First Impressions

Well, here we are in Buenos Aires, Argentina!  After a very long flight the first challenge was getting through Argentine passport control and customs. The queue for the former was pretty impressive, making a lot of Southeast Asian immigration queues pale in comparison. The next challenge was finding transport from the airport into the city - we had been well informed previously about which minibus we needed to take, but said minibus proved elusive. So elusive that we gave up in the end and got a shared taxi.

We had pre-booked an AirBnB in Buenos Aires and this proved to be an excellent choice. We turned out to be staying in an extremely grand, former palace of a house. It is owned by a British lady, who employs some people here to look after  and run it. It is very much a work in progress, with various rooms in various states of restoration. The rooms on the first floor, where we were, are accessed via the sweeping original staircase, and all the doors are covered in mirrors. Mosaic floors, stained glass windows, high ceilings ... we had it all. Highly recommended! It also had a garden with hammock and resident dog, cat and chickens (and avocado tree) - great.

In front of the grand staircase

Our AirBnB recommended us a place to change money. We went along the touristy street, up a flight of stairs to a level at about 0.5 between ground and 1. Then down to the end of a corridor to a completely blacked out office, where we were quietly ushered in when we knocked on the door. Not many words were exchanged, but currency definitely was.

The money exchange office

For the past few days we have been exploring the city and getting a feel for life here. It is an interesting place. Very mixed, with horrific breezeblock apartments alongside very grand, former colonial mansions and palaces like the one in which we were staying. It has a ramshackle feel to it and a lot of the downtown areas seem like they are in a recession - the pavements are cracked and crumbling, most of the roads seem to be being dug up (there are bulldozers and roadworks in every other street) and we are constantly being dripped on by air conditioning units. Despite this we like it - it is quite a loveable state of disrepair. Other neighbourhoods of the city are quite different - the Recoleta area, which we visited today, is full of posh mansions and hotels, art galleries, boutiques and foreign embassies. More a la Mayfair! Like many other cities, there is definitely a pronounced rich and poor divide.

Highlights of our recent sightseeing include the Casa Rosada (literally, the pink house), where the presidential offices are; the famous Recoleta cemetery, where we saw Evita's tomb; an art gallery with Rodin statues and plenty of impressionist paintings; and a tour through underground tunnels of BA, where old tributaries used to run. The tour guide for the latter was very informative as much about present day life as the past - we learnt a lot about Argentinian politics, e.g. this year is an election year and the mayor of BA is standing against the president.

La Casa Rosada

The food is, shall we say, somewhat meat heavy! They do meat very well but vegetables are hard to come by. I tried to be healthier the other day ordering a mixed vegetable grill rather than meat. It came swimming in oil... think maybe best to stick with what they're best at! The empanadas are veeery tasty.

Enough for now - see you next time! We're going to try and update the blog every Tues and Fri, internet depending.