After a surviving the taxi ride to the hostel, and having a slightly hysterical jet-lagged laugh at a sign in our room saying “I would like to wash my shits thank you” (we presume it was meant to be sheets) we went out for a wander. Unfortunately, the first trip was cut short by a bird poo’ing on Lizzy’s head (punishment for laughing at the sign perhaps?) but the second attempt, after a quick wash, was worth it as we stumbled across a carnival that was going on in the centre which was pretty impressive. Not as impressive as the antiques market we went to the following day though. Hundreds of street performers (opera singers, tango dancers, drummers, ventriloquists, human statues to name a few), market stalls- a proper cacophony of noise and colour for which BA no doubt gets its reputation for being such a cool, vibrant and arty place to be.
A Tango show was next on the agenda, though our attempts to re-enact weren’t quite so graceful :-S. Then the following morning we bussed our way (all the guide books advise against walking) to La Boca for some ‘shanty chic’ (well, shanty’s probably an exaggeration but the buildings are very run down, particularly outside of Caminoto road itself). They have painted all the buildings bright colours here meaning it was photogenic even in the drizzle that was coming down most of the day.
Another must-do was ticked off the list when we visited the cemetery in La Recoleta district – it’s like a small town of mausoleums – an oddly impressive and eerie place. Evita is entombed here which draws the crowds, but it seemed notable even without that.
As we write this we are in the first few minutes of what we hope will be less than 18 hours of a bus ride from Buenos Aires to Puerto Iguazu. In summary we found Buenos Aires to be a vibrant, arty and attractive place – definitely one of the nicer cities we’ve visited on our travels.
More photos here as usual.
