Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, and our first taste (literally) of Argentina. Most people associate Buenos Aires and Argentina with either tango, football or Evita. Well, in our brief time there we didn't dance any tango (though we danced... well kind of, as a drunk person does moving whilst music is played kind of way), we didn't see any football (though we did meet a Maradona lookalike trying to sell photos of himself?!) and we certainly didn't see Madonna singing from any balconies (though we did see 'the balcony'). For us our brief encounter with the capital city mainly involved dodgy back street money dealing, (lots of) drinking with friends, old and new, and eating lots and lots of steak!


The Black Market
Financially, it is a good time to be a tourist in Argentina. This is because as tourists we have access to the one thing that all Argentinians want more than anything - US Dollars. The Argentine government has a history of pretty much always screwing up the currency which has resulted in one of the highest inflation rates in the world. The local currency, the Peso, is pretty much worthless to the poor local people that get paid by it. Especially in terms of saving. The government in their infinite wisdom has made it almost impossible for nationals to access any other currency by official means, this has led to the infamous yet still technically illegal Argentine black market, affectionately known as the less illegal sounding 'Dolar Blue'. Why it is Dolar Blue and not Dolar Azul (Spanish for blue) we do not know. On the Dolar Blue you can get nearly double the amount of pesos you would get for US dollars by official means.


So, knowing of this market but having no prior dealings of underground backstreet currency exchanges we decided to make use of it and in Uruguay prior to our arrival in BA we withdrew close to a thousand US Dollars! Now we wouldn't normally carry anywhere near this much cash anywhere, least of all in a huge city with a reputation for pickpocketing and muggings, but this was a special situation - we wanted to become seedy members of a criminal underworld. This would be our first step - conquering the black market. Then who knows what would be next for us - drug dealing, prostitution rackets, government assassinations, the world would be our oyster.


So on first arriving to BA, after falling out with a very grumpy taxi driver over our fare to our hostel (long story made short - he won), we made our way to Florida street - home of the Dolar Blue. We normally walk through cities attempting to blend in with the locals, carrying the bare essentials - camera, phone, wallet with a bit of cash but no bank cards and a gun (or knife depending on our mood). We don't normally have all that cash on us though. So we decided to split it up, on the theory that if we were to become victims of criminals before we had dealt legitimately with the criminals we wouldn't lose all the cash in one go. We had it everywhere, $100 bills in pockets, in bras, hidden in shopping bags, in camera cases and our favourite - tucked in between the pages of our Lonely Planet Buenos Airies City Guide, because what criminal from Buenos Airies would ever need a city guide for their own city. Clever aren't we?


We found Florida Street very easily, thanks to the aforementioned city guide and it was absolutely nothing like we expected. We had imagined a dark damp street with dodgy men in trench coats hidden in unseen alleys, hagged prostitutes lining the curbs plying their trade and kids high on drugs fighting each other over spilt empanadas. That was our criminal dream. In reality the street was actually very nice. It was the mainest widest pedestrianised high street in Buenos Aries. All the usual shops you'd expect to find in a city - clothes shops, the obligatory McDonald's and about a dozen Starbucks. Hhhhmm was this right? Was this the home of the dodgy unscrupulous dealings of the black market? Yes. Yes it was.


In between all these shops were young men looking for tourists and constantly shouting 'Cambio Cambio'. It probably wasn't too hard to spot us as tourists as we were the only ones wearing flip flops, shorts, t shirts and sunglasses (it wasn't sunny) and we had the Lonely Planet City Guide complete with flapping US$100 Bill sticking out of our pocket (just blending in).


As we realised our gangster dream was coming to an end we got a few prices from the Cambio guys and eventually settled with one we liked. From there he took us to a very ordinary looking travel agent with a very ordinary desk and a very a nice little lady who happily exchanged our cash. No need for guns to be drawn. There were no guys in trench coats and not one minute of any slight intimidation. They got their dollars and we got our excellent rate. Everything was very polite and straight forward. It was all so very disappointing.


