Day 35: Buenos Aires

This morning, the G-adventure tour ended. After travelling together for 35 days through Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina, it was time to say goodbye. But knowing that our paths would be crossing right until the end of my trip in Brazil, it wasn't too emotional... and to be honest, after traveling and living in close quarters for over a month, I was more than ready to branch out.

That morning, despite a very late night/ early morning, I was up, packed and checked out by 11:00. I joined the rest of the group in "Pani" near Calle Florida, for breakfast. Vale was briefing the group on the rest of their trip - it felt kind of strange, I knew I was no longer a part of the tour, so felt a bit like a spare wheel!

How and ever, Vale kindly helped Anja and I book our tickets for the ferry to Uruguay the following day (well, sort of, not for the first time on this trip, the booking website let us down - ended up finishing the booking over the phone in the hotel). Breakfast ,indulgently, included cake (in my defence it was one of only three things certified as GF on the menu...) chocotorta, a popular Argentinian dessert made of chocolate biscuits, dulce de leche and other deliciousness. After, Anja and I set about finding our accommodation. We picked up our bags from the hotel, and then we hopped in a taxi out the front... where we sat for 5 mins before we got out and walked! Traffic was at an absolute standstill. Vale had advised us not to walk anywhere and only take taxis as it was supposedly unsafe... and there are more taxis per capita than any other South American city. But, in the day time, we figured we'd be okay to walk the few blocks to our accommodation. And we would have been! Had we got the right direction. Stupidly, we relied on google maps. Had we just looked up the address, we could have easily found it as road signs and the city grid pattern is well sign posted and super easy to follow! After a lot of faff, back and forth, lugging our heavy bags, we finally identified our b&b (the teeniest, microscopic sign outside the door) and checked in. It was an apartment with common use areas and private rooms. I had a huge queen sized room - a massive bed all to myself. Glorious! The apartment was a little bit worn, the bathroom under renovation, but for the price and location, it was pretty good!

I had planned on joining the others for a cycle tour that afternoon at 2:30pm. After the delay in getting to the hostel, I was tight for time, but I figured if I ran, I'd make it. So I did. I identified the place on the maps (7 blocks south, 4 blocks west - easy!) and just on the dot of 2:30, I arrived. Panting. And there was the group! I needn't have ran though... we didn't leave for another half an hour!

Anyway, we were given little green bikes and helmets, and our guides Gaston and another guy, whose name I can't remember, took us through the city. We passed through San Telmo through to La Boca area, an amazingly colourful area - literally! The buildings here painted a variety of colours, a patchwork of pop colours. My favourite area in Buenos Aires, it was like the area itself is a piece of art.

From there we went to Puerto Madero, a recently renovated part of town, that by way of contrast to the uniqueness and vitality of La Boca, while clearly well invested, was sterile and devoid of any true character. We could have been anywhere! With the Calatrava bridge of "tango dancers" (really Calatrava? Bit of a stretch, no?) so similar to The Beckett bridge I felt like I could have been in Dublin Docklands. It was a strange feeling of familiarity, which serves as an example to how generic and homogenous the world is in danger of becoming.

We were stopped going through the main government square, Plaza de Mayo, due to protesters (a regular occurrence seemingly) so we stood at the back of "The Pink House" to learn about the recent political history of Argentina before finishing on Avenida 9 de Julio to look at the building that illustrated the two faces of Eva Perón - one face to the poor, the other to the wealthy.

The tour wasn't cheap at $40(US) but we covered a lot of ground of this expansive city over the course of three hours. So, worth it!

In need of changing all my (stupid amount of) Chilean Pesos, I picked up Anja at our b&b and we went back towards the hotel we'd stayed in the night before to go to the exchange in the shopping mall across the road. This was a fancy shopping mall. The wealth of Argentina by comparison to Peru and Bolivia, patently obvious.

Shan, who had been such a close friend on the trip, was heading home today, and so Anja and I met her for dinner while the rest of the group met their new tour guide. Lacking in imagination we went back to Pani - good food, good drinks and close by... why go anywhere else!

Lots of hugs before we put her in a taxi and then we wandered up to join the others for dinner in La Posado de 1820. A huge portion of bistec a lo pobre (steak with a fried egg, basically) and a glass of wine went down nicely before Anja and I made our way back to our b&b, enjoying our new found freedom from the group! We had to celebrate it, so on the way back we stopped for a drink. Anja just so happened to pick an Irish pub. When they're everywhere, it's hard to avoid them!

Accommodation: Piedras BNB
Weather: Sunny but not too warm during the day, low 20s; light jacket needed in the evening.