Buzzing Buenos Aires

Sorry about the delay in writing this, the internet connections have been terrible...seems to be a recurring theme over here. After a peaceful few days in at Iguazu Falls, I arrived in Buenos Aires both sleep deprived and significantly out of pocket ($130 for an 18 hour bus ride). Not knowing where to stay I decided to be the typical tourist and amble around with my South America on a Shoestring in hand. I had heard good things about Milhouse Avenue and managed to find it after a few wrong turns and of course some necessary sightseeing along the way.

Famous La Boca

Coincidentally I arrived in Buenos Aires on a Friday night and after meeting an aussie and two brits in my hostel room we decided that we would all head out. According to Milhouse there is a 'pumping party' every night at one of its two locations (the other is called Milhouse Hipo) and naive as we were we followed their advice and headed to Crobar...or at least that's where we thought we were. We discovered as we were leaving and the sun was coming out that we had in fact gone to the club next door that had free entry...what a waste, we did however make up for it by staying awake until 9am for the free breakfast.

Needless to say my fellow party goers were not feeling too good on Saturday so I headed out for an amble around the city, after which I returned to prepare myself for a big night that lay ahead. For dinner we went to an all you can eat restaurant just down from the hostel which was relatively good. I tucked into some Argentinian steak for the first time and whilst it was nice I was slightly put off by the fact that the meat was still bleeding when it was served (as the saying goes I was just waiting for it to moo!!).

Saturday night's shenanigans were similar to those of Friday however we all got up early on Sunday to head to La Boca to organise tickets for the Boca Juniors game later that day. After strolling the streets for about half an hour we were spruiked by a restaurant offering us cheap empanadas and cheap beers. Half way through our meal our waiter enquired whether we wanted tickets to the game for 300 pesos (a bargain compared to the 570 being charged at the hostel), so consequently we took him up on his offer.

At this stage I must point out that tickets is a loose term for the mechanism one uses to enter Boca Stadium. For us it involved walking the streets close to the stadium for approximately two hours whilst our waiter organised a member's card for us to use to gain access. As dodgy as this sounds it is the only way to get into the game and the hostel uses the same process. Upon arrival at the gate one is told to not say a word of English, hide the photo on the card and hope for the best...fortunately for us we all got in.

The game itself was rather disappointing and ended in a 1-1 draw however the atmosphere was incredible. Drums beat continuously throughout the 90 minutes and I'm sure numerous fans barely had time to gather there breath inbetween their raucous singing. Fortunately after the game we got back to the hostel without any issues (La Boca is apparently very dangerous), and try as we might we were all unable to gather the strength to head out that night.

Feeling fresh on Monday morning we decided that a day of sightseeing was in order. We visited numerous monuments throughout the day, I couldn't tell you what they were called however the GPS on my camera was on so if you are really that interested I can find out for you. We finished the day by having a couple of beers in Palermo which was a cool, although relatively expensive part of the city. For my Community Services friends (especially Elizabeth) there was a yarn bomb although I forgot to take my camera so didn't manage to get a photo of it which was rather disappointing...I'll keep my eye out on the rest of the trip!!

Boca Juniors vs San Martin (1-1)

Tuesday was relatively quiet as I was heading to Cordoba that night and Monday night matched those of Friday and Saturday. I tried to read Tolkien's "The Fellowship of the Ring", however the pervasive description and lack of action meant that I gave up after 256 pages (maybe I'll read it sometime later in life)

Anyway that's about it for Buenos Aires and as you can probably tell the nightlife was incredible. The city itself was to me very European with beautiful numerous plazas and streets. Probably my only regret was that I didn't manage to see or participate in a Salsa Show however I will definitely visit Buenos Aires again...so there is always next time

I'm currently trying to catch up on my blogging so my next one should follow very soon

Tom


One of Buenos Aires' many plazas