Tag Archives: Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

02 Sunday Mar 2008

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I will say Buenos Aires was not as bad as I expected but It was much harder adjusting to city life when being out in the vast spaces of Patagonia for so long. Plus Buenos Aires in general can be a bit overwhelming.

The first day I arrived, I met a few people at the hostel who were venturing into a neighbourhood of BA called La Boca. It is not what you call a tourist friendly hot spot but it’s definitely full of culture. They were going for a last ditch effort to find tickets to one of the football games. River Plate a popular local team was playing. I joined in, knowing La Boca’s infamous reputation I travelled fairly light, with only a few pesos and some ID (no bags, camera and the likes). We got info on what bus to take and more importantly what street/stop to get off. People weren’t exaggerating when they said some streets are no-go zones. We got to the stadium and confirmed what we knew all along…the tickets were sold out. Since Argentinians followed football so religiously I wanted to watch the masses attend mass. Sadly that didn’t happen. So we opted to get a bite to eat and return back to the hostel which was located in the centre ( a few blocks from the world’s largest avenue, 9 de Julio).

I did get a chance to visit San Telmo ( Tango barrio of the city) on a booming Sunday. When the market is in full swing and some of the roads are closed to cars only pedestrians. Luckily the weather was nice and cool that day. That was another thing to get adjusted to, going from cool, windy conditions to hot and humid BA was not a pleasant change at all.

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And as if I wasn’t attracting enough attention alone with the hijab, I went to eat with a few more travelers from the hostels (3 guys from Norway). So you can imagine how that appeared. 3 taller than your average Argentinian, Norwegians with bright blond hair and blazing blue eyes, and me with my hijab. I guess I would stop and stare if I saw such a group strolling through the streets of BA. We had a good laugh about it.

ohh, I met another “Bag” how odd is that. For those not familiar, that is one of several nicknames coined by my dear friend Tina. So there I was chilling at the hostel after a full day of exploring BA when someone calls out hey Bag, so out of reflex I turned to find they were referring to someone else.

All in all I enjoyed my time in BA but during my entire stay there all I could think of going back down south to Patagonia. By the third day I was ready to leave, I purchased my ferry ticket back to Uruguay and headed back to Montevideo.

Bottleneck

24 Sunday Feb 2008

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Luckily right before I arranged my trip down to Chile, I also contemplated how the heck to get back up north. It had taken me several weeks to work my way down to this point in Patagonia now the trick was to find a way back up. Since busing it all the way up will no doubt take at least 3 days straight. I decided to fly part of the way. I went to LADE, which is an Argentinean company operating in Patagonia and has flights up to Buenos Aires.

It was fairly difficult to find anything up to B.A. everything was fully booked. So right there standing in front of the attendant I decided to make a pitstop on the Northern Patagonian region (on the Atlantic coast this time). I knew that the national park outside of Puerto Madryn had the biggest Penguin colony outside of Antartica. Flights to P. Madryn and nearby Trelew were fully booked as well but I managed to find a flight to Comodoro Riv. (4 hours South of Trelew). Since my options were limited I bought the ticket right there and then and went next door a bus booking company and purchased a bus ticket for the rest of the journey up to Trelew.

The day of my flight, it was pure madness. Areolineas Argentina (which isn’t even an Argentinean company, from Spain) was on strike and numerous delays. So you can imagine the matchbox of an airport in the small town of El Calafate and lots and lots of angry tourists. I was thankful I wasn’t traveling with them. Especially since they charge 3 times as much as LADE and apparently provide worse service on top of that. But due to their incompetence, all other airlines suffered as well. Here I was thinking I was on top of things. For the first time ever in this trip I had pre-purchased a bus ticket before arriving to that city. My trip thus far has been planned city by city. It was kinda ironic, the first time I plan ahead, something like this happens. I thought I had a lot of wiggle room to get to the airport in Comodoro to the bus terminal to get to Trelew. But the delays continued. Luckily we made it out and bargained with a cab driver at the airport to shoot straight for the terminal. THANKFULLY, I made exactly 3 mins before the bus was set to leave.

I arrived in Trelew around 10pm and headed for a small hotel I had quickly looked up. Honestly it was the worst place I stayed at and the most expensive. But since it was late and close to the terminal I paid without much argument. I was very thankful I took a shower at night as there was no water in bathroom in the morning. Angry as I was I packed up my things, paid and left find an internet cafe to update the parentals and wait for the bus to see the penguins at Punta Tombo.

Finally with some decent internet connection I was able to add more updates and upload photos yesterday. I got a bit carried away and completely lost track of time. Realizing I had only a few minutes to get to the terminal to go to Punta Tombo, I packed my things in a haste and like an idiot forgot my camera at the internet cafe!!!! I was extremely depressed throughout the ride and the excursion to see the little waddling critters. Unfortunately no pics for this one.

One thing i must say, penguins smell, no they outright stink! and are fairly snappy. A man got pecked by one. On the way back we stopped in the small village of Gaiman for a little bit of Whales in Argentina. This city and surrounding region was settled by Welsh settlers. We stopped in a Welsh tea house and were stuffed with unlimited tea and Welsh desserts. Returning back I made what seemed to be a lost endeavour to find my camera. I was thinking for sure someone had stolen it by now. I was extremely surprised when I returned to the internet cafe to find that someone found the camera near the computer and gave it to the shop attendant. I was so relieved!

From there I went straight to the main bus terminal to find a way up to B.A. I asked around the various companies and luckily there was a service leaving 30 mins from when I came to inquire. I bought the ticket and boarded the bus immediately.

17 hours later, I arrived here in B.A. and to be honest I really wish I was back south in Patagonia. I don’t think I can stand B.A. for too long. Don’t get me wrong it is a great city but after the surreal experience with Patagonia´s natural wonders, I don’t think the buildings and roads of BA can suffice or even come close.