My stay at Iguazu Jungle Lodge was close to perfect and just what I needed. Despite my apprehension about staying in a place that had construction happening and despite being in the unit that was closest to the noise I didn’t hear a thing. Such was the noise insulation. Brilliant.
My cab was late to collect me but I still got to the airport with time to spare, breezed through check in and joined the throngs going through to airside. The terminal is absolutely freezing (its colder today) with AIRCON going full bore.
Other than the first flight out of BA all my other flights have been straightforward, no drama, on time (mainly) and then today I have the combination of LATAM and Argentina. A pre-boarding announcement was made for my flight when I was waiting in the queue to go through to airside. There were queues going no where, totally disorganised. One gate, one scanner till they realised the queue went right round the departure lounge and they opened a second scanner. The one and only lounge was full. The queue of people waiting for my flight was growing.
This is the first airport I have ever been in where the flight number at the gate is printed on A4 paper and sellotaped to a sign for another flight, then they had 2 flights boarding at same time through same gate. Hello!!!!!
For an international airport with literally millions of visitors each year its pretty slack. Eventually my flight queue started to move and created another queue a bit further down. But slowly we got on board. I was held up in the aisle by some women arguing over a seat. One had been allocated 26A and the other 25A. The lady in 26A refused to move. The other lady insisted she did. This went on for a while till the 25A lady realised she was barking up the wrong row and quietly sat down in 25A - her seat all along.
I got to my seat and a guy popped up in front of me and asked me to swap so he could sit with his family. No prob. Then the guy on the other side of the aisle asked me to swap so he could sit with his. No prob. I got the aisle seat like I wanted and so did they. Why would they split families like that. Thank goodness its my last flight with them in Argentina.
A quick cab ride form the airport saw me safely delivered to the Argent Suites, where I stayed when I first came to BA. What a welcome when I got here, they all remembered me (the one that complained about the guy snoring in the utility room) and upgraded me to a huge suite with kitchen, lounge and a massive bed. Above all it was warm. I am so sick of being cold on this trip and don’t think I have ever before worn so many layers.
It was mid day when I arrived so I went for a walk, grabbed a light lunch over the road then came back home and slept on the couch. Boy it was good. Something I have missed. Then I watched an English movie - no idea what it was called or what it was about but it was nice to be able to understand the words even if I couldn’t figure out what was going on.
I woke feeling refreshed and energetic so thought I would walk to Cafeteria Ideal, a cafe and milonga that I had heard lots about. Oh drat it has closed for renovations.
So then I kept walking to go to the Carrefours supermarket to buy some coffee. That was a waste of time as Carrefours here aren’t the usual massive stores that they are elsewhere, so I left without coffee and without dinner.
I was starting to get desperate for food but struggled to find anywhere that wasn’t Italian to eat. In the end I relented and settled for a Milanesa napolitano with the weirdest inedible potato mash I had ever seen.
Back home I blobbed on the couch watching another english speaking movie, had a cuppa (Yep! There is a jug in my room!!!).
And today is another day
Today I started off with coffee in bed ( the treats are coming in thick and fast) before I caught a cab to the La Boca neighbourhood. La Boca is one of the poorer neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires and is where the first port was created. With the port came immigrants from round the world, bought here to work on the port construction, and with them their customs, food and religions. Many of those first immigrants were from Italy which is there such a strong Italian influence here.
La Boca is also home to the famous football team La Boca Juniors, the team that Diego Maradona played in, and their famous football stadium La Bombonera.
I joined a walking tour as they say La Boca is not an area to go wandering alone; it is poor, rough and crime abounds. The tour took us round the area called Caminito where we saw the old slum accomodation where the immigrants lived, painted bright colours as they were then. Word has it that the initial colourful buildings came about as the immigrants didn’t have money to paint the go,es they stayed in so they bought left over paint home from the port and painted whatever they could in that colour. When it ran out they would just bring another pot of left over paint and carry on painting.
Much of the area has been turned into a tourist trap with tourist restaurants and cheap souvenir shops and other gimmicky nonsense everywhere.
The area is also home to may artists and we had a chance to see some of the street art and the work of some of the local artists, as well as some Tango dancers.
The tour ended with a walk to La Bombonera, but sadly we couldn’t go inside. I would have loved to go to a game but they haven’t played on any of the dates I have been here. The day I arrived in Argentina I passed some of their supporters on the way from the Airport. I didn’t realise at the time that the cray people hanging out of the busses were La Boca supporters returning from a game win.
A quick bus ride and then a walk to the San Telmo market was my next thing. I was disappointed as most stalls were closed and I didn’t get to have something to eat there as I had planned. I slowly made my way back to the city passing a couple of great shops I wanted to explore. Sadly they were closed for siesta so I will have to come back another day.
I walked through an area where a pile of protests were happening and quickened my step. Not going there again. I couldn’t help but notice that this visit there was even mote litter hanging around than last time and wondered if the rubbish collectors were the ones protesting. This is a regular sight in this city:
Walking along hungry and I suddenly had a hankering for rice. Only been back here a couple of days but even so sick of the awful Italian food they have here. So when I saw Paella on the menu at the Ritz ( not an appropriate name) I jumped at it and figured that they surely wouldn’t have bastardised the spanish food too.
Ok Paella it might have been called but Paella it wasn’t. Tasteless and lacking in saffron and smoked paprika with a pile of shurimi!!!! on top and came with a packet of parmesan cheese. Wrong on so many counts. I suppose I should be thankful that it didnt have chorizo like we add at home. Barely edible but it filled a gap and gave me the energy to walk back home, where I kicked off my shoes, made a coffee, sprawled on the couch and watched TV whilst eating a packet of palmier.
I may not be impressed by Buenos Aires and it’s people but I’m enjoying the accomodation and looking forward to Uruguay tomorrow.
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