Day 19: 2013 Autumn Travels [Buenos Aires,
Argentina]
After a couple
of hours sleep I got up to join some of the group for breakfast at a cute cafe
on Florida. They served medialunas
(croissants) and cortado (coffee with a little milk). There were gorgeous cakes and pastries
everywhere.
Then we caught a
bus (more complicated than it sounds due to coinage requirements!), via the
football stadium to La Boca. A poorer
part of town but an incredibly colourful Italian immigrant area with
multi-coloured corrugated iron roughhouse buildings.
There was live
tango taking place all around and lots of artists.
I treated myself
to a coffee and alfajor (chocolate-covered cookies sandwiched with dulce de
leche) at Havana coffee shop, after a friend’s recommendation.
Then some of us
went on a22km bike tour around the north
of the city for the rest of the afternoon.
I managed to get
stuck halfway across the 16 lane street in oncoming traffic, much to the
distress of our guide who’d only been doing the job 2 days!
We saw Plaza San
Martin, Torre de los Ingleses, Floralis Genérica (the flower of Buenos Aires),
Lagos de Lalermo (the lakes), El Rosedal (Rose Garden), Cemeterio Recoleta (the
impressive cemetery in Recoleta which is home to Eva Peron’s tomb) and the
National Congress building.
Essentially we
covered Retiro, upper-crust Recoleta, park-filled Palermo and San Nicolas in an
afternoon.
After the bike
tour we dashed back to get changed for our tango class and show.
During an
Argentinean steak dinner we also learnt some basic tango moves which was highly
entertaining. Despite my two left feet I
was still given a certificate...I wonder if the teacher confused me with
someone else!
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