Argentina trip: Day 9 (23 June)

Hi there everyone, so today was my first full day in Salta, but given how late/early I got in this morning (read Day 8 for details), I obviously would not be making a full day of it.

Surprisingly though, I woke up on my own at 10:30 AM and started taking care of practical chores like washing clothes and bathing. This took some time, and I also was not in a big hurry, so it wasn’t until 1:47 PM that I departed walking from my lodging at the corner of Lamadrid and Alvarado.

Nearby at 1:55 PM I saw La Mami Empanadas y Tamales. It looked like a simple neighborhood place which no doubt would have good food. When I walked in, I saw that the window where you order actually shows what appears to be a household kitchen, where two women were hard at work making the fresh tamales and empanadas. I ordered two tamales, 1 empanada de carne, 1 empanada de pollo and some sort of local red soda called Ice Granadina. Then, as directed, I sat down to patiently wait.

At 2:12 the tamales came out. During this whole time there was some sort of a local news broadcast on, and I noted that the reporters, especially the woman were very agitated about what they were reporting. I think it has to do with a missing boy named Loan.

At 2:28 PM I noted that the tamales were nice, quite different from the ones in Costa Rica, but still tasty. Although the room was small, there were several people still waiting for empanadas. Presumably the tamales are faster since they are prepared more beforehand and only need to be boiled, but there empanadas are either freshly baked each morning or throughout the day.

At 2:45 PM the empanadas arrived. They were very hot, presumably having only just then come out of the oven. Both were delicious.

Finally at 3:15 PM I paid and left to head back to use the restroom before going to the cerro a la virgen. I paid 4500 ARS cash, which based on my most recent currency exchange in Buenos Aires, was roughly equivalent to $3.63 USD

I was back in the apartment at 3:20 PM at the apartment and then 3:28 leaving, with the intention of walking towards Cerro de la virgen. I realized though that it was much further than I had thought, so at 3:37 I got an Uber. Even with a local public transport card, which I still didn’t have, it would have been very difficult to go this late in the day, because it would have been a 90 minute trip.

In Uber, it was much faster, and at 4:05 PM the driver was leaving me at the bus transport point, as no other vehicles are allowed from this point on.  The bus you take there looks like a standard public bus, but it’s free to go up and down from this point. I paid the UBER driver 5000 even though it said 4000 on the app; he seemed like a nice guy and he certainly drove well. So the trip had a cost of roughly $4 USD with the tip included.

At 4:06 PM the bus headed further up the hill; there weren’t too many people. At 4:12 PM we had arrived. I noted that everything was incredibly organized. With that in mind and given the very small number of people, at 4:16 PM I was already in the short line to see the virgin, arriving at the viewing area at 4:21 PM.

This is In no way meant to take away from the sacred nature of the site for believers, but honestly it was way less impressive looking than I had expected. It seemed to be a thing to leave rosaries hanging various places around here. I presume first they do a full rosary prayer and then leave it, but I don’t know anything about the system. 

Trying to understand what it was that evidently draws large numbers of people to this place, at 4:24 I was just walking around the area a bit. They have a huge human corral system so evidently sometimes this place is massively crowded, but definitely not now. Again at 4:32 I noted that rosaries seem to get hung on stuff all over. I wondered, how long do they get left and what happens to them when they are removed? As this is a religious site, presumably they don’t get thrown out. . . Perhaps they have some acceptable way to dispose of them. . . Saving them seems like they would have a mountain of them after some time, especially after a major visit.

At 4:31 PM I saw that there were these larger birds like the size of a duck or large chicken. They seemed capable of flight but to prefer walking. As I looked at these green structures, I just couldn’t figure out their purpose. I thought maybe they were some sort of open air confessionals. Sure enough, shortly thereafter at 4:44 PM I saw a sign pointing towards the green structures, and it said “confessions”.

Well, I had thought that perhaps by walking around everywhere in silent contemplation, I would come to understand the attraction of the site, but at 4:50 PM I realized it just wasn’t going to happen for me. Honestly, it was all very anticlimactic. Undoubtedly if there were a couple thousand people, all in silent prayer it would be a different effect, but as it was, being a non Catholic simple tourist, it was pretty and all, but not amazing.

Happily at 4:54 PM I did at least finally find an unobstructed view of the city; that was at least fairly impressive. For most of the area, the trees and shrubs block the view. From here I could also understand that the city of Salta was much bigger than I had initially understood. I sort of started walking down, and at 5:00 PM I thought I might have found an alternative walking path used down. I thought maybe this was what was used by serious religious pilgrims who come here. However, this is all complete supposition.

Continuing to try to understand the impact of the site on many visitors, at 5:03 PM I thought that if people really did respect all the “silence” signs when there are a few thousand people here, that would certainly be something to see. The area itself is quite large, so that would be a ton of silent people waiting hours and hours for their turn to see the virgin.

As this was not me, she had not helped me understand why people come here in large numbers.

Walking down the pedestrian path, at 5:08 PM, I saw a couple of local people ignore the white tape which blocked access to the road, so I decided to do the same. While I could guess at the purpose of the tape, it didn’t say “Don’t pass”, so I reasoned it must not be a big offense.

At 5:14 I was now walking down the road, presumably to where the bus had picked me up previously. it didn’t take long, and at 5:28 PM I arrived at the bus area where I decided to just continue walking back to Salta city.

At 5:57 I was down to the start of the city. This section initially assisted to clearly be an upper class neighborhood, but as I continued walking, I refused my initial assessment to call it a mixed middle class and upper class area. Still, it was fully residential and without a doubt a nice place to live. I think this neighborhood was called Tres Cerritos. Here I sat reading in a small park until 7:47 PM and then decided that I should continue on my way.

At 8:24 PM I bought 5600 ARS in cash of various bakery items (4 media lunas, 4 of some sort of cheese and sausage pastry and a large, chocolate covered Alfajor) from a Virgen del Saliente bakery and cafe. I ate the Alfajor almost immediately while I was walking and it was delicious.

By 8:36 I was passing the Plaza de la Democracia and then at 8:46 PM the Plaza 9 de Julio. This second plaza appeared to definitely be a place I should return to the next day. There was a theatre and also many different places to eat.

Then at 9:02 PM I walked by the Paseo de las Poetas, which also appeared to have several good places to eat, even though it was much smaller. Finally at 9:09 PM I was back at the apartment and in bed by 10:10 PM

So there you go everyone, that was my first full day in Salta. Tomorrow I have an early day, since my first of four day-trip tours begins at 7:00 AM. Today was much more relaxing than yesterday, and while I didn’t see anything particularly amazing, it was still a good way to get settled into Salta. As always thank you for reading along, and don’t hesitate to put your questions and comments in the section indicated below. Finally, if this sort of detailed travel blog looks like something you’d like to see more of, go ahead and subscribe so that you never miss an entry.

Argentina trip: Day 8 (22 June)

Hey there followers, as this is the day I head north to Salta, I have an important errand to take care of ahead of time. Since, I’m not sure about how easy it will be to exchange dollars out what rate I might get, I left the apartment walking at 9:00 AM to try and exchange dólares at a western union which was close. I wanted to compare this to my earlier experience to see what would be better.

One big advantage was that it was a lot closer. At 9:15 AM I was already at the San Telmo Western Union branch where I changed $100 USD for 124000 ARS. They gave me 2000 bills, with a slightly better exchange rate than I got a week ago at an informal exchange place. If that is the tendency, it’s probably better to just exchange at the Pago Facil Western Union branches. According to the Dollar Blue app it should be 127000 for $100 USD but I assume nobody actually gets that amount, and again, at the end of the day, for me or didn’t make that much of a difference. Perhaps if I had asked around in several places, I could have received even better, but as a tourist for a couple of weeks, I was happy with this exchange rate. I was also happy that I got 2000 bills, since it was a smaller bunch of cash.

I left the exchange house at 9:20 AM on foot, deciding to stop in at the San Telmo church at 9:27. It was simple by Catholic church standards in Latin America go, but I liked that. This place exists as a neighborhood place of worship, not a tourist spot. 

After a brief walk through, I left at 9:35, headed towards the nearby apartment, but before arriving I stopped into Bar Británico at 9:54 to get a café doble and two media lunas. Again, I didn’t really know what I was asking for in terms of coffee, but that was one of the options. There were lots of people there, so I figured it must be a good place to get a light breakfast.

