Oldies On Tour

After a late one last night, we weren’t hurrying down for breakfast but thought of Trevor and Gill, knowing they had to be up early as they had a full day’s city tour. Today is their only “full” day in BA, so they had little choice.

Today we decided we would catch the train and go to Tigre, a

weekend sort of place out of town, away from the bustle of the city and built on a series of small islands where the River Paraná Delta arrives into the River Plate.

After breakfast we set off to the main Station, and being bank holiday weekend, the streets were deserted, crossing the roads

was a doddle. We arrived at Retiro and joined the queue to buy our tickets and though there weren’t many people about, there was only 1-booking kiosk open, hence the queue. Eventually we got to the window to buy 2-return tickets only to be told the trains weren’t running to Tigre, we would have to catch a bus; oh, so into the coffee shop for a re-think and then we saw it, a large poster saying, they were using the bank holiday to carry out line repairs.   We didn’t fancy heading out on a bus so headed back to the hotel.

Lunch today was a salad in our room followed by a siesta, we are not up for these late nights, and recovery is taking too long!!!!

We met up with Trevor for a few beers before they went off to their tango show and we went and shared ½ a cow at our local Parrilla before heading back to our hotel.

This is our last day and the morning has been taken up by booking seats and printing boarding passes etc., though we had trouble with the hotel printer and eventually the receptionist, who we had got to know, let me get onto his hotel computer; this did it, everything we wanted was printed. It only left the washing and ironing to be completed.

We then started the big pack, this is our last flight and we are working hard to adjust the weights, as our challenge is to get our cases onto the flight without incurring penalty charges.   On the two previous flights we spent quite a bit due to excess weight and too many cases; we were determined this time we would achieve the impossible.

Being our last day in Argentina we couldn’t let it slip by without enjoying one last “BIG” steak, so headed round the corner to Los Remolinos, our friendly Parrilla. As we weren’t in any hurry we enjoyed a ½ Bottle of an excellent Argentinian white wine to start; naturally another bottle of Malbec followed with our steaks. We finished off with the most divine, though sickly, Banana Pancake covered in sugar and heated into a runny toffee, though as it cooled, it crisped up. Not normally my scene, though I couldn’t let Christine eat on her own, could I?

By the time we left the restaurant we were very full; ‘what diet’ I hear you say, but this is our last time in Buenos Aires for the foreseeable future.

We completed our packing, confirmed with our transfer driver the pick-up time and put our feet up.

Now one wouldn’t suggest this is a “must” stay at hotel, but for what we wanted it was just the ticket. It was right in the centre of everything, we could walk to most places but taxis were outside the hotel if needed. The metro was around the corner and busses ran everywhere from the Avenue, 9^th July round the other corner. The room itself satisfied our needs but as I mentioned in a previous post, was past its sale by date. A lick of paint and a general up-grade wouldn’t have gone amiss, though we did notice there was a program for up-grading going on elsewhere; perhaps those rooms cost more and Harry did carry out our wishes as instructed. For an Aparthotel the facilities are very basic; a kettle, a fridge and microwave but the towels were frayed at the edges and paper thin, not fit for rags Christine told reception, and low and behold, from that day on we got new towels! Perhaps if we had had a moan about the room they may have changed us, but we didn’t.

Depart tomorrow for Santiago, Chile, our penultimate trip.

 

We awoke this morning, still on a high from our Tango Experience and still smiling as we went to breakfast; what a superb evening.

Today we are off to La Lucila, a residential area 12 miles to the north of BA and also where I lived as a small boy during

our second visit (1949-1951). I didn’t really expect to find our street, though I did have in “my minds eye” a description of the surroundings where we lived.

We walked to Retiro Mitre, the French styled; British designed and engineered main line Railway station that opened for business in 1915. The steel structure of this building was made in Liverpool and re-constructed on site. Entering this station was a like walking back in time, for example the original ticket booths are still in use today, though naturally all the locals have “SUBE” re-chargeable plastic cards.   Once we headed for the platform we were back in the 21^st century, card scanning turnstiles, and walkthrough, air-conditioned, airy trains.

