D'Artist Buenos Aires

... have me back in BA early next Monday afternoon which means getting the shipping paperwork sorted and the bike away sometime that week.<br><br>I caught the train again and checked out the bus terminal for buses (they had loads), times and prices so that is no problem.<br>I then had a look round the Recolete area, this is kown as the French quarter because it looks so French, the wide tree lined avenues. This is also the location of their ...

... which offered a panoramic view of the countryside. Except for the rain and darkness overnight, it was a revealing look at northern Argentina. There is a fair amount of poverty visible from the road, and only a few small towns along the way (at least during daylight hours).<br><br>Most of the distances between cities are in the 16-20 hour range of bus rides. I don't know if that is because it is the sweet-spot for bus company profits, or some other mysterious measure of ...

Buenos F***ing Aires the tee shirt read and I couldn't have agreed more with such a statement during my first few days staying in this Argentine city! On the surface it looked cool, trendy and very European, leaving one to question what continent they were actually on! Avenida de Julio appears to have like 16 lanes in total and crossing it involved a stepwise approach! Our hostel Milhouse served as a shelter on Tuesday, with rain pelting down across the province! We had ...

... no sooner got up in the air and it was bing bong seatbelt sign on again. Landed in Buenos Aires and as per the instruction for my hostel found the Miguel Juan leon desk (or something like that) to get a transfer to the hostel. The hostel was the Hostel Suites Florida on Florida street, and the taxi driver dropped me at the end of Florida street and pointed up the street. What he didn't mention was that I was at the end where the house numbers ...

... armed guards. Futbol is clearly more than a game to these people. The quality of futbol played was far inferior to what I have seen before in my life. Keep in mind that I once saw Ronaldo score 2 goals with Zidane setting both of them up and scoring himself at the Bernabeu in Madrid. However, it was still a thrilling game as San Martin scoring off a free kick only 1:17 into the game to the chagrine of the home fans ...

... panic and lots of begging when we realised we´d lost our left luggage tickets - they gave us the bags eventually though, phew!!) we boarded our bus. Couldn´t tell you much about the journey to Carmelo, we slept through most of it, but the boat through the Tigre delta was just as picturesque as promised, and very relaxing after being up all night. Tigre itself also seemed like a really nice place to visit although we were only there about 20 mins before boarding our bus to BA ...

... to learn. They are so beautifully decorated, with their braded hair, a ring on every finger, and multi coloured clothing. What intrested me the most was their hands,worn hands, hands belonging to craftsmen and woman. It was an obvious sign of their lifestyle, a life of creating in order to live and put food on their tables. We also shared a few laughs on this day.Robs got hit on my possibly the ...

... os (Natives of Buenos Aires) The people of Buenos Aires were really warm & friendly, especially towards the English. One of them gave me the definition of an Argentinean as "an Italian, who speaks Spanish & thinks he's English". Even when I talked about the Falklands/Malvinas war there were no ill feelings, the general opinion was that it was caused by two politicians (Margaret Thatcher & General Galtieri) who did it to re-gain support in their own ...

... in BA &amp; we celebrated it in the same home, Paula &amp; Antonios. Antonio, originally Portuguese, had celebrated his birthday the day before so his family tree of relations from Brazil stopped by for the celebrations. Again once midnight tolled the DIY fireworks display recommenced &amp; continued late into the night. There was no Auld Langs Syne to finish off the affair so I resorted to a bar of the classic 'Livin ...

... Bus travel is cheap and buses are ubiquitous but the problem is finding out where each of the many routes go! So far we have stuck to walking and the Subtle (underground) which, unlike the London Underground or NYC subway, has only 5 lines all of which end up in Plaza de Mayo in the Micro Centerer. But the system is efficient, cheap and clean, but incredibly crowded in the rush-hour. It is much the same as my old commute on the Northern Line in London ...