Buenos Aires, Argentina
We arrived in Buenos Aires in the early hours of Friday, August 5th after a comfortable 12-hour fllight out of Auckland on Aerolineas Argentina. We had a 7-hour departure delay but the flight itself was fine (thank you Jenny and Riria for making two trips out to the airport for us). As we flew into Ezeiza Airport we caught a birdseye view of the sprawling 16-million-person capital city. Pretty incredible site. We shared a cab to our hostel (Hostel Estoril $200ARP/night - double) with a Melbournian girl whom we met at the airport, had a quick beer on the rooftop bar, and went to bed.
The next morning we woke up early and returned to the rooftop to take a few photos of sunrise over the city. It was here we first saw the incredible Spanish and French colonial architecture that makes up most of the buildings in the city -something we would be seeing a lot of over the next couple days.
My spanish speaking skills (or lack thereof) were showcased early-on in the trip when Charlotte and I stopped at a cafe for breakfast on our first morning and I accidently ordered a half chicken covered with cheese. "No bueno" she said. No bueno indeed.
We walked around the city over the next two days and saw the balcony of Casa Rosa where Evita Peron delivered her famous speech, the Argentian Congress Building, the old port of BA (revamped into a trendy waterfront restaurant area), and the spectacularly over-the-top crypts in the famous Retiro graveyard. This graveyard is where anyone whose anyone in Argentina is buried.
It was at a cafe outside Retiro graveyard that I thought I'd try and again showcase my spanish-speaking skills and culinary prowess by ordering some fancy BA-style ham sandwiches. For future reference, 'chochinas de tortega' does NOT mean fancy ham sandwiches, but in fact means 'fried veal intestines with lemon wedge' -refer photo. This put me off meat for the rest of the day, which makes eating out difficult in a country that consumes more red meat than any other country in the world (see photo of 5-patty Whopper at Burger King). Incidentally the family eating lunch next to us also ordered a plate of this little delicacy and couldn't get enough of it.
Something we noticed during our walks around BA was that it has a really great street-art scene. There's even a gallery dedicated to the art form (see www.hollywoodincambodia.com.ar). We didn't have time to go the gallery but there was tons of creative and elaborate graffiti on many buildings and sidewalks throughout the city. It was two weeks until national elections were to be held and so most of the graffitti was political, however, there was some non-political creative stuff as well.
On our last night in BA we had a delicious meal at La Cabrera restaurant (thanks Braden and Hannah for the reccomendation) followed by too much Argentinian wine, which made the 19-hour overnight bus to Puerto Iguazu a little rougher than it probably could have been. All good though. Next stop: Iguazu Falls.