Seven stops later and we’d arrived in La Lucila and being that time of day, headed for a coffee shop, this also gave me time to gather my bearings, if I had any that is!!!

From memory we were the wrong side of the railway tracks, so

headed across and wandered around numerous leafy lanes but to no avail. My memory was obviously blurred with time but I was right with one thing, this was still a very nice residential neighborhood.

We are now back on the train, heading to the city centre and on to the hotel, though we did stop for lunch along the way. We were going to go out tonight but were again knackered so it was an earlyish night.

We woke Friday to rain; very heavy rain so our plan to walk to Recoleta and visit the city of the dead was postponed though

today was also going to be the day we visited the local “Parrilla”, Argentinian Steak house. We had been looking forward to this but had to wait ‘till around 1400hrs so to kill time we had a stroll in one of the many parks around. In this park we came across one of the biggest trees we have ever seen; not so much tall, but broad with a huge trunk and many of the branches supported to avoid blocking the paths. Whilst out we also visited the hotel we are meeting Trevor and Gill at tonight. It is strange that to meet our friends, we have travel to the southern hemisphere, to actually find a slot in our collective diaries.

Back at the Steak house for ½ a beast, salad and Malbec; what could be better, and we may have to do this again tomorrow when we meet our friends!!!! I was always impressed with the El

Gallego steaks in Pilar, but sorry, these are bigger!!!!

We waddled back to the hotel and rested our full stomachs, though by only eating meat and salad, we were comfortable enough when we went to bed.

After a rather long night the sun was back shining so today we are off to visit the city of the dead. This is the “Recoleta Cemetery” where the main distinction between this cemetery and others is that nobody is actually buried here; they are all above ground in their own private mausoleums, including that controversial person, Eva Peron; actress and first lady of Argentina.   Some of these structures were quite magnificent and inside several were adorned in gold; my there was an awful lot of wealth here in the mid 1800’s onwards. Normally a visit to a cemetery wouldn’t be on our radar but this place is something different, it was opened in 1822 and currently has 4691 vaults, (though they would be very pressed to squeeze more in), and is set in 13½ acres. Though we did our own thing, there are walking tours throughout this cemetery, which is seen here as a major tourist attraction.

We stopped off after the cemetery visit for a swim at our sister hotel, before returning to eat our salad. We are out for dinner tonight with Trevor and Gill so had our feet up for a couple of hours as well.

We got the call to say they had arrived and agreed to meet for a beer opposite their hotel.   With all the hotels in this vast metropolis it was obviously deemed we should meet as our hotels are one street away from each other!!! Having just arrived they

hadn’t booked anything so we went to a restaurant both our tour guides had recommended as one of the best Parrilla restaurants in the city. Again good fortunes smiled on us, the restaurant was about 5 minutes walking from our respective hotels.

We all enjoyed the usual Argentinian fare, ½ a cow apiece washed down with copious amounts of Malbec accompanied by a lot of catching up. The last time we met-up was when we were barging along the Thames, September 2016.

We all waddled back to our hotels hitting the sack around 0100hrs.

 

 

Today is “Showtime”, we have been looking forward to visiting a proper Tango Show since we arrived, the ones we saw whilst in “the Boca” area, weren’t really up to the mark. But that is for this evening, this morning we decided to walk to the sister hotel for a swim but probably more importantly, to weigh in, ahhhhhhhh. They have very precise scales in the changing rooms.   The walk takes around ½ hour, but in this heat it takes longer, therefore along the way we pulled into a small coffee shop for a pit stop.   Suitably refreshed we continued on and to find out if we had achieved any weight loss with all our careful eating.

We enjoyed the pool to ourselves, again, and then the moment of truth. Back in the changing rooms we “did the biz”, and to our great surprise and were pleased to note, we had both lost over 2 Kg; yeah!!!!!!!!

Heading back we stopped in a very large Carrefour for a lunch snack and a couple of salads for the following day. What astounded me was how large the store was yet there were only a small number of tills; obviously shoppers here in Buenos Aries are very patient.

