2am to bed, the 9.30pm pick-up was a little bleary eyed, but we soon warmed up. Marcelo (Flo´s dad) took us through everything from local history, architecture and then politics of Argentina. We drove from Puerto Madero all the way out of town to the north and then to the Palermo parks for a much needed walk. It was here we discovered how everyone stays slim - EVERYONE and their dogs were out running, cycling, rollerblading (you name it) and the walk around the lake was a bit ´dodge the oncoming traffic´. Florencia´s parents treated us to a wonderful family Sunday lunch, which here is empanadas (small pasty like things stuffed with savory items) more beef, roast pork and potato and green salad. More politics and geography followed as we were full of questions. The evening we spent around San Telmo as on Sundays all the streets are closed to traffic and turn into a big market until about 6pm. When the market stalls pack-up, the bands take over and the (mostly) locals try their hand at Tango in the street. We went in search of some tango lessons, but decided our time would be better spent absorbing the atmosphere and eating undoubtedly the best ice-cream in the world (if you ever get to Buenos Aires, Freddo is a MUST on the list of places to visit - we visited it 3 times in 6 days!)
Take a look at this video of the dancers in the street - here
Monday morning found us bright eyed and in the classroom (the courtyard in our hostel) for our first Spanish lesson. We were fortunate to have found a teacher (the wonderful Ian) in the hostel who just happened to have a Post Grad in Education and Degree in Spanish who was making some extra cash helping gringos master the lingo. I cannot believe how much we crammed into the 9 hours over the week, but Simon appears to have mastered the basics beautifully. We spent some of the afternoon being little geeks (i.e. doing our homework) and eating empanadas.
Tuesday we finally ventured out of our local area and enjoyed a tour of the cemetery - loads of famous people are buried in crypts here. For your info, a medium sized crypt is about $30,000 with $40 per year tax. They hold up to 24 coffins and stay in the family as long as the tax is paid. Some of the designs are a little weird, but each to their own. Most interesting was Eva Peron´s crypt, still covered in flowers from her recent (would be) birthday. Flo could not understand our fascination with it, but we loved the giant flower. It opens with sunrise and closes at sunset each day...and is just cool. Down through town to Puerto Madero for lunch and then back in time for some more Spanish. Very close to our hostel is a very popular parilla (grill) restaurant called Deneivel and we had to sample some of the fare. Armed with our words for rare (jugoso) fillet (lomo) and ´bill please´(la cuenta, por favour) we did okay - not so well on the DECAF coffee request! Needless to say I was still awake at 5am!
Evita...no crying here!
Simon is obsessed with this big flower
After a really bad night´s sleep we made it to half way through breakfast before I got grumpy and almost threw my medialuna at poor Simon. He sent me back to bed so as to venture around town and do his Spanish homework in peace. Our Spanish class was a little too much for me and I am not sure I will ever get my fork vs spoon words correct!
Our last full day in Buenos Aires was action packed. Shopping list in hand we managed to sign language our way though to some altitude sickness medication and some more deodorant - ask Simon to do those two requests for you some day - hilarious! We took in the city with mucho gusto as we marched it flat. We had the intention of visiting a museum filled with some great modern art from the likes of Picasso, Mondrian and Leichenstein...but it was closed for a refurb, not to be put off we walked to another museum detailing the history of Argentina...closed again!! We did try to take in some culture but were thwarted wherever we turned. The only culture we ended up witnessing was quite a nasty bag snatching near La Boca.
Lunch was a luxury for backpackers (although we looked out of place) as we dined at the famous Faena hotel. Designed by Phillipe Starke, we took lunch in the lounge and admired the wine list we would not be able to afford. A beer, orange juice and shared club sandwich was in order as we dominated the leather sofa and practised our Spanish with flashcards!! Dinner was pizza and wine with Florencia and her brother - did you know there are more Italian descendants in Argentina than Spanish - and this means brilliant Italian food and as Florencia says ´we are Spanish speaking Italians!´
Farewell Buenos Aires (we will be back) and hello Ecuador...real backpackers on the road again.
We arrived in Buenos Aires at 7pm, so that would translate into ´late afternoon´ for them. Easily enough time for a nap and then out for early dinner at 9pm! But instead we went straight to bed and only rose again at 11am on Saturday! The day itself was rather uneventful, some wandering around San Telmo (where we stayed - very gorgeous old part of town with cobbled streets et al) and finding a Spanish teacher to help us get started with the lingo. The evening on the other hand was delightful. We joined Florencia and her friends in Palermo for dinner (at 10pm!) and sampled some of the best Argentinian beef and red wine. It was a perfect way to get into the spirit and they chose all the local specialities for us to try and designed a whistle-stop Buenos Aires tour for our next week. I do also have to mention Dulche de Leche - a sweet caramely type dessert that is a local speciality - too much of this dining (beef, Dulche and red wine) and we are in deep trouble! Flo and all her friends on the other hand are as thin as reeds - we don´t know how they do it?
