Buenos Aires and Puerto Iguazu

A sixteen hour bus later we arrived in Buenos Aires and after eventually finding the tiny sign for the hostel we crashed out in the sitting room to watch movies with a big bowl of popcorn free from the manager. We spent about a week in the city trying to explore a different "barrio" (neighbourhood) each day. The hostel we were staying at, called The Garden House, was really great; the staff were really friendly and the hostel was so small (only two dorms and a few private rooms) that we soon got to know everyone staying there and all got chatting over a great breakfast. Our main objective in the city (or should I say my main objective) was to go on a search for the "prefect" present for my Mum's birthday, this meant that I was happily dragging Mark to all and any local craft markets and stopping to look in the window of hundreds of stores along every street.

Our first day we went to explore the main shopping area of the city around Avenue Florida and the Obelisk. We walked around the theatre district while on the search for English book shops and saw about three different protests along the way. One of these involved all the taxi's protesting the change of a taxi lane to a bus lane so they had blocked up all the main streets and were handing out leaflets and flying huge banners out of the windows of their cars.


The next day we headed back to the area via underground (so cheap and easy to use!) and explored the Plaza de Mayo, the Casa Rosada, Cathedral and a random museum from which I spotted another crafts market in the street behind. One of the days we headed out to a nature reserve the sat between the city and the ocean and was possibly the most death defying journey across multiple six-lane roads of traffic just to reach the entrance. We closely avoided a huge downpour and wandered off into the park which dulled the city's noises considerably, although the skyscrapers were always visible in the background.



Near to where we were staying was a huge antiques market (read: lots of old crap that no one wants anymore, although Dad could probably find a buyer on ebay!) that was held on Sundays in Plaza Dorrego. As well a the antiques stalls there were side streets full of craft stalls, paintings, snack vendors and tango-ing couples who would happily pose for some spare change and a smile. From here we headed into La Boca, a decidedly dodgy area of town where the main Boca Juniors football stadium can be found. We arrived just in time for the stadium to fill up with fans so the area was full of police and security and lots of street food vendors selling BBQ meats in all shapes and forms. Further into La Boca was the Caminito, a touristy area of brightly painted houses, street performers and outdoor restaurants. We strolled through and out to the main road just in time to see the football fans from the other team being bused in with police escorts (supposedly to keep the riots to a minimum.) They were all hanging out of the windows of the old school buses and shouting taunts and singing loudly while the people on the streets laughed and taunted back.



We had heard from one of the guys in the hostel that there was a "huge flower" in a park in town that opened in the morning and closed at night. We were intrigued so went to investigate. It sure was a big flower and it did open during the day and close at night... It was made of metal and rose out of a large manmade lake in the middle of a park next to the highway. While we were in the area we went to the near by Recoletta cemetary and went to find Evita's grave (where they should put Madonna) as well as the sites of many possible zombie outbreaks (a lot of the tombs were in great disrepair.) After being suitable creeped out by the tombs we wandered off to find another market we'd heard about after the seemingly elusive "perfect" gift.

To escape the hustle and bustle of the city centre we caught the train out to Tigre, a small port town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. We strolled down the rivers edge and watched the world going by while lying on the grass outside the art museum. Afterwards we were off on another search in a market for the present, only to come up short once again. We got a cold drink and sat at the waters edge before catching the train back to the city.



Our budget didn't really allow for us to eat out or drink while we were in Buenos Aires but we did sign up for the hostels weekly Parrilla (pronounced pa-ree-sha, well in Argentina at least but lets not get into that...) aka BBQ which of course was a must as Argentina is so well known for it's steaks and meat in general. We ate great slabs of slow roasted beef, chorizos and lots of other random BBQ'd items. We met the chef beforehand, a local Buenos Aires man and he showed us the food he'd just bought - three carrier bags full of meat and one about half full of salad... vegetarians need not apply! Mark went out one night to sample the local bar with a couple of guys from the hostel, one, and English guy called Rick who had already drank a bottle of wine as well as three beers and the other, Alessandro, a Brazillian from Sao Paulo. Conversation with the locals started out interesting with topics such as the Falkland Islands (the locals let it drop by explaining they knew it wasn't Mark's or Rick's fault that it was all down to the leader of the country and not the local people - phew), politics (no one likes Americans), Tony Blair quotes and the age of Noah - of the Ark - (275 and still smoking.) Alessandro went home shortly after arriving with a bad stomach and the chatting continued through partial Spanish, English and gesturing. The conversation took a turn for the worse when a local offered his services as a taxi tour guide which was mistaken by Rick (in some weird drunken state) that the man was able to get him some cocaine. The matter was cleared up and chatting continued until Rick decided that he needed cocaine right there and then. He persisted in telling the locals in the bar that he needed the cocaine and stumbled off to the bathroom in which time Mark quickly explained that he had known Rick for only 3 days and didn't want anything to do with cocaine and the locals agreed that Rick was acting "loco". Rick came back from the toilets and carried on persisting in his drunken quest until a local went out onto the street and returned with some rather unsavory characters and Rick realised he had no money (he'd been helping himself to the locals beers all night) and was now trying to beg money off everyone around him so he could buy cocaine. At this point Mark convinced Rick that if he wanted the drugs he would have to go get his own money at the hostel, knowing full well that Rick would probably pass out as soon as they got back and he could escape the whole fiasco. The next morning at breakfast Rick seemed to have convieniently forgotten the whole incident (possibly due to his girlfriends prescence) and meerly mentioned some "shady characters" that entered the bar... needless to say I nearly leapt over the table and broke his jaw. I didn't. Asshole.

Luckily in all our trawling markets and shops and stalls and everything else I managed to find a small gift for my Mum's birthday but I still haven't found the "perfect" gift. I'll keep looking.


All of a sudden ten days had passed and we were on the most luxurious bus (hot meals, champagne and pillows) heading up to Puerto Iguazu to visit the Iguazu Falls. We stayed at a HI hostel just across from the bus station and hid indoors while the weather took a dramatic turn for the worse as it poured solidly for a day and a half. Luckily the day we visited the falls the weather had broken and the falls were full and thundering dramatically over the edge while the mist drifted past full of rainbows. Next stop - Sao Paulo, Brazil.