February 7th - 11th
So on February 7th I found
myself on the midday flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires, having
gone straight from a nightclub in Valparaiso to the airport in
Santiago, and was forcing my eyes to stay open so that I could
appreciate the spectacular views of the Andes. The words to that song
in “Evita” which goes “Watch out, Buenos Aires ...“ were
going round and round in my head (irritatingly just those four words
as I don't know the others) and I was excited about seeing Magali and
Fred (I lived in the same house as Magali when I first moved to Kufstein and she's now living in Buenos Aires with her husband).
After clearing up Eva's shampoo
explosion on arrival, we headed to the taxi rank and, despite tiredness, satisfyingly managed to negotiate 25 Pesos off the taxi
price to Magali and Fred's house. As an indication of the amount of
preparation I had done for arriving in Argentina, it was only then I
discovered that Argentina's currency shares the name, but not the
value, of Chile's – Pesos – and both are represented by the $
sign. How nice and confusing. It was a good job we agreed on a fixed
rate instead of the metre as the only gear working in the taxi was
the third one which meant it was a slow ride along Buenos Aires'
bypass and jerky starts at traffic lights. The driver had difficulty
in finding the right street, despite living in the same neighbourhood
himself, so I remember thinking, “yep, we must be in a pretty big
city ... or this guy isn't really a taxi driver.”
When we arrived outside Magali and
Fred's house, they were there on the pavement ready to embrace us
with their wonderful smiles and usual kindness ... all four of them
as Maga enlightened me that she is pregnant with twins (I'd missed
that status update on Facebook!). I was so happy to hear that news,
they will be incredible parents. They showed us around their stunning
house and we chatted on the patio, next to the pool (!) for a couple
of hours before Magali told us about a barbecue dinner (“un Asado”)
they, and now we, had been invited to at a friend's house ... if we
had the energy. I didn't dare think about whether I did, I just
dashed for the shower and an hour or so later found myself sipping
drinks on the balcony of a flat in Buenos Aires' Palermo district and
talking to a number of French ex pats, most of whom worked for the
French embassy/consulate or were the wives of those who did. The meat
was incredible, the portions enormous, the wine flowed and the people
were extremely open and friendly. The night was thus another long one.
When the wonders of bed sheets eventually came into
sight, after being awake for some 40 hours, Eva and I tried to work
out how we could get a message to Robbie to try and postpone the time
we had arranged to meet him and his mum in the morning. With no
mobiles, however, we faced the reality that we would just have to get
up after insufficient sleep again. Now I don't know about the Lord
working in mysterious ways, but as it so happened we did get an extra
hour's sleep that following morning as we forgot to put the alarm
clock forward an hour so woke up on time only if we were still in
Chile. Luckily, Robbie and his mum were having a relaxing morning
after their couple of days of sightseeing so we arrived at their flat
(Robbie's mum's contacts) as they were still eating breakfast. All
was well.
BA is a fun and lively city. In the
three days I had there, I think I saw most of the main sights – the
cemetery where Eva Peron's remains were eventually buried (when Eva
died, a military dictatorship took over Argentina, Peronism was
banned and her body was buried in a crypt in Milan for 16 years),
Recoleta market, La Avenida Florida (pedestrian shopping street),
Colon Theatre (opera house), La Plaza de Mayo (important square) with
the metropolitan cathedral, Cabildo (seat of government during
colonial times) and Casa Rosada (official seat of the executive
branch of the Argentine government), the Obelisk, the National
Congress building (well, I whizzed by it in a car), the riverside
(Rio de la Plata) and the Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo which is
renowned for its tango dancers. I also spent a couple of hours in the
Evita Museum, had an afternoon chilling with Maga and Fred in their garden and
went with Robbie, Eva and Angie to see a tango show in Tortoni Cafe
on our last night (the oldest coffe shop in Argentina where Argentine
intellectuals like Jorge Luis Borges used to meet).
A few final thoughts on the Argentina's
capital: I kept thinking I could be in Spain as there was an
incredible European flair to the place. Thought it was ironic that
Buenos Aires translates to “Good Air(s)” for any walk around the
city seems to cover you in a layer of dirt. Never got to see the
colourful houses of La Boca nor went to a dance class so think Buenos
Aires in going on the “Places To Return To” list. That list is
getting impractically long.