Friends
When arriving at a new hostel there is always an edge of uncertainty and a little bit of anxiety when your checking into a dorm room. Or as Forrest Gump says - it's like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get. We try to limit ourselves to 4 bed, or at a push, 6 bed dorm rooms. In BA we had a 4 bed. We were first to arrive into the empty dorm which although this sounds great, it actually only makes things worse. There is the rare occasion where you can book a bed in a dorm and throughout the night nobody else fills up the other beds in the room, in which case - Boom! Large private double room for about half the price! The problem when you arrive first however is that you spend all your time at the hostel with one eye on the door and hoping that nobody else arrives with backpacks looking for a room! Silently celebrating with yourself when they make their way to a private room. Or if they do enquire about a dorm, then it's willing them to simply just 'F' off. It's a long wait and anxiety sets in. Inevitably when you think the coast is clear, you make your way to bed, brush your teeth and get your sleeping clothes on assuming that you have the room to yourselves and then just as your head hits the pillow two backpackers rock up at the door looking for beds in your dorm. Dammit!


Sometimes it is a good thing though, and sometimes it can be bad. Very bad. Especially if they loudly, disgustingly and obnoxiously snore where at first you just politely cough in the hope it stirs them out of their slumber, but if that doesn't work you then cough louder, then louder, then next your banging their bed to then actually shaking them before you end up smothering them to quietness... As it happened in BA however we lucked out. We were sharing with two young lads from Brazil, William and Igor. These two were great to share with and we hit it off straight away (they even printed and framed a photo of the four of us as a goodbye present!). Our friendship was quite surprising though because we didn't speak a word of Portuguese and they only had a little Spanish and Igor spoke a little English. Thankfully these days we have google translate which set in motion the worlds longest conversations using only google translate. It took us about an hour just to decide on names and where froms etc. the only time Igor managed to speak without google translate was when they had just explained they were travelling together.
Us - "Together?"

Igor - "Yes, together. I mean no. We're not gay!!!"

This confusion was reminded to them on several occasions throughout the week. It was funny for us. They were top lads and the times at the hostel were made much more fun thanks to them. On the last night at the hostel we decided we would go out for a few drinks to say our goodbyes. At this point we should have realised that to access google translate you need wifi, of which there is a good source within the hostel. We never considered that once we left the hostel and hit the bright lights of Argentinas Palermo district we would be left with no google and only Igor's VERY limited English to carry us through the evening. We sat down at a table and an awkward silence crept up on us. We were at a complete loss. William would say "Hey Dave.....erm...er .....****" we had lost our google gift of conversation. Fortunately for us we had a secret weapon. Beer. It turns out that when there's not much to talk about you drink a lot faster, and in no time we were all happily drunk and merrily chatting away to each other in our own languages not having a clue what the other was saying. We stayed out like that until 5am.


Other foreign friends included a reunion with our Chilean amigos whom we had met in Uruguay, brother and sister Pablo and Laura. No translation issues here as both of them speak excellent English. They were very privileged in getting the honour of spending David's 32nd birthday with him. Again, more drinks. In fact most of our nights in Buenos Aires ended in drinks, it's just that sort of place. Like the Four Alls in Higham.


Other notable things we did in Buenos Aires:

Santelmo market - a famous market that is held every Sunday. It's ok in a markety kind of way. There's lots of homemade crafts and tourist driven theatrics making it less of a market and more of an expensive walk for foreigners. Unfortunately for the market there wasn't a lot of tempting food on offer which is usually what bleeds us dry at these type of things.

Boca Houses - An area by the harbour famed for its bright colourful houses. The story goes that people were so poor here that they used left over paint from the harbour to paint their houses. This left a very bright and colourful street and became iconic as a place of the city. There's no chance that the people are poor there these days though as they charge about £5 for a beer. It was a shame really, the whole area is now just one big hoard of tourists with tacky souvenir shops and cheesy restaurants directly in front of and ruining the actual painted buildings that people had come to see. This was where we met the Maradona lookalike asking for £5 to have a photo taken with him. We asked him to give it us for free though as he would get his photo taken with a Brad Pitt lookalike in return. He didn't go for it.


The Free Walking Tour. - A first for us, after hearing so many positive reports about them in all the other cities we have visited. It started off a little boring discussing architecture and notable statues. Claire was caught daydreaming and yawning on more than one occasion. The only interesting building to us was one that was created on the basis of Dante's Inferno. The building was hell at the bottom with demons and devils everywhere and then rose to angels and christ statues the higher up the floors you went. This was only interesting to us because we have both just read Dan Browns Inferno which is about Dante's book. If we hadn't read that a few weeks ago it would probably have been more daydreaming moments.


