The last time I booked a hostel online through the HostelWorld website was all the way back in Ecuador, and that was only for Quito and Otovalo. Ever since then I’ve just been winging it and hoping for the best, and on the odd occasion I’ve been left to wander the streets for a couple of hours before finding a place. When
that happened in Rosario, I booked online for Buenos Aires as I really didn’t
want a repeat of that experience, especially in the largest city in the
country.

And it’s a good thing I booked. This hostel, America del Sur, is extremely popular and for a good reason. It’s more of a hotel than a hostel, with a fantastic common area with an outdoor patio and the nicest reception staff I’ve ever come across in all my travels (and the hottest women too!). I had booked for 7 nights as I still
wasn’t sure how long I was staying in Buenos Aires. I was tossing up whether to
head south for a few nights to the beach resort city of Mar del Plata before my
flight Bogata.

The cab ride was crazy, the bus terminal is in the district of Retiro and it’s a real slum; so much so that the cabbie told me to lock the car door. After weaving through traffic and not obeying any of the road lanes, we arrived at the hostel early in the afternoon. Taxi drivers have a truly horrible reputation here. I was
warned by many people never to give the driver a 100 peso note, as they’re
likely to give you fake money back – always pay the exact, or close, fare.
Arriving at the hostel from the bus terminal I gave the cabbie the exact fare,
and to be honest he did seem a little annoyed by this.

Buenos Aires is an old city, and it sure does look it. The residence have a clear love of all things old and antique. The number of antique shops alone in the district of San Telmo has to been seen to be believed. It’s a collectors worst nightmare and greatest fantasy rolled into the one sublime experience; there’s no way you’d be able to walk out of here without emptying your bank account and
needing a small container ship to get your newly acquired 1940s era dolls,
furniture, cameras, plates and meat slicers home.

However their love of old and coupled the with the countries financial problems has left BsAs crumbling. Pavement tiles remain broken with no prospect of repair, the grand colonial buildings are fading and cracked, and even the people themselves here come across as tired and broken. While BsAs has a reputation of being a vibrant lively city, that vibrancy has been caked over with poverty and a sense of desperation.  The prices here are astronomical compared to even Patagonia, you can see it in the peoples faces that they question whether they can survive in their federal capital.

This leads to one thing in Latin America – protests. On the Friday night some 200,000 people descended upon the main plaza in protest. Simultaneously protests were organised throughout all of Argentinas main cities. The people are not happy in this country, and it is obvious the government are struggling to stop the rapid inflation rise and placentate their citizens.

And yet that is part of the character of Buenos Aires. It may be old and run down, but there’s an old world character that gives you a smile, and on some level a
sense of comfort. On one hand you have towering colonial buildings, none of
which are smaller than 6 stories. Walking through the Micro Central you spend a
large part of the time with you head craned up at these old behemoth buildings looming above you. They’re impressive and grand, a testament to Buenos Aires wealthy past.

Then you have the historic area of San Telmo, the district my hostel is located in. Here there are no high dominating buildings, instead there is a colourful flare, a
desire to be artistic similar to Valpariso in Chile. This is what people think
if when they think of Buenos Aires. Many of the walls have skilful graffiti
decorating it, and the café and pubs are swirling patterns of reds, blues and
yellows. It’s straight out of a page of history.

Best of all, on Sundays the street of Defensa turns into a 20 block long markets. Market stalls line the closed street and people sell an assortment of trinkets ; from
tshirts and mate gourds, to paintings and hand made crafts. It’s an amazing
thing to wander through, but it’s spoilt but all the damn people. I mean sure,
I personally don’t like crowds, but it’s a bit much for tourists to be stopping
every 5 minutes to take a photo of a street market. The only thing I did take
of photo of was a very well dressed gentleman dancing the tango by himself! He
had an old radio playing music and a tip bucket nearby. He appeared completely
oblivious to the number of people watching and taking photos of him! Just
amazing.

A lengthy pedestrian strips runs through the Micro Central, called Avenue Florida. The standard shops line the road, along with artisans laying out their handy crafts
for the casual passer-by to check out and hopefully make a purchase. One
morning there was even a guy selling a collection of vintage vinyl records – I
had to look away as the temptation to find some good classic vinyl may have
been too strong!

