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The first week
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I'm writing this from our room in Patagonia, overlooking the Perito Moreno Glacier (typical of our first week's conversation: Terry - what's the difference between a glacier and an ordinary lump of ice? Jane - Dunno...) and, look, there's a picture of the view from our room. Neat, huh?
So, a summary of week one.
Sunday
Flew Iberia London - Madrid - Buenos Aires. Weren't sure about this. On the one hand, the Iberia flight was about one third the price of BA; on the other hand, we'd sworn never to fly Iberia again after a couple of fairly unpleasant London-Valencia flights in the past (surly cabin crew; pilots who preferred flying through rather than around turbulence, and would never comment on the plane being thrown through the sky. Compare to BA - surly cabin crew, but charming pilots - 'whoops - looks like we've got a few bumps coming up....we'll just pop up a couple of thousand feet to see if we can avoid the worst of it...).
The beancounter always takes the cheap answer. The cheap answer was the good answer. The flights were great; the planes were comfortable and the service, food and wines tremendous. Although it took some 15 hours start to finish, it flashed by. Slight drawback at BA - took over an hour to retrieve luggage at the airport. (A group of middle aged women started a demo about the disappeared baggage after half an hour with a slow handclap. Fortunately, the police weren't called)
Arrived Buenos Aires Sunday night, and given a crash course in BA living by the Journey Latin America rep on our way to hotel Bobo. 'Don't take more than 300 pesos a time from the ATMs - use three different ATMs a day - that way, when you are mugged, the thieves won't get as much; beware people spilling things on you - their accomplices will pick your pockets in the confusion; don't get in a taxi unless it has a radio taxi phone number on the side and an IRA sign on the front...the rest, although licensed, are crooks'. Got to Bobo, tired and now full of trepidation, at midnight.
Monday - Wednesday - BA
Spent most of Monday walking around the centre of BA, visiting stray ATMs and surreptitiously withdrawing cash. Took in the usual sites...Plaza de 25 Mayo (where Evita did her speech from the balcony of the Casa Rosada and Madonna sang it from the same place), San Telmo and out to Boca and the colourful El Caminito bars and street tango area.
Stopped off at the Boca Juniors stadium for a look round. It holds over 60,000, but was more evocative of the Old Den rather than Wembley or the Emirates stadium. That is to say, a bit down at heel, with the aroma of overcooked hotdogs and stale pee. A frightening place for the opposition to visit though, just like the Old Den. All in all, my kind of stadium.
As e were walking back to the hotel, it was school turn-out time. The school uniform of most Argentinian schoolkids is simply a white labcoat over their everyday clothes. Honestly, the streets looked like they'd been overrun by midget mad professors (am I allowed to say midget? All I meant was quite small). When you think schoolkids and mess, though, a very sensible idea.
A quick search on line for local steak restaurants in Palermo Viejo led us to booking La Cabrera. Phew!! The meat was tender, tasty, brilliantly cooked....and about three times as much as we could eat. And Jane a vegetarian too. The place was packed - apparently, it's the most popular restaurant in Argentina.
Tuesday was a bit of a write off as Jane woke up with vertigo. I'll write that again as it doesn't quite capture the concern I felt for her at the time.
....I spent most of Tuesday tending for my sick spouse, walking her slowly round the botanical gardens of Carlos Thays - a delightful spot, rather bizarrely inhabited by about 200 feral cats who divided their time between sleeping and patrolling the perimeter fences, winding up the (excluded) canines. Incidentally, in my book, Buenos Aires has taken the title from Ventnor, Isle of Wight as Dog Shit Capital of the world. It seems to have more dogs, and less considerate (in the pooper-scooper sense) owners than anywhere else on earth. Anyway, by evening, Jane had recovered.
Wednesday, we were back on form and raring to walk. The weather had varied from lousy to crap all week, and Wednesday was no exception. We walked past the zoo (more feral cats, and not necessarily exhibits), through the Japanese gardens (peaceful, except for hundreds of frighteningly large and hungry Koi carp) to La Recoleta, where Jane (who really knows how to show a guy a good time) took me to.....the cemetery! Well, we saw Evita's tomb and, errr....that's it really. Oh, apart from the tomb of heavyweight boxer Luis Firpo, who is immortalised as the man who did the damage to Jack Dempsey in the famous photo of Jack disappearing out of the ring in their epic contest, which Firpo then went on to lose, having been put down seven times in one round. He is also immortalised by his statue in the cemetery (Jane - why is there a statue of a man in his dressing gown over there? Me - that's not just a man in his dressing gown; that's a famous boxer. Jane - oh, I thought they were funny slippers he was wearing...).
Then off to a Tango dinner/show at Madero Tango. No matter how artistic and skillful the dancers were, I couldn't help but draw comparisons with those tacky Spanish medieval jousting evenings (not that I've ever been to one, obviously). Was it the photographer dragging round the second-rate Tango pair to snap each table with beforehand, or the table to table DVD/CD seller? I don't know.
Thursday, we sadly took our leave of Hotel Bobo (thoroughly recommended - very welcoming and nothing too much trouble). and were driven to a remote petrol station in San Miguel del Monte, where we awaited the 4x4 that would take us to Estancia El Rocio. At the petrol station we met and spent 20 minutes with Charles from Scotland. Charles was a taxi driver waiting for a fare, but in that short time he totally charmed us and given us his life story (his father was French; his mother Scottish.
He was one of ten children and when his father died his mother took them down to the port to move to New York, only to find that BA was a cheaper trip, so demonstrating Celtic frugality, that's where they went. He subsequently grew up, played prop for the Pumas, taught Shakespeare and Shelley and a myriad of other stuff). One of the other guests of the Estancia naturally assumed that Charles was its owner until he saw him drive off in his cab. If all this sounds too good to be true, our research to date shows that it's all good....need a cross-check on the Puma's though.
That's all for now.
Latest Comments (7)
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Hello!!! (reply)
Mar 14, 2008 22:51 EST by helennickson
looks like your having a fab time love the photos.
Hope Aunty Jane is well and beware of the midgets!!!
Stay safe and dont do anything I wouldnt!!!
Helen xx
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The Heath's (reply)
Mar 13, 2008 05:35 EST by pgh
We're reading you loud and clear , brightens up a dull day in Epsom enormously !
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Hello Bobo! (reply)
Mar 13, 2008 05:31 EST by lizie
Hey GREAT to hear your news and see your pix !!
Sounds like you're having a fantantastic time...
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Touched by your concern for Jane!! (reply)
Mar 13, 2008 05:00 EST by magsandtony
Great to hear from you Terry - Tony got very excited at the photos of the tango dancers - so a few more like that please to keep him happy!!
We thought the photos were wonderful - especially the one of the glacier - Tony however thinks you were a little over dressed for the occasion - first of all he wondered who the patagonian indian was!!!
Keep smiling!!
ps - I hope J... show all
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Fabulous (reply)
Mar 13, 2008 04:38 EST by dutchie2
Now, I have been looking forward to this trip and am not disappointed. So you will not forget the pleasantries of commuting in and around London, I will commence a counter Trvl Blog which will keep you up to date!
Enjoy and keep on writing pls
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What about the wine? (reply)
Mar 12, 2008 20:13 EST by timlevy
That's the bit I'm waiting for! Good to hear from you Terry - keep up the impressive reporting and we'll all be buying TB's travel guides.
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Funny blog (reply)
Mar 12, 2008 15:01 EST by starlagurl
Very nice writing. I laughed quite a bit. Those school children sound really adorable!
Louise Brown
TravelPod Community Manager
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