Hola que pasa!
It's taken us a while to sit down and write this blog, but now we have a moment while travelling on a long distance bus from Buenos Aires to Mercedes, Corrientes in the north of Argentina... now the bus is something else, antithesis of Megabus/National Express...wait for it ..............
As we are sitting on our near bed-like reclining leather seats sipping a glass of vino and eating our (better than plane 'food') meal, this is the moment we will use to reflect on the past few days, which have been fantastico!
It's taken us a while to sit down and write this blog, but now we have a moment while travelling on a long distance bus from Buenos Aires to Mercedes, Corrientes in the north of Argentina... now the bus is something else, antithesis of Megabus/National Express...wait for it ..............
As we are sitting on our near bed-like reclining leather seats sipping a glass of vino and eating our (better than plane 'food') meal, this is the moment we will use to reflect on the past few days, which have been fantastico!
Our journey began in Madrid where we met my long-time amigo, Manuel, who showed us the sights and sounds, and reflected on his own recent adventures in Argentina. A tapas later, we headed back to the airport and eleven hours later arrived in Buenos Aires (B.A) bright and early.We stayed in the barrio of San Telmo, which is renowned for its bustling flea market, tango shows and flamenco music adorning the streets. The highlights of B.A have been La Boca, home to Maradona’s youth football team, La Boca Juniors. This area is particularly known for its main street EL Caminito and its multi-coloured houses, which all stem from the early European immigrants using left over paint to decorate their houses. Best avoided at night, so we took the tourist bus from Plaza de Mayo (this goes all over the city for £10 for the day and a good way of visiting the main sites).
Another hotspot of the city was the barrio Recoleta, which is most famous for its cemetery, Cemeterio de la Recoleta, which houses Eva Peron amongst other rich and famous Argentinians. This was our historical highlight and I (Susan), being an avid fan, walked through singing ‘Don’t cry for me Argentina’ (bloody tourist) with Gordon pretending he didn’t know me.
Recoleta also boasts an awesome market area that hosts everything under the sun, an artisan’s Utopia!
Lastly, as we could digress for ages, we have to mention the San Telmo Sunday market, which runs about a mile long and has everything including dancing, flamenco, drumming, opera, tango, crafts, impersonators, hippies, stoners, antiques, and last but not least, the ‘Choripan’ (Chorizo on a roll) outdoor bbq.
So now we’re en route to the ‘Everglades’ of Argentina, which is a 13 hour bus journey north of B.A, where we have no idea yet where we will stay; all part of the adventure! (We have just braved a huge fire/car crash (not our coach) caused by a lightning/sandstorm on the motorway, so we shall be in for a bumpy ride!) Here we will spend a few days before travelling to Iguazu and we will update the blog as soon as we can.
We leave you with a few photos of our time so far. Hope you enjoy them and are well back home.
Gordon y SusiQ
Finally, a taste of Argentinian 'Lomo' steak....
Tango dancers in El Caminito, La Boca
Susan making a couple of new friends
Gordon's first taste of Mate - the tea drunk all around the country