Jan 2007

So we´re now ready to head off... where ???

Hmm.... We´ve agreed to travel up to Iguazu (while we´re on the East coast of Argentina) and then we´re going to travel back down south heading towards ushuaia (ready to pick up the boat on the 28th)

To get anywhere in Argentina... you either fly (exensive) or you can get an overnight bus (less expensive)

So we´re getting the overnight bus from Buenos Aires to Iguiazu (some 17hours on a bus!)

Lubkily over here though it´s not like jumping on a Greyhound or a National Express bus and they offer different classes of seat.

Semi-Cama, Cama and Cama Superior!

Cama is Castellano for bed... so you should be able to work it out for yourselves what sort of seats each is.

We´re going Cama class as the journey´s so long!

costs are $160 one way each which works out about 26 pounds sterling (which I´m assured is far more expensive than it was about two or three years ago!) Obviously the bus companies have cottened onto the fact that all these gringo´s visiting south America can afford the extra costs.. seems a pity for the locals though!

Anyway, so we´ve got our tickets purchased already. We´ve packed up and we know how to get to Retiro (buenos Aires bus Station)

Now all we´ve got to do is make sure we don´t get scammed before we get to our hostel tomorrow morning!

Unfortunately for us the football season doesn´t start for another four weeks or so.... so we decided to take a tour of the Boca Juniors Stadium which is in the district of Boca.

Having read the tour giudes and heard the stories.. you would believe that Boca is the Baghdad of Buenos Aires... so Armed with a 6 foot cousin of Steph´s and his girlfriend as support the three of us decided to walk from Centro BA, down through San Telmo and into Boca.

Having walked for some twenty minutes, we thought we were beginning to get lost as we´d not seent he stadium yet and the areas we were walking through were becoming less pleasant.
Suddenly we stumbled upon some playing fields and in the distance was the Stadium!!!

We arrived and we´d timed it brilliantly as the stadium tour in Englishwas about to start and so we bought our tickets ($15 peso´s) each and wandered around all the Maradona and Boca parafanalia.

The man is a legend in his own right in terms of footballing genius... however... down here.... the man´s a god! Statues, pendents, photo´s, shirts, t'shirts... you can practically get anything you wanted with a little magicians cheesy grin plastered all over it!

So... our tour guide arrived and everyone gathered together for the tour.... there were about fifty or so people all clustered together ready and waiting for the tour to start.... however.. our tour guide was waving us through.... through to where??? so, apologetically and to the disgust of those true avid Argentinian Boca fans, we were hearded to the front of the rabble.. and then off in the direction of the stadium.

I could feel the eyes burning my back as we slid away to begin, what turned out, to be our own private tour of the stadium!

Our guide was very congenial and spoke English very well...

He sat us down in the exectuive section of the stadia overlooking the pitch and explained some of the finer points of the history and construction, consequent destruction, consequent reconstruction, consequent proposed redevelopment, consequent proposed relocation, consequent deadlock and finally consequent expansion of the stadium.

here´s some interesting facts about the place :

At the top of the third tier the stadium currently moves 4cm during a game due to the fans bouncing up and down.

Boca is the team of the workers

River is the team of the bosses

They were once the same team and then decided to split.

They played each other for their red shirt colours. River won.

Three years later they played each other for the Stadium. Boca Won.

Since Boca had no shirt... they went down to the docks and agreed that whichever ship came into dock next.. they would use it´s colours on their shirt... The ship that docked next was from Sweden hence the Blue and Gold.

Never describe their shirt as blue and yellow... It´s GOLD !!! as I found out to my cost!

Coca Cola had to change perhaps one of the most famous logo´s in the world so as to not have any red in it (River Plate´s shirts are red!) Coca Cola is written in white on a black background.

In a local derby some years ago the River Manager found himself getting wet as a result of some "over exuberance" on behalf of the Boca fans and as a result needed to have a special plastic cover put over his bench on the sidelines. However, just incase any of the local fans couldn´t see where he would be anymore... they put the Managers Name on the top of the plastic to allow the Local fans to "take aim" a bit better

When they knocked down the old stadium to build a new one.. some of the fans started to buy bits of the old stadium from the builders. The owners cottened onto this and them sold the stadium for $1 a block.

They made $6 million pesos.

The New stadium only cost $5 million pesos.

Boca Stadium is for the fans and is owned by the fans.... never have I heard something that´s so true with regards to football Stadiums!

I loved the place and would highly recommend either going to a game or if not, doing the Stadium tour! There people down here are mad !!!!

I´ve actually started to really enjoy BA and like anywhere in the world (especially cities) once you become familiar with them... their appeal begins to grow and you also begin to feel far more at home.

Buenos Aires is a lovely city. It has it´s problems and dodgy areas, however, which city doesn´t?

