A long weekend in Buenos Aires
Trip Start
Feb 26, 2010
1
16
62
Trip End
Aug 24, 2010
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Thursday, April 15, 2010
It was rather bumpy and I was very glad when, just over an hour later, we docked at the port of Buenos Aires. We're back to 21st century city life again here. As we walked along Florida, the main pedestrianized shopping street this afternoon, we could have been anywhere in the world.
But then we watched the weekly march in Plaza de Mayo by the "Mothers" whose children "disappeared" during the regime of the generals in the 1970's and 80's and we were reminded where we were.
Their group was formed in 1977 to demand news of their missing relatives, and every Thursday since, they have marched around the statue symbolising freedom in front of government house. Some of their original number have themselves "disappeared". They traditionally wear white head scarves embroidered with the name of their son or daughter. Most are elderly now and they circle slowly as the name of each missing person is read out. It took 30 minutes for all the names to be read out. It was very sad and even Keith was moved enough to make a donation.
Our hotel is very comfortable and centrally situated. On our first evening here we found a friendly little bar just up the street. It is decorated from floor to ceiling with posters, old toys, 1950's food wrappers and all sorts of other articles of memorabilia and antiques. Although it was nearly empty when we arrived we were asked to move to a different table as a large group was expected. Sure enough 20 minutes later 19 customers arrived - on bikes and dressed in lycra shorts and cycling helmets - not quite what we were expecting. They rang their bicycle bells outside and then one by one pushed their bikes into the bar where they were left propped up together, many with their lights still flashing - most bizarre.
Our first day in Buenos Aires was to be a busy one as we had things to do. First we arranged for a big batch of laundry to be done.
Then we set out to find a clinic. One of the outstanding issues from the theft of our passports is that we no longer have proof of immunity against yellow fever. Our certificates were in our passports and we had not thought to make copies. A number of the countries we plan to visit are likely to ask for these certificates. Research on the internet had thrown up details of a clinic in Buenos Aires where yellow fever vaccinations and certificates could be obtained free of charge. Problem solved! Then we read the small print on the clinic website and learned that patients aged 60 or over could not be vaccinated without the medical consent of their GP. We decided to go anyway. At least I would probably be able to get a free vaccination. We would have to worry about Keith later. The clinic was within walking distance of our hotel and was open when we arrived. A sign in Spanish on the door said "Infants under 1 and people aged 60 or over must provide written authority from their doctor to be vaccinated. There can be no exception to this rule. Please do not ask". Our hearts sank. There were no other patients at the clinic, and we were greeted by a friendly young female doctor who spoke very good English. One of her first questions was ""What are your ages?". We gave Keith's and pulled a face. "No problem" she said, "I just have to ask you to sign a disclaimer". Within 5 minutes we had both been vaccinated and had the all important certificates, and all for free. Were things starting to go our way finally?
The sun has shown its face today and from the clinic we had a very pleasant stroll through Puerto Madero which is the recently redeveloped dock area. The promenade is lined with trendy restaurants and wine bars but we were quite happy to sit on a bench for a while, admire the boats and enjoy some sun.
Our next stop was the bus station where we were going to purchase tickets for our journey to Mendoza on Monday. It is enormous. There must be more than 150 ticket offices for all the different companies operating buses both within Argentina and throughout South America. We booked our ticket with Nueva Chevallier, a company that was recommended.
We had a look at the Retiro train station next door, a fine French style building. In Plaza San Martin opposite, the clock tower was originally called "Torre de los Ingleses" but was renamed during the Falklands War "Torre Monumental". The British coat of arms still adorns two of its four faces however
Our last task of the day was to book some excursions for the next few days. We walked along the elegant Avenida 11 Julio to the tourist office. For less than £20 each we booked a 3 hour city tour and a 5 hour trip to the small delta town of Tigre.
We had by this time covered a few miles and rewarded ourselves with an hour soaking in the hot jacuzzi on the hotel roof. Most enjoyable.
On Saturday we did a city tour which was a bit disappointing but as it had not cost a lot we didn't complain too much. We were picked up in a big coach at 9.15 am and at 10.30 am we were still going around hotels picking up customers. At one we had to wait 20 minutes whilst some Brazilians were finishing their breakfast! The poor guide was not impressed. When we finally started the tour we were driven around the various districts of the city with hardly any stops or opportunities to take photos. The 3 stops we did make (for 15 minutes each) were at the Plaza de Mayo (which was close to our hotel and which we had already visited), Boca Juniors football ground (which most of us enjoyed) and the Caminito area of La Boca with its brightly coloured houses (which we remembered from our last visit 10 years ago and which was now 10 times as commercialised).
I was particularly disappointed not to be able to get off the bus in Recoleta to see Eva Peron's grave in the cemetery and so this afternoon that is where we went. We took the metro a few stops and then walked through the affluent Recoleta area. If La Boca was 10 times more commercialised than 10 years ago, the cemetery of La Recoleta was 20 times more commercialised. The surrounding area had become one huge market and was packed with crowds. The cemetery is still fascinating though, like a miniature city of the dead. Here the rich and famous of Buenos Aires have their family graves. Some are simple but many are enormous marble mausoleums. I had written down directions for finding Eva Peron's grave but didn't need them. We just followed the crowds.
The trip to Tigre on Sunday started in the same way as the Saturday trip with a long round of hotels waiting for people who weren't ready. Eventually we left Buenos Aires for the short drive to Tigre, a pleasant riverside town on the delta of the Rio Parana. We transferred from the bus to a boat for a most enjoyable trip on the waters. This is the playground and the weekend destination for the well-to-do residents of Buenos Aires and we passed scores of lovely waterside properties, each with an expensive boat moored up at a private jetty. From Tigre we took the tourist train that runs along the coast a few stops to San Isidro, another posh residential area. The railway station is one big commercial centre with shops and restaurants. The cathedral is worth a visit but to reach it you must pass through a park crammed with handicraft and souvenir stalls.
Whilst neither organised tour was brilliant it was good nonetheless to be able to leave the organisation to someone else for a day or two.
Buenos Aires is an elegant city of parks, wide avenues and stylish buildings. We had seen the affluent side of Buenos Aires today. But there is much poverty too. Many people sleep on the streets here and we were surprised when leaving our hotel for the first time in the evening to find the streets, reasonably spick and span during the day, like a rubbish tip. All the bins are emptied onto the pavement and people sit in the middle of the piles of rubbish sorting out the bottles, paper, plastic etc.
We checked out late on Monday, having a day to fill before our overnight bus journey. We had saved a couple of museums for today - the Railway Museum which was very interesting with lots of photos and railway memorabilia (much of it from Great Britain) although not too many engines, and the National Military museum which Keith enjoyed more than I did. Their collection of arms and weaponry was on a par with the Imperial War Museum in London, I am informed. There was just a small section on the Malvinas conflict.
In the early evening we collected our luggage from the hotel and asked them to call a taxi for us to go to the bus station. "Not possible" we were told "the traffic is much too busy. It will take 40 minutes for one to get here. Better to take the metro". So we had an unexpected nightmare hurried trip on the metro trying to manoeuvre our big bags up and down steps and on and off rush hour trains. We were drenched in sweat when we got to the bus station but at least we were there, with time to spare. It is an amazingly busy bus station and there were buses arriving and departing every minute. Ours was actually half an hour late.
This was to be our first long, overnight bus journey - 14 hours across the continent to Mendoza. We weren't sure what to expect. We stowed the luggage, found our reclining seats on the upper deck and at 9.00 pm we were off.
