Monday 28 November 2011

Good vibes in Buenos Aires

10-13 November

+ So much looking forward for the good weather; we were tired of the cold and wind. Buenos Aires welcomed us with a nice & warm sun. We were very excited about the capital because we have always heard so good of it. And to be honest, it didn´t dissapoint us! Unfortunately, one Argentinian friend we had met before was not in the city that weekend so we missed the "insider experience".

+ We were a bit unlucky with the hostel because all the good ones were fully booked that weekend as it was a weekend of holidays in Brasil (the city was full of Brasilian tourists) and a weekend of a festival in Buenos Aires. So we ended up in a shithole, but ok, we met some nice people there. After two nights in that place we would move to another shithole but in a very nice neighborhood, San Telmo.

+ The second day we did a free historical city tour around the center which was really cool. The guide was totally motivated and explained us many things about the recent history of Argentina with its dictators and its revolutions, with the Peron & Evita, with "Las mujeres de la Plaza de Mayo" (the mothers of people who were kidnapped and dissapeared during the 70ies; those mothers still gather once a week in front of the Argentinian government building claiming to know what happened to their sons & daughters), how the Argentinia military once bombed their own capital to make a military coup and killed 300 innocent people who where at the wrong place at the wrong moment, about what happened just in 2001 in Plaza de Mayo, about Argentinians´ obsession & glorification of their "heros" (e.g. Evita, Maradona, Christina...) and much more.

+ We saw plenty of tango shows in the streets, we were at a local concert of traditional tango and we went out like it deserved in Buenos Aires. The city is very alive the whole day and there is party in all the different neighborhoods: San Telmo, Palermo, Centro, ...










"Pub Crawling" in San Telmo with our Swiss friends and another 100 people




+ We tried to go the football game Argentina-Bolivia but we arrived too late to the stadium (much traffic) and the tickets were all sold. At least we enjoyed watching the game at a bar full of passionate Argentinians. However, the game ended 1:1 (pretty embarrassing for Argentina), so Dani decided not to wear his cap with the Bolivian flag for the next 2 days.


Crying next to the River Plate stadium: we couldn´t get in 


+ Every Sunday, locals organize in the beautiful San Telmo the `Antiques Market`, perhaps the most interesting & inspiring market we have ever seen. Besides selling lots of original handicrafts, there are plenty of people acting in the streets (puppets, comedians, mimes), street live music and dance, and very good atmosphere accompanied with great weather. The best is, however, at the square, where local people wear costumes to represent other epoques, or just some funny characters (toreros, templars, demons, cooks); They don´t ask for money: they just love doing it!












+ We also visited the Italian neighbourhood "La Boca", with its famous colorful houses.















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