We arrived in Buenos Aires in the mid afternoon and met up with 5 of the people that had flown up to Buenos Aires instead of driving. We found out that one of the girls had her bag stolen at the hostel when she was checking in. Even though there was a security guard 1 metre away.
This wasn't the only accident that occurred in BA during our time there. The first day we sorted out getting to Uruguay for the next morning, and also a tango show in the evening. After that we needed to go to exchange money on the black market. In Buenos Aires there is a street where there are lots of money changers that illegally change money for better then the legal rate. The legal rate was 6 pesos to the dollar but on the market you could get 12 pesos! It made everything significantly cheaper in Argentina. It was a dodgy deal in the corner of the street and then we were worried because those people knew that we then had a large stash of pesos on us. There was a McDonalds further down the street so we went in to treat ourselves and hopefully not be followed by the dealers. It all went fine anyway and everyone on tour had no trouble with changing money there.
The next day we were up early to go to Uruguay, we got a ferry to a town called colonia del Sacramento which was a small town around and hours ferry ride from Buenos Aires. As soon as we arrived we got some US dollars out because you could at Uruguayan ATM's. Six of us then decided to rent a golf caddy. It was a posh electric one that looked like the front of an old rolls Royce. It also had leather seats and only cost $10 each for the day. We could also exchange money with them for a better rate then the exchange shop.
By then we were all starving we headed to a restaurant on the main street which sold McCann's potato Smiley's and pizza. Two girls ordered milkshakes which came with little umbrellas and sparklers. It was like we were all children again!
After this we decided to head to the beach because shops shut during the day and it was boiling. The beach wasn't that nice, the sea was a murky brown colour and it was too hot anyway to sit out in the sun. Most of the day we spent riding around in the golf cart to get some breeze even though it only went at around 10 miles an hour. Super slow. We visited a little market and also the ruins in the town. There was also a light house that we were too lazy to climb up. As much as we enjoyed Uruguay and the golf cart there really wasn't too much to do and we were happy to leave.
We had a major rush to make the tango show and only had 15 minutes to get ready for it, we all rushed around to get ready and then the pick up was over an hour late! The tango show included a 3 course meal and all you can drink beer, wine and soft drinks. It's safe to say that everybody got pretty hammered. The food was absolutely outstanding they even cooked the steak to order which we haven't had yet! We then Had a terrible tango lesson in which they took one hour showing us 8 dance steps which we then got a certificate for. The show was also amazing, and showed tango throughout the ages. They did so many costume changes in such a short time. Dan was drunk enough that he even got pulled up on stage to dance three times!
The next day started late, we went to go see Evita's grave which was an extremely long walk. When we got there there were so many crazy graves that we didn't end up finding Evita's. One reason was because we didn't really know who she was and it seemed a bit silly to be looking for a grave of someone you haven't heard of. All I do know about her was that she was a presidents wife who was also an actress and also helped with women getting the vote in Argentina. She is revered kind in Argentina of like princess Diana, and we just didn't appreciate it. We then wandered around some more markets but didn't buy anything. We then took a long walk home where we saw a shop called open 25 hours actually shut?! We got a lovely take away pizza from a place that only sold margaritas for the last 35 years.
The final day in Buenos Aires we did the free walking tour that started at their congress building, which was built based on Capitol building in Washington DC. It took them 40 years to build! The guide called it 'Argentinian time'... Another thing taking Argentinian time was the building directly next to the congress building which had a little windmill on it like the moulin rouge building. It used to be a coffee shop which then closed and homeless people moved in. Since 1996 Argentina decided to renovate it and that has yet to start happening!
We were then shown to the pink house where the president lives and where the majority of the protests in Argentina take place. Everyone here loves a good protest, a particularly important one happens every Thursday and is known as the mothers and grandmothers of Argentina. In the 1970s the dictatorship of Argentina created a lot of disappearances of people mainly supporting democracy, quite a few people were thrown from planes. The children of these people were then adopted to people who supported the regime. The mothers and grandmothers of these people would come here to be heard. It still continues today to find the children who would now be in their 30s and they have found just over 100 people out of over 400. When we visited Buenos Aires they had found a man just the week before.
The final stop was at the obelisk where we saw a complete family house on top of one of the buildings, because a man hated his commute to work. After the free walking tour we headed to a restaurant for a steak, for $8 (£5) you got steak, chips and a coca cola. When the steak came out it was actually two full steaks joined together by a slither of fat. They were so massive they took up a whole dinner plate and the chips came out on separate plates because they couldn't fit!!