Buenas Aires - 25 May to 2 June 2023

Buenas Aires   25 May - 2 June 2023

Thursday 25 May.  We're in the Palermo area of Buenos Aires for the last few days of the trip, staying in an Airbnb apartment.   It's one of the wealthier areas of the city, with high rise apartment buildings, restaurants, clothes boutiques and fancy food shops and bakeries.

By contrast,  within 100 yards of our former hostel, quite a way south, there were five car parks / parking lots on waste ground or in old buildings.  In Palermo every apartment block seems to have its own underground car park 

Now that we're so close to the end of the trip we have run out of ooomph a bit,  but we're still seeing different things.

Where we are staying there are plenty of parks and green spaces. We go for a walk across a couple of parks, taking in a view of the Planetarium Galileo Galilei en route..

..to a market, but discover that the market is permanently closed.  It probably didn't survive lockdown.  But, a pleasant if muddy walk.

Friday 26 May John is definitely in 'rest and relax' mode but I walk to visit the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires a kilometre away.  

It's busy and I spend quite a lot of time queuing to buy a ticket.  There's an exhibition - 'Del cielo a casa' - on the second floor of "Argentine material culture from the forties to the present, in dialogue with….political, social, and affective imaginary.".     (I think that should read imagery).    

The first floor has what I assume is a permanent collection of sculpture and paintings which I also enjoyed.

We go out for dinner in the evening to a nearby restaurant, Quotidiano, which is fun.

Saturday 27 May there was a thunderstorm and quite a lot of rain in the night, and the temperature has dropped from a balmy 20°C to a more autumnal 13°C.

We catch buses to visit a couple of markets;  the first, the Mercado de las Pulgas (Flea Market), is mainly second hand furniture and I guess demonstrates that chunky brown furniture is as unfashionable in Buenos Aires as it has become in the UK.   

The second is more of an artisan market (leather, pottery, jewellery, knitted items etc) but nothing has us reaching for our wallets.

Most of the bus drivers seem to think they're driving in a F1 car and it gets a bit nerve wracking sitting at the front and watching the road!

Sunday 28 May it's a bright sunny day, warm in the sun, chilly in the shade.   We walk the 15 minutes to the nearest Sube (metro) station and travel to the Plaza de Mayo.

To the San Telmo Market which stretches for nearly a mile and is rammed with people.  We watch a couple dancing tango, listen to some live music and I buy a leather belt, but then we give up on the crowds and walk back to the metro on a parallel but quiet street.

Have an early supper and then go out to catch a bus to the Plaza del Congress as we're going to the theatre to see a performance of 'Piaf', an interpretation of Edith Piaf's life and career.  Hoping that the dress code isn't too formal - fortunately it seems that jeans and a sweater are just right.

The theatre is the oldest in Latin America at over 150 years and has been fairly recently restored to its curlicued format.  

The stage set is stark and dark in utter contrast to the theatre.

Brilliant performance by the actress, Elena Roger,  playing Edith Piaf - she's tiny and her voice exactly reflects that of Piaf.   Very strong supporting cast.  The set remained the same throughout with occasional chairs or wheel chairs as props. Lots of costume changes, some on and some off stage.  The mono/ dialogues were in Spanish and the songs in French (natch), so we didn't get the full gist, but followed the story pretty well.  Really enjoyable evening, despite being seated on wooden chairs and there being no interval (numb bum after nearly two hours).

Good view of the National Congress Building as we wait for the bus back.

Monday 29 May today is a quiet one apart from trying to do some laundry.  There's a washing machine and tumble dryer in the basement of the apartment block, for which one needs tokens.  Absolutely zero information about where to get these so we WhatsApp the Airbnb contact, who sends us the addresses of several kioskos which sell the tokens.  Or don't - the first two we visit are definite 'noes', but the third one has them.   So we can at least travel home without our bags being packed only with dirty washing.

Tuesday 30 May. Another chilly day.   I make an effort and sweep the apartment floor after doing the washing up.  Not quite sure why the bathroom floor has got so grubby but I draw the line at cleaning that.

Go out for a walk to visit the Japanese Garden close by, taking just my phone…. and get there to discover one has to pay to go in.  And I haven't any cash on me.  But I do see a couple of red crested cardinals on my journey.

