Day 2: Buenos Aires
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A morning arrival in Buenos Aires,
transfer to the hotel,
an afternoon city tour and an excellent steak dinner.
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Our flight from Madrid
arrived at 8:15am local time, slightly ahead of schedule.
It had been a very comfortable and pleasant flight. Unfortunately,
we had arrived just after three other international flights
and the queues at immigration were very long. It took around
an hour and a half to get our passports checked before we
got to the baggage hall where, fortunately, our luggage
was going around the carousel. Unlike some others, we were
not selected for an extra luggage screening check and were
able to walk straight through to the arrivals hall. There
we where greeted by a smiling Carolina, who would be our
local tour guide for the next few days. Carolina was not
to be confused with Caroline, our UK based tour manager,
who would also be accompanying us for the next few days. |
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There were only seven
of us being met this morning. The rest were coming from
different locations or on different flights. Unfortunately,
one of the passengers in our small group was minus her suitcase
and it took a further hour whilst unsuccessful efforts were
made to locate it and then to report it missing. Marian,
like us, had been forewarned to pack carry-on luggage for
the excursion to the Iguazu Falls in case this happened.
She was very pleased that she had done so. (Her luggage
did eventually turn up at the hotel in Buenos Aires three
days later before we departed for Ushuaia to board the ship.)
Finally we were in a coach and on our way to the our hotel,
just about an hour's drive away, in a very nice neighbourhood
of Buenos Aires. |
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Our room
was quiet and very comfortable. |
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The view
from the window, however, wasn't that inspiring, but it didn't matter. |
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Because
of the delay in leaving the airport, the time of the afternoon tour
was put back by 45 minutes. |
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A map
of the city, provided by Carolina. Our hotel is at the bottom,
more or less in the centre, marked as "N". |
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Before the city tour,
we decided to have a short stroll. It was lunch time and
we weren't particularly hungry, but felt we might enjoy
a light snack. We found the perfect venue for that and what
we ate was really tasty. Just what we wanted. |
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The bill... looks a lot but is only around £16.
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Back
at the hotel and after a short rest, it was time for the city tour. |
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This map shows the
route we took (click on it for a bigger image). We set off
from the hotel in a coach, driving past Floralis Genérica
to Recoleta Cemetery where we had a guided tour.
Then through some rather elegant looking neighbourhoods
and past several embassies to Plaza de Mayo, where we stopped
and saw Casa Rosada, the executive mansion and office of
the President of Argentina.
From there we drove to La Boca, another neighbourhood (barrio)
of the city. Amongst other things, it is famous for its
football team, Boca Juniors. We were given some free time
in the La Boca neighbourhood, which has a strongly European
feel about it.
Afterwards we drove back to the hotel with a brief, but
beautiful photo stop at the revamped dockside area of Puerto
Madero.
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La
Bombonera football stadium, home to the famous Boca
Juniors football team.We drove around the stadium and our
guide gave us lots of facts about it and the team. They
all went in one ear and out the other! |
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La
Boca neighbourhood. We heard that many of its early
settlers came from the Italian city of Genoa. |
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Carolina suggested that
we may need some local currency to buy coffees, snacks etc.
She exchanged 30 US dollars for us in return for 30,000
pesos. |
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When we got back to
the hotel, we asked a lady at the Noble Caledonia hospitality
desk if she could recommend a restaurant for us for dinner.
When we said we wanted something traditionally Argentinian
(i.e. steak and Malbec wine!) she had no hesitation in recommending
El Mirasol, a five minute walk from the hotel. We were not
disappointed with her recommendation. In fact, we were absolutely
delighted with it. We both agreed that we had the best steaks
we had ever eaten! |
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We were surprised (and
really pleased) to see that the restaurant's kitchen staff
were dining close to us. We had never seen this before in
any restaurant. It was a Saturday evening and we were in
the restaurant quite early because had an early start the
next morning, so we assumed that most diners would be arriving
later and this was the best time for the staff to have a
meal. |
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We paid £76 for this
meal. It was a pleasure to pay it! We
decided that we had to go back there when we returned
in three days.
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Seen
on the way back to our hotel. |
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