Buenos Aires Day 2

Well we really crashed last night, as expected, though Garrie was awake and restless early so breakfast a bit after 7am.

I had organised a shorter excursion today as we also had to meet our Quark person in the afternoon, (to say nothing of whether we could do that day twice in a row!)

The sky was overcast with rain promised so raincoats in the bag off we went in the exact opposite direction to yesterday.

It was very much the contrast too. Yesterday wide tree lined boulevards, today narrow cobblestone streets with older houses – as we were heading through San Telmo, the oldest part of BA.

Pity it is Friday. The blurb reads: Every Sunday the beautiful streets of San Telmo turn in to a wonderful, bustling market come street party, full of local artisans, street performers, and of course antique stalls. This amazing display of local culture takes place in the Plaza Dorrengo, and is one of the area’s most famous attractions. This tradition originally began with only antique stalls in the main plaza, but quickly spread down the surrounding streets as local vendors and artist joined in the fun, becoming the energetic market you see today. This is the best place to pick up a hidden gem, a bargain antique, or shop for hand made souvenirs from your trip. After a long day of shopping you can relax and grab a bite to eat in the many restaurants on Calle Defensa, a lovely little street that runs along side the Market.

Though there were some beautiful old houses, our overwhelming memory will be dog poo. People love their dogs here but picking up after them is not something that has arrived here yet – surprising given I had a paper straw yesterday. Many try to get their pets to use the areas around small trees but many puppies are clearly not compliant, meaning you spend most of the time looking down to avoid barkers eggs.

You weren’t sure whether to look at the next pix – just in case I had illustrated the point with a pic. 😂.

There is a lot of use of street art too.

This may be the square that is used for the Sunday markets.

Not sure if I mentioned we are on our way to La Boca? Home to the big BA football, (soccer) stadium, La Bombeonera. Locals love football, coffee and wine! The face you see almost as often as Eva Peron is Maradona!

We cross a lovely park on our way.

Tree lined pathways but the prevailing winds are clearly strong.

We arrive at the stadium but you can’t really take a decent photo but I did snap the apartments opposite and some of their art work.

Then we arrive at water. The Matanza River

Then we walk up to the Caminito. The blurb I read said: a collection of streets so full of life and colour that it attracts people from all over the world. This brightly painted area was started by local artist Benito Quinquela Martín in 1960, as he wanted to express his artwork on the large canvas, that was then a collection of abandoned buildings. Since that time artists travel from far and wide to adjoin their work with Benito’s, showcasing their art on anything from cobble stones to walls, and door frames to roof tops. With it’s rich history and beautiful artwork a walk through Caminito is an experience of a life time, and one not to be missed.

I have to agree. A fascinating place. We had just arrived when the rain came down so time for a cuppa in a very unique establishment.

Very enjoyable, though coffee was a tad bitter so only a rating of 4. My chamomile tea was perfecto.

I availed myself of the ladies, (when you find one, use it, is my motto), and this one took me back to my time in China with a big notice, “NO Toilet paper to be flushed. Please use basket. Thankfully they empty their baskets more often than in Beijing in the 1990s where I would come out pretty green at times. So let’s show you more of Caminito as the rain had just about stopped when we emerged.

I haven’t said much about the traffic in BA. The streets are well organised in blocks, so finding your way around is relatively easy, but surviving it is another thing. Lanes are fairly free and easy and crossings are interesting to say the least. You don’t just go when someone goes as some pedestrians have a high regard for drivers to avoid them. Scooters also fly around everywhere and some vehicles are far from road worthy. We spotted this one in Caminito.

The back end of it was almost entirely rusted out. You’ll notice in the first pic of this vehicle that he is straddling the barrier meant to keep him out. Most street corners have three large bollards to stop cars encroaching on the pedestrians. Next we came across a BBQ on the go.

It really is an amazingly colourful place.

We stopped to commune with El Papa.

As the blurb mentioned, these were all derelict buildings at one point and that shows at times.

A great place to see for anyone visiting BA. So we then turned to head back to the hotel, taking a different route and, thankfully, it turned out not to be through a dog loving suburb. Only 16,226 steps so far today but my Fitbit finally decided to switch to local time and became confused so it is crediting me with 44,396!

Spent a good few hours just relaxing in our room, though reading Facebook about the awful bushfires etc. was depressing. Anyone reading this who hasn’t seen this clip, it is worth a watch. The BBC nails it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SFAk16n7RCg&feature=youtu.be

Quite looking forward to three weeks without news and hoping we have a home to return to. Don’t forget that we will be going off air until around the 8th January. Internet of the penguins only really strong enough for emails so we aren’t paying for it, but I will go day by day on the posts when I return so you won’t miss a thing.

I should also mention that there is a very visible police presence in BA. We did see one argument with motor cyclists and one had a shot gun but we moved quickly around the corner so not sure what happened. Personally I am feeling as safe as in any city we’ve been in.

Back to Tortoni’s for dinner. Just so much better than last night and their olive oil is to die for! Tonight we were early enough to also enjoy the 6pm tango show. Interesting pricing scheme. Initially 800pesos each and she said cash only for the show. I told her we did not have enough peso. So US$40 was her next bid – not sure if that was each. I said I had some US$ but when I pulled them out I did not have $40. So then she wrote down $28. I asked if that was for two, she said yes. So that’s what we paid. Funnily enough it was just about all I had….

The Beer of the day a was a Quilmes Clasica. Garrie loves how cold this and also yesterday’s afternoon beer were served really cold. However he loves this one much more and it has been rated at an 8.5! Let’s hope there are some in the ship.

I stayed with the Malbec and went for a different pizza whilst Garrie had a sirloin steak sandwich with cheese and tomato. Both delicious with loads of their amazing olive oil!

It was a great show with a reasonable tenor, some fabulous dancers and a Gaucho with first a drum and then a seriously good demonstration of Bolleadoras. This is not as good but gives you an idea. https://youtu.be/u3opqzMy1Ag

The singing and dancing had a bit of a story line to it. A bit hard to photograph but these will give you an idea.

I also took some of the theatre and another superb ceiling panel.

So that’s it for now. See you on the other side of Antarctica! 🐧🐧🦥⛄️