We made it to Argentina! After a long, overnight flight from Miami, we arrived in Buenos Aires yesterday morning. Although it was pouring rain, we managed to navigate the airport and bus to get to our hostel. After refueling with some lunch, we decided to take a tour of the city to get our bearings. We were underwhelmed with the tour guide, but we did visit some great places in the city. we stopped at the Plaza de Mayo where we saw the big Pink Presidential Palace (Casa Rosada) among some other beautiful, old style buildings.
Then, we entered the artsy neighborhood of La Boca, filled with brightly colored houses (especially near El Caminito) and the stadium of the Boca Juniors soccer team. Of course soccer is huge in all of South America, but here it´s REALLY extreme. For an athlete who peaked over 20 years ago, Diego Maradona´s popularity is overwhelming. He´s like Michael Jordan + Tiger Woods + Peyton Manning and then some. His face, his jersey, his number is everywhere, and Argentina won the cup in 1986. If only Darryl Strawberry was still as popular.
Finally, we made our way back to the center of the city where the tour came to an abrupt end. For dinner, we armed ourselves with the info. from our trusty Lonely Planet and then ended up eating someplace totally different than we had intended. But it was great! We each ordered some nice steaks and a bottle of wine, all for only $40! The food here is really cheap, which is helping our budget considerably, but it it also really tasty! Marc, we´ll be sure to take some photos of our meals for your enjoyment in the future.
Today, we went to see some more sights of the city. We visited the upscale neighborhood of Recoleta. Getting there was our first experience using the public bus system, and we were pleasantly surprised. Looking like confused tourists, one passenger offered us change (no bills accepted) to pay for the bus. Another young passenger jumped up and gave his seat up when an older gentleman got on the bus. Finally, when we got off, another man gave us directions, unsolicited, when we started staring quizzically at our map. After our bus ride, we were blown away with how nice people can be to each other in a big city.
In Recoleta, we went to see the tomb of Eva Peron, more for The Amaing Race reference than anything else (check out the photo). Then we took your advice, Sofia, and went to Freddo for some delicious ice cream. Great recommendation!
We also saw the obelisque on the widest street in the world, Avenue 9 de Julio (it takes at least 5 minutes to cross, and don´t expect the taxis to stop turning to let you cross, they´re ruthless!) The city has really kept us busy for 2 days.
Tomorrow we head north and back into nature at Iguazu Falls. Oh, how we miss the clean air, Buenos Aires is actually quite an ironic name for a city with as much air pollution as we´ve noticed.
ps. Speaking of references to 1986, we are posting this on a Commodore. Who knew they still made those? We think this is their hottest release since the 128!
7 comments:
Sounds like Buenos Aires was a good stop! Still no word from your favorite travel agent re: Galapagos flight info. I'll continue my harassment of her on Friday if she hasn't replied by then. I don't know how you dealt with her to get the Galapagos trip booked in the first place. You're way more patient than I am! Enjoy your trip back into nature! I'm enjoying the nature of Hamilton, NY this week. It's actually really nice with some great fall colors coming through (finally), but I have a feeling that Argentina might be a just slightly more exciting.
Cara ans Sue, you guys were so right...I love the Keens! It´s a bit cold here in Buenos Aires to be wearing them, but we´ll be back in business once we head up north.
Hammy, sorry but there is no video of the sloth fight...it would have taken up our whole memory card watching that slow-motion ridiculousness!
We are just loving this blog. It makes it so easy to visualize everything you're seeing and doing.
I'm sure that Chris's practice parking Christina's jeep help prepare him for driving in Costa Rica.
We are anxiously awaiting the next installment.
wow...buenos aires sounds amazing, i am very jealous as i am dying to go there. this blog is so much fun guys! we are eagerly following your adventures. hooray!
holy crap! A commodore! Does it have a mouse, or do you do everything with the joystick? Also, was there a big box of pirated floppies of frogger and river-run?
Buenos Aires looks beautiful. Steaks and wine for $40 sounds great!
no joystick, although that would have been awesome. i did have to write load * internetexplorer, 8, 1 to launch the browser though (only 2 people might get this)
ironically, it was the best computer we used on the trip
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