Choose another map, showing:

• South America (south)
• South America (central)
• South America
• The World

Other entries in Buenos Aires

Not quite all to plan....

oh man, where to start. i am writing this so long after we left BA and we spent so long there that there is so much to remember.

Firstly, getting there. it was pretty painless. we took a bus from Mar del plata around 12pm and the actual journey time was not too bad. getting into BA however was a different story as the traffic was a nightmare! it must have taken us about an hour and half to get into BA and i am sure we were stationery for a vast majority of the time. the bus station was HUGE! it has to be the biggest bus station that i have ever seen and there were 72 platforms for the buses. it actually felt a lot more like an airport than a bus station! after quickly calling jeannie in london, we were on our way in search of a hotel and seeing the traffic, we decided it would be quicker to walk.

we found our hotel with little trouble and it turned out to be in what had to have been one of the oldest buildings in BA. TV is important in argentina and even though we didnt have a private bathroom, we did have cable! not that we could hear it very well for all the noise on the street outside our window!

after having a quick shower we headed out in search of food and were planning on sometime simple until someone handed us a flyer for a tenedor libre...obviously, that is where we went! it was much the same as mar del plata although i dont think the quality was as good but i still ended up rolling out of there!

we were due to meet up with our friend, matt who we had meet on the uyuni tour and around 9:45 we found the bar to meet him in. i had told him we wouldnt be there before 9pm but just our luck, he apparently must have left about 2 minutes before we arrived so we missed him! nevermind, we made plans over the internet for the following night before he flew out.

the following day we decided to have a bit of a look around town and see what the shops had to offer before mo and scott arrived. we spent a lot of time wandering down the pedestrian streets and trying to enjoy the shops but i swear the ENTIRE of argentina was in BA at the time and the streets were chaos. changing money proved to be another debacle and after about 6 hours of fighting the crowds, we gave up in favour of cable! after a bit of relaxing, we headed out to find dinner and once again to the internet cafe to try and reach Lia and Brad to make plans for that night as they too were heading out the following day. nothing happens early in BA and we found ourselves eating dinner with the locals around 10pm and after not having heard from brad and lia, i sent them a mail of our plans and we headed off to find matt.

what a nightmare. what we didnt realise is that there are THREE bleeding streets with the same name in the centre of BA!!! we of course only saw 2 of them - the wrong two! - and eventually a little after midnight, we gave up and headed back to the hotel.
the following day, all of lia´s emails finally came through and they had been waiting at our hotel for us and then headed to the bar where we were meeting matt, only of course, we werent there! what a disaster. in the end, brad, lia and matt left without us having a chance for farewell drinks!

the following day, we headed off to the apartment we had rented with scott and mo. they were due to arrive around 10am. when we hadnt seen them by about 2pm, i headed to the internet cafe to find out that they would be arriving about 8pm that night. we ended up spending a great deal of time around the apartment waiting for them that day which was kinda fine as we were both pretty tired and we knew once they got to BA, it would be non-stop party!
we went out and bought everything for dinner...4 beautiful steaks, mash and veggies and a couple of bottles of vodka and mix. and waited.
by 10pm they still hadnt arrive so i headed to the internet cafe to see what was happening. they werent due to arrive until the following day around 4pm. okay. great.

we decided to spend the day exploring around the shops and doing some shopping for Christmas pressies. we once again loaded up for dinner expecting them to join us and went back to the apartment around 4pm to wait. and wait. and wait. we got major cabin feaver and we getting through the alcohol fast! eventually around 11pm that night they turned up pissed off and exhausted but in remarkably good humour i thought considering they had just spent almost 80 hours on the bus that was supposed to take about 30 hours! mark greeted them at the door with vodka and coke and the dinner was forgotten and the drinking began.

that night we headed out around 2am (like i said, NOTHING starts early in BA) to meet up with Andy, Chris and Dave (the aussies we had met along the trail since peru) in a nightclub. by that stage we had all had a few drinks and while mo and i were having a fantastic time watching the guys dancing, the guys were a little drunk and not quite as entertained. we decided to head off home. somewhere during the process of the night mark seemed to have lost his camera!

well, most of that day was spent catching up on sleep before we headed out into the centre of town to see if we could do a little shopping and find some Christmas eve dinner. hmm...not so. everything shut down at 4pm and even finding a restaraunt to eat in was a MAJOR challenge! we settled on another tenedor libre hoping that mo and scott would get their first taste of argentinian steaks. unfortunatley due to the lack of restaurants open, we had to settle for a tenedor libre and they missed out on steaks...again!
eventually, we headed back to the apartment in favour of polishing off some of the copious amount of alcohol we had bought at the supermarket (we were told nothing would be open until the 27th!)

Christmas...! well, it didnt much feel like Christmas but the date meant it must have been. The argentinians celebrate by giving their presents at midnight on the 24th when the city generally explodes in fireworks. we spent a while on the balcony watching the sky light up in every direction while we continued to polish off our store of alcohol.
Christmas day meant a different kind of Christmas lunch which mark cooked...steaks - argentinian style! we also had the chance to call up families back home although it took me about 5 hours to get through to SA and once i had, my family was pretty merry! it made my day to speak to them though.

Dave and Andy came over in the afternoon and we all had a few more drinks and that evening we headed back out to the palermo area to find a bar to celebrate Christmas. We eventually managed to find one that was firstly, open (!) and secondly, that sold beer, wine and spirits which meant all of us could drink! we were joined a bit later by Andy, Dave, Erin and Emma and then later headed back to the apartment to continue the celebrations there.

Boxing day. well, it hadnt felt much like Christmas so boxing day was really just another day with one exception...i was going to be seeing my uncle! in the afternoon we headed to the Recoleta Cemetery which was really impressive to see. Evita Peron is buried there but strolling around there is wonderful as it is almost a little city within a city. we also strolled around the market and got to watch some capoiero (sp?) and generally enjoyed the afternoon in the park before heading off to meet my uncle.
That night he treated us to a wonderful dinner at a very nice restaurant and i have to say that it was probably the best steak i have ever had in my life. it finally felt a bit more like Christmas too when i saw my uncle and aunt as i was with family which is what i had missed so much the day before. My family had also sent a few gifts with my uncle for mark and me and opening them was wonderful and reading the message meant lots of tears and seeing the gifts they had sent was really special. that night finally felt a bit like Christmas - i was pretty merry and very tearful!

the following day was pretty much spent in the shops. none of us had a had much of an opportunity to do much shopping and the shops were finally open so we hit them! that evening we headed to St Telmo which is the area in BA that is famous for Tango. we sat in the square and were treated to a short tango show but mostly we just spent the time sipping wine and beer and enjoying the atmosphere. that night it was back to the apartment for a few more drinks and lots of packing before our boat the following morning. mo and scott had decided to come with us to Uruguay for new years which was great so we didnt have to say the goodbyes just yet.

Buenos Aires is an absolutely amazing city! i could have spent a week there just strolling around and looking in the shops and enjoying the atmosphere. It was pretty quiet during Christmas but having our friends there made all the difference. There were so many highlights of BA - the food, the shopping, the drinking - but i would have to say the best part for me personally was seeing my uncle and having the opportunity to celebrate with mo and scott and the aussie boys. It is definitely a city i will go back to - with an empty suitcase and lots of money to make better use of all the shops!

Add to del.icio.us Add to reddit

Photos / videos of "Not quite all to plan....":