We went back to the hotel for a rest before we venture out for

our Tango evening. The bus is scheduled to collect us at 2000hrs with the meal around 2100hrs and the show about 2300hrs; a long night.

Washed and brushed, and the first time in long trousers, jacket and dress since leaving the ship, we felt strange and immediately we boarded the coach, knew we were over dressed.  

To add injury to insult, the air-con wasn’t working in the coach.

After a few other pick-ups we arrived at “Madero Tango” situated down in the re-generated old port area along with many high-end restaurants and the modern skyline of Buenos Aries. Being one of the first to arrive we basically had the pick of the places to sit. But before this we had to register and pay, fortunately with a credit card. We were given a slip of paper with a bar code on it and this was scanned as we actually entered the theatre. We thought nothing more about this tiny slip of paper but pocketed it anyway.

We sat in front of the stage and had the pick of the table

placing’s.   We were joined at the table by a Brazilian couple on one side, and an Italian guy with his Brazilian wife on the other. The rest of the table was left empty so we had a clear and un-interrupted view of the stage.

When we booked, Christine up-graded us to a VIP ticket, that’s why we had a good table; the “others” were sitting on the side of the stage with limited views. For our money we had a 3-course meal and what seemed an endless supply of wine and sparkling water. Champagne was also available and on the table for those who preferred it.

The steak Christine had was enormous and cooked to perfection;

I on the other hand had a chicken dish, again excellent. The wine that was flowing was also very good, a much higher standard than one would expect from this sort of dinner show.

Showtime started about 2245hrs and what a show; singers and dancers depicting the history of Argentina and the effects of

immigration at the turn of the 18^th/19^th century; and of course the start of the Argentinian Tango when it was seen as a seedy type of dance only fit for the “La Boca” area, to when it became fashionable in the 1940’s. This was a fast moving, continua’s show, with no breaks and though everything was all in Spanish and not knowing the intricacies of Argentinian history, this did not deter from the wonderful spectacle we were totally immersed in. After seeing the moves; the way the girls were thrown about, the unbelievably acrobatic energy and the stances they achieved, well, “Strictly Come Dancing’s” Argentinian Tango is like amateur night down at the “Palais”.   Though the show ended around 0015hrs, the hour and a half only seemed like half an hour.

What an evening, we were buzzing as we started to head for the

door where we were stopped and asked for the small slip of paper with the bar code on. I produced it, they scanned it and up came my name and the bus number we needed to take us back to the hotel. What a good system and to think we were a little concerned how we would know which bus to get onto.

To add to our good night out, we were the first hotel for a drop off, what better way to complete a fantastic evening at a Argentinian Tango Show; another tick in the box.

 

Up at the crack of dawn, breakfast finished and outside hailing a cab all by 0745; and I thought we were supposed to be on holiday!!!!!

We arrived at the docks with the mandatory 1-hour to spare even though the traffic around the port was at a standstill. I think the hold up was simply too many HGV’s, Taxis and other traffic all converging on this one entrance to the port, but all this gridlock didn’t prevent our driver, and countless others, just sitting on their horns.

The journey across the “river” plate took about 1¾ hour’s in this “fast-cat” ferry, and very smooth trip it was. Waiting for us when we alighted in Uruguay was our walking tour guide; yes I did say, “walking”, and off we set

Colonia is a UNESCO world Heritage Site in southwest Uruguay, facing Buenos Aires across the Río de la Plata and is known for its cobbled historic quarter and colonial Portuguese and Spanish buildings. We found it strange as you could easily

identify the influences in the Spanish and Portuguese design of the buildings and road surfaces, and there is one very simple answer.   Between 1680 and 1822, the place changed colonial masters 10 times between Spain and Portugal until in 1828 when Uruguay was created.

Many of the old houses are now museums, small touristy shops and restaurants and bars. There is also the Colonia del

Sacramento Lighthouse, built out of the ruins of 17th century “Convent of San Francisco” and is a suitable place to go up to get panoramic views. Across the River Plate; not that we went up though!!!

