Buenos Aires has the most beautiful architecture, majestic palaces and building yet right underneath it will be meat carcasses - yes saw another one yesterday haha-, stray dogs by the dozen, homeless people lined up on mattresses and people walking past in suits to fine restaurants. Taking a little while to get used to!
Just had our last night in a great hostel in BA and now stuck at the bus terminal for another 8 hours as we missed our bus to Rosario. Got given the wrong directions and next bus doesn´t leave till tonight at 8pm. Randomly found this man/angel who could speak broken english and spent an hour advocating on our behalf at the ticket outlets etc so we can get on the next bus for free. Somehow got us in the VIP lounge also... yay.
In BA we went on a bus tour around the city and stopped at different suburbs like La Boca (brightly painted streets and buildings, the home of the Tango) and San Telmo (cobbled streets with an amazing antiques fair that stretched for miles), Recoletta had an ancient cemetry full of vaults the size of small houses, beautiful and somewhat eerie. Evita is buried there and that was great to explore.
Bought Hamburguresas that day from the side of the road (dodgy) but we were so starving.
We took a tour to a local rugby game between CUBA and HINDU with some brazilians. Was hilarious and nice to see some rugby -felt like home. One of the guys we were with, Luiz, followed the team into the changing rooms afterward and came out with a pair of sweat stained socks as his prized possessions.
Have met a few english speaking tourists - germans, brittish etc which is always nice. The language barrier makes for hilarious conversations. A brazilian we met the other day was telling us he makes slippers, then said no, and that it was impossible to go to work in a pair of slippers. He also said his girlfriend/grandad (he got those 2 mixed up) was from the zoo. I was in fits of laughter of course.
Everything comes alive from about 8pm here and there are great cheap pizza places on every corner. Still negotiating the menu but have figured out you never go up to order or pay, you do everything from your table, even in an average cafe, which is nice.
Have learnt a few more phrases like 'where is the ladies toilet', very necessary. Today in the bus station there was a lady sitting in the toilet, eating food while taking money in exchange for letting me use toilet paper!
Can´t believe how many stray dogs there are EVERYWHERE, even in the malls and today in the bus station upstairs. Love it.
Off to Rosario once our bus arrives. Will get in at 1am then try to find the hostel.... Northwest of BA. Smaller. Will see what it is like and decide how long to stay before heading up north toward Bolivia.
Still haven´t found anywhere to download photos. Will find somewhere in Rosario.
5 days without makeup..... (Steve´s only wearing a bit of mascara)
