Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Hola de Buenos Aires!

Well, we made it, and pretty much without a hiccup!

Our journey started at Heathrow airport at 9:25pm, we managed to arrive in plenty of time for the flight after the getting a lift down to with mi padre (my dad). We also managed to meet with Zoe and Nick, at which point we headed for some grub.

The plane departed a little late after some initial problems starting the propellers, luckily they managed to bodge it, so there wasn't too much of a delay. Actually the 747 was fine, though there were shades of irony after being excitedly told how much in-flight entertainment had moved on in the last 18 years (the last time I did longhaul) and finding the forking thing had conveniently broken for 90% of our 15 hour flight... luckily we both slept for a fair stretch of the flight. Four meals later, we arrived in Buenos Aires, after briefly touching down in a miserable looking Sao Paulo.

We managed to get a bus/taxi ride to our hostel (Carlos Gardel) for 70 pescos (£11 - 1 hour drive), take note Great Britain. On arriving we were greeted by a helpful girl, who showed us to our basic, but clean double room. After dropping our bags, we went for a walk in the local area (San Telmo, famed for cobbled old streets and Tango) before grabbing some lunch at a local Cafe and later heading to downtown (Florida Av.) and taking a look around the busy shopping district. Miranda successfully managed to grab herself a watch (hopefully she can stop being late now) and while handbags and leather goods are barato (cheap), watches are not... think 100% mark-up on UK prices!

We headed back to the hostel earlyish for a much needed shower (did I mention it was 25 degrees?), and while I now tap away, Miranda is doing what she does best and grabbing 40 winks. People apparently don't eat until around 10pm here, which is a little late, but I'd wait all day for a decent Steak and a bottle of Malbec...

Finally, we checked out the timescales today for travelling to Iguassu Falls, it's a 16 hour bus journey, the cost is £50 each (full reclining seats/beds, including dinner/breakfast).The plan I thnk is to spend another day/or two here in BA, then the following day take the bus to cataratas (waterfall) Iguazu. We'd also love to see a Polo game, and watch Boca play, but I guess it may all be weekend fare... Answers on a postcard!

Hope everybody is well at home, talk soon. But for now...



1 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey both. Great post James. You should be a travel writer. Sounds good. Dull here but still mild, all downhill tho after weekend I'm told. The blog's interesting for us, but - it'll be a wealth of great memories for you both in the future, so keep it up. My walking tales are a constant source of amusement and I'm glad I always write one. Take care both. Padre