At 9:59 AM the coffee and pastries were served. These were my first “media lunas”, which is sort of significant since that seems to be the default morning food here. They are a sort of dense, lightly sweet, croissant shaped pastry. I paid 4200 ARS cash + 420 ARS cash tip.

I was there until 11:04 AM when I decided to exit since it had been getting a bit warm inside for me, as I had on my coat, so I walked across the street to Parque Lezama where I stayed sitting for a while.

Then on a whim at 11:30 AM I decided to check out the nearby Museo Histórico Nacional. As luck would have it, there was a free guided tour (in Spanish) which had started right at 11:30 AM which I was able to join. Entrance to the museum was also free. 

I learned that the museum and park was previously a private residence which was donated by the Lezama family. At 11:42 AM the guide was doing a great job, and really made the story of San Martín come alive. She was very expressive, making things interesting. Her name was Florencia.

At 11:49 I was also impressed that the guide had a chair brought for an older woman who was having problems remaining standing throughout the tour. At 11:54 she told us about the first “National shield” that is known to exist in Argentina. It was actually painted on top of an older sister shield from before the declaration of independence. 

I also learned that in 1813 in Potosí there was clearly a discourse in favor of abolishing the inequality of the indigenous people which took place under the Spanish. A clear symbol of this was the Tarja de Potosí. However, as noted by the campaña del desierto, that didn’t really apply to all the indigenous peoples. The Tarja itself is made of silver and gold. Note the representation of an indigenous man at the top of the Tarja.

At 12:09 the guide mentioned that in the early 1800s even tiny portraits were very expensive, and as such tended to only be for wealthy people. The mini ones would have been similar to how people used to carry a few pictures of their family in the wallet, but again, this was only for the very wealthy. 

Another interesting tidbit learned at 12:25 PM was that during the war in 1816, most of the food that the soldiers ate was in the form of crackers that were so hard that they had to use a special grater to get dust from them which was then put into hot water.

Then at 12:40 PM I found out that despite being the national hero San Martin in 1824 left the area for Europe because he was no longer in agreement with the governmental system which had emerged. He remained in voluntary exile for the rest of his life.

At 12:44 PM I was able to see the original San Martin de la bandera portrait which he had hanging in his room in exile in France, and which is also the most copied image on currency and for reproductions.  The painter is not known, but it is believed to have been his daughter’s painting instructor, but it may actually have been painted by his daughter or even a partially collaborative effort. In summary, they don’t know.

Right here was also San Martin’s saber which seems to be considered almost sacred. It’s in a very special climate controlled chamber. It has a special military guard next to it. He actually bought this year’s before in London. Historical studies indicate that it was at least 100 years old when he bought it and it was made with Damascus steel. 

At 12:55 PM The official tour ended, but I stayed around to see the change of the guard for San Martin’s saber. The guard is very respected and loved by most Argentinians. The change itself happened at 1:03 and then I wandered around a bit more on my own.

At 1:11 PM in some ways it seemed to me that once they got started fighting, they just continued. The dispute between the federalists and the unionists, as well as military disputes with neighbors continued, then later on there were various military coups and dictatorships.

As of 2023, they had finished 40 years of uninterrupted democracy, the longest in Argentinian history. 

At 1:23 PM I saw one of the oldest known white and blue Argentinian flags. It was found in 1883, having been protected there in hiding from opposition leaders. Originally this flag was used by those who supported keeping the Spanish king, but with Argentina being autonomous from Spain. 

Just to see, at 1:31 PM I checked out the small gift shop, and noted that there were various attractive and mostly affordable items available for anyone wanting a souvenir.

Finally at 1:36 PM I left the museum and headed back to the apartment to get ready to go. As I walked across Parque Lezama, the sound of the parrots was constant.

At 1:46 PM I departed the park and headed back to the apartment to get my stuff out. In the distance at 1:49 PM I noticed some graffiti high up on the side of a building, and I wondered how they had done it.

Soon after, at 1:54 I arrived at the entrance to the apartment to gather my things.

I had some tense moments when I couldn’t remember exactly where I had put my other passport and cash in the many pockets of my green bag, but these sort of last minute jitters are common when traveling.

At 2:13 PM I was out the door and at 2:25 PM I was then on bus 33 headed to AEP airport. Along the way at 2:46 I saw what appeared to be low income government housing. There was a street mural honoring Padre Mugica in this area but I couldn’t get a picture. The vibrations in this bus when stopped were crazy, it was like being in an out of control massage chair! 

I got off the bus a couple stops early (this time on purpose!) at 2:54 PM as I wanted to see some things right there nearby, and I had plenty of time. 

Still, it didn’t take long and at 3:02 PM I was in the airport and then in the quickly moving Fly Bondi line at 3:07 PM, next heading up to security at 3:17 PM. This line was also fast and I was through to the departure area at 3:30 PM.

At 3:43 PM at Pizza Zen I paid 9400 ARS (660 INR – $7.9 USD) with a card to have 1 humita empanada, 1 roast beef empanada and 1 cerveza Patagonia. 

The airport wasn’t crowded, and this was a peaceful place to wait until 4:43 PM when there was a boarding call and I headed over to gate 8, already finding my seat on the plane at 5:06 PM.

I was a bit confused because when I bought the ticket it said that all hand luggage had to go under the seat, but I see a lot of maximum size carry ons. . . But also when I asked as I was checking in, they clearly only wanted me to check it in. . . I should look into this more on the flight back. I just checked, and technically it wouldn’t be allowed in as my bag weighed 7.5 kilos, but I doubt anyone actually checks the weight. 

The plane didn’t actually take off until 5:44 PM. It was not especially comfortable, but I figured it would be fine for two hours.

At 7:35 PM the plane touched down. The flight itself and also the touchdown was very smooth. I guess there would be no problem with my checked bag, but based on what I had seen so far, despite numerous online recommendations to the contrary, flying with Flybondi seemed like a good option. Oddly, as we finished moving down the runway into our parking spot, at 7:37 PM the passengers applauded. Previously I’ve only seen that in the United States.

The moment we stopped, just like in India, almost everyone jumped up out of their seat before the seatbelt sign was turned off so that they could open the overhead bins and get their things down, as if that meant that they would be off the plane any faster . . .

At 7:46 I walked off the plane and straight into the airport where people were already waiting at the luggage belt where my bag quickly emerged at 6:52 PM. The exit was also right there, and my driver was waiting just outside with a sign that had my name. As luck would have it, I was the only one who had contracted the transfer, so I had a private van transport for 6500 ARS. It goes without saying that I recommend Transfer VIP NOA, especially for solo travels coming in later in the day.

The road from the airport to Salta was in excellent repair and the driver appreciated the 1000 ARS tip I gave him when we arrived outside my lodging at 8:05 PM. For some reason I had not been able to get the online payment/reservation system to work, but when I contacted them via the WhatsApp contact on their webpage they quickly helped me reserve and said I could pay in cash directly to the driver.

After getting settled in, at 9:52 PM I left the apartment walking towards calle Balcarce, which had been recommended to me by several people. At 10:21 I passed by a huge park and a statue at the roundabout.

So at 10:54 I arrived to calle Balcarce, and while the area was very nice, full of restaurants with live music and traditional dance shows, it clearly was not made for people to come alone. I went up and down the street a few times, wanting to be able to go into one of the places, but they were all packed. There was no way I was going to be able to get food there and much less get a table where I could in any reasonable way appreciate the music and shows. So, I finally gave up at 11:52 PM and set off to try to find somewhere I could at least get some food.

Finally, very hungry, at 11:59 PM I found a place that was also fairly crowded with no smaller tables, but when I asked if it would be okay for one person to eat alone, they were quick to assure me that I was very welcome, and they put me at a table for four. At Don Juan Alberti I had a delicious parrillada for over and a small bottle of wine. At 1:49 AM I paid 23700 ARS (1663 INR – $19.94 USD ) with my Indian credit card, and also left a tip of 2200 ARS cash.

Then at 2:08 AM I started walking back. It should have been a faster walk, but I was meandering quite a bit, so it wasn’t until 3:01 AM that I finally got back to the apartment and promptly went to sleep.

