#5

This was Day 5, a day we were real excited about since we were going to Tigre, a town one hour north of Buenos Aires by train, which is situated on the Parana Delta. There are all kinds of islands, canals, and waterways in this area, and seems it is a vacation spot for people that live in Argentina and surrounding countries Uruguay and Brasil. Looking back, this was easily one of the best days of the trip.


Saw this badboy on the way to the train station. Everytime we walked by here it was there...no idea what the deal is with it. Often wondered if B.A. Baracus was inside...

Before we started our mission to Tigre we needed to exchange some legal tender. This is Florida Street in the Recoleta neighborhood; very touristy. If you need to exchange legal tender, go to where the tourists are. We never went back to this street though since it was a bit much for us.

From Florida Street we walked through this parque/plaza to the train station. Very pretty...the flag is nice.

The train to Tigre...all during the ride people would be trying to sell you the most curious and random stuff: socks, candy, bobby pins. Some people wouldn't even be selling stuff, just yelling random things in Spanish and looking for free handouts. A great experience.

Tigre train station. Tigre is a real beautiful place; it was a beautiful day as well.

A Tigre canal, or waterway. Since Tigre is on a delta, the water is real brown and murky. You will see more of the brown and murky waters below.

We jumped on a boat for a 45-minute ride to a small island called "Tres Bocas". There were lots of destinations; we picked this one in the interest of time. Some were an hour or more away.

View from the boat. That bridge in the background is where the first water photo was taken.

Random boat that at some point ran aground.

This is the type of boat we were riding on. It is real crazy in these waters...boats just haul ass all over the place, creating big water disturbances (wakes). Would be very stressful to drive a boat around in these parts.

A closer shot of a boat similar to the one we were on. Objects in photo are closer than they appear.

Ahhhh...a beautiful (except for the brown murky water) canal running near the island of Tres Bocas. We did a short hike around the island(s) in this area. Came across this bridge and stopped to snap a couple photos.

Actually, the brown kinda adds to the vibe.

We came across this restaurant called "El Hornero"...don't know if that means "The Horny", or "The Horny Guy". Should probably look it up; actually, would prefer to have it mean our little stop there for lunch. There were three restaurants on Tres Bocas...this one was the farthest from the boat dock, which meant less North American/European tourists. There were definitely less NA/Euro tourists; everyone was either a local, a weekender, or on a day trip like us, but from Argentina or a neighboring country (no English spoken here). Again, was an amazing dining experience...very relaxing! The Quilmes was especially tasty on this day!

Chorizo or Blood Sausage? Chorizo please...

Meg opted for the Blood Sausage...just kidding.

They had these real cool coolers for the brewski. Kept the Quilmes nice and chilled. The whole patio area was covered with trees as well, so we were nice and chilled tambien.

The mission back from Tigre was basically filled with the same images as the mission there. Back at the B&B...siesta time! Our days would generally start at around 10am, we'd go on our mission for the day, and we'd be back around 6 or 7pm, which was our siesta time. We would then chill for a couple hours before going out for a drink around 9pm and then get dinner around 10pm. Argentine's don't really eat dinner before 10pm... We became very comfortable with this arrangement...

This is the "Obelisco" on the widest street in the world (apparently). The street is called "9 de Julio", and it is mahoosive! This photo is taken from one side, and the buildings in the photo line the other side.

For dinner we went to this tango show at a real famous tango spot called "Confiteria Ideal". I guess some badboy tango has gone down at this spot in the past. Unfortunately, we went on an open tango night, which meant "a bunch of f*ckin' amateurs" (thanks Walter) were getting their tango on. We were hoping for like professional, fast tango vibes, but what we got were amateur, slow tango vibes. Oh well, was cool to check it out anyway. A live band played, which was nice; the food stunk, which wasn't so nice.

This video depicts cruising on the Parana Delta in Tigre. Should've filmed when it was a bit busier...oh well.

Dos de Enero 2009, The Fourth Day of the Trip

So this was the fourth day of our trip, and our plan was to head to a neighborhood called La Boca, which is famous for a number or reasons, primarily the fact that is where the football (soccer) team Boca Juniors is from. This is the team Maradona played for. La Boca is also a bit sketchier than other parts of the city, or at least of the parts that tourists (travelers) should actually go to (it probably gets pretty sketchy in neighborhoods off the beat and path). Anyhow, after a visit to La Boca it was off to the Recoleta neighborhood to visit the famous cemetery there.


There are random perros all throughout the city, and country for that matter (probably the continent as well!). There is also a lot of poo on the sidewalks; Mark stepped in one like the 2nd day of our trip...never happened again though! Anyhow, this guy was in rough shape and we felt really bad, but there is nothing you can do.

First Argentine public bus experience...was a very pleasant ride on a very pleasant day. La Boca bound!

This is the start of the "Caminito", which is a very colorful, touristy area in La Boca. Originally the area was a bunch of bars and brothels for the sailors that came to the small harbor just to the left of the above building in the photo. It has since been turned into a network of small streets and buildings that have souvenir shops, outdoor cafes and restaurants, street vendors, and tango performers.

