The City.
'Mayo' to the driver is hard to mumble badly, so a bus ride to the centre (Plaza Del Mayo) was a good start. There's the pink building (Casa Rosada) - the presidential palace - in front of the main square which seems to be the centre of a lot of events and protests. (Christina the president -CFK- doesn't live there any more apparently.) There's currently some sort of tent embassy of ex-soldiers of the Malveras (Falklands) War, as well as a protest about a trial over the murder of a union official a few years ago.
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| The pink presidential palace. |
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| Same square - a few more protest banners.
Came back later in the day and things looked a bit more serious - water guns, police armoured vehicles, barriers, helmets. Thought I'd take a photo of Anton surrounded by them all to send home to the relatives to prove that he's in safe hands.
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| I asked Anton to try jumping the fence - he refused. |
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| I asked Anton if he wanted a water fight - he refused. |
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| I insisted on a photo to show the relatives that we were safe. They weren't sure whether we were in or out of prison. |
Close by is the mall area with plenty of people, shops, ATMs, buskers, tourist hustlers and generally a great place to wander around.
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| Looks pretty European |
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| Haven't I seen this building somewhere else? |
Wandering around the mall areas we end up with the Obelisk (Obelisco) down the end of the street. Not quite sure of it's significance yet, but it is significant. Even Wikipedia doesn't help that much. It's in the middle of the 18 lane road, so I doubt the cars welcome seeing it. There's a few celebrations happen around it, I've seen a few big concerts on YouTube around it
so it's significantly good to have. Glad it's there....make sure you see it.....but still not sure why.
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| It's taller than Anton-significantly. |
Another few blocks - another demonstration. My guess is to do with students and/or education. Anton refused to translate the details of the other banners for me.
Actually, there were a lot of protests and demonstrations in BA whilst we were there. One night we wandered into the city and found a big concert at Plaza Del Mayo in support of the murder trial of the union official. Free concert - food and drink stalls, plenty of people - good night for (I think) a good cause. Also demonstrations for indigenous rights showed up now and then.
Puerto Madiera
A 15 min walk from the pink building is the 'Docklands' area - or that's what it looks like to me. All very contemporary, lots of new structures, expensive yachts, restaurants, office blocks, I suspect very expensive apartments, etc, etc. Nice open area on a sunny day. Neither the wallet nor our attire suited a meal overlooking the waterfront, so we wandered around instead. Promised myself to go there for an early morning jog before I leave BA.
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| It's certainly different to the rest of BA. The economy must be fine if you only see this part of it. |
Boca
For a bit of contrast to Puerto Madiera, there's Boca. "As long as you keep to the main tourist areas you'll be OK". Sounds like a challenge to us. Centred around a Soccer team/ground and suburb, it's a 40 min walk from the centre, although you can catch a bus. Judging by the number of buses around, looks like all but the locals go by tour bus. Pass.....
There's tours of the Soccer grounds and paraphernelia, tango shows, street restaurants, and untold souvenier shops. Still, for it's uniqueness, it's definitely a 'must see' part of BA to wander around. No escaping being a tourist in the main part, but hit the back streets your safe, because no tourists go there...far too dangerous.
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| If you got bus-sick, there's this alternative back to the city. |
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| Looks nice, very touristy, but they've been in the sun all day/week/month? |
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| Lots of colour. I'm sure the Dulux colour consultant would have words about the colour selection. |
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| ...and lots of little souvenier shops...for later. |
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| A very dangerous back street nearby. |
For those people who intend spending more on death than on life this place is the place to go for inspiration. I reckon some of the mausoleums here would be worth more than the houses that their owners lived in. You can take a guided tour of the place, or alternatively stroll around for nothing. There's a lot of famous people here, and a lot of very wealthy people here - or were before they built their mausoleums. Anton and I reckon it would be a great place for kid's birthday parties and games of 'hide and seek' - wearing black cloaks and masks of course, and a surcharge for night parties. Anton refused to ask (in Spanish of course) if anyone had already tried it.
