Day 60 - travel to Buenos Aires
We had a slight delay in Mendoza but we got to Buenos Aires at about noon and checked in (Esplendor Palermo Hollywood) by 1:00. Since we only had two nights in BA, we quickly left the hotel to explore the city. We ate at Bio, an organic only restaurant a block from our hotel. It was a great atmosphere had all sorts of great and healthy options. We were excited to have a decent meal for lunch. I enjoyed quinoa risotto and Kristen a tofu vegetable stir fry. I also enjoyed a beet/orange juice. It at least made me feel healthy! 😃
We started on foot towards the the bulk of Palmero which was supposed to be one of the happening areas in BA. There were tons of boutique shops, restaurants, and bars. Despite being 2:00, there wasn't a ton of people out. We made our way through Recoleta to the Cementerio de la Recoleta. Kristen was very excited to see the cemetery where Eva Parrone was buried. I had very low expectations of the stop. However, we were both very impressed with the cemetery as there were hundreds of mausoleums. We strolled through the busy mausoleum where she was buried. We spent most of our time just admiring the many fancy and huge other mausoleums. Many were family sites with many different people buried, some from the 1800s. The most memorable however were the sites that were not well maintained, some even had the coffins exposed to the outside. They were obviously not maintained and cared for. We left wondering who was responsible for the upkeep as it was sad at some of the state of affairs.
We strolled through Recoleta admiring the old colonial architecture before stopping for a beer and snacks to escape the 100 degree temperatures. We wanted to experience the subway in BA, so we took it back to our hotel. The subway was not air conditioned (which we knew) and was jammed back.
Kristen was tired, so I grabbed a quick bite to eat at Bio since it was close. We called it an early night to prepare for a busy day tomorrow and the night life in BA.
Day 61 - Buenos Aires
Today was our only full day in BA and we fully explored it. Our goal for the day was to see the tourists sights until about 6:00. Then sleep until 8:00 so we could experience the night life here.
We started the day walking from our hotel through Palermo down Ave Correntes where we got to see the obelisk in Plaza de la Republica. The plaza sits in the middle of Avenue 9 de Julio where we are told it is the widest street in the world. Not sure if it is true or not, but it most definitely has a ton of lanes. In fact, we couldn't actually count them as there were too many cars and too many lanes, some were only bus lanes. What was interesting about strolling through the multiple neighborhoods was that we continue to feel that only part of the neighborhood is ever open at once. You have bustling stores next to gate down closed businesses. We are guessing that the variety of shops work different hours or days of the week compared to the bars, restaurants, or food marts.
We then made our way to Florida/Cordoba Ave. to check out the beautiful architecture along the pedestrian only street of Florida Ave. We did not have high expectations for the pedestrian street as we had read about the annoying locals trying to sell you leather jackets or tango show tickets. This was actually more annoying than I anticipated. How can so many people want to exchange pesos to USD? I know there is a huge underground exchange in the city. Supposedly you can get 7 or 8 pesos to one USD compared to ~6 pesos at the official exchanges. I'm not sure who exactly exchanges with these people on the street. In one block, I bet we got asked five or six times! It was actually so annoying that it wasn't pleasant to walk the street.
We then made our way to Plaza de Mayo and the famous Casa de Gobierno were Eva Parrone gave her famous speech from the pink building (or Madonna for movie goers). The square is still a place for various protests and it was obvious as there were barriers all around that could quickly be set up. We are told that every Sunday there is a protest on women whose kids were taken from them.
From Plaza de Mayo, we made our way to San Telmo where we were hoping to catch tango dancers and a snack. A few blocks into our walk on Defensa, Kristen noticed that her back pocket was unzipped and someone had taken the room key out of it! She had no idea when it happened or how, but luckily we do not put anything important back there, only room keys or maps. As we were finishing the conversation, we saw a car speed down the street and suddenly a Chinese kid came running behind it. I guess someone grabbed his mother's purse and jumped in the car! Wow! We saw the chaos, but did not see the snatch or the person get in the car. Only the speeding vehicle with a very upset Chinese family. Hopefully they did not have anything worth much. We kind of held our bags closer and made it the few blocks to our destination Plaza Dorrego.