So it was a very long day, but despite my initial issue getting dinner, it was also a very good day. Who could tell what time I would finally wake up, and I also had no set plan, so if you want to find out what happened on Day 9 you will just have to wait for the next entry. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below.

Argentina trip: Day 7 (21 June)

Hey there everyone, it’s hard to believe, but I’m already on my seventh day in Argentina, or more specifically, my seventh day in Buenos Aires. For those of you who have been reading along, you know that things have been going pretty well so far, and that yesterday in particular was a completely unexpected treat. For today, as I have not yet visited any, I decided to make this a museum day. 

So at 9:45 AM I was looking out the window before heading to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. It had been my plan to walk there, arriving just before they opened at 11. However, it was drizzling, almost to the point of full on rain, so I figured I would wait a bit. Normally I wouldn’t mind, but with the cooler temperature (14 C – 57 F). At 10:26 AM it was still clearly drizzling, but I decided to go out anyway, but with the plan of taking the bus rather than walking .

So, at 10:45 I was waiting for the 62A bus near the entrance to my lodging. Initially I had tried for the 130, but I missed it. Then at 10:53 I moved back to the 130 as I had already seen 3 of the 130 buses go, but no 62A. Finally at 10:55 AM I was on the relatively empty bus.

Traffic went smoothly, as it has normally appeared to do in this area of Buenos Aires since I arrived, and at 11:11 I got off the bus. Right off I noticed a rather impressive utilitarian looking building, but there was no obvious sign and it appeared to be closed. Nearby there was also a nice sort of green space, not exactly a park, right next to where the museum is located. It had a couple of interesting sculptures. I took a picture of “The wounded centaur”. For obvious reasons, I was then separately reminded of one nice thing I’ve noticed here in Buenos Aires. If someone barely accidentally bumps into you, they immediately excuse themselves . . . nothing like San José, Costa Rica in that regard.

But getting back on track, at 11:21 I entered the museum and was pleasantly surprised to see there was no entry fee. I decided to start at the top and work my way down. Right off I noticed that throughout the museum, many of the pieces have QR codes which can be scanned to get rather complete additional information. It’s all in Spanish, but one could of course easily use automatic translation.

Walking up the stairs, at 11:29 AM I started on the top floor of three.  Here I found a photography exhibition made of commentaries about books written by Facundo de Zuviría in the initial days of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. I was a bit impressed by how much he was able to read (or remember about having previously read) during that time. It made me think of my own COVID time in India, which went much longer (like many countries in Asia) then here. As I had been working full time online at that time, I guess I didn’t experience the sort of loneliness, fear and frustration which others did. I was so incredibly busy preparing and then doing online lessons, that I really didn’t have time to feel deep thoughts.

Of course, I did do a lot of walking with my dog Hannah at the time, 3-4 hours a day, since in India, walking a dog was one of the only ways you were allowed to be outside. Fortunately I also was living on the outskirts of the city, so there were plenty of wide, green spaces where we could go. Was it really only in 2020 that all of that began? It seems so far ago now, despite how long things were dragged out in India. . .  It was an unusual time, and in many ways tough, but my comparative wealth in India and a full time job that needed to be done sheltered me from much of it. Still, I remember that was also when I did a lot of online training and also when I really started earnestly learning Hindi. I know that for the more vulnerable people in society, it was a truly horrible time.

At 11:47 AM I walked down to the middle floor (Piso 1) and at 11:51 into room 25 “Argentina and the rest of the world 1900-1820”. Shortly thereafter at 11:55 then into room 26 “Latin American art 1910-1945”, in addition to the set itself, I  saw that they actually have many ways that people can connect and get more information, not just QR codes: QR codes, NFC and Bluetooth beacons. Again, most of the information is in Spanish. However, this extra information was not available for all pieces. Still, there was way more than any single person would want.

Continuing on at 12:04 PM I wondered if much of this “new art” might have simply been a backlash against photography? What was the point of realist painting if photography was increasingly so common? Then at 12:07 PM I entered the Maria Luisa Bamberg collection. She wasn’t the painter herself, but rather an art collector. She had been a film director and script writer. Later on I realized that this theme of previously private collections which were then made public through a donation (frequently) or purchase, was quite common here.

It was at 12:19 PM when not being particularly cultured myself, I had one of those classic, delightful art gallery moments when I suddenly see a painting or sculpture by an artist I actually know, such as the Composición con Reloj painting by Diego Rivera and Mujer recostada by Pablo Picasso which I saw in Sala 28. As noted earlier, it seems that many if not most of these art pieces had been donated from private collections.

If earlier had been a delight, at 12:23 PM my thoughts were a bit different. Many times when I see paintings I think, “Why would anyone pay for them, or at any rate, why would anyone pay so much?” But every once in a while there is a painting that for some reason will resonate with me, even though I suspect that it does nothing for others. That was the case with Barista by Raquel Forner.

At 12:29 PM in room 30 I was impressed by Eugenio Daneri’s “La perdida del hijo” (The loss of a child) 1945. The stoic resignation in the woman’s face was powerful.

Then at 12:39 PM in sala (room) 33, there were several sculptures by Maria Juana Heras Velasco, Noemí Gerstein and Maria Simón.. These were good examples of “art” where I simply asked myself “why”? I mean as an example of “personal expression”, do what you want. But who really WANTS to see these?

Again, at 12:51 PM in Sala 35 “Argentinian art 1945-1970” this whole room was like, really? Did these artists honestly believe what they were doing or were they just taking everyone for a ride? I could see how it might be considered “decorative” but is it “art”? For goodness” sake, one of the “pieces” was just a ripped piece of cloth!

Anyways, at 1:07 PM it was time to head down to the ground floor. This floor seemed to be more about classic or traditional art, without as much explanation as upstairs . . . Perhaps there wasn’t so much explanation because it was simply easier to understand.

Right off at 1:13 PM there was this brilliant painting by Giovanni Da Milano from between 1345 and 1370. . . It was amazing to see how vibrant it still looked after at least 650 years.

Then at 1:19 PM I saw a stunning, huge tapestry by Everaert Leyniers III from 1660 “Banquete de Escipión después del triunfo”. It’s size alone, and how much detail was done just through weaving and needlework. . . wow!

I observed at 1:26 PM that this ground floor area in general seemed far more popular than the upstairs areas. With many of these older paintings, it is striking how a single, seemingly unimportant element of a huge painting will really stand out, such as the dog’s collar in “Master Cathcat and dog” by Henry Raeburn 1756-1823.

Then at 1:31 PM, playing to my joy at seeing original works by known artists, it was a treat to see several works by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes. Then at 1:34 PM there was a very big collection of works by Rodin. I hadn’t even known that he had lived and worked many years in Argentina. I was also impressed to read the details about many of his creations, in particular learning that much of his work was the result of a massive failed undertaking in France that was never completed. As a result, he had then repurposed and altered a lot of pieces.

Then at 1:43 PM I was once more surprised to find a painting I had seen reproduced in several books and prints,  “Arlequin Danse” 1890 by Edgar Degas.

Next at 1:47 PM there was a painting by Claude Monet, which I critically had to admit was not really better than many of the questionable works upstairs.

Many of these paintings had been donated by Mercedes Santamarina. While I appreciate that in her later years she donated the work to the public museum, as with other wealthy patrons who collect art and then donate some or even all of it, I found myself thinking that “yes, the donation is appreciated, but one can’t help but wonder at the absurd inequality of wealth, usually coming by way of inheritance.” She had also donated some paintings by Cézanne and Renoir. Again I thought, “The art is beautiful, but with so much suffering in the world, was this the best way to use her money, even if later on she donated the work to the public?” Maybe I should keep these thoughts in check; I suspect that this is the way revolutions get started.

At 1:57 PM there were also several works by Edouard Manet.

Introspection seemed to be my personal theme of the day, and at 2:00 PM I was thinking about how I almost hadn’t visited this museum, since I reasoned that as entry was free, it wouldn’t be that impressive, but clearly I had been very wrong. Especially for art lovers, this is an amazing place to visit. I had no idea I would find something like this in Buenos Aires. Continuing with another recurring theme of the day, there was a huge selection which had been collected by Jose de Guerrico and his son José Prudencio and then donated in 1938.

One thing that really impresses me about this museum is how the pieces are so accessible to the public. Yes, there are guards, but entry is free, and the visitors are allowed to get extremely close to the artwork.

