So South America and I didn´t get off to the greatest of starts! It was an easy morning packing up my stuff and sorting my belongings out back in Auckland. Then I went back to the cinema to see Tree of Life on bargain Tuesday. Strange film, wasn´t sure about it at first, a bit overstylised and arty with lots of long, lingering shots etc. But I got into it eventually and quite enjoyed it in the end.
Then it was off to the airport to catch my flight. It´s a while since I´ve got a long haul flight without your own tv screen and I nearly panicked when I got on the plane thinking what on earth I was going to do to occupy myself for the 12-hour duration. But I chatted to the Aussie next to me and then watched some films on the big screen for everyone (though the sound was appalling). That´s what you get on a cheap flight I guess. Didn´t get much sleep though so I was pretty exhausted when I arrived in Buenos Aires.
I didn´t take to the city at first, which surprised me as I was so looking forward to going there. I caught a private bus into the city and then transferred to a taxi to find my hostel. I´d booked a place described as ´cool´ in the area of Palermo. With hindsight it would have been better staying closer to the centre as I had such a limited amount of time. Plus the hostel was really quiet with hardly anyone staying there. I had a dorm room all to myself, which under different circumstances would have been fantastic but on this occasion I really wanted to meet people to venture out into the city with. But it did at least mean that I could go straight to bed when I got there and catch up on my sleep and potter around when I woke up at 4am.
Waking so early meant that I was up and out to explore with plenty of time to cram in as much as possible. I walked to the nearest metro station and caught a train into the city centre with the commuters. The train was rammed, haven´t experienced that for a while. I wandered around for a while to find the Plaza de Mayo, the heart of the city. I was a bit nervous about flashing my camera around and I sensibly carried my rucksack on my front, aware of the perils of travelling in South America. So I stopped, took some photos and then put the camera straight back in my bag.
But this is where things took a slight turn for the worse. A couple of women approached me outside the government buildings trying to tell me in Spanish that I had something on my back. It seemed that someone had sprayed shaving foam all over my back (luckily I had my waterproof jacket on). So I took my rucksack off and put it at my feet while they helped me wipe it off. But then a third person tapped me urgently on the shoulder and distracted me pointing to something in the sky. I knew something was up and had a horrible feeling that when I turned back my bag would be gone. Which it was. I saw a man walking off in the distance so started shouting and running after him. I nearly stopped and gave up as I couldn´t quite see what he was carrying in his hands. I looked back at the women who shrugged their shoulders but looked somewhat apologetic. This somehow renewed my strength and I shouted some more and ran after him further. At this point, thankfully, he decided I was making too much of scene and dropped the bag and walked off.
By this time a couple of very kind people had stopped to help me and although we couldn´t understand each other, the lady wiped off the rest of the shaving foam and the older guy called over a policeman. The policeman and I couldn´t understand each other either so I gave up and went on my way. I was a bit shaken up but determined not to let it ruin my time there.
I took refuge in a cafe and figured out what to do next, so grateful that I still had all my belongings. Only that morning I´d wondered what on earth I´d do if I lost everything to a mugger or pickpocket! But things started looking up after I wandered down the main shopping streets (nothing like a bit of window shopping to perk me up) and decided to spend the afternoon on a bike tour of the city.
I´m so glad I did as this is when I started to fall in love with the real Buenos Aires. It was a nice group that set off on our bikes together, some English people on a Gap Adventures tour and a couple of Dutch girls. We cycled through a few of the main squares and saw the regeneration of the dock areas, very similar to many other European cities. Then we spent some time in La Boca, home of the famous football team and some very vibrant and colourful streets.
After the tour the Dutch girls and I wandered round to find a tango show and dinner to entertain ourselves for the evening. We ended up walking for ages and found this little bar in my guide book that wasn´t opening for another hour or so. So we refreshed ourselves in the quaint little cafe over the road, very atmospheric and old-fashioned. Just how I pictured the city to be. We were the only ones in the bar later apart from a guy from Hong Kong but that didn´t matter as the musicians started playing and the dancers came on to show us how the tango is really danced in the city that it originated from. It was amazing to watch and we got so excited about witnessing such a spectacle. After a few dances I got to try my hand at a few steps with the male dancer. I wasn´t too bad!
We tucked into a few glasses of my longed for Malbec and had a nice meal (not the steak I was after but ah well you can´t have everything now can you). I headed back to the hostel to grab a few hours´ sleep before heading back to the airport for two more flights taking me up to Quito, my new home for a while.
More exhausting flights later (I felt like I was on the brink of losing it by the time I got to Quito, I´d had so little sleep) and I took to Quito straight away. There´s a stunning view of the city from my fabulous hostel that came highly recommended online. The staff are great, mostly English so no language barriers here, and the residents are great fun and so easy to talk to. We had dinner and a pub quiz on the rooftop terrace last night, a great introduction.
Hoping to head out and explore the city later and then figure out what to do with the next few days before I join my group and start my volunteering in the Galapagos.
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