On the way to Buenos Aires
We only did two visits during the five days it took to drive from Tierra
del Fuego to Buenos Aires (BA) and so we arrived in that capital city
ready for a rest and some comfortable beds! The only problem was, although
our hotel was situated right bang in the centre of BA, we were not only
on a street that was a regular bus route, but arrived at a time when major
road works were going on all over BA and one set of which were right outside
our hotel, so what with traffic all around us, pneumatic drills and revelers
in the early hours, it was difficult to get any sleep! And of course it
was very hot, but not as hot as it had been apparently, when temperatures
had reached 40+. At least our temperatures were more in the high 20s/early
30s.
But BA was an incredible place, with long, extremely wide, roads cutting
across it, all with their names reflecting history – names of specific
dates such as “Avenida de 9 Julio” reflecting I believe their
independence day; others after names of presidents such as “Avenida
de Mayo” etc. We were only there for 5 nights, 4 days, and so spent
most of it trying to get in as much catching up on emails and see as much
of the sights as possible, including a trip to Uruguay for the day.
Of course, we all did our separate things, Judith and I sharing a room
and our experiences and in the end we saw a great deal of the capital
but not enough as it turned out as a lot of the museums were closed on
a Monday (we arrived on a Thursday evening, and were leaving again early
on the Tuesday) so our time was rather limited.
Friday was spent recovering from our epic five day journey and just
looking around the immediate locality, getting laundry done and catching
up on bits and pieces of shopping; Saturday it poured down all day long,
but undaunted Judith and I went to see Eva Perón’s tomb (which
was very low key, tucked away nondescriptly in one of a great number of
rows of mausoleums in a cemetery just off the main central part of BA).
But Judith was enthralled by it and had to have her photo taken in front
of it, which I obligingly did on my camera as she had forgotten hers and
it had been put in the hotel safe as a security precaution!
We also visited a famous part of BA called La Bocca which is really
the slum area of BA but which has been renovated in parts and houses a
thriving arts community. Many of the walls have murals depicting the history
of the area but there are also many art shops and displays to wander around,
besides street musicians and wandering artists, and of course the obligatory
touristy shops! It had a lot of character and we spent the evening there,
having a meal in one of the restaurants and enjoying the experience. To
get there we had travelled on the bus and metro and that was quite an
experience, especially travelling on the bus as although they do stop
at designated bus stops, they will also open their doors and wait for
you if you just signal them, but invariably this has to be when they are
caught in a traffic jam because very often the public buses seem to be
in a great hurry to get somewhere and very often drive straight past bus
stops even when people are queuing there.
On the Sunday we went across to Uruguay for the day – taking the local
ferry across the River Uruguay that took just under 3 hours. We left our
hotel at 8am and took a taxi to the local ferry port, which was teeming
with life. First of all we had to purchase a ticket, and went to one of
the local ferry operators for this and that took some 40 minutes to be
processed and then we had to queue for embarkation and get a stamp exiting
Argentina and another stamp for entering Uruguay, and, of course, on the
way back we had to then exit Uruguay and reenter Argentina.
But the day was brilliantly sunny and so we sat on deck for the entire
outward crossing to Uruguay although on the return journey at 1845 it
was too chilly to do this and so we spent almost the entire journey in
one of the very crowded saloons, jam-packed with the day trippers, locals
as well as tourists.
We went to a place called Colonia. We could have gone to Montevideo,
the capital of Uruguay but it would have been going from one big city
to another, and so chose a “luxury” day trip fare to Colonia,
(much nicer than Montevideo, Iris – Beetle) which is an ancient
town some 150 km down the coast from Montevideo, which is a World Heritage
site because of its old town with some of the original town wall surviving
and lots of its old original houses from the 17th and 18th centuries not
only still standing but still being used as homes and businesses by the
local population, with the proviso they do not alter the structures noticeably.
Our package included a two-course lunch, a guided tour of the new and
old towns of Colonia, and of course the return ferry fare. It proved a
really rewarding day out, as although it was visited by so many, it was
well organized and even the old town did not seem that overcrowded with
tourists and one was able to walk around, admire the old architecture
and the views along the river and learn something of the history of the
place, which was originally settled by the Spanish and then taken over
by the Portuguese and became part of Brazil until it got its independence
in the 19th century.
Monday was spent in BA, catching up on emails, and visiting the opera
house and the presidential palace. Of the opera house, we only got a very
brief inside glimpse as it is closed on a Monday for cleaning and normally
groups are not allowed in. However, Judith is a very persuasive lady and
with her “pretty please” approach, swung us a brief glance inside
the auditorium with its plush furnishings etc. Then we moved on to the
presidential palace, first of all to look at the archives and catacombs
and later to go on a guided tour of the palace itself. Unfortunately,
the guided tour was in Spanish only and so most of the time we had to
be content to just admire the magnificent architecture and furnishings
rather than learn much about its history and unfortunately books in English
on the palace weren’t to be had, but of course, we associated it
with Eva Peron and looked at it all with her image well in mind!
Next month, Iris tells us of her visit to the Iguaçu Falls.
If you’d like to contact Iris, whether to wish her luck with her
trip or to ask questions about her itinerary and places visited, I am
sure she would like to hear from you. She can be contacted on: irisej2002@yahoo.co.uk
