Doing the tango and a few days in Uruguay
Trip Start
Jan 16, 2008
1
25
37
Trip End
Jan 01, 2009
Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The last few there were spent sightseeing, going to an outdoor percussion show called La Bomba, taking in a Tango lesson and show and I also got over to Uruguay for a couple of days. I'll start with the sightseeing, which as you will be able see are of a very cool and cultured city, with a huge European influence. Some of the more interesting sights were the government building which is called La Casa Rosada, or the The Pink House. This is where Eva Peron made a lot of her famous speeches from the balcony. Also the street we were staying on, Avenida de Mayo was a busy main street with loads of fabulous buildings and sights. The massive Palacio Barolo, once the tallest building in Argentina, towered over our hostel room and looked incredible at night
Our room on the roof
. So we took a trip up to the top for some amazing panoramic views of the city. In the course of the few days there, I took a two day trip over to Uruguay, and stopped off in Montevideo, Punta del Este and La Paloma. Punta was a nice little beach town, but we got there in the off season so it was dead, and also very expensive. With only one cafe actually open, I was charged the equivalent of 11 euro for a chicken sandwich! La Paloma was again another nice little beach town, which I'm sure would be amazing in high season, but was also dead in the low season. Uruguay was a nice little break from the parties and madness of BA but I was glad to head back there after wards.
Once back in the city, we had a few more things to see. The first was a percussion show called La Bomba, which was an open air gig with about 30 different types of drums and percussion instruments all being led by a conductor. There was an audience of around 500 people all enjoying it and dancing away for the best part of the night.
Our last night there was spent at a Tango show. It involved a one hour lesson before too. After the initial clumsiness of it all, we weren't too bad by the end of it. So we just had to sit back and enjoy the 3 course dinner and the show. Little did we know that myself and Eoin would both have to take part in the show itself! We were both asked up to dance for a few minutes during the show, with Eoin being brought back up and having to take part in a mock fight as part of one of the scenes! On arrival back in the hostel we finished off our stay in the city with a few drinks on the roof with the rest of the hostelers, so it was a good end to our stay in the big city. The following day we would head to a town further up north called Salta where we would meet with Matt and Sarah who we met in both Mendoza and BA, and wreck their heads for a week or so while finishing off our stay in Argentina and heading into Chile and Bolivia.
Will be back soon with another update.
All the best,
Jim