To the nearby supermarket (with cash) to pick up water (we probably could drink the tap water but we're not going to chance it) and juice.  We're buying water in weighty 6.5 litre plastic bottles so I'm pleased to get back to the apartment.  Also pleased that wine wasn't also on the list - the wine we've been buying in the supermarket is very drinkable Argentine malbec and Cab Sav, is less than £7 a bottle (or £5 using the Western Union exchange rate) and, if you buy three bottles, the cheapest is free.  Trouble is if you've got all that wine you might just drink it….

Out for dinner to a nearby hamburger place called 7167 - service is friendly if a bit vague (onion rings were not forthcoming until we asked again).  Good veggie burger for me and a delicious coleslaw.

I notice, when we get back to the apartment, that we can see into at least three or four flats across the road. Why don't people shut the curtains?  All very 'Rear Window ' (but sans Jimmy Stewart 😉).

Wednesday 31 May Overcast day and I'm determined to do some souvenir shopping at La Boca, which is not really John's thing.  Do my research on bus route(s) (the Sube/  metro doesn't go there) and decide I can get there and back by myself.  NB John has roaming data as part of his phone package so I've relied on him and his phone for navigation throughout the trip.  I'll have to rely on a downloaded Google map and finding WiFi along the way.

Leave the apartment and after a few minutes it starts to spit with rain.  Not wearing a raincoat and can't be doing with going back.  Have a wobble about finding the right bus stop, and from which side of the road I should catch the bus, but, with a bit of help from a fellow bus traveller, I get the 93 going south. And the rain has stopped.

Unfortunately when I get off the bus half an hour later I've overshot my stop and have to walk a mile or more to get to the market. The sun has come out and I'm now far too warm, and don't have my sunglasses!

The La Boca market is not at all busy and I wander round without hassle.   Check out most of the stalls to see what appeals and visit the one place that sells Andean style blankets/ back packs and so on.  End up spending Arg pesos 9800 ( just shy of £20) on assorted items.  

Then I walk several blocks back to Av Regimiento Patricios and spend time working out which is my bus stop.  They don't make it easy, but I find a north bound 93 bus stop in the end and get back to the apartment.

John has had a quiet but productive day but has rested a sore knee.  We go out for dinner in the evening to an Italian restaurant called Olivetti - good service, delicious first courses (risotto and gnocchi), and then John has a good steak.  My salad a bit meh and I don't finish it.   We're hoarding the cash now and try to pay in US$$ but it gets too complicated with making change.   As long as we have enough cash to pay for the taxi to the airport on Friday we'll be fine.

Thursday 1 June.  Lovely day today and it gets up to 21°C or so.  Start sorting out what is coming back with us and what will be left behind eg tired T shirts.

We walk to the Japanese Garden which is very attractive with a lake, waterfalls, arched bridge and planting.  Marred by many signs saying "don't".….. lean on the rails/ feed the fish/ walk on the grass etc.  Quite busy there with people enjoying the sunshine and taking photos.  We try to be polite but I'm sure we've photo bombed several people's pictures.

Back to the apartment for a beer - got to clean out the fridge as much as possible!

In the evening we again visit the Quotidiano restaurant for pasta and postres (pudding) for dinner.

Friday 2 June    I wake up ridiculously early, about 4.00 am, and don't really get back to sleep.  Going cold turkey on getting to UK time, which is 4 hours ahead?

Need to pack, fight my way into my compression socks, tidy and be out of the apartment and into our taxi by 10.00 am.  To the airport for our 2.35 pm flight to Amsterdam, then to London, arriving Heathrow at lunch time tomorrow.

Bit of a SNAFU on the journey to the airport which should have taken about 42 minutes... but the traffic grinds to a halt about 5 miles from the airport and our driver thinks it's an accident.    We don't make a lot of progress for quite some time but after about 50 minutes, and after talking to another stranded motorist, our driver (and a lot of other car drivers) goes off road and onto the grass beside the motorway and is able to skirt the problem. 

Which is protesters, who have set a fire in the middle of the three lane highway.  Don't know what they're protesting about but they throw stones at a couple of cars, the drivers had presumably having given them a piece of their minds.  So, we get to the airport in good time, if a bit anxious (I'd been wondering if I could have walked the last three miles with my two rucksacks. The answer is 'probably yes'!), check our bags, through immigration and relax.