Having a riot in Buenos Aires
After a few days relaxing and getting tear gassed we headed to Buenos Aires (BA) in Argentina. We had heard some really good things about Argentina from friends, when I say good things I actually mean, the steak is amazing, the wine is even better than the steak and they are both dirt cheap, so I was very excited about our visit!
Once we found accommodation we wasted no time in sampling the "good things" ! In fact I went 4 days having steak in different forms for every meal WAHOOO!
While in BA there are several things that you have to do, see a tango show and visit the Evita Museum and graveyard (the others are wine and steak but I had done
plenty of those!!). So the first night we were there we went to see a tango show. I wasn´t that excited about it, the thought of spending several hours watching some dancers dressing in different costumes to depict the history of tango didn´t sound that great to me. However I was amazed!!! I´d forgotten that tango started in the brothels of BA, this meant that for the first part of the show the women were wearing hardly anything. Suddenly tango was very interesting!
The next stop on the sights list was the Evita museum. It was very interesting to get a really good insight into Argentina´s political history and Evita appeared to be a very compassionate women who helped millions of impoverished people. However there were no half naked ladies there so it didn´t beat the tango show! The graveyard was a great laugh as you can imagine, but it was impressive, as every family that is buried there has its own crypt and there are thousands of them, all trying to be more elaborate than the next. But again there were no half naked ladies wondering around so the tango show was still the best by far!
Oh, our time in BA was not without a riot incident. While enjoying dinner one evening, watching the world go by outside the cafe, I noticed a small mob of angry looking people heading up the street. I joked that this could be another riot, the laughter soon subsided as the mob threw down a few tyres and set fire to them. They then proceed to attack the building we were eating in (actually it was the hostel above the cafe!). Paint and bricks were thrown at the hostel and the sign was set alight. The police soon arrived and the incident ended with no serious injuries and our dinner was brightened up a little too. It appears that the people were all ex-residents of the building who were evicted so that the hostel could expand.
We decided that as we were so close to Uruguay we should pop there for the day and see what another country had to offer. It takes about an hour on a ferry to hop from BA to the small town of Colonial in Uruguay. Urug
uay was very similar to Argentina, everyone speaks Spanish and they like wine and meat. On a serious note the town was used by the Portuguese to smuggle pretty much anything in to BA to avoid Spanish taxes and has a real medieval feel. The cobbled streets, forts and old churches really add to the oldie world feel. We also discovered the worlds strangest plant pot in the form of and old car. Weird!!!!! We had such a nice day wondering around the old place that we decided to stay for the night.
Popping back the next day we headed straight for the bus station to catch our 14 hour bus to Mendoza. I´m thinking that another night on a bus will be slightly less relaxing than an evening in Uruguay!
Once we found accommodation we wasted no time in sampling the "good things" ! In fact I went 4 days having steak in different forms for every meal WAHOOO!
While in BA there are several things that you have to do, see a tango show and visit the Evita Museum and graveyard (the others are wine and steak but I had done
plenty of those!!). So the first night we were there we went to see a tango show. I wasn´t that excited about it, the thought of spending several hours watching some dancers dressing in different costumes to depict the history of tango didn´t sound that great to me. However I was amazed!!! I´d forgotten that tango started in the brothels of BA, this meant that for the first part of the show the women were wearing hardly anything. Suddenly tango was very interesting!The next stop on the sights list was the Evita museum. It was very interesting to get a really good insight into Argentina´s political history and Evita appeared to be a very compassionate women who helped millions of impoverished people. However there were no half naked ladies there so it didn´t beat the tango show! The graveyard was a great laugh as you can imagine, but it was impressive, as every family that is buried there has its own crypt and there are thousands of them, all trying to be more elaborate than the next. But again there were no half naked ladies wondering around so the tango show was still the best by far!
Oh, our time in BA was not without a riot incident. While enjoying dinner one evening, watching the world go by outside the cafe, I noticed a small mob of angry looking people heading up the street. I joked that this could be another riot, the laughter soon subsided as the mob threw down a few tyres and set fire to them. They then proceed to attack the building we were eating in (actually it was the hostel above the cafe!). Paint and bricks were thrown at the hostel and the sign was set alight. The police soon arrived and the incident ended with no serious injuries and our dinner was brightened up a little too. It appears that the people were all ex-residents of the building who were evicted so that the hostel could expand.
We decided that as we were so close to Uruguay we should pop there for the day and see what another country had to offer. It takes about an hour on a ferry to hop from BA to the small town of Colonial in Uruguay. Urug
uay was very similar to Argentina, everyone speaks Spanish and they like wine and meat. On a serious note the town was used by the Portuguese to smuggle pretty much anything in to BA to avoid Spanish taxes and has a real medieval feel. The cobbled streets, forts and old churches really add to the oldie world feel. We also discovered the worlds strangest plant pot in the form of and old car. Weird!!!!! We had such a nice day wondering around the old place that we decided to stay for the night.Popping back the next day we headed straight for the bus station to catch our 14 hour bus to Mendoza. I´m thinking that another night on a bus will be slightly less relaxing than an evening in Uruguay!
posted by Ellie and Adam at
1:21 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home