Flo, me and Meeeeeeaat
Sunday we were treated to a local tour by Florencia and her parents. After the 2am to bed, the 9.30pm pick-up was a little bleary eyed, but we soon warmed up. Marcelo (Flo´s dad) took us through everything from local history, architecture and then politics of Argentina. We drove from Puerto Madero all the way out of town to the north and then to the Palermo parks for a much needed walk. It was here we discovered how everyone stays slim - EVERYONE and their dogs were out running, cycling, rollerblading (you name it) and the walk around the lake was a bit ´dodge the oncoming traffic´. Florencia´s parents treated us to a wonderful family Sunday lunch, which here is empanadas (small pasty like things stuffed with savory items) more beef, roast pork and potato and green salad. More politics and geography followed as we were full of questions. The evening we spent around San Telmo as on Sundays all the streets are closed to traffic and turn into a big market until about 6pm. When the market stalls pack-up, the bands take over and the (mostly) locals try their hand at Tango in the street. We went in search of some tango lessons, but decided our time would be better spent absorbing the atmosphere and eating undoubtedly the best ice-cream in the world (if you ever get to Buenos Aires, Freddo is a MUST on the list of places to visit - we visited it 3 times in 6 days!)
Take a look at this video of the dancers in the street - here
Monday morning found us bright eyed and in the classroom (the courtyard in our hostel) for our first Spanish lesson. We were fortunate to have found a teacher (the wonderful Ian) in the hostel who just happened to have a Post Grad in Education and Degree in Spanish who was making some extra cash helping gringos master the lingo. I cannot believe how much we crammed into the 9 hours over the week, but Simon appears to have mastered the basics beautifully. We spent some of the afternoon being little geeks (i.e. doing our homework) and eating empanadas.
Tuesday we finally ventured out of our local area and enjoyed a tour of the cemetery - loads of famous people are buried in crypts here. For your info, a medium sized crypt is about $30,000 with $40 per year tax. They hold up to 24 coffins and stay in the family as long as the tax is paid. Some of the designs are a little weird, but each to their own. Most interesting was Eva Peron´s crypt, still covered in flowers from her recent (would be) birthday. Flo could not understand our fascination with it, but we loved the giant flower. It opens with sunrise and closes at sunset each day...and is just cool. Down through town to Puerto Madero for lunch and then back in time for some more Spanish. Very close to our hostel is a very popular parilla (grill) restaurant called Deneivel and we had to sample some of the fare. Armed with our words for rare (jugoso) fillet (lomo) and ´bill please´(la cuenta, por favour) we did okay - not so well on the DECAF coffee request! Needless to say I was still awake at 5am!
Evita...no crying here!
Simon is obsessed with this big flower
After a really bad night´s sleep we made it to half way through breakfast before I got grumpy and almost threw my medialuna at poor Simon. He sent me back to bed so as to venture around town and do his Spanish homework in peace. Our Spanish class was a little too much for me and I am not sure I will ever get my fork vs spoon words correct!
Our last full day in Buenos Aires was action packed. Shopping list in hand we managed to sign language our way though to some altitude sickness medication and some more deodorant - ask Simon to do those two requests for you some day - hilarious! We took in the city with mucho gusto as we marched it flat. We had the intention of visiting a museum filled with some great modern art from the likes of Picasso, Mondrian and Leichenstein...but it was closed for a refurb, not to be put off we walked to another museum detailing the history of Argentina...closed again!! We did try to take in some culture but were thwarted wherever we turned. The only culture we ended up witnessing was quite a nasty bag snatching near La Boca.
Lunch was a luxury for backpackers (although we looked out of place) as we dined at the famous Faena hotel. Designed by Phillipe Starke, we took lunch in the lounge and admired the wine list we would not be able to afford. A beer, orange juice and shared club sandwich was in order as we dominated the leather sofa and practised our Spanish with flashcards!! Dinner was pizza and wine with Florencia and her brother - did you know there are more Italian descendants in Argentina than Spanish - and this means brilliant Italian food and as Florencia says ´we are Spanish speaking Italians!´
Farewell Buenos Aires (we will be back) and hello Ecuador...real backpackers on the road again.
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