Having walked around and listened to our guide who, though did commentary in both English and Spanish, her PA system was a little lacking and only if one was lucky, could you pickup every 3^rd or 4^th word.   Needless to say the tour whistled along very quickly.   When we were booking

this tour, Christine read a report by someone who said, “ the pity was we left on the afternoon ferry, we should have left on the 2045hrs ferry as we hadn’t completed

Not a happy bunny!

everything”; knowing this, we booked the 2045hrs return trip.

Our tour also included lunch, which we took at around 1230hrs as by now we had seen all there was to see. We even stretched out lunch with a bottle of wine but it was all over by 1445hrs and at this point I am afraid I had had enough though, Christine did think it was a pretty little place, though not pretty enough to stay ‘till 2045.

We walked back to the ferry terminal to see if we could change our tickets and get the 1620hrs ferry. No we were told as we had, though didn’t know it, a promotional ticket; it was 2045hrs only. The prospect of waiting another 5 hours was too much so we tore up our ticket and bought another 1-way ticket on the 1620hrs ferry; probably the best thing we did otherwise neither of us could be held responsible for what actions we may have taken!!!!!

We arrived back in BA, jumped into a cab and “b….y h..l”, when the driver put his foot on the accelerator, the noise, “s..t”, the taxi had no silencer, and behind the rear seats, where there is normally a luggage area with padding and other noise dampening upholstery, there was nothing, just a gaping hole. I would add that this was a proper; licensed; official; Buenos Aries radio taxi, anyway he got us tour hotel and we were very happy we had come away early. When we booked it was also suggested we may like to stop the night over there, thank god we didn’t fall for that!!!!

Tuesday was going to be local; we had another load of washing for the laundrette, Christine has a hair appointment and we now have, “I hope”, everything we need to submit our medical claim and after all that we will visit “Café Tortoni.

Washing delivered first thing, Christine later emerged out of the hairdresser’s as a skinhead, and armed with a piece of paper in Spanish, saying “Registered Mail”, we went in search

of a main post office, which we found very easily and between our piece of paper, our very limited Spanish and the Post Office chap’s non existent English, we think we have sent our envelope with our claim winging towards the UK, fingers crossed.

Now we’re off to Café Tortoni, originally opened in 1858, but moved to the current location in 1880. The Tortoni Café, is

located at in the “Avenida de Mayo” and Its name “almost” without doubts, comes from the XIX century famous Café Tortoni of Paris.  For almost a century, the Buenos Aires Tortoni Café represents the traditional spirit of this part of town, and is already a legend of the city of Buenos Aires. In this coffee house all the poets, artists’ thinkers and other “significant” characters whiled away their time socialising 100 years ago.  Nowadays it is still a place of cultural and probably more importantly a major tourist “must visit” place.

En route to the Café Tortoni, we were held up by a demonstration. The march was all about un-employment, whole

families taking part in this peaceful but noisy demo. Apparently the un-employment figure here is around 25% out of a population of the Buenos Aries region alone of more than 17 million people, and much of this is apparent as one walks the streets, people sleeping rough.Back to the coffee house; walking in, there is that air of turn of the last century ambience; dark wood panelled walls, waiters in black suits with bow ties, a serving counter and ‘till from the days of Adam and pictures and posters of famous visitors over the years. It was fairly busy but the service wasn’t great, though the cakes were nice and the coffee/tea was hot.   We are glad we went but probably won’t go back again. Out the back there is a small stage where on certain nights they perform a Tango show, we enquired but they only accept cash and cash is getting to be a little tiresome due to:-

• The limitation of how much one can get from an ATM, maximum 2,000 pesos (around £80) and
• They make a charge of 198 pesos (around £7) every time one uses the ATM, and
• You can’t seem to find one when you need one;

Needless to say we didn’t book.

We walked back along the pedestrianised “Florida” street where many of the world’s brands can be found.

In passing, I must say public transport is plentiful; every time you blink, there is another “Colectivos”, a

Buenos Aries Bus and they are all painted in different colours, presumably to denote what route they travel.

Upon arriving back to the hotel Christine casually enquired about Tango shows and where would you, “Mr Receptionist” go or recommend; he came straight back with “Madero Tango” They will collect and return to hotel and they take credit cards, the food is excellent and the show is magnificent. O.K, we booked for tomorrow night, another tick in the box.