At 2:10 pm I noticed a big collection of beautiful hair combs, all of them being of anonymous origin, but no less beautiful.  I wondered at the work that went into creating them, but the author did not sign them anywhere. . .I guess since they were just considered fancy hair pieces, not meant to be appreciated/remembered on their own. Why were these anonymous, but paint splatters upstairs were proudly titled, dated and signed?

At 2:23 PM I looked at some of the native art and pieces commemorating the Spanish conquest. It was quite uncomfortable to learn that as late as the 1870s and 1880s there was the period of the campaña del desierto which had resulted in the extinction of most of the first peoples native to Patagonia. I learned that something similar was happening in Chile at the same time. This was of course in no way exclusive to southern South America, but that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable nor less tragic.

So, as is usually the case with art museums, I obviously could have spent much more time here, but at 2:30 PM I was ready to leave. My original plan for the day had been to also visit the Museum of Latin American art, but now I was thinking that might be a bit much. I had already been three hours in a museum today, and while it had mostly been amazing, the mind can only attempt to absorb so much before being overloaded. While at 2:35 PM I saw that it was still drizzling, I decided to go out walking anyway.

At 3:20 PM I suddenly realized I was in front of the famous Ateneo book store. While it’s certainly impressive, this is definitely not a “discount bookstore”. A lot of people, like myself, clearly only come in to take pictures. Perhaps if I lived here or had I not become accustomed to reading on a device I would have taken a picture, but at 3:42 PM I was out walking again.

At 3:44 PM I saw another of these concrete benches throughout the city that look like they are cushioned. It’s a clever idea, and the “button holes” allow water to drain out easily. Continuing my walk, at 4:00 PM I walked into the Recolecta Urban Mall, which I had previously seen from the outside when visiting Recolecta cemetery. However, there wasn’t really much of interest inside, even though I walked through the whole thing, and by 4:26 PM I was once again out in the street walking.

Finally at 4:50 PM I stopped in at Bonafide  – Las Heras to have a coffee and a dessert. The cake and coffee was just beautiful looking, and the cake, despite it’s appearance, was not overly sweet.  I paid 9500 ARS (667 INR with my Indian credit card).

I was there relaxing until 6:10 PM, and then once again left on foot, headed towards Beatriz’s place in Belgrano. Despite the kind of rainy weather, I had found it to be nice weather for walking as long as it wasn’t actively drizzling. Besides, Buenos Aires is beautiful at night, just like during the day.

At 6:34 PM I walked past plaza Italia.

There was then a beautiful, tall sculpture at the roundabout.

Continuing my walk, at 6:40 PM I passed by parque Rosedal and Plaza Holanda, followed shortly thereafter at 6:46 PM by Plaza de la Shoá. Then at 6:52 PM there was the Hipódromo Argentino. You see so many more neat things when you go walking!

Finally at 7:15 PM I arrived to Beatriz’s in Barranca de Belgrano, having just enough time to pick up a bottle of Trapiche Malbec (my favourite Argentinian wine) so I wouldn’t show up empty handed. The card reader wouldn’t work for my card, so that’s a reminder to always have some cash along just in case, which I did, so there was no problem. Then at 7:30 PM sharp I was back at Beatriz’s door

We had a wonderful visit: myself, Beatriz, her daughter Paula, and her son-in-law Roberto. The conversation was great, as was the choripan, empanadas and brownies.

As Paula had to get to work early the next day and I also had a ways to travel to get back to San Telmo, we wrapped up at 11:05 PM and by 11:35 I was waiting for bus 130, which finally arrived at 11:40. The bus was mostly empty at this hour and with no significant traffic, I was getting off the bus near my apartment at 12:18 AM.

Given my early mentioned issue with judging bus stops, I had again got off the bus a couple stops too early, but also as mentioned in earlier blog entries, that doesn’t really bother me, so it was all good. Finally, at 12:30 AM I was in the apartment, and thus

So folks, that was my last full day in Buenos Aires. My fight tomorrow isn’t until late afternoon, but as of now I don’t have any concrete plans. However, I still have several more days coming up in Argentina, so I invite you to keep reading to see how things go. As always, thanks for reading along, and feel free to leave your comments and questions in the area indicated below.

Argentina trip: Day 6 (20 June)

Hey there loyal readers, welcome back to Day 6 of the Argentina trip. So today I had put a couple of free concerts on my calendar, but then sort of late last night I saw that there would be a special Feria de mataderos activity starting at 11 AM but with the main events kicking off at 1:00 PM. I had no idea what this would be like, but I figured that if it was bad, I could just come back for the two free concerts.

At 9:58 AM I left the apartment to grab a bus to the fair, but as I had used my public transport card more than planned yesterday, I first wanted to add more to my SUBE card. As this was a national holiday, Flag day, the nearby national lottery stand where I had recharged yesterday wasn’t open, and I quickly discovered that pretty much all of the recharge points were closed today. As such, I ended up walking to the closest subway station in order to recharge, not being able to do so until 10:35 AM; I put 4000 ARS more on the card.

The tiny yellow sign is the entrance to the subway where I was finally able to recharge.

At 10:40 AM I was finally on a bus going to the fair. One issue I have discovered is that when you get on the bus here, they usually ask you the destination before scanning your card. Today he just asked me if it should be the minimum amount, and I said yes because I didn’t know the stop. It was 300 ARS.

I had to do a bus change, so at 11:00 AM I was off the first bus. I had actually got off the bus a bit earlier than I should have; this wasn’t really a choice, but I seem to be bad at judging the correct stop on buses in Buenos Aires. Still, at 11:02 AM I was already waiting for the 130 bus. Here on the standard street, it didn’t look particularly festive despite being a national holiday. In fact, up until now, the only thing I had noticed that was different today was that I had a hard time finding a place to recharge my SUBE card 🤣.

At 11:08 the bus arrived and this time I properly gave my destination, again with a cost of roughly 300 ARS (ducted from the SUBE card). By 11:38 I was getting off the second bus; again I was off a bit sooner than I should have, but I don’t mind walking since it gives me more opportunities to see things.

At 11:44 AM I walked past plaza de los Mataderos. It’s a very nice, big green space.

Then at 11:48 AM, unsurprisingly, I noticed a bunch of butcher shops in this area (mataderos means “butchers”), and it actually does look like it would be a great place to buy meat. Separately, it seems that this is clearly a lower middle class area, but still a nice looking place to live.

Then at 11:57 AM I saw that parque de los mataderos had a bunch of stands set up. I wasn’t sure if those were supposed to be part of “La Feria” or not, but it was still definitely an area I thought I should check out. This was right next to the arch announcing the Feria de mataderos.

At 1:09 PM I was barreled over! Obviously I’m not Argentinian, but they did such a great job with the genuine street dances and the ceremony that even I felt like an Argentinian patriot! Really, they did an amazing job: video 1, video 2, video 3.

At 1:49 PM there were traditional dance performances and at 1:54 PM I was so happy that I had come here. While this was clearly an activity today primarily meant for local people, it was also outstanding for a tourist like me. All the open air entertainment was nice, and it wasn’t so crowded that you couldn’t easily see.

While I was enjoying things there, at 2:15 pm I decided to go see what was going on in the park. It was obvious that this was clearly the more “common people” feria. For instance at 2:24 PM I noticed lots of clothing was also being sold here. I assumed some of it was used, but it all looked good. Yes, Parque Alberdi was interesting, but at 2:36 I decided to go back to la feria.

Initially I couldn’t handle standing in the huge line, but at 3:04 PM I bought 1 vacío, 1 choripan and 1 glass of wine for 13,000 ARS cash. Then after that I had to get in the line to pick up the food; I guessed it would take me at least 30 minutes. While waiting, I could hear the traditional live music playing behind me.

Finally at 3:30 PM it was my turn at the counter. The food was very good, but it would have been nicer to have someone to eat with. Despite the absurd amount I had bought, at 4:09 PM I finished eating.

I then moved back to the front stage area to continue enjoying the entertainment.

Again at 6:14 PM I was overwhelmed by how great the emcee for this event was. For this sort of patriotic thing he was just phenomenal! Of course all the amazing live music groups were also a big plus. I’m sure it was all carefully prepared, but the way he also recited poetry at different points. . . It was just perfect. I was so very glad I went there.

