Day 295
San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
We have arrived in Buenos Aires!!! Buenos Aires means ´Mouth of the River Plate!
Our last night in Iguazu was spent it the town having a yummy argentine dinner (Gosh they can cook here!!)..the Empanada´s are so yummy! They´re like a meat pasty. They also have milanesa´s that are breadcrumbed meat or chicken and are similar to ´stick´s which i cook. There seems to be quite an italian influence here.
Even the pizza´s are beautiful and taste like nothing on earth! The only thing they can´t understand is, half and half pizza...it was 15 pesos for a small pizza and 22 for a large. We ordered a large, with half of one topping and half of the other..and the bill came out for 2 small pizza´s because we had two toppings!!! They seemed to understand our spanish enought to have two toppings but when it came to understanding that we should only be paying for one large they did not comprehend! So frustrating sometimes...
The morning we left Iguazu was so funny...there was not a taxi driver at the hostel taxi stand, so while greg finalised the bill inside, i was outside, adorned with my front and back pack, trying to hail down a taxi on the road..it was 8am and our flight was 10am!
Then the three hostel dogs appeared...in the middle of the road, and they did not want to move! The taxi finally came in to get me and had to stop right in front of them..and wait for them to move.
We reckon they knew it was bbq day..and were waiting for the meat truck to arrive. It was Friday and on Fridays and Wednesdays it was bbq day!!! And the meat truck delivered the meat. SO funny...That´s a whole story in itself..these three hostel dogs..at our last bbq i spent ages just watching them patiently awaiting meat from the tennants...
Once we were at the airport we were welcomed with some MATE tea. The Argentinian tea that everyone drinks out of a little coconut pot with a metal straw. The airport tea were in tbags...apprently argentinians can´t get going without their mate tea. Just like we are with coffee. It´s interesting to watch them...they all seem to have their little pot, like a small handleless cup and metal straw and a thermos with hot water in waiting so they can fill their pot again. They put about half a pot full of mate tea leaves..and then keep adding bits of water and drinking...the tea leaves seem to last all day...
Our plane arrived on time..and took off on time..and we arrived in Buenos Aires..negotiated a taxi after telling him we knew the price was no more than 25 pesos. He put the metre on after he realised we´d done our research! (we always ask a local about how much first because we don´t like being ripped off with the tourist prices and they always try to double it!)
Our hostel is really nice. We have what they call a matrimonial room for 3 nights and then we go into an apartment.. the interesting thing is, the apartment is only 5 pesos more and we have a private bathroom and a kitchen! We tried to get the apartment for the whole time but it was boooked out.
Even New Years is booked out!
So after we dumped our backpacks off..and orientated ourselves a bit we decided to go looking for accomodation for new years because our alternative, camping at the airport for the night, didn´t seem like the greatest thing to do for New Years! We decided to stay in the area and not go into the upmarket area and spend quadruple the money because we don´t spend that much time in our hotel room anyway...and we´d rather spend our money on flight so exotic places..and on going to TANGO Shows..haha
Not far from where we are...we found a hotel. The man at reception was old and skinny and was smoking....The place is dingy as all heck..paint peeling off the walls and creaking doors...but it has a room with a bathroom and a courtyard!! Even the dingiest hotels here in Argentina are a LOT better than in Europe! The price is AU $22 a night.....so you can imagine!!!
But we´re happy...we have somewhere for New Years Day!
We move to our apartment at the hostel on Christmas Day, in the afternoon after 2pm... so that´s our xmas pressie. It has a kitchen and a bathroom..so we can do a bit of cooking for the week we´re here!!! More vegesoup! haha (Greg is groaning!)
IT´s so weird not buying anything in preparation for xmas...no shopping for food, pressies, decorations or anything! Greg and i really don´t have any room in our packs for anything materialistic...and whatever clothes we buy..we chuck something out or have to post it (which is so expensive!) so we can fit it in!
We have decided to buy ourselves a little argentinian tea and metal pipe to drink mate from tho!!
And tomorrow, Monday, we will go shopping for a few bits in case everything is closed here on Xmas Day! Not sure if i t´s open on Boxing Day..restaurants will be though so that´s all we´re worried about. If it´s not..then we´ll just eat breakfast!! That´s included!! (IT was cornflakes and buns with jam this morning!)
We tried to ask a guy in the restaurant we went to last night, in our broken spanish, if the restaurant will be open on xmas day..and after pointing to a statue of father xmas and using my arms to represent ópen? he said, ´si!' so hopefully he means it´s open and we can have dinner there on xmas day!!!
ANyway...we´re here in Buenos Aires..and we´re getting settled in...