Shopping in Caminito. I think all we bought was a magnet.

Yep, you guessed it...more Caminito...

This is one of the entrances to the Boca Juniors football field. Unfortunately it was the off season, but we were able to wander around in the stands a bit, as you can see below.

Meg and the Boca Juniors football field.

Mark (and Meg) and the Boca Juniors football field.

Just the Boca Juniors football field. Lots of these photos...oh well, deal with it. Can't imagine watching a game here!

If you are at a Boca Juniors football game (or just taking a tour of the facilities) and you are a male, this is where you would do a number two. Can't imagine doing a number two here!

Another random perro. This one we wanted to take with us...

Random tienda (store) front; these folks are real hyped on the Boca Juniors football team!

Detail of the above photo...Maradona, numero diez. He is currently the head coach of the Argentina national team.

This photo shows two bridges, that look very similar. The closer bridge is the original La Boca bridge, which is real cool when viewed up close (pretty cool from far away as well). The other bridge is a sort of replica (kinda) of the original bridge. The original bridge does not function as a bridge anymore.

After the Caminito and football business, we were hungry, so we were off to locate this restaurant called El Obrero. Well, we found it, and we were really glad we did. The food was absolutely amazing, and the vibe was the same. If you go to La Boca, you must go to El Obrero.

The Recoleta cemetery is mahoosive. This photo shows just a couple of the graves, but there are thousands, and it would take days to go through the whole thing.

Eva Peron, or Evita (the woman Madonna played in the movie Evita) is buried here. Don't know the whole story about why she is so famous, but her grave is definitely a tourist attraction; so we had to put up the token Evita grave photo.

So the Dakar Rally was in Argentina (and Chile) while we were there, and it seemed as if it was following us around the country, or at least it was everywhere we looked. Rally is cool and all, but that wasn't the reason we were in Argentina, and we certainly weren't about to go out of our way to check it out. There will likely be Dakar references throughout the rest of the posts; it sorta became a theme of the trip. On our way back to our B&B, we came across a street closure where all the participants were parading, the day before the official start of the rally. Here is a photo of some cycle dudes.

This video shows some of the four-wheeler dudes doing their rally parade thing.

Drums and Dancing, Argentina Style

So we are back from the trip now (today is January 22 and not January 14, which is the date this post was first attempted), so posts should be coming much more frequently than they did while we were away, thanks to a fairly stable and fairly reliable internet connection...

The video below is from New Year's Day night as we walked the streets of Palermo Viejo in search of a suitable location for a feed. We heard it from blocks away, and it just so happened to be going down in the direction we were walking. Completely random...

Vacacion de Argentina - El Dia de Tres

Day Three...January 1, 2009...can't believe 2009 is here already! Any holiday in Argentina is mellow...they already have siesta during the day, which I'm sure most people are familiar with. But when it comes to holidays, it is a ghost town. We were a bit hungover and got off to a late start on this day, but ventured out and about anyway. It was our third day in BA, so a mosey was mandatory.

Example of the ghost town...on most days this street is completely filled with cars and people, lots of hustle and bustle. But not on New Year's Day. This street was right near our B&B and is a main vein in the city.

We hopped on the Subte to go see some sights...this sign says January 1st.

Subte stop...can't remember which one. Real nice subte system though.

We ended up at Plaza de Mayo, a plaza we wanted to check out. It is known for these ladies that go there every Thursday to protest the disappearance of a bunch of kids back in the 80's or something. Don't know the details of all that, but this is some government building near the Plaza. There were a bunch of buildings with similar architecture in this area. Makes sense that is where the protests would go down...

This is the Banco de la Nacion Argentina...probably the main branch, or at least it appears that way. It was closed on New Year's Day.

We wanted to see the protest, and luckily they only protest on Thursdays...New Year's Day was on a Thursday, what luck! We were so out of it that we forgot it was Thursday and wondered what was going on as we arrived at the plaza...then realized it was the protest. Don't know what the banner says, but probably protesty.

Another building at the plaza...think this one was a hotel or something.

Here we are, Plaza de Mayo, New Year's Day...hangover and all.

We didn't party at this trash can for New Year's, but someone did. This was in Puerto Madero, which in our opinion sucks. Very (very) touristy (we've decided we are travelers, not tourists...there is a difference) and bad restaurants, etc, etc, etc... Was the only place to get a bite to eat though so we ended up at a crap cafe. It was also chilly out this day.

Puerto Madero has a bunch of dikes, with bridges that cross the dikes. On each side of the dikes are aforementioned crap restaurants and what-not. There was a really cool bridge that we crossed...it is the white thing in the background.

Example of crap restaurant. Asia de Cuba...Asian food, from Cuba, in Argentina. Sounds great!

After our crap experience in Puerto Madero we decided to head for home. We were staying in Palermo Viejo, which is easily the best neighborhood in the city. Tons of shopping, restaurants, bars, etc... This store had a pillow with a stressed out pug on it...figured the Fullers would dig this photo (and probably the pillow tambien!).

So it is January 14th and we just got around to posting January 1st...doesn't seem we'll get it all posted before the trip is over. We'll keep it flowing though...

Ciao!