Bec & Simon

Ah, 9 quiet(ish), relaxing days in Buenos Aires! After a very busy 3 week start to our trip, no longer than two days in any one place, Simon and I were both very ready to stop and have a rest. We've been here for four nights so far, and have had no trouble filling our time. Most of our time here so far has been spent just walking around the city. Buenos Aires is a great place to explore, each suburb (or Barrio) is very different to the next. Yesterday we went to La Boca in the morning to look around. La Boca is the neighbourhood in Buenos Aires that has all the brightly painted buildings (known to most as the slums). It was interesting, lots of tango dancing, markets and restaurants. But I think we both expected it to be a bit bigger. It was basically two blocks of very touristy shops parked in a very dodgy neighbourhood. After that, we went the other end of the scale and walked across town to Recoleta, which is the posho end of town. As soon as we got there, we knew it. It was very clean, wide streets, parks and expensive shops - a coke costs twice as much! Last night, Simon and I went and met up with my friend Erica and a friend of hers for tea (Erica is here studying Spanish). We could all only understand a few words on the menu, so we all ended up just pointing to something with our fingers crossed! The meals ended up being beautiful, but very meaty - Argentinian style! This morning Simon and I walked down to San Telmo and spent the afternoon wandering through the Sunday street market. It was pretty cool, 2 or 3kms of funky little stalls, restaurants and streets performers - lots to see! We don't have much else planned for our time here except checking out a few more neighbourhoods. Simon wants to go to a Parilla (traditional Argentinian grill) for tea one night, but aside from that I think we'll relax. Four more nights here then off to Ecuador.