A few tips on bag travel. Luckily for us, we put a lot of thought into this and hopefully have a fairly safe system in place. However, we are all human and forget to be protective and alert. We both wear our purse or camera bag around our neck so that it can't simply be slid off our arm. Additionally, we hold it when in a lot of traffic. As for my bag pack. When we are in the train or in a lot of traffic, I wear it on the front. I also keep a lock on it so that I can lock the zippers together. When we picked our daypack out, we purposefully did not get one with a lot of zippers. We wanted to be able to lock them all together, which we can. Furthermore, we lock our passports in the hotel and only carry a photocopy of our passports. We do not keep all of our cash, credit or debit cards in one wallet. It is split between the both of us and we usually have some left at the hotel. We do not put anything in our pockets that do not have a zipper. We always put the camera around our neck when out of the bag. I rarely wear my nice watch and we brought cheap rings with us. This trip helps since we usually look like poor backpackers! I hope that I have not jinxed us by typing tips, but this type of petty crime is in every big city, not just Buneos Aires. Our system is not fail safe as they could still cut our bag or snatch when we are transitioning, but luckily we have not had anything negative happen yet.
Back to the trip. We got extremely lucky at the square. The square was set up very European in that there several cafés in the main area with seats and umbrellas. The square had various stands circling the plaza selling different crafts. Kristen quickly picked up that there was a large mat on the ground outside one of the restaurants in the square,which might be indicative of dancing. We quickly sat in the front row and sure enough, live tango started in about ten minutes. We actually sat next to the two dancers so we got to watch them get ready. We got a front row seat all for the costs of some nachos and some aqua and cervezas. The two tango dancers danced for tips for anyone interested. It just happened to be in the main square by our restaurant. It was the perfect atmosphere to catch Tango: sun shining, in a plaza, with music and cervezas.
After about 45 minutes, we progressed to find the bus to take us to Caminito to see one of the oldest parts of BA. When walking to the bus, a little girl said it best to her mom, "this has to be the hottest city in the world." Lol. BA is hot and muggy at this time of year. We were a sweaty mess about five minutes into our walk. When we sat in the shade with a decent breeze with a cold beer, it was pleasant. Otherwise, it is just stinky, sweaty weather. Nothing to stop us from exploring, but one of the reasons to visit BA outside of their hot summer. We actually didn't take a lot of pictures in BA as we didn't want to wear a backpack in the hot weather. We only had the iPhone on day one and three.
The bus took us right to Caminito. It cost us each about 50 cents per ride. I noticed the locals paying 1.5 pesos with their cards. That's about a quarter per ride. Not bad at all. This may be one of the best bus cities I have visited. They are everywhere, with a well marked route, and you never have to wait long. They are way more pleasant than the non air conditioned subway. In the bus, you actually get a seat and a breeze. Also, you get to see the city. Now for the warning, you must have coins. This country uses two dollar bills and two dollar coins equally. However, in BA, it seemed that we always got bills and not change. Normally, I would prefer this as I hate carrying coins. However, the bus will not take bills, no exceptions. We found it impossible to get a local business to exchange either. They must get asked constantly. We did get by a few times by having a local pay and we paid them a few pesos. One time, the guy wouldn't even take my bill, so it was free. Point is, use the buses in BA, but have coins (or for extended stays, buy a pass and put money on it at the terminal).
The best part of Caminito was seeing the Proa museum were we got to see an exhibit by Ron Muertz who created various life like sculptures. Absolutely amazing, interesting, and creepy all at the same time. I have never seen so life like sculptures. Despite being a bit creepy, you wanted to touch it to verify that the skin and hair wasn't real. Your brain was so confused as it knew they were fake, but your eyes thought they were real. Check it out here: http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/10/the-hyperrealistic-sculptures-of-ron-mueck/100606/
Caminito was colorful, but full of stands trying to sell art and various tourists souvenirs. There were also plenty of places to eat and watch tango. We were told not to buy show tickets, but to watch on the street. We enjoyed the street performances. I'm sure if you know a local, they could point you to better dancing and shows, but we were content on what we got to see for "free" at the restaurant.
By the time we finished at Proa, it was getting to be 4:00 and we were hungry for lunch. Yes I said lunch. We are trying to time the day as the locals do so we can enjoy the nightlife. However, mixing a tourist filled day with a night of dancing will later prove to be hard. We paid our 50 cents and road the bus back to Palermo a few blocks from our hotel. We ate again at Bio since it was close, we knew what we were getting, and we were starving. The atmosphere was again great, but neither of us enjoyed our meals near as much as the day prior.