Today was going to be Hop-on Hop-off bus day but all this healthy stuff is getting to me, when I woke up I felt like s—t; I was running a temperature, coughing like mad and couldn’t stop blowing my nose; thanks Christine and a little sympathy would have been appreciated!!!!

Determined to put a brave face on it we went out searching for more healthy meals and a chemist. We accomplished both and returned to the hotel to drop our shopping off and catch up with any e-mail’s there may be, and to our delight there was one from our house buyers, confirming that they are now in a position to complete within the couple of weeks or so. Though this didn’t stop me from feeling like s—t, it gave us the excuse to go out to lunch and down a bottle of Malbec before returning to the hotel for a quiet evening and an early night. Oh yes, where we enjoyed our lunch, when we went to pay we were told they didn’t accept credit cards, and to make things worse, we didn’t have sufficient cash. We gave them “everything” we could muster and said we would make the shortfall good the next day if that was OK, and they agreed!!

One other achievement today, we booked a day trip on the Fast-Cat to visit Colonia in Uruguay. We will have to be up early on Monday, as we have to be in the port 1 hour before departure for immigration formalities etc.

The pills the chemist gave us, must have had the desired effect as I awoke this morning raring to go, so back to the Hop-on Hop-off plan, but firstly an ATM was needed. After visiting a couple of ATM’s behind locked doors, we eventually found one.

OK, cash in pocket we went to the bus stop and there it was, just coming round the corner. There are actually 3 routes but

at present two are amalgamated into one. We started out at 10.20 and apart from an hour out for lunch when we settled our debt, completed both routes by 1700hrs; it was a long and very hot day. Our intention was to case everywhere out then decide where we wanted to get off to visit the following day.

The city is quite magnificent, many open green spaces, very

wide roads, in fact we counted 12 lanes running in one direction in one place.

Travelling around this way one gets to hear about their history. It all started when explorer “Juan Diaz de

Soils” was navigating this region in the name of Spain, and he was the first European to reach the Rio de la Plata in 1516. His expedition was cut short though when he was killed during an attack by the native Indian tribe in what is now Uruguay.  In 1536 a settlement was founded by a Spanish expedition led by Pedro de Mendoza and he named the place, “Ciudad de Nuestra Senora Santa Maria del Buen Ayre”; Buenos Aries today, but in 1542 those pesky Indians, after causing havoc, finally drove all the settlers away from the area. A second, and permanent settlement was established in 1580 by a Conquistador; “Juan de Garay” who obviously wasn’t taking any truck from the local Indians!

There is a lot of history to this place including the period

when the British invaded; the first attempt didn’t do the job but the second, in 1806 was successful, though not for long. An army from Montevideo kicked the Brits out again 46 days later. In 1807 The Brits managed to occupy Montevideo for several months and again they tried to occupy Buenos Aries, but after much street fighting and heavy casualties, the Brits withdrew; oh dear!!! To add injury to insult the Argentines are displaying as a war trophy, the colours they captured from the 71^st Highland regiment of foot, at the Santo Domingo Convent, the place where they made their last stand. The remains of the soldiers are in a mass grave somewhere in the Belgrano area of the city.

I mentioned in an earlier piece that this Aparthotel, the Loi Suites, is a little past its sell-by date, I think the room key technology proves the point; but joking apart, it couldn’t have been in a more convenient and central place for us to be whilst visiting Buenos Aries.

Today, (Sunday) is the second travel day on the Hop-on Hop-off bus but instead of going to the local stop we decided to walk to the Gallerias Pacifico, a shopping mall but not your usual

shopping mall, oh no, this was a building originally designed specially, and built in 1889 for “Bon Marche” of Paris but it never happened. Instead in 1896 the building became the “Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes” Museum of fine arts ‘till 1908. In May 1992 this building re-generated itself and became the Gallerias Pacifico, and we were walking towards it.

