Buenos Aires

Boca streets
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DAY 61 - 2 FEBRUARY 2008 (SATURDAY)

We had a leisurely start to the day by visiting the mercado and markets for groceries and doing some bookings for accommodation in Montevideo.

We then walked up Puerto Madero which is kind of a very long Southbank, the river (docks etc) are lined with restaurants and apartments.  It was nice, just very quiet, maybe things liven up here at night.  The renovations have been well done keeping the character and tradition of the docklands with cobbled paths and brick warehouses and the restaurants all open up onto the paths.  Apparently the real estate here is some of the most expensive in Buenos Aires.

The colourful streets of Boca
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In the first two docks there isn't much access down to the water, although a few people were rowing.  However at dock 3 was the old naval training sail boat which has been lovingly restored and would be a sight to see when all the sails are out (I am sure there is a sailing term for that)  Note from SB -  under full sail.  In the next dock were the fancy pants huge yachts, one boat was even bigger than the sail training boat and was absolutely immaculate.  Scott gawked for a while, but lets face it, I never want to set foot on another boat again.

Another house in Boca
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We made it to the Uruguay ferry terminal and queued to get ferry times, then queued to book the tickets and then, yep, we queued to pay.  A very long hot drawn out booking process, but we got what we wanted in the end.

We left the terminal and headed to Galerias Pacifico, a huge renovated french style shopping mall filled to the brim with designer label shops where you get tax free rebates.  I will go back without SB next week as there are some seriously nice shoes here.

We walked down Avenue Florida which is a large pedestrianised mall and removes the problem of us nearly getting run over as we still keep looking in the wrong direction.  The shops were all very tacky and touristy, just like most city malls.  But we found a local cafe and had a quick bite to eat.

Russian Orthodox Church near our apartment
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We headed back to the apartment and I had a siesta while SB headed to SAE to get information on tango shows and markets to visits.  The tango shows appear to be hugely expensive, so we will try and find some free ones instead.

We headed for drinks at Bar Dorrigo and sat outside in the plaza watching the world go by.  The bar is old, sort of victorian style and the plaza is cobbled and full of chairs and tables and shaded by huge trees.  Around the plaza are restaurants etc plus antique shops which give it an elegant feel.  There was a band playing and lots of little stalls.

Boca railway station
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We walked around to Bar Sur but it didn't open until late and appeared to have  a cover charge of AP120 which is a tad expensive for us, so we had a further walk through the streets, seeing some local bands etc and headed back to the apartment.

DAY 62 - 3 FEBRUARY 2008 (SUNDAY)

We left the apartment and walked to the Subte and some of the streets have been blocked off for markets in the San Telmo area, so we had a quick browse in the part closest to us before getting the Subtle to General San Martin and walking to the markets at Recoletta.

Tango dancers in Boca
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The cemetery was very busy today but we walked next door to the Plaza Intendente Alvear which was filled with art and craft stalls, although most of the stalls sold similar items and nothing grabbed our attention enough to buy, so we continued browsing before walking back to the Subte and heading into San Telmo.

We headed toward Plaza Dorrego which was filled with antique stalls and was extremely busy.  All the restaurants were quite full and with the stalls it felt very claustrophobic so we walked back down Defensa Calle and headed to a local cafe in Boca, which was just around the corner and had a great lunch, although the wine resembled paint stripper, the food was nonetheless good and it was a good price.

The crowds in Boca
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We decided to walk into the main centre of Boca which took us through Parque Lezanva, which was a giant second hand clothes and shoes market - second hand shoes yuk!  We continued down Av Regimento de Patricios onto Brandsen, hoping that the part of Boca we wanted to see got better.  Boca is next door to San Telmo but they are worlds apart.

We finally got to the La Bombonera which is the stadium for La Boca Juniors who are revered here, it was also the club that Diego Maradona played for.  There were loads of people having their photos taken outside the stadium, but we kept going and made it to Caminito.

Us in Boca
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This part of Boca is popular as the houses are all brightly painted, and built with different materials, giving them a really interesting texture.  There are tango shows, singers, craft fairs, open air restaurants and a zillion tourists and tour buses.  We also walked along the Riachuelo river, which is a tad on the smelly side.

We ploughed back through the tourists, getting some photos but will come back tomorrow (Monday) and hopefully things will be quieter as most of the craft stalls blocked the views we wanted.

We headed back through Boca, which has a weird pavement  system, that involves you walking up and down stairs, absolutely knackering.  You cant walk on the road as the buses just whizz by.

We had a heladorio on the way back to ease the pain.

DAY 63 - 4 FEBRUARY 2008 (MONDAY)

We dropped off our laundry and headed to a Russian Orthodox Church we have seen from the apartment, but it wasn´t open, so we continued on our walk back to Boca.

Well if we thought it would be quieter than yesterday we were so far wrong it wasn´t funny, we think there was even more tour buses and people.  We got some more photos, which are okay, they are just full of other tourists taking the same photos, our next plan is to get up at the crack of dawn and get here.

We headed back to San Telmo for lunch and decided to head to a wine-cigar store up in Recoleta.  So off we headed on the Subte.  Our quite date was turning out to be the opposite.  The wine store El Fenix certainly stocked a huge variety of wines and spirits, but no cigars, although they recommended Avenue Florida, so off we headed there, but with no lunch again.

We walked back home and headed to the internet cafe to look up cigar shops when we get back from Uruguay.