The Avenues and Alleyways

Now spent a week in Buenos Aires at a gentle pace. In Rio we spent most of our time on buses here it has been Shanks pony. It feels like we've walked at least 100 miles but it has been a lot milder and very comfortable to walk in.

The first thing you notice about Buenos Aires is the massive 20 lane avenues and how European it feels. BA doesn´t have the instantly recognisable tourist attractions of other major cities: The Eiffel Tower, Christo Redentor, Statue of Liberty, etc. But the city is so large there are hundreds of things to see and do.

Some nights you can walk for miles and can´t even find a pub...there are loads of cafes/restaurants but they are all very bright and you know how Chris likes them to be dark and dingy!! Chris did manage to find a pub to his liking - The Gibraltar, which could be Rab Ha´s if you squint your eyes slightly. It also managed to sell great food just like Rab´s and the music wasn´t bad either (Belle & Sebastian and Boards of Canada).

Sights we´ve seen are the building where Eva Peron (Evita) waved to the crowds, an English Tower (which was donated to the Argentinians from the British in the early part of the 20th Century to celebrate their independence), the Boca district with it´s colourful façades and street tango!!

We also managed to meet up with Larissa, a Canadian mining engineer who has been based in Oz for the last five years, for a few drinks (a friend of Elizabeth now in Sydney). We then arranged to meet up for St Patrick´s day with a few Irish friends (Emma and Clodagh) she had met on her travels. We heard of a street party and made our way through thousands of revellers to find out we couldn´t get into any of the pubs and we should have just bought some beer to drink in the street. Everyone was in good spirits and it looked as though the party could have gone on for hours (well at least until the thunderstorm). We bailed out in desparate need of a drink and headed to another part of the city by taxi. We managed to get a taxi with all five of us. Chris in the front with the 4 girls in the back. The taxi driver wanted to know how he managed to have 4 girls, all Chris said was 'Soy Estupendo' (I am great!!).

Got to the bar before the thunderstorm started and managed to move inside as the wind picked up! The heavens opened and people scattered in all different directions as we sipped on our drinks and toasted St Patrick (no green beer this year Lynne & David).

The weather was fine the next day and managed to get the 5 of us tickets for the Boca v Independiente game after queueing for an hour. Hopefully not as traumatic as the game at the Maraçana. We also went to an exhibition of photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson. Chris had just managed to miss seeing this in Berlin so was happy to catch this here.

Went on a pub crawl of the San Telmo Barrio but only managed to get to two pubs....it wasn´t as messy as you think...we had just left it a little late to get into some. Started off at BA Rab Ha´s (The Gibraltar) where after a pint we decided on a bottle of Red (maybe not too great a start for a pub crawl!) but the spring rolls were excellent!! Pub numero dos - Territorio where we ate picadas (bread, cheese and cured meats mmmmmmm delicious!) and listened to Nick Cave on vinyl! We also sat and watched a very dapper looking Don Corleone having dinner on his own. We thought he looked like mobster before he confirmed our suspicions when we saw he was reading a gun magazine (the give away was the HUGE gun on the front cover). There seems to be a magazine for all pursuits (both legal and non legal) available at every corner of the city. After looking for two other pubs (both closed) we headed back for our night cap in the Gibraltar.

Went to the Recoleta Cemetery where Eva Peron is buried alongside all the rich and infamous ex-inhabitants of BA. The tombs were very elaborate and the coffins had expensive wood and were very ornate. It looked like a huge cemetery on the map but the tombs were crammed together and several family tombs went deep underground.

Sunday afternoon met up with the girls for the big Boca v Independiente game. Jumped in a taxi to the game but we were let out at the wrong side. Barriers galore....yes come through here....no go back the way you came....30 mins later after a 5 min climb we were in the stadium in our seats 2 mins before kick off!! 95% of the crowd were Boca fans but the Independient fans were not far above us! The crowd never stopped singing throughout the game accompanied with their drums and brass band - how they managed to get this through security we´ll never know. Our hearts were in our mouths several times when we saw fans climbing over 10 feet fences at the third tier to put out their flags or just to dance their way along! Again Chris says the game wasn´t up to Celtic´s usual standards but the atmosphere made up for it and Boca won 2-1.

All 5 of us headed through the crowds (after waiting 20 mins to get out)to San Telmo where we had a few drinks and a lovely meal. Eventually got home at 12.30am to pack for our journey to Uraguay....more of this later.

To sum up BA....great food, HUGE steaks, good atmosphere and great for walking.