All amazing things come to an end, so at 6:21 PM I was 18:21 exiting the Feria, having stayed until the absolute last moment. Then at 6:26 PM I was waiting for bus 126, being able to get on at 6:53 PM. It was quite full but we were not smashed together.

Then at 7:38 PM I got off the bus near my apartment, but rather than going back in right away, I wandered around the area until 8:00 PM when I decided to eat at Mostaza, which is essentially a local burger joint. The cost was 6499 ARS (456 INR with my Indian credit card) for a junior double cheddar + chocolate Sundae + coke zero. The restaurant itself was like a slightly upscale McDonald’s, and the food was pretty much exactly what you would expect from the same, except the bun on the hamburger was a bit nicer.  If you like McDonald’s, I’m sure you will also like Mostaza.

Spoiler alert, while eating I bought a 4 day tour package in Salta for 15317 INR on Get Your Guide, a service which I’ve used in other countries, generally having good results. Continuing with the theme of slow eating in Buenos Aires, it wasn’t until 9:00 PM that I left Mostaza and wandered around a bit before finally entering the apartment at 9:36 PM.

Despite having entered relatively early, I didn’t go to bed until 12:17 AM since I spent a lot of time working on blog entries. . . I hope you enjoy them, because they take a lot more time than you might imagine.

So, once again, a hearty thank you to the Facebook group Baires Free for having directed me to another incredible free activity. I don’t know if the regular weekend Feria de mataderos is usually this incredible, but for flag day it was an unforgettable, absolutely amazing experience. Let me know what you think about all of this in the comments section below.

Argentina trip: Day 5 (19 June)

Hey there everyone I hope things are going well. For today, I had asked Beatriz if she would like to go to Tigre with me. Tigre is a nearby satellite city that a lot of people like to visit.

Surprisingly (for me anyways) when I woke up at  7:22 AM, it was completely dark out. I mean I know it’s Winter here, but it was still a surprise. Unfortunately, it was also drizzling a bit, so Beatriz thought it might be better to not go to Tigre today. However, she said that she would check the weather, and get back to me a bit later.

Fortunately, at 9:00 AM she sent me a message indicating that it had cleared up a bit and that the forecast was favorable. As such, at 9:15 AM I left the apartment searching for a place to add money to my SUBE card. At 9:20 AM, I found a national lottery place near the bus stop that would add money, but the system was down. It drew my attention that the worker in the shop appeared to be at least 70 years old, and I wondered if these jobs might be reserved for older citizens who didn’t have adequate pensions; something similar happens with lottery jobs in many Latin American countries. Finally at 9:28 AM the system came back up and I was able to add 3000 to my card. Perhaps I should have added more, but public transport cards tend to be a bit of a money suck for tourists, since we never know how much is good to put on, and we usually end up at the end of the trip with a worthless card which still has credit on it.

Anyways, at 9:30 I was waiting for bus 130 headed to Barrancas de Belgrano (most tourists who make their way here will be going to Chinatown), and I was able to get on at 9:35 AM. The bus ride was fine, and at 10:15 AM I arrived, and sat waiting for Beatriz on a bench in front of the tourism office. This seemed to be a middle class residential and commercial area, not too fancy, but also definitely not depressed.

At 10:40 AM Beatriz arrived, and I happily relinquished control of the day to her.

Nearby, we took a train (also using the SUBE card), with departure at 10:53 AM. The train was very nice and not crowded at all; Beatriz acknowledged this but also said that this was probably the nicest train line which departed from the city of Buenos Aires, so I should keep that in mind should I consider visiting other nearby cities. As we traveled on the train, at around 11:20 AM I clearly noticed when the scenery seemed to be changing from “city” to suburbia. I didn’t take pictures since they would not have come out well through the window. I was feeling extremely happy that I had made this trip, and even happier that my dear friend Beatriz was also able to accompany me once again.

At 11:45 AM we were off the train and started walking what Beatriz described as the standard tourist walk. Honestly, it was incredibly beautiful. It had cleared up completely and the scenery itself was amazing. While Buenos Aires is great, I suspect that if I were to live there, I would be making frequent day trips to Tigre.

At 1:44 PM we finished the standard circuit and we decided to have a coffee in McCafe. Our two cappuccinos and a piece of “decent” cheesecake had a total cost of 6350 ARS ($5.29 USD) cash. We stayed there chatting until 2:43 PM.

From there we headed towards the Puerto de Frutas (Fruit port) which these days is more of a kind of fancy tourist area. No, there didn’t appear to be either an active port or a particular abundance of fruit. However, it was certainly a pleasant place to walk around with plenty of nice things to buy.

At 3:57 PM I saw some very fancy pastries. Evidently these are typically made for national holidays, and as tomorrow is some sort of holiday, they had a good selection. Primarily on the basis of their appearance I bought two. I think it was either 2000 or 2500 ARS total for both, but I forgot to make a note of the cost.

Then at 4:04 PM we decided to eat in a shop that Beatriz likes, el Tandillero. I also thought it looked like a very picturesque place to have lunch and chat. We ordered two local beers, a matambre sandwich and a jamón de ciervo sandwich. I suggested that we split the sandwiches, to which Beatriz readily agreed. They were both very good, as was the beer, but if I had to choose only one, I think I preferred the matambre. I forgot to note down the amount in ARS, but I paid 1946 INR with my Indian credit card, which was roughly $23.30 USD. Considering the ambiance and the quality of the food and beer, that was a bargain.

At 5:34 we left, and Beatriz asked if I would like to try a different train route back, the coastal train. As that stop was closer and she also said the stains were a bit more picturesque, I agreed. By 5:55 PM we were on our way in this two car train, having used our SUBE cards to gain entry. Again, this train was not at all crowded, and the train stations really were quite beautiful. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take many photos since I thought they would not come out well through the window.

At 6:10 PM I could see the San Isidro cathedral in the distance. At least from the train, it looked very fancy. Maybe I will try to get out there to see it before I leave. Our train ride came to an end at 6:27 PM when we got off at Avenida Maipú. I decided to stick with Beatriz a bit longer since so far I had not seen a proper supermarket in Buenos Aires, and she was headed towards one to do a bit of shopping before returning home. As such, at 6:42 PM we got on bus 59, then getting off at 7:15 PM at the Luis M Campos 300 stop.

From there we walked to Jumbo supermarket, arriving at 7:29 PM  This supermarket definitely lived up to its name! Not only did this place have everything, but it was also very clean with a good layout. We were there just until 7:52 PM and then we went to another bus.

This final ride with Beatriz was only from 8:03 to 8:11 PM. She then walked down with me to Barrio Chino (Chinatown) where we parted ways since I wanted to explore a bit.

While it was nice, at 8:48 I was ready to head out to find my bus back to San Telmo. As I was walking, at 9:00 PM I bought 4 empanadas in Costumbres Argentina (This appears to be a “commercial” cheaper bakery chain) for just 3600 ARS cash, and then at 9:08 PM I was in the mostly empty bus 130, arriving near the apartment at 9:45 PM, finishing my final walk back to the apartment at 9:51 PM.

I had a couple of the empanadas, not near as good as the ones that I had bought near my house, but still an okay evening snack, and then headed to bed.

So what did you think of Tigre? I thought it was an incredible, easy day trip from Buenos Aires, but you might not think the same. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

Argentina trip: Day 4 (18 June)

Hey there once again everyone. As you’ve seen, things continue to go well with my time in Buenos Aires. Today I have a couple rough plans in my head, but it will be okay if they don’t work out as expected.

Anyways, I took my time getting out of the apartment in San Telmo, not departing until 11:46 AM. I set off walking and came across Bar Seddon. It was a very picturesque place, so I decided to have the menu del día (Daily special). Incidentally, this is a good tip for visitors, if you want to eat in actual sit down places, you will generally do better with the menu del día since it tends to be more affordable and many times includes several items. Also, unlike some other countries, you usually have a choice of at least two options, so there should be something you like.  Honestly, I don’t know the name of what I ordered, since I tend to just pretend that I know what I’m talking about when they give me options, but the starter was a nice vegetable soup, and the main course was done sort of lightly breaded beef. The food was good, but after having had this sort of breaded beef thing a couple of times, I could see it quickly getting old. The meal also included either a simple dessert or coffee at the end; I opted for the coffee since I had already eaten way too much of the bread which also typically is served at these sit down places. The entire meal, including a Pepsi, was just 9500 ARS which I paid for with a card and then left a 1200 cash tip.

