End of the World

Thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my last week in Buenos Aires. Took in more of the sights and museums but also spent a lot of time just pottering around the harbour area and shopping districts... Marc arrived on the Saturday evening and Sunday was spent doing a whistlestop tour of the main attractions, the Boca area, San Telmo with its colourful street markets and Puerto Madero. Xmas eve we went to a fantastic tango show out in the sticks and well off the beaten tourist track, great to experience a Christmas with a difference. Luckily we managed to find a taxi home but quite a minefield getting back to the hotel, the streets were empty of cars and instead people were setting of dodgy fireworks slap bang in the middle of the road. Bit scary when our driver drove straight over one!

Not easy dragging ourselves out of bed on Christmas morning for our early flight to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego. Spectacular views over the Beagle Channel as we landed at the end of the world. Our friends, Rebecca and Mike, joined us there and we spent the afternoon exploring Ushuaia, didn't take long as not a huge deal to see! Boxing day we headed out to kayak our way along the Beagle Channel to Estancia Harberton, an old ranch once run by missionaries. We were blessed by sunshine, which brought out the sea lions, a whole family just basking in the sun! Then took a boat trip to see a penguin colony, Magellanic penguins, so cute! Heading off again this afternoon to see more and this time also to get to walk like penguins with the penguins and, as our guide said, make new friends here in South America!

Another real highlight was a walk along the coast in the Tierra del Fuego national park. Beautiful landscapes and an amazing amount of birdlife, have never seen so many woodpeckers from close up, along with ibis and local species of waterfowl. Tomorrow we leave for Torres del Paine national park where we'll be seeing in the New Year. A Happy Hogmanay to all!

Buenos Aires

 

 

 

A week in Buenos Aires

Can´t believe how quickly the time has flown by and yet at the same time feel I´ve been here for months I´ve done so much! Overwhelming amount to see and do here in the city and surrounding area. Thing I enjoy most though is just hopping on a bus or metro (any time expect rush hour that is!) and stepping out at a stop or station to discover a completely different barrio of Buenos Aires.

Have now taken in most of the main tourist sites. Highlights- La Boca, definitely the most touristy of all but still worth seeing the fun, brightly coloured houses and the equally bright Juniors stadium; lots of small, interesting museums to visit such as the Evita Museum, which is very well done; Fine Arts Museum, contains an impressive collection of works of art, but best of all don´t need to fight through the crowds to see the paintings, had the place almost to myself!; Teatro Colon, which was the largest theatre in the world until they built the Sydney Opera House. It´s undergoing renovation at the moment so unfortunately no performances on (good reason to return to BA!), but fascinating to see how they still make everything themselves from costumes, to wigs and shoes, stage sets etc deep underground below the theatre itself.

One thing that´s struck me is how green the city is, really nice parks to relax in and a bit of shade from the scorching sun. Favourites - Botanical Gardens and the Rosedal.

Yesterday, visited the Tigre Delta just outside BA, a different world from the noisy, mad city. An area of interlinking rivers and canals, very green and peaceful. The old, wooden houses are all on stilts as it regularly floods. Took a train to get there which travels along the coast, or rather the banks of the Rio Plata, which seperates Argentina from Uruguay, not so much plata (silver) coloured as brown and muddy.

Can´t not mention the food, which here basically boils down to white bread, cheese, red meat and icecream. Oh, and empanadas, sort of pie filled with, surprise, surprise, cheese or meat! Great if you´re on an Atkin´s diet!! Having said that, the icecream beats most of the best I´ve had in Italy, which is saying something! And have eaten the best steak ever, or to be more accurate it was more like half a cow, for the ridiculous price of 4 euros (and it was enough to feed at least two large adults!). Not a city for veggies! Very odd to be eating strawberries and peaches in season, just a week before Xmas!

Have of course taken hundreds of photos and included just a wee sample of them here, the rest will just have to wait til I get home.

Time is definitely flying past, too fast to be able to squeeze in everything, as I´m wont to do, before continuing our journey South.

First impressions of Buenos Aires

After a long and gruelling journey, almost 22 hours door-to-door, I arrived at my final destination on Saturday evening. Suffice to say, would not recommend Iberia for long-haul flights! Buenos Aires international airport is nothing to write home about but did find it amusing that to get from passport control to the luggage belts you had to walk through the duty free shop! I have a sneaky feeling that I´m going to return very poor from this trip, it is a shopper´s paradise!
Taxi driver got completely lost trying to find the place where I´m supposed to be staying, which I found slightly worrying at 11 o´clock at night, but eventually made it and was met by my host. She´s a lovely Argentinian lady, well-travelled so couldn´t have worked out better. And she doesn´t have any dogs!
First impressions of the city - don´t feel I´ve left Europe! Presumably that will change as I get to know the city, which is huge, hectic, bustling but fascinating. Keep thinking I´m in Italy, the accent in Spanish is so Italian, feel very at home and there are pizzerias everywhere. Yesterday, just visited the Recoleta district as didn´t dare to be overly adventurous on my first day. Did the usual touristy thing of going to visit the cemetry and Eva Peron´s tomb, wandered around the fabulous designer stores, and ended up visiting the interesting Malba museum of Latin American 20th century art.
Today, scary experience of getting to work by metro, the subte as it´s known here. Got out after 3 stops, couldn´t breath from the feeling of claustrophobia. Never been so frightened of being crushed to death! Did the rest of the journey on foot so was half an hour late for my first class, not best first impression!
Now off out into the heat to explore a bit more. School organises visits most afternoons, plus weekend excursions, so looks like I´m going to have a busy two weeks, not forgetting of course that I´m hear to study and already have a heap of homework to do. Can´t wait!

Rockcliffe and surrounding area, Scotland, Nov 2006