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| ...bet you can't find me... |
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| Nice balcony views from behind. |
Anton started asking some unusual questions of me after visiting there. Concerned about downsizing the family home and buying a family crypt? mmmm - worth considering I guess.
A 20/30/40 minute bus trip from the city. There's a big shopping mall nearby. It's also in the middle of suburbia. If you ever want a balcony overlooking a cemetery, here's the place for you.
Tennis:
Having brought 2 tennis racquets and shoes from Aus. with us to play on clay, it was time to find some courts. Seems like there's quite a few around BA, so for a start we decided to try some at a sports centre in the suburb of Belgrano. Checked out what bus - round about where to get off (the place looks too big to miss) - and off we go. Anton wasn't brave enough to book a tennis court over the phone as "we haven't done that in Spanish at school yet". After a long time on the bus and one of those "it must be back there somewhere" moments, we got off and started walking....kept walking......walking......time for a rest on some roadside seats...
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| I think you're supposed to bring your own cushions. |
...we kept walking. Eventually we come across what looks like a sports centre. In we go along with the cars - 5 pesos to go in and 20 for the court. A bit rough looking but there's lots of them - most are is use - AND THEY'RE CLAY (with a few pebbles).
The sports centre is located between a major suburban railway line, a main highway, a heliport, and BA's second airport. After a minute or two you can see why there's no houses around, and it'll never get to hold a Grand Slam - "Quiet Please" just wouldn't work.
Un problema - no tennis balls. Nor do they have any spares or sell any. Nor do they know where we can get any. Looks like a big shopping mall nearby so off we go. After another 40-odd minutes we find a K-Mart equivalent and some special clay court tennis balls. Back for a game-set-match.
Never played on clay before, and it's certainly different to the artificial grass or hard surfaces back home. Also not sure about the pebbles that appear out of the clay, but I WON, so all good. I usually lose to Anton, so feeling chuffed with myself we call it a day and head back. I can clearly claim CLAY COURT CHAMPIONSHIP if nothing else. Anton demands a rematch before we leave BA.
Other things:
There's something about settling in to places that seems to be very slow, but goes very quickly. Getting around, washing ($3 Aust a bag washed and dried at the laundry down the road - fantastic! ), eating (plenty of nice little food places around) and just wandering around meant our first 5 days disappeared. We had to pick up our Juanes concert tickets, get our bus tickets to Santiago, sort out where we'd stay when we got back to BA, and do more wandering around day and night to try and find out how the place works, so our departure to Mendoza in central Argentina and on to Santiago came a bit too quick.
Can't really wait to get back here in a few days time - fantastic city. Left a few things with the hotel and off for our bus trip.
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| There's a lot more courts than I thought. Amazing what you can fit between railway lines. |
Un problema - no tennis balls. Nor do they have any spares or sell any. Nor do they know where we can get any. Looks like a big shopping mall nearby so off we go. After another 40-odd minutes we find a K-Mart equivalent and some special clay court tennis balls. Back for a game-set-match.
Never played on clay before, and it's certainly different to the artificial grass or hard surfaces back home. Also not sure about the pebbles that appear out of the clay, but I WON, so all good. I usually lose to Anton, so feeling chuffed with myself we call it a day and head back. I can clearly claim CLAY COURT CHAMPIONSHIP if nothing else. Anton demands a rematch before we leave BA.
Other things:
There's something about settling in to places that seems to be very slow, but goes very quickly. Getting around, washing ($3 Aust a bag washed and dried at the laundry down the road - fantastic! ), eating (plenty of nice little food places around) and just wandering around meant our first 5 days disappeared. We had to pick up our Juanes concert tickets, get our bus tickets to Santiago, sort out where we'd stay when we got back to BA, and do more wandering around day and night to try and find out how the place works, so our departure to Mendoza in central Argentina and on to Santiago came a bit too quick.
Can't really wait to get back here in a few days time - fantastic city. Left a few things with the hotel and off for our bus trip.
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