At 1:15 PM I departed and headed towards la basilica de nuestra señora la Merced, as I had seen on a Facebook group called BAIRES free that there would be a free organ concert there. I arrived at 1:35 PM and shortly thereafter they were announcing the concert. As expected at that time of the day during the week, few people had come and they were mostly retirees but the short program which began at 13:51 was great! I recommend that Facebook group for anyone visiting, or even residents of the city, because they constantly announce nice activities which as you might have guessed . . . Are completely free.

The concert finished at 2:37 PM and I immediately headed over to catch a bus to la Recolecta cemetery. At 2:48 I was on the bus, arriving nearby at 3:03 PM. It was a short walk, and at 3:17 I was paying my 8270 ARS (590 INR with my Indian card). As I speak Spanish, and the weather was nice, I decided to hang out near the entry in order to have the free tour in Spanish which happens every hour.

Right at 4:02 PM the free tour began and we were off. The mausoleums here were incredibly over the top. While I’m no history expert, I thought the free tour was great. The guide was very responsive to questions, and I learned various tidbits along the way. First of all, many of the cruise crypts are actually open, since for various reasons, the remains of the deceased were later on taken to a different place. The crypts themselves can be sold and remodeled, but the front of them have to stay the same. Women in Argentina were first able to vote in 1952. Oh, and wealthy Argentinians used to take a cow with them on the boat when they would go to Europe so that they could continue to have fresh milk. Finally, as was incredibly obvious just from looking around, the families with crypts here either were or still are crazy rich.

The tour ended at 5:05 PM, but we were welcome to continue to wander around on our own. Without a guide, while the crypts were still amazing to look at, there didn’t seem like too much of a reason to stay for a long time. So, at 5:23 PM I was already walking outside, passing plaza Lavalle at 5:44 PM.

I continued walking, and arrived at the apartment at 7:00 PM.

Then at 7:48 I decided to go back to Cosas Ricas to get more of those amazing empanadas. When I got there, I realized they also sold takeaway pasta, so I also ordered Raviolis with Bolognese sauce. The total was 9600 ARS ($8 USD) in cash, and it was way too much food! I hadn’t realized how big the pasta serving would be.

So, at 8:20 PM I was back in the apartment having dinner. I however decided to leave the empanadas in the refrigerator, having them in the morning for breakfast. And thus ended my fourth day in Buenos Aires.

My key takeaways for the day were: (1) Free cultural events can be amazing, so try to find it about them wherever you are going. (2) Buenos Aires does generous takeaway pasta dishes, or at any rate Cosas Ricas does in San Telmo, and it’s really tasty and filling. (3) If available, opt for the Menu del Día.

Despite being Winter in Buenos Aires, so far the weather has been great. I hope it stays that way for the next few days. Tomorrow I think I might try to visit a satellite city which is highly recommended, but you will have to keep reading in order to find out whether or not that worked out. As always, thanks for reading along and let me know if you have any questions; you might also scroll further down and check out some of my other trips I’ve made over the past couple of years. For now, I hope your travels are at least half as great as mine, and I look forward to seeing you again for day five.

Argentina trip: Day 3 (17 June)

Hey there everyone. I hope things are going well for you wherever you are. For my part, as many of you would already have read, so far things in Argentina have been going great. Still, whereas day 2 and 3 had quite a bit of structure to them, day 3 was really just me wandering around the city. . . And boy did I wander, by the end of the day having walked more than 21000 steps, which equates to more than 16.5 km (10 miles).

Despite how much walking I did, I actually had started the day rather late, waking up at 10:30 AM, puttering around the apartment and also washing some clothes, not actually leaving until 12:24 PM. As I had not eaten anything yet, my only real plan was to find something to eat, but I was in no hurry to do the same. For those of you who wonder where the apartment is, it’s in front of the Santander building, which is just one block away from Lezama park. Anyways, I just set out walking for awhile, letting my feet take me where they would.

It wasn’t actually until 2:05 PM that I finally decided to eat at Bernardo Café. I opted for the plate of the day with a Quilmes beer. When asked if I would like a small or large one, I responded that I would like a large one, figuring that was probably 500 ml. As luck would have it however, it was a full liter! I know where you are thinking this is going, but amazingly, while I’m sure that I was in some way affected by the alcohol, it was very smooth drinking, and I definitely did not obviously feel tipsy when I finished. The food while not “amazing” was certainly decent, and the total bill was 11800 ARS, which I paid with my Indian credit card, being charged 850 INR. Separately, I left a cash tip on the table of 1440. So for those of you trying to figure out things in USD, including the tip, it was about 11 USD.

Note the cooler on the bottle. This is a simple, but good idea to keep a bottle cold, and it worked quite well.

As with other “sit down” eateries I had encountered here, nobody tried to rush me out despite me being a single person at a table for four, and I didn’t actually leave until 3:28 PM.

From there, I continued walking until about 4:00 PM when I saw a rather impressive plaza/park and building, which I later realized was the national Congress. To the side, there was also an independent movie theatre which looked interesting, but I figured that was more for residents than for a tourist like me.

Continuing on, nearby at 4:40 PM I saw a church which intrigued me, so I went ahead and entered. It was the San Expedito church. From what I could tell, this San Expedito is a really big deal for residents of Buenos Aires. 

Once again strolling up and down the streets, I found myself in the once de diciembre area. This seemed to be a slightly lower income area, but it still felt completely safe. I was really excited when I saw these little green parrots eating with the pigeons.

From there I continued to the Cromañon area, or at least from the different signs I saw, that was what I thought it was called. Clearly at some time in the past there had been some sort of disaster here? Or at any rate, that was what the street memorials indicated. Later on in the day I checked online and saw that in 2004 there had been a nightclub fire which killed 194 people, and had injured at least 1400 more!

Walking along from there, at  6:13 PM I was then in Monseñor Miguel de Andrea Plaza. I was really impressed by how many people of all ages were actively using/enjoying the park. I think it is wonderful when public spaces like this are actually valued by the local residents.

From there my walk continued, and at 6:51 PM I was at the corner of the Recolecta mall, where there was live street music! Again, I was happy to see some local residents clearly enjoying the performance.

At 6:55 PM I realized that I was starting to feel a bit tired, so I sat down on a bench to see the best way to get back to San Telmo. My original idea had been to walk back, but upon further consideration, at 7:29 PM I was waiting for the 10A bus to take me back to the apartment. However, the bus didn’t actually arrive until 7:48 PM.

I didn’t really notice the time when I got back to San Telmo, but at 8:35 PM I bought three very nice looking empanadas from Cosas Ricas, a simple shop two blocks from where I’m staying. They seem to only sell takeaway pizza, and empanadas, but I will go back again later on to see if they have other stuff. The empanadas were large and tasty, and the total for all three was 3600 ARS cash, or $3 USD.

At 8:45 I was back in the apartment with the empanadas. My original thought had been to only eat one or two, saving the rest for breakfast, but they were so delicious that I ended up eating all three 🤪. Then I went ahead and checked some news, and went to bed at 10:00 PM.

So while I didn’t actually have any obvious activities today, I still had a good time exploring the city. For now, I’m a bit tired, so will close, but don’t hesitate to ask any questions or leave comments in the section below.

Argentina trip: Day 2 (16 June)

Hey there everyone, thanks for continuing to follow along. Today will be my first full day in Buenos Aires, so I’m hoping it’s a good one.

Despite not having slept until 1:00 AM, I woke at 6:20 AM this morning, but then resolved to try to sleep until at least 8:00 AM. That didn’t really work out as planned, but at least I stayed resting in bed. The previous evening Beatriz had suggested that we meet up again at 11:00 AM, so I left the apartment at 9:46 AM and headed walking in the general direction of Plaza de Mayo.

Mostly because I didn’t want to deal with the difficulties of figuring out breakfast, at 10:12 I stopped in at a McDonald’s along the way and got a small breakfast sandwich and drink, paying with my Indian credit card at a cost of 281 INR ($3.36 USD). Incidentally, they didn’t have “Mcmuffins” but rather a less dense local bread which was similar in size. Regardless, it tasted fine and served its purpose.

I departed at 10:41, walking through Plaza de las Armas.