We met Steph´s cousin (who was travelling with his girlfriend and happened to be staying here in BA) Dave and Katie had been here a month and to be honest were god sends when it came to shedding a different light on Buenos Aires.

They´d rented a flat and as such were more like locals than anything. As a result we got to ask them all those important questions that had been running through our minds....

1. How much does the bus cost?
Ans: 80c to anywhere in the city (you put it in the mahcine when you board)

2. Why do the kids walk around in the evening collecting rubbish?
Ans: As the government pay them to collect the plastic and cardboard and take it to the recycling plant where they get some money (Not much I expect though)

3. What´s "Que Bos" mean?
Ans: The Linguistics in BA are funny with LL´s being pronounced Sh in Castellano (Latin American Spanish) as opposed to "ja" as in European Spanish. Also in Castallano there´s no "tu" for you... instead you use "Vos" for you.
And so ... the answer is, in reply to being asked Que Tal? or Como Esta? you reply "Bien Gracias, Que Vos" meaning "fine thanks.. and you?"

4. How much is a beer?
Ans: ranges between $3.50 for a Chop (a chop is about a half pint in a handled glass) to $6, $7 for a Litre bottle of Quilmes (the local Lager)...
current Ex Rate : 1 pound Stirling = $6 pesos

5. What´s with the dollar sign?
The Argentinian Peso also uses the Dollar sign and once you´re here, everything is in peso´s. Forget USD etc.
The Lonely planet makes it very misleading as to how useful the USD is, however from our experience, hostels, restaurants, and tourist tours all prefer Peso´s and you´re less likely to get ripped off or highlighted as a "gringo" also

6. Taxis.... well we thought they were all fine, until we recently got one from Retiro to the Hostel and he charged quite a bit on the meter... which was about twice what it normally was... I gave him two 10 peso notes for the fare and he then did a quick swap of one and tried to infer that I´d given him a photocopy!!! and a bad one at that !!!!
Now since I´d seen him try the quick swap option I told him "No Entiendo"!!!
To which I got a blank response and then he tried it again.... to which I replied "No Entiendo!"
After about five time of this, he eventually gave up on his little scam and We got out of the taxi! Imagine if I´d really given him a forgery!!! He´d have been ranting and raving and taken me to the nearest police oifficer.... which he didn´t!
So the moral..... if they try this with you... act dumb and eventually they give up!!!

unfortunately, Dave and Katie had to head off to Uruguay last Friday... so we joined them for a night out on the Wednesday (which lasted til 6am) and then the next day, Dave, Katie and I went to the Boca Juniors Stadium (Steph stayed in bed all day... apparently she´d eaten something that had disagreed with her the night before.... yeh right..... eaten far too many vodka´s I reckon!)

We flew to BA from London Heathrow.

with all the recent palavas about the fog and baggage etc. we arrived some five hours early, however, we´d booked online so managed to miss out standing in the check in queue for an hour or so. Dropped our bags at the bag drop check in desk (which was empty) and headed into departures.

The flight was delayed by an hour (not too bad really) and whilst we were waiting we noticed that "Jeremy" from the TV series Airport was sat opposite us... wow.... am I back on my uber-celebrity mingling missions again or what !!!

Anyway, we decided it was best not to get a picture of myself with one of the campest men on UK television (who incidentally was on his way to Rio for the Carnival... the carnival del rio-r entry more like!)

We arrived in Buenos aires some 15 hours later (having waved adios to Jezza) and decided to get a Remis (or taxi) to the hotel (lazy and extravagant I know... but it was the same price as getting the Express bus to the centre of town)

Steph had booked us in the Ayres de Recoleta (in the Recoleta area of town...surprisingly) which we were told was "the posh part of town". The Hotel was lovely and since we arrived early, they gave us the Penthouse!!! Wow!!! The views from the balcony are great (overlooking the beautiful cemetery of recoleta where Eva Peron is buried) I know... sounds a bit necrophiliac-esque... but I can't help it... they just look so peaceful..... ??

I digress... so.. We're in a nice hotel in a good part of town and we've just spent the morning walking round BA. It's lovely weather and the people seem quite nice too....
Both Steph and I are starting to impress them all with our linguistic skills thanks to our Spanish lessons... NOT!

However... you do have to have your wits about you... This is South America after all!

We were walking down to the Centre of town and some Jakey (Drugged up loony) decides to start ranting. He was infront of us walking towards us so we calmly crossed the road and made sure we didn't get eye contact. This seemed to work as he then progressed to smash a bottle on the ground and rant some more. We'd passed him by this point, however, hot on his tail were two policemen who manhandled him to the ground before he's done much else other than cause a bit of a stir early on a Saturday morning !!! Seems like the Buckfast is that bit stronger down here!