Buenos Aires - Visit 1

Wednesday 9th December: The weather was very hot upon arrival, so after checking into the Hostel (Carlos Gardel) in the Santa Telmo district we went exploring the immediate & surrounding areas. The Santa Telmo district is the city's historic heart and is all about Tango, flea markets and the Flaneur! Its a beautiful area filled with cobbled streets and aging mansions. From here we walked into Central, where the main wide and spacious strips show off many 19th century European-style buildings; there is also the main shopping area, Avenue Florida which offers many shops and cafes but also the chance of being attacked by 10 year old street kids as David found out! The Av. 9 de Julio is the main road through the city and boasts many of the main theatres alongside a very large obelisk, and proves to be a very lively interesting area.

Next on route was Puerto Madero, BA's equivalent of Canary Wharf; a swanky dockland development showcasing new office and apartment buildings with a dock front littered by bars and restaurants.

We were warned that in Argentina the locals do not go out for food until late at night and so we did well to hold off going for dinner until 9.30pm, and being in BA we opted for steak at one of the local recommendations in the San Telmo area. After placing the order, we realised our first mistake; everyone else ordered one steak to share whilst we had one each with side orders!! Still we agreed to show them we knew what we were doing and demolished the whole lot to the surprise of the waiter and the shock of our stomachs! Needless to say there was no tango for us later on, just a few more drinks in some of the local bars.

Thursday: Being our last day in BA during our first visit to the city, we decided to do more exploring and took the Subte to Recoleta, the area inhabited by the rich of BA and where the buildings are very reminiscent of Paris; there is a pleasant area of greenery to relax and watch some old residents tango in the park whilst enjoying a Cortado (double espresso with hot milk) in the many bars/cafes that litter the streets. Next to these bars and park lies the Recoleta cemetery where BA's great and good are buried in striking tombs. This is a remarkable place, the likes of which we've never seen before and most notably contains the tomb of Evita Perón in the Duarte family mausoleum: We can't imagine she gets very much peace with the groups of tourists snapping away!

The evening was spent back in the Puerto Madero district enjoying a stroll down the dock front before sampling a local Chinese restaurant (there will be plenty of time for more steaks in our future visits to this city!).

Friday: We took the BuqueBus (Large Seacat) from Puerto Madero to Colonia del Sacremento where we connected with the bus to Montevideo to arrive at the flat we have rented for 4 weeks whilst we study Spanish at the Academia Uruguay. The apartment is an open plan loft style apartment situated in Ciudad Vieja (the old historic quarter). With only a little of the day left, we headed out to explore the immediate area where we enjoyed a choppe (beer) and steak sandwich before finding a supermarket and enjoying our first home cooked meal for a few days!!

Mate: We would also like to highlight a strange phenomenon in Argentina & Uruguay, that being the drinking and general obsession with the drink Mate!! We noticed in this initially in Iguazu , where we saw most people in the park were carrying a large Thermos alongside a kind of cup with a metal straw from which they continually sip their favourite drink, Mate – a type of herbal tea. It puzzles us how much the population can like one drink in order to carry round a thermos and separate cup with them everywhere they go. In Buenos Aires it was less evident, but within only a few hours, it appears that 75% of the Uruguayan population always have Mate at the ready! We will report more on this drink once we have sampled it ourselves!