I then arrived to the Plaza de Mayo at 10:49. The plaza itself is a bit smaller than I had imagined, but it’s much the same as other city plazas. There was a statue no doubt of someone very important on a horse, and around it people had placed stones with the names of people who died during the pandemic. I thought that was a nice symbol, especially since in other countries I’ve been, society as a whole seems to be intent on just completely forgetting that it ever happened.

Beatriz arrived shortly thereafter and we went walking across the plaza towards the Catedral de Buenos Aires. Beatriz and many locals were quite excited to see that the changing of the guard was taking place. For tourists, the main attraction of this cathedral is the tomb of San Martin, Argentina’s national hero. The tomb itself was quite impressive, but as I discovered a couple of days later, Argentinians with money definitely don’t scrimp on tombs. Still, it’s one of those places you definitely should visit if you are in Buenos Aires.

By 11:19 AM we were heading into the Calle de la Defensa market which takes place on Sundays to supplement the San Telmo market which is near the end of it. Going to this Sunday market is always mentioned as one of the “must do” activities of visiting Buenos Aires, so I was happy to be doing it. To be sure, there was a lot of interesting stuff to buy, but I’m not much of a casual shopper; although, I do still like to see it.

At 12:18 we were in Plaza Dorrega. As far as I can tell, they have a more or less permanent installation of stalls there. It was similar stuff to what one finds on the Calle la Defensa Sunday market but with the difference that they seem to be there all the time.

At 12:36 we stopped into Mercado San Telmo itself, but it was so crowded that I didn’t actually want to go in.

Evidently a lot of people go here to eat, but I’m not sure. We wanted a bit more, but by 12:56 we were already in a bus headed towards la Boca, where we arrived at 1:03 PM.

The first landmarks I saw were puente nueva and puente vieja. Essentially just two bridges next to each other. The area itself was pretty enough, but there wasn’t really all that much to see. It seems that for the most part this is another general area where people go to eat and do some souvenir shopping.

As Beatriz is a local, she recommended that we eat in Cafe Proa, a rather elegant cafe on the upper floor of a museum there. It must be quite popular because we didn’t have a reservation, and thus almost didn’t get in. However, there was an early departure, so at 1:29 PM a table unexpectedly opened up.

There we stayed eating and chatting until 3:30 PM. This sort of “slow dining” seems to be the norm in these cafe/restaurants and it’s nice because they don’t try to push you out quickly. The total for both of us was 28000 ARS, with them easily allowing us to split the bill, both paying by card. I separately left 3000 ARS in cash as a tip.

Beatriz asked if I would like to see part of the north of the city, and as I had nothing planned, I agreed.  By 3:36 we were on bus 64, arriving to Palermo Norte at 4:21 PM. This part of the city was very different from where I’m staying, much fancier, and it was nice to just walk around and continue to chat with Beatriz.

After a couple hours of exploring, at 6:11 PM I was waiting for bus 130, which did not arrive until 6:30 PM, but it was a pleasant bus stop, so I had no concerns. The bus trip was very fast, and at 6:42 PM I was at the bus stop near where I was staying.

So that was my first full day in Buenos Aires. Certainly I got lots of great pictures, but more importantly I had another nice visit with a dear old coworker and friend from when I used to work at UWC Costa Rica. I have no definite plans for tomorrow, but I’m sure it will be another interesting day. Let me know if you have any questions, and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Finally, as always, thanks for following along; I hope you enjoy reading a bit about my adventures. See you next time!

Argentina trip: Day 1 (15 June)

Hey there followers, it’s been some time but I’m finally back to chat with you about another trip. After 27 hours of flights and another 6 hours of layovers, I finally arrived at Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires at 11:25 AM. It looked sunny outside, and according to the information screen, it was 15 degrees Celsius outside.

Getting off the plane and doing all the formalities was incredibly easy, and by 11:44 AM I was already through immigration and out in the arrivals hall. I had several tasks to get done before leaving the airport: change a small amount of dollars to Argentinian pesos, get a local transit card, and hopefully also get a local prepaid SIM card.

Paying attention to advice I had read online, I avoided the local exchange house, and headed over to the Banco de la Nación branch which was to the right, just as one enters the main arrival hall. If you have problems seeing it, just ask someone, and they will be happy to point you in the right direction. Also, remember to only change the MINIMUM amount of money you will need to get from the airport to your lodging. While the exchange rate at the bank is better than what you will get at the currency exchange counter at the airport, it’s still much worse than what you can get at an exchange house downtown. The line was short, and I exchanged $20 USD for 17,640 ARS (exchange rate of 882).

Then at 12:09 PM I bought a SUBE (public transport) card at the Open25 shop which was to the left as I walked into the arrival hall. Again, if you get turned around, just ask someone for help; however, it’s fairly easy to manage. I paid 5000 ARS total in cash for the card itself and 4120 ARS of transport credit. So far, things were going well. The next order of business was to find a prepaid SIM card.

I had read a lot of conflicting information about this online, so I wasn’t too surprised to find that you can no longer buy cards in the airport. However, if you have an ESIM enabled phone, you can scan a QR code and start the process of activating a local personal flow card. The whole process is easy, but seems odd, since you do it via email rather than through an automated system. The only problem is that they don’t tell you how long the activation process will take.

So, not knowing whether it would be 30 minutes or 3 days, I went ahead at 12:52 PM and got an Airalo data ESIM online with 1 GB of data and seven days of validity for $6 (I actually only paid $1.73 USD since I had Airalo points) before heading out to find the bus to the center. Incidentally, taking the public bus like this only makes sense if like me, you only have a medium size backpack; mine is maximum size carry on. Most travelers will either opt for a private car costing about 30 USD or a shuttle which costs like $10 USD. The public bus is clean, comfortable, and less than $1 USD, so that’s what I had decided to use.

At 1:40 PM the bus departed from the airport. I didn’t pay attention to exactly how long it took but it was about an hour. Part of the reason I was distracted is that while on the bus I discovered that my personal flow eSIM had already been approved at 1:30 PM. Given that I had sent the activation request at 12:32, that’s a pretty impressive turnaround time. However, I couldn’t activate it on my own, since they had ironically sent a QR code which has to be scanned with your phone camera in order to activate. There’s probably some way to make it work, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it by myself, so since I already had the Airalo card active, I decided to wait until arriving at my AirBnB to take care of activating the local eSIM.

Again, I wasn’t paying close attention to all the times, but the bus let me off fairly close to my apartment in San Telmo, and the owner of the place quickly helped me to take care of getting the local eSIM installed. While it’s still much cheaper than the data only eSIMs like you get with Airalo, as with most prepaid plans in Latin America, they go out of their way to make it a complicated choice as to which plan to choose.

Since I was going to be in the country for 15 days, it looked like the best option for me was a 2 GB of  data (unlimited Whatsapp) plus unlimited calls and texting plan which was good for 30 days; it had a cost of 5 ARS, which when I paid online with my Indian credit card was about $4.07 USD. So, now with all of the initial needs taken care of, it was fine to get started with the vacation!

My first order of business was to change some money. On a Facebook page I had seen a couple of recommended places. The one I decided to go to was at Florida 656. It seems like many of these places aren’t “official” but are generally considered safe. Most people online at least also seem to prefer these less official exchange houses. I left my apartment at Avenida Colón 13800 block, at 4:04 PM, and by 4:42 I had already completed the 3 km walk and was walking into the locale. There was no clear sign, but someone noticed me looking and directed me to a little closet office which seemed to be formally set up for financial transactions. The place was well lit, and “seemed safe”.  They offered me 1200 ARbly close to the Blue dollar (unofficial dollar exchange rate) which I had checked earlier. I gave him one of my crisp 100 USD bills and he pushed me over a stack of Argentinian 1000 peso bills. Noting the “check your money before leaving” sign, I counted that I only had 112,000 instead of 120,000. I indicated this to the cashier, and he quickly corrected the amount with no complaint. Given the nonplussed manner in which he recognized the error, I suspected that this type of “mistake” might be common, but as he immediately fixed it, I wasn’t upset. Whereas the bank at the airport had asked for my passport and boarding pass, here they asked for nothing.

