Raining Cats and Dogs

Dogs everywhere...
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Hola y Buenos Dias de Argentina. I could go on, obviously, but for those of you who can`t speak Spanish i`ll carry on in English...

We`ve been here for 5 days now and things are going very well. After an 18 hour fairly straight forward journey from London to Buenos Aires (via Rome) we landed at Ezeiza International Airport. Quite a normal procedure i thought but everyone else on the plane erupted in mass applause for the pilot upon landing??? So we arrived early Friday, greeted by a dark and chilly Buenos Aires morning. An easy bus transfer to the city, followed by the usual aimless wandering (with our heavy backpacks on), and we found ourselves settled in to a hostel and out exploring the city. Even though it`s the middle of Winter here it is perfect weather. Every day has been sunny with clear blue skies.

I need to stem the flow of this shopping somehow

An Asado (Barbecue) on the streets of La Boca
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Buenos Aires is a big place. It`s grid like pattern makes it fairly easy to navigate around however and with the help of a map and the `Subte`(South America and the Southern Hemisphere`s oldest underground rail system - GEEK FACT no.1) we were in to the swing of things in no time. The city also has quite a western feel about it, and the people are nice and very helpful. We have been introduced to the Spanish speaking world very gently.

We tackled the north of the city first, the shopping / business streets of Retiro and the trendy soho-like Palermo. In both areas the many parks were filled with dogs. As well as the strays you will often see Professional Dog Walkers out walking 5 or 6 pedigree dogs at a time (a lot of them wearing jackets too, to keep them warm - the dogs not the people!). Not to be out done, their feline friends make a big appearance in this city too, cats randomly dominating the Botanical Gardens.

Garibaldi Street (for some of you out there!)
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After an unsuccessful first night in the Hostel (apparently it`s ok to stay up all night outside my room making loads of noise!!! maybe i`m getting old...) we moved to the southern area of San Telmo, full of cobbled streets, crumbling buildings and antique shops. Sundays Antique Market being a highlight here and the place where Shannyn kicked off her year long shopping spree. We walked from here to the working class area of La Boca next, home to Boca Juniors soccer team. This Italian influenced area is famous for the Caminito street, a load of wooden and corrugated iron houses painted with bright colours left over from the shipyards. After a steak lunch in a locals restaurant / house, and trawling through another market (where a Diego Maradona look-a-like poses for photographs and dogs are seen wearing denim skirts and jeans!), we headed for La Bombonera for a tour of Boca`s stadium. Unfortunately there were only 2 English speaking people on our tour of about 80. That`s right, us two! So Fernando, our guide, very nicely translated everything for us. Quite embarrassing as he called us to the front each time to explain it all in front of the mass of Boca fans.

After a great performance, Gary answering questions in the after match press conference
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Next up was the up-market area of Recoleta, again we had a market for Shannyn to inspect thoroughly, then we went in to La Recoleta, the famous Cemetry where Evita Peron is buried. This is a strange eerie place where the many large tombs are laid out in a street like fashion, a lot of them have smashed windows that you can peak through, showing dusty coffins stacked on top of each other. The addition of stray cats everywhere lending to the atmosphere.

Our final place in Buenos Aires was the Parana Delta. We reached this by taking a local bus and then an hours train north, all for 30p! The colourful silvery buses look really cool in Buenos Aires and the trains / underground, although average, are interesting in that they have people selling rubbish stuff all the time (pencils, socks, oven lighters etc). They go down the carriages handing them to everyone to look at, and then go round again picking them back up or collecting cash for the items. Amazingly quite a lot of people were buying some of it! (there can`t be that many people in need of a box of 12 pencils can there?)

San Telmo Antiques Market
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So we arrived at the local town of Tigre where all the boats leave for the Delta. Tigre is quite a posh place, full of rowing clubs (a bit like putney for those of you who know London). We spent a good few hours here, strolling along the river front and going through the markets once more - this time deciding what cow-hide rug we wanted to buy! (i need to stem the flow of this shopping somehow).

The Parana Delta is a labyrinth of waterways with stilted houses and jetties along the many tributaries. People live here, have holiday homes here or even run hotels for the likes of us. This was a really nice, peaceful place to visit. You have to plan your time here very carefully as you are reliant solely on boats coming by to pick you up, there are no roads! We had a few walks around the island we were on, but there were yet more dogs everywhere, some of which looked a bit menacing this time.

The classy side of Buenos Aires, a Theatre turned Book shop in Recoleta
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Back to Buenos Aires after this for our final evening in the "Capital Federal". The biggest memories of Argentina so far: The dogs, the multitude of markets, and the Dulce de Leche Shannyn is obsessed  with (it`s a kind of caramel type filling used in loads of desserts, there`s even a Dulche de Leche Cornetto here)

We are now in Colonia de Sacremento, Uruguay after a 3 hour ferry trip early this morning from Buenos Aires...