Being Sunday, naturally no shops were open other than a couple of coffee shops but the building is open so people can admire the interior iron work and the Frescos painted on the ceiling;

it’s quite a building, I would say far too good for a shopping mall!!!   Interestingly, on the opposite side of the street is the old “Harrods” building, this was the only store outside London carrying the Harrods Brand. The store was opened in 1914 and strangely, I remember visiting Father Christmas there as a child and the reason I remember was My mother asked me what was I going to ask F.C. for, and I wanted a wheel barrow; well one does around 5 yrs., old but I had to know what wheel barrow was in Spanish before I could ask him. Apparently mbnail wp-image-6107″ /> Harrods Old buildings[/caption]I sat around all day thinking what the word was and aeventually I remembered it, so off we went. I will never forget “carretilla”, the word for wheelbarrow. I digress; the store finally closed its doors in 1998 after a major court case with Al-Fayed.

Back on track and we headed up to the bus stop in the main “drag” Avendia 9^th Julio, named to commemorate their Independence Day.

Our bus arrived quickly and up we went to sit on top and to our

delight, this one had a sliding top so we weren’t in the sun, though this was short lived. We arrived at stop “0” and the driver was due for his 20-minute break but we were all told to get on the bus in front, which was about to leave; good and bad; good no waiting, bad, no top and we had to endure the hot sun beating down on us. We managed to stay on top until we reached the “La Boca” area where we got off. Though we had been here back in 2014, we had been rushed on that occasion so this time we had time to meander around and have a couple of wines etc., and watch an “interesting” Tango Dance performed outside the bar.

La Boca is an area adjacent to the old docks and became famous

for the creation of the “Argentinian Tango”.   It is also the area where many Italian immigrants landed late 19^th and the early part of the 20^th century, and here they stayed and lived.   There is also a famous football team here but we don’t talk about football, wrong shape ball!!!

Back on the bus and again no top, just sun beating down on us as we headed for our next stop, Palermo Soho. Passing along the

way we clocked one of the many statutes of “Juan Manual Fangio”, The Argentinian Grand Prix Driver who won 5 world titles (1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957). We managed to stay upstairs until we arrived at the swing bridge, which naturally was open, so we had to just sit there until it closed. Without the wind being created by movement we had to dive downstairs into the air-conditioned interior, along with most other passengers; it was very crowded down there!!!

It was now getting quite late and we were hungry so once we left the bus we went in search of Argentine Steaks, yes they are good for the diet we are told, as long as there are no chips!!!

Palermo is the largest area by size in Buenos Aries and it is described as the young peoples area within the city, the coolest area in the city and that people flock to this area like “moths to a flame”; our sort of place! The area was buzzing, there were many small Sunday stalls selling trinkets and other object d’art, bars were overflowing and we found the Irish bar but sadly, we hadn’t time to visit it, steaks are what we wanted and steaks is what we were going to have.

With minimal trouble we found this excellent restaurant,

Started of outside then we went in

“Cabernet”, and we had a very nice waiter who said he was from Venezuela, though to us he sounded more American but after closer examination he admitted he had lived in Florida for

Geoff having had his steak and drunk the wine, happy bunny, too many salads!

several years. Anyway the steaks were cooked to perfection, just enough blood and we washed them down with an excellent bottle of Malbec, Grand Reserva. We shared a combination platter of deserts and before you say anything, we are still celebrating the news that our house sale is finally

Inside this lovely restaurant

drawing to a conclusion.

We waddled out of the restaurant and started to worry that we may have missed our last bus, still we headed for the stop ever hopeful a bus would arrive, and it did. Our problem was we were half a block short of the stop so I walked in front of the bus a little to hold it back until we got to the point that we could manage a short sprint to the stop. Yes we caught the bus and were told by the conductor it was the last bus of the day, wow, didn’t we do well!!! Unfortunately this was a green route bus and we needed a red/blue route bus but as they were driving back to their depot, and as it so happened it passed the Theatre Colon, they would drop us off; a double wow, and if that wasn’t enough, we persuaded the driver to drop us off at the traffic lights ½ a block before the official stop; a triple wow; we were very proud of ourselves.

We went back to the hotel for a few games of crib and bed, for tomorrow we have to be up early as we are off to Uruguay.