From there I walked nearby to Buenos Aires tickets to get two tickets to tonight’s showing of Brujas, as I had invited my old coworker and friend Beatriz to go with me. I had tried to buy the tickets online ahead of time, but as is the case with many countries, it seemed impossible to buy the tickets online ahead of time from outside of the country, using a foreign card. The good news though is that while it’s an overly complicated system, buying the tickets in person at Buenos Aires tickets is significantly cheaper than buying online. Had I purchased from the official site, it was 23000 ARS for a ticket, but doing it this way it was only 14800. However, as indicated, it was a weird system in which one first pays 3300 to Buenos Aires tickets and then walks nearby to the theatre and pays 11500; note, the second payment had to be done at least one hour before the show. In summary, for the sake of convenience I can see why many people buy online ahead of time, but the savings are significant if one can do it this way. Of course, not all tickets have the same cost, but I imagine that the percent savings is similar for all tickets.

I had bought the second part of the tickets at 5:15 PM and then decided to quickly go back to the apartment before the show, as I didn’t want to have my passport and all that cash with me. At 5:35 PM I was on a bus headed back to the apartment. I left my things and headed out again, but had problems getting the bus back to the area so ended up taking an Uber for 4000 ARS at 6:40 PM, just barely arriving at the theatre at 6:50  to meet up with Beatriz and enter for the 7:00 PM show.

It was amazing to see Beatriz again after 14 years! While the show was nice, they frequently spoke so quickly that I at times had problems following along. I suspect they were also at times using some local slang. If not obvious, the show was in Spanish, which in itself is not a problem for me. Most of the audience seemed to think it was very funny, but I just thought it was pleasant; however, I recognize that it is more a function of my understanding of the local slang and local accent than of the show itself. Still, I was happy to have gone.

Departing the theatre at 8:46 PM, Beatriz and I continued hanging out until 11:43 PM at an elegant, very picturesque bar/cafe called Petit Colon which was nearby. For my very large sandwich, a beer, and two teas, the total cost was 26400 ARS. Based on the cash rate I had got at the second exchange house, that means it would have been $22 USD. It gets a bit tricky though since whenever possible I’m paying with my Indian credit card, which was 1901 INR; this is equivalent to $22.75 USD. Still, you get the general idea. Regardless, we were at the bar/cafe for more than 2.5 hours, without being hassled at all to give up the table, so it seemed like a good deal.

I then decided to walk the three kilometers back to the AirBnB apartment I had rented for 12276 INR ($147 USD) for 7 nights, finally finding myself in bed at 1:00 AM.

So wow! It’s been a great time so far, and I’ve discovered many things along the way. I don’t have an exact plan for these next few days in Buenos Aires, instead choosing to make decisions along the way and to slowly start to get a feel for the city. Keep following along with future entries, and you’ll find out how things went. As always, thanks for reading along and feel free to put any comments or questions in the comment section below.

Malaysia trip: Day 6 (28 Mar)

Hey there fellow travelers and friends. I hope you all enjoyed my first full day in Melaka. I know that I certainly did.

Despite the generally pervasive heat I discovered this morning at 8:15 AM that it can actually be very pleasant earlier in the day. At 8:00 AM with the windows open I could hear the soft sound of popular Arabic language music in the background which accompanied the cool breeze through the window.

Then at 8:23 AM we headed out for the day in search of an ATM. This was actually more difficult than you might think, which is odd, because many smaller shops and eateries seem to only want cash. Fortunately, there were some interesting things to see along the way.

Finally at 9:00 AM we were able to locate two banks with open ATMs, which were ironically right next to each other. Fortunately there was a simple eating joint nearby called Sisbuay Delight, right in front of the Grand Star Hotel. The cost of breakfast for two people was 25 RM ($5.29 USD).

While simple, the food was good. However we were not inclined to hang around a lot longer, so at 9:24 AM we finished up and continued exploring.

While within easy enough walking distance, this was clearly not a tourism sector of the city. However, the temperature was quickly rising, so at 10:10 PM we decided to duck into the Melaka Mega Mall. At first we thought it was another one of those oddly abandoned shopping centers, since there was almost nothing nor anybody on the first three floors of the building, but as we were exiting, we decided to go through a non-descript entryway into the lower ground floor where we discovered an entire small city of vibrant shops, albeit still with few customers. It’s hard to tell in the pictures, but the partially underground area really was huge.

At 10:40 PM we went out the other end of the mall, emerging back into the land of neverending museums. We initially weren’t particularly keen to visit the Independence Memorial Museum, but entrance was free, so we figured we may as well check it out. Once more, the air-conditioning was going full blast with doors and even some windows open throughout. I can only assume that electricity here is incredibly cheap.

Then at 11:40 AM we walked across the little plaza access headed into the People’s Museum. The cost per adult was 10 RM. ($2.11 USD). There were actually several different sections here. the first one had lots of stuff about kites and traditional games.

By 12:10 PM we were ready to head upstairs to the beauty museum. This seemed less about beauty than it was about showing off cultural practices that most of the mainstream world would find to be ugly. They seemed to be especially interested in lip, nose and very large ear plugs.

Of course more time could have been spent here, but at 12:43 PM we started down the stairs and almost immediately came across a very engaging stamp and coin collectors shop.

These seemed to be mostly geared to the casual collector, since prices tended to be between 10 and 50 RM. Nevertheless, they did a good job of presenting things, but I just didn’t want to buy anything.

Back down on the ground floor was the Meteor gallery. This was mostly like an upper elementary school science class, but with the important distinction that they actually had several meteorites on display, some of which you could even touch and pick up; that was new for me! They also of course sold jewelry made with meteorites and even meteor cologne; who even knew that existed?

After leaving the building at 1:07 PM we headed back to the nearby Megamall where we had earlier seen a nice looking Thai food place called Johnny’s Restaurant.

The food was very satisfying, and the total cost for both of us was only 71 RM ($15.15 USD. The robot delivery of the food was a bit silly, but an interesting gimmick. We finished up here at 2:29 PM and decided to go across the aisle to check out “Brands Outlet”. There are no pictures because the clothing was just plain horrible. We did however finally find a bathroom in the mall; for some reason these are very few and far between.

I wondered if this sign really was. . . . Evidently it is a common enough issue that they had stickers made.

By 3:03 PM we were back to museum land, this time the Melaka Heritage Museum. Entry here was free.

While pretty much everything covered here had earlier been seen in other museums, I felt that they had done a decent job here. My only criticism would be that they were way too detailed with some of the information. I felt that even a serious history student would at times have been overwhelmed.

3:50 PM came and we rushed over next door to the final museum, Stadthuys. It had a cost of 20 RM ($4.22 USD) per adult, but we would have to finish and be out by 4:45 PM.

This museum had a lot more actual artifacts than the others, but there were also a lot of recreations. I would have liked to spend more time here, but I know I also would have quickly gotten overloaded. Thus, it was probably for the best that I had to just rush through. We were pushed out of the museum at 4:40 PM, and then we immediately went to a traditional Malaysian Chinese coffee shop at 4:45 PM.

Despite having no signage of any sort, this place was very busy. I was the only non-ethic Chinese person in the place. It was 18 RM ($3.81 USD) for a cold, long coffee and a tiny piece of tasty cheesecake. We stayed here at 5:20 PM and were once more out on the street.

While this had not been planned, at 5:40 PM, we found ourselves outside the Malaysian knife gallery, and they had the largest knife in Malaysia right in front of the shop!

This place was actually way cooler than it sounds, so I would highly recommend that you stop in. We stayed walking around inside until 6:18 PM and even bought a few items. The lighting outside was amazing when we exited.

Next, at 6:54 PM we went into this vegetarian Chinese restaurant called Chin Hua vegetarian food. The absolutely delicious food was 30 RM ( $6.35) for two (including two coconuts). They even cut open the coconut for me afterwards AND scooped all the coconut off the husk so I could easily eat it; what a bargain!

Departing at 7:33 PM, it was then an easy 30 minute stroll back to the hotel.

And then my last full day in Melaka was finished!  

If it was tiring for you to read all that, just imagine what it was like for me to actually do it. Still, I’m glad I packed in as much as possible, since while I might come back to Malaysia, it’s rather unlikely that I’ll ever be back to Melaka. Yes, it was a very nice place to visit, but the world just has so many other amazing places waiting to be discovered.

As always, I hope you’ve enjoyed following along, and I look forward to seeing your comments and questions in the space provided below. For now goodbye to all of you faithful readers, family members and friends.