De Las Luces Buenos Aires

... they also had various street entertainers. After walking around and then having lunch we spent a while looking at one of the street Tango shows. After that we walked a couple of blocks to park Lezama. This is reckoned to be where the town was first founded . The rich family Lezama, then built the park and an impressive mansion. The mansion then became the property of General San Martin, one of the heroes of the country. Today it is the home of one of the history museums ...

... and we were through and free.<br><br>We got a taxi into the city and were amazed by the numbers of old cars and trucks on the road! Heaps and heaps of trucks! They definitely don´t seem to have the same warrant of fitness standards as we do at home. Thankfully all the traffic was heading home out of the city so we had a clear run in. Our taxi driver took us to a ...

... with a group of Canadian and Aussie girls that we were riding with in the truck, the best truck going by the way...saving grace and hillarious addition...the truck had an ipod adaptor! Amazing! What better time to rock out to charlies angels soundtrack then when your booking it across a desert whipping around in a 4X4 truck? Add a little rum and you've got a pretty good thing going. Had lunch in the very first salt hotel, now turned into a museum, but ...

... often made from corrugated iron). Nowadays the area is packed with tourists taking pictures of the picturesque buildings, market stalls, restaurants and open air displays of tango. St Telmo, is a little closer to the centre and as such a nicer area. Sunday here finds an antique market, more open air dining &amp; yet more displays of tango. Both great places to while away a Sunday afternoon, sitting in the sun people watching.

... a bit with instructors and I learned that the best place for skydiving is near Barcelona, Spain. Guess what I'm doing next time I'm in Spain.. ;-) I went back to the hostel but the adrenaline was still pumping. I was singing, dancing, man I couldn't sit still. The next day we went clubbing and I stayed till 7am! Everyone else from the hostel had left at 4. I guess I was still on the adrenaline of the day before..

... and dripping sweat. It's summertime in the Southern hemisphere! El Conquistador Hotel is nice and in a good location, within easy walking distance interesting parks, monuments and shopping areas in a nice part of downtown BA. We sought out a packed little hole in the wall restaurant for a good lunch before heading out on a two hour tour of the city. The main highlight was a beautiful cathedral and ...

... had made special plans to visit with the last remaining member of our Argentine family. This is something that we have both been looking forward to for many years as we have heard stories since we were born. The tale goes like this...In all branches of our family, our great Grandparents' generation left Eastern Europe and Russia for the new world. On our paternal grandmother's (safta's) side, her parents and their siblings all moved to the US directly or via Canada....with ...

... rose even more while we ate, a noticeable amount. It was hard staying dry on the walk back to the boat! Good thing the house is on stilts! We passed one house where the water had risen so high that the clothes on the clothes line were touching it-not so good for drying. Some houses have cute little benches in front of them. ON our way back, the benches were no longer on the islands, but were their own little islands, surrounded by water. It looked like a ...

... down there. It was a great market, proper antiques, not the flea markets you get back home. In the middle of the market there was a free Tango show - Tango is just everywhere here! We then took the bus (v proud to manage a city bus) to La Boca, one of the poorer barrios (areas) of BA. La Boca is the old port (and home to the football team) built by Italian immigrants from Genoa. There are three roads recommended for tourists, the ...

... of the first one!!! <br><br>Another thing that stands out in my mind from BA is the poor people going through the rubbish bins in the evenings, scavenging what they can get their hands on... they then sell this stuff to recycling places (or something) and thats how their earn an income. The people doing this range from children to the elderly there is no distinction. <br><br>Again, writing this twelve months later so bit hazy on the finer points!