Along this strip they have the shopping centre called Galerías Pacífico. Walking inside it reminded me greatly of the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney. Well, except the QVB has amazing outside architecture and this gallery doesn’t. But what this shopping centre does have is an impressive mural painted over the food court of all places. It would look more in place in a church or art museum rather than a shopping centre food area!

Easily the most amusing aspect of Buenos Aires are the professional dog walkers. You can see these people walking the streets with a pack of dogs tied together with leashes, it borders on the sheer comic. In the San Martin park they have a
fenced dog area where the dogs are allowed to run around and play. When a new
pack of dogs are brought through the gate, all the other dogs come running over
to greet them. You can imagine them chatting to each other to ask how their day
was.

On the Plaza de Mayo, the cities main plaza, sits the large Casa Rosada; the Pink House. Here is the countries government palace and at the time security fences surrounded the plaza. I had no idea why there was a police presence here until the next night when the mass protest occurred. On the plaza is something I saw in other parks in the city, homeless people that have built what can only be described as a shanty town home made from plastic and random debris. I have no idea whether this is legal or not, but it seems to be a normal and accepted thing here.

Also off the plaza is the main cathedral. The exterior looks more like a roman temple than a traditional church, so I wasn’t sure what it was at first until I checked out the map. Entering the cathedral I could hear chanting inside. In one of the alcoves were a group of people repeating what was being said by one of the men. It was totally strange and it came across more like a cult than Christians worshiping inside a church. And the atmosphere was far more solemn and devout than any other church I’ve ever been in, which is odd considering Argentina didn’t strike me as being a particularly religious country at face value.

Beside the Casa Rosada is the new Bicentennial Museum. Built only a few years ago to celebrate Argentinas 200 years of independence, it details the history of the country over those 200 years. Strangely omitted is the Falkland war, something which is still very strong in the Argentinian psyche. I’ve seen many tshirts stating than the Falklands – or the Maldives – belong to Argentina. There is even graffiti demanding that the government take back the islands. It really leads to one big question – why? I don’t think the locals even know, it’s just bruised ego and pride.

Getting good restaurant services continues to be a problem, and it’s far worst here in Buenos Aires than the rest of the country. Generally you need to wait a good 5 minutes before they acknowledge you’re there to give you a menu, and after than you need to wave about like a lunatic to get their attention to order or ask for the bill. And with the prices here you’d expect at least some decent
service! Even beer is hilariously expensive; normally you’d be able to buy a
litre beer for 25 pesos in a pub, but oh no, not in BsAs! You pay 30 pesos for
a pint (half litre)!

I was in need of a culture fix and started my way towards the Fine Arts Museum. It’s a fairly long walk of a few hours and along the way is the city cemetery. The
cemetery is very much a necropolis with large mausoleums lining the paths, many
of which are beautiful and quite striking. Several of the countries famous
people are entombed here and you can even get a map to help you find their
graves. It’s a pleasant, if not morbid, way to spend an hour strolling around.

When I finally made it to the Fine Arts Museum I was pretty worn out from the walk. The museum is jam packed with paintings and a special exhibition of donated antiques from someones old real estate, who I can only assume they had a fan fetish as there must have been a good hundred Asian hand fans in one of the display cabinets.

Outside the museum are several large parks, and one a day when the sun is out shining people are lying about soaking up the rays or using the public gym equipment to get some exercise in before returning to work. And of course there are the dog walkers too, you really can’t go more than a couple of blocks without seeing them!

The return trip to the hostel I felt it was time to check out the city metro train. For
only 2.50 pesos you can get a ticket for one trip, it doesn’t matter where you’re
going it’s all just the one flat fee. Sydney really needs to get its act
together and do the same instead of having a hundred different destinations to
choose from and each varying price!

Back at the hostel  and relaxing from the rather exhausting
day, I was sitting outside enjoying a beer and catching up on some internet when
a Danish guy came over and introduced himself. This is how I met Mike, cooking extraordinaire and a fellow lover of whiskey.