We spent the next two hours walking through the shopping district in Palermo looking for a white dress and white shorts/shirt for Rio New Years Eve. It ended up being the worst type of shopping; two hours of looking with nothing purchased. We went 0 for 3! Oh well, the Palermo neighborhood is pleasant to walk through and see the life in the area. It again had open restaurants and shops next to gate closed businesses. It is something unique for me. Maybe it is more dramatic here since they have gates over the store front windows when they are closed. Additionally, most of the gates had graffiti all over them. This county sure loves graffiti! All in all, we enjoyed the walk around, despite not finding anything.
We got back to the room about 6:00 pm right on schedule. We set the alarm for 8:30 and took a siesta. We got out of the hotel about 9:30 and found a place in Palmero for dinner about 10:00. It was amazingly warm outside and we failed to find a place that had seats in air conditioning. We enjoyed some tapas and cervezas despite the warm weather (95 degrees and humid). This is very unconditional for us to eat this late and were continued to be shocked that people were coming in to eat when we left at 11:30. We visited a couple bars in Palermo looking for a place to dance. We read that most of the bars are not hooping until 2:00 am and I fully believe it. I was expecting to be able to at least hear some music and dance prior to that. We ultimately stayed out until 1:30 and failed to find a place that had dancing that early.
It intrigues me the timing of the lifestyle they live in BA. I would love to spend some more time here and live the daily life. When do they eat breakfast? How do they go from working regular jobs during the week, to this crazy timed schedule on the weekends. The crowds out were all post college kids, adults of maybe 25-50 years old. Despite a siesta, we failed to experience the true nightlife.
Day 62 - Fly to Rio
We slept in this morning until 9:30 and by the time we had breakfast and got dressed, it was 11:00. Kristen went for a run around the park and I went in search of a GroPro camera poll at the Alto Palermo Mall. I ultimately struck out after visiting multiple stores and each telling me that the other might have it. At the end of the day, I didn't see a camera the whole time we were in BA, let alone an accessory pole. Oh well.
One interesting difference you notice when in cab is that the yellow light turns on before green and before red. Yep. It works like it does normally in the US, red then yellow then green. However, when turning from red to green, the yellow comes on with the red for a split second. It appears to give the traffic a heads up that the light is going to turn green. We discussed if this was dangerous or not, but could not decide. Did it cause more intersection accidents? Was the time between red and green longer here than in the US? All unanswered questions.
You also notice in the neighborhoods that there are few stop signs. At an intersection, the traffic some how just gets through. I could not tell who had the right away and who backed down. But no stop signs. Interesting...
It took about an hour drive to the international airport in Buenos Aires (friendly reminder that there are two airports in BA). By the time we ate Lu no and got through security and customs, it was 4:20 and we were boarding. Were in the world did the day go?
We were one of the fortunate ones to sit behind a family with two kids under six. I have nothing against children, but we have to figure out a way for families with kids to fly with the rest of society. These two kids can be heard for at minimum two rows forward and backwards. That means that these two fussy kids get to disturb at least 27 people on this is flight (assuming they can only be really bothered two row front and back). Luckily this is only a three hour flight. I might just go deaf a bit quicker with my loud ipad.
We were the last ones to check in at the hotel and were greeted with a "we are so happy to inform you that we have an upgrade for you, but it is in another hotel." Before we could even comprehend, he pointed out that it was across the street. It ultimately was much nicer and would have been more money to book, so we were happy. It was 11 pm and none of the ATM machines "worked" at the airport, so we had to prepay with a credit card for the taxi. We made the trek a few blocks to find the only open ATM in the pharmacy. Card didn't work! We were pretty bummed as we wanted to get a jump on going to see Christ the a Redeemer in the morning. We heard if you aren't there 1st thing in the morning, the lines can be ridiculous. Oh well, we tried two different Brazililan beers at the hotel bar, Skol and Bohemia before heading to bed.
Our hotel was two blocks from Copacabana beach which is why we picked it. The main stage for the New Years Eve party is only one block over from our street as we didn't want to have to try and travel on NYE.
We did quickly notice the electricity, excitement, and energy in the atmosphere when arriving. We haven't had that feeling in a city for awhile. We knew Rio was going to be fun.
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