This morning was our city tour of Buenos Aires. At 9am we all piled into our bus ready to be shown the glories that Argentina has to show us. It was a sunny day today, however just a little bit crisp. It reminded me of a crisp spring morning back in Melbourne.
Our first stop was the pink presidential palace, which according to Andrew Lloyd Webber was famous for Evita Peron's 'don't cry for me Argentina speech' and is located on one edge of a large pedestrian square. In another corner was a cathedral, which we were pointed in the direction of when getting off the bus. So most of us trundled off to the cathedral first. I had a look around, and discovered that like most cathedrals in Latin America it was decadently decorated.... obviously the church wasn't short on a dime when they built this structure. The gold leaf on every surface was almost blinding. I was about to walk out, when I heard someone walking really loudly down the aisle of the church. Then I heard people stamping their feet really loudly on the floor. I turned around to find out who was being so rude and disrespectful in the house of god, only to be greeted by 3 armed guards dressed in their full brass military display costumes. Allowed!!! They were doing an equivalent to changing of the guards, except that they were in fact opening the doors to San Martin's Mausoleum.
Eventually we made our way out into the square to walk around and appreciate the architecture of the amazing old buildings surrounding the square.
Our next location was a small zone called La Boca, which was a community that was built in majority by Italian immigrants. The houses were made mostly of timber and tin, and painted in the most amazingly bright and beautiful colours. This place had such an artistic feel to it, as balconies were adorned with life size figurines, almost in a Romeo and Juliette stance. We spent some time walking around this part of town, and sifting through the stalls of the craft markets that they had set up all along the streets.
We then drove our way across town, to the Cemetery of the Recoleta, which is the final resting place for Evita. This cemetery was like a small town. The amazing mausoleums built by family members to immortalise their dearly departed is breath taking. I'm glad we had a guide walking us through, as their is no way we would have found Evita's last resting place and found our way back out again. We all lined up in single file and walked down a very narrow walkway, and eventually came to Evita's mausoleum. It was so understated compared to many of the others that had been built, yet the most visited in that cemetery.
On our way out of the cemetery, we all stopped at a mausoleum of a young girl who had been killed whilst out of town in a tragic accident, whilst back in Buenos Aires her beloved dog had also passed away on the same day. To commemorate their lives, a statue of the girl and her dog had been errected. It is believed that as you walk past the statue that you should touch the nose of the dog and think about a desire that you wish to be granted. Most of us did exactly that. We touched the dogs well worn nose, and all thought about our desire. Only time will tell if the myth is true. I will keep you posted!!!
Next stop was a leather factory. Argentina has such a large beef market, that it is only fitting that it also has a large leather market as well. Although the leather products are not solely based on cow hide, there are also other forms of leather as well. I instantly fell in love with a wallet.... I might as well have just walked into that shop and said 'take my money!!'
So a huge tip to anyone thinking of coming to Argentina. Bring lots of American dollars. Not dollars on your cash card.... You need to bring cold hard cash. We found out that there is 2 exchange rates, the actual rate (around $8.50us) but if you pay in cash you will get $14us for one Argentinian peso. The reason being is that it is illegal for Argentinians to purchase US dollars, so the black market to get US dollars is huge. Everywhere excepts US dollars at this higher rate. Just a word of advice!!
Once we had finished at the leather factory, we were now free to enjoy what Argentina has to offer. So first stop.... Lunch. We found this nice little restaurant, across the street from the cemetery that served a 3 course meal for just over $10. So the glamazon's (which is what I have named our group of 5 who went to the amazon) all decide that this was the lunch deal for us. We sat down and ordered our entree and main course.... only to realise that the table behind us was a massive table of Australian guys. They had arrived in Argentina for a masters rugby tournament only a couple of hours earlier. So what else do a group of Australian men do whilst waiting for their hotel rooms to be ready for check in, go to a restaurant and drink. We finished our entree, and our mains had just arrived when a another table sat down next to us. Blow me down, another table of older australians. Wow, Australia is taking Argentina over one table at a time.
We all had a chat, however soon after we finished our deserts it was time to depart. We had more to see!!
So we walked towards the big art and craft market that had been set up in a large park near the cemetery. First stall in, I saw a top that I loved, and bought it. What is going on in this town?!?! Everything I see I love!!
I did manage to walk through the rest of the market without temptation, however Jan picked herself up some beautiful things!!!
We then walked back toward the hotel. We had to get ready for our night out. I had a lit of panel beating and a war face that I needed to paint on. Now this was going to take time!!
As Jan and I walked along the street heading towards our hotel, an Argentinian women told Jan off for carrying her camera in her hands, rather than in a bag. She told Jan 'just put it away, put it away'. I think my jaw had dropped to the ground. This lady was such a contradiction. She was looking out for Jan and being nice, however did it in the most abrupt and rude manner. So we uncoiled the camera from Jan's wrist and placed it in my shopping bag, however in fact I think it would have been safer wrapped 100 times around Jan's wrist than in my loose bag!!
Safely back at the hotel, I went to my room to prepare for our tango night. I have been looking forward to this night since the start of the tour. I pulled out my black dress that I bought specifically for this night. Hair straightened, makeup on, high heels on, I was set. We all met in the foyer and were bused to the other side of town. We arrived and shuffled our way down the stair case to the dance studio. It was time for our tango lesson. They didn't extend us too much... We learnt the basic 8 steps to a tango. This was made a little easier after a nice glass of red.
Once we had mastered the basic step, a few couples were selected to show us what they had learnt. There were very few volunteers, so it just came down to the instructor picking couples to demonstrate.
Then it was dinner time. Again a beautiful 3 course dinner was our destiny tonight, followed by a flawless tango dance show. It was clear that we had a long way to go from our basic 8 steps of tango we had learnt a little earlier this evening to what we were demonstrated tonight.
At the end of the night, we excitedly hoped back on the bus and taken back to the hotel for our beauty sleep!! The only down fall, a sore throat, and the starts of a cold I think. A large proportion of our tour group members have been hit by a virus, which will go down in history as being the Globus Flu. A lot of people have been hit.... And a lot of barking coughs have embraced our bus. Time to up the immune tablets, although I think I may be too late!! Damn it!!