Buenos Aires yet again
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2007
1
328
332
Trip End
Jan 14, 2008
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The bus trip was not actually the best. We were upstairs, and sometimes the top of the bus swayed so much on the bumpy road, there was still a roaring gale pushing it sideways too, that Barb woke during the night feeling nausea. She is never bus sick, and luckily wasn't this time either. A pity, breakfast did not meet the standard of last night's dinner. A 'media luna' (sweet croissant), a piece of cake and a few dry cracker biscuits, and coffee or tea.
We got to the bus station only an hour late after 15 hours travel, superglued our possessions to our bods and rushed for a taxi. No robbers this time.
We had made bookings at a hostel, Telmotango, which was pricey (110 pesos) but the best we could find on the internet hostel site. They had already blotted their copybook by saying we had a room with bunk beds, but an email protest changed this to 2 single beds. Grudgingly we took the digs rather than forfeit a night's fee, despite an airless room with usless wall mounted fan, 2 very narrow single beds we couldn't put together, an unopenable wardrobe jammed against one of the beds, and a shared bathroom that had tiny showers almost out in the corridor and an unlockable toilet. Come on guys, for 110 pesos we expect better than this. Free internet, breakfast and armchairs don't make up for suffocation and lack of privacy.
Pete wanted some new clothes so he can chuck out the ones that by now look very shabby. (Barb looks shabby too, but doesn't care). We headed to the pedestrian street Florida with its flashy shops. But he is too thin. Trousers are not made for skinnies like him, neither are jumpers.
Back at the hostel Pete found another hotel for tomorrow, and we chatted to an English woman a couple of years older than us She is heading home early, as the crowds have got too much for her. The day she went to Iguazu there were 6000 visitors. She found the same at Torres del Paine in Chile, where our rip-offs pale into insignificance compared to what she had to pay for a posada in the park. She had her debit card eaten by an ATM, her UK bank supplied another, but failed to tell her before it was too late that it can only be validated in the UK, so she had to borrow from her son. (We have learned the hard way, and travel with a pocketful of cards drawing on several banks.)
For dinner we headed off to a favourite haunt from 6 weeks ago. Barb ordered a tomato, lettuce, potato, ham and cheese salad, straight off the menu. Carrot, celery and apple arrived. The elderly waiter disappeared, Barb marched over to the counter, mistake in hand, and the waiter almost had apoplexy. Customers carrying a plate of food in his restaurant ? Can this be true ? The right salad quickly appeared, in mammoth quantities.