The tour livened up a bit towards the end though. We stopped at a Maldivas memorial commemorating all the Argentine soldiers killed by Thatchers UK in 1982 (The Falklands). The guides description of the war was very honest but diplomatic, especially in the presence of quite a few British tourists. His (and the majority we are told) view is that the Maldivas should belong to Argentina but the war was not neccesary and it was simply a political move by the then failing Argentine President to gain some patriotic support. Unfortunately on the other side was also a failing Prime Minister (Thatcher) also in dire need of patriotic support who was happy to retaliate and fight. It was sad to learn that the majority of the Argentine army were barely of age, forced to serve and ill prepared and equipped to be fighting an army of the British calibre, suicide almost. Interestingly did you know the major turning point in the war was when Thatcher gave the OK to bomb a boat with hundreds of Argentinian soldiers on that was sailing in a 'peace zone'. We didn't. *****.


The next part of the tour took us to 'that balcony'. Famous for being the place where the peoples hero Evita Peron gave her speech to the masses but made more famous when Madonna asked Argentina not to cry for her in the hit musical 'Evita'. Interestingly, Madonna wasn't allowed by Argentine government to stand on the actual balcony that Evita used, and had to use a similar one next door to it. Evita Peron (for those that haven't seen the film) was the wife of a nice but not as nice politician whose name we have forgotten but it was definitely Señor Peron. As with all good people of the world Evita was taken far too early when she died at the age of 32. After her death the city mourned and queued for hundreds of blocks to pay their respects to this fantastic woman. We don't know but we are guessing that she was looked upon a bit like Princess Diana or Mother Theresa.

Cementerio De La Recoletta - On a boiling hot day, whilst very hungover, you can't beat a good stroll around a nice big graveyard. Well you can, obviously, but that is what we decided to do one morning. Although thanks to being still a little drunk we managed to walk right past the entrance and circled the entire thing (it's big) before getting back to the entrance. The cemetery is on many peoples lists of things to see in the city, there's several famous Argentinians buried behind these walls, and impressively too. Some of the graves/monuments are huge and a lot of them have windows that you can actually look through to see the coffins. Not the best way to spend a hangover but still very interesting. The most famous person buried there is obviously Evita where a queue forms everyday of people wanting a quick photo with the dead champion of the people. It's a very interesting story with what happened to Evita following her death. In a nutshell, Señor Peron had her preserved (more or less stuffed), and for years had her practically sitting in his house in the dining room which he was then sharing with his new wife. This was before she was then nicked and shipped off somewhere to Europe to be left standing in a box where she unfortunately lost a toe, before she made her way back to Buenos Aires and finally laid to rest in the cemetery.

Exploring the numerous neighbourhoods - Part of the charm of Buenos Aires is all the different neighbourhoods. We spent a lot of time either wandering between or catching buses to the further ones. Each one seems to have its own unique character and they all have an individual charm that makes them worth visiting. From the trendy upmarket Palermo to the antique shops of San Telmo there's lots to see and simply too many to write about them all.

Eating steak(s) - After tasting the best Brazil had to offer and then also Uruguay, Argentina had a lot to live up to. Thankfully it did it in style. By far the best we have ever eaten and the size of the steaks are phenomenal! In 5 nights in Buenos Aires we managed to have 5 steaks! That's some good going!

So that was our trip to Buenos Aires and also our first introduction to Argentina where we plan to spend quite a bit of time over the coming weeks. So far we love it and hope it continues to impress!

Ciao!


Planes used - 11
Buses/coaches used - 46 (+2)
Trains used - 24
Metros/subways used - 41 (+2)
Cars used - 9
Minivans - 10
Russian Campervans used -1
Horses used - 1
Camels used - 1
Taxis used - 17 (+4)
Cable cars used - 1
Bicycles used- 2
Tuk tuks/autorickshaw used - 31
Scooters used - 6
Elephants used - 0
Ferrys used - 5 (+1)
CycleRickshaw - 1
Bamboo HouseBoat - 1
Tour Boat - 1
Combi Van - 2
Huge 4x4 Truck Thingys - 2