(Muy) Buenos Aires

Arrival in Buenos Aires! Hoorah! Immediate things of note; hot! Accent- what the hell? As we did the usual acquisition of currency, mucho baggage and taxi, Ari did his best to understand what was going on but seemed at a loss as to what anyone was saying to him. Once inside a taxi we headed off for our base for the next few days and we got our first glimpses of the city. The roads were big, orderly, the land well organised, a different land entirely to the ones we had grown accustomed to. Maradona becoming the latest manager for the Argentinian National side and the general opinion was; lets hope that it's not all talk and no action..
We arrived at the apartment we'd rented in the lovely district of Palermo. I was struck with an attack of deja vu- was this New York or Madrid? We were really excited to be here, and couldn't wait to find our first Argentinian steak. After our usual trip to the pharmacy/supermarket (no baby food to be seen anywhere, strange) we popped into a parilla (grill) and ordered loads-a-meat with all the trimmings. It was FAB, even Leo enjoyed a good old chew on a piece of steak. Could life get any better? Finding some baby food might be good, but otherwise things weren't looking half bad.
I wanted to spend a while in Buenos Aires (BA), but in trying to keep costs down (the devaluing pound is making this trip more expensive as the days pass) by getting the cheaper flights meant we only had 4 nights here, so we had to make use of every second.
Our first day was spend walking the streets of BA, through parks, stopping for coffee, giving Leo a go on some swings in a children's play area. We came across some beautiful Japanese gardens which had some lovely Bonsai trees on show. Would love another go at having a Bonsai, our last attempt back home didn't work out so well, can't remember if it was under/overwatered but it never really thrived that well in our care!
We stopped at the Evita museum for a spot of culture, the museum is in an old house where she used to house her charitable foundation. We found her story to be amazing. I had no idea that she was only 33 when she died, which is ridiculously young to have achieved and done so much. And to have died so tragically from cancer.

I had already warned Ari that the following day we were going to hit the centre for some retail therapy so to be prepared to shop til he dropped. He was really excited at the prospect (not). But BA is supposedly the place to get leather products of all kinds and I was hoping to pick up a nice handbag. We headed off and wandered up the main streets, buzzing with activity, salesmen for leather, tours, restaurants. Call me an old fusspot but I wasn't particularly inspired by what I saw, maybe because I haven't actually used a handbag for the last two months, and perhaps because I wasn't seen quite the bargains I was expecting. Alas, I had to make do with a new pair of havaianas for me (and a pair for Leo- he's going to look so cute next summer), would have bought the shop but curse this luggage weight restriction malarkey. Ari looked for a football top but was equally uninspired. Oh well. We took refuge in a coffee house and headed home for a spot of steak. Still no baby food to be found, wierder and weirder.
Last day in BA, we thought we'd head for the dock area after buying our coach tickets for later on in the journey (night bus across Argentina- yuck). The docks were lovely, this might sound ridiculous but they reminded me of the Albert Dock in Liverpool (additional sun and heat included), where Good Morning used to be filmed and the floating map of the British Isles used to reside. Goodness me I hope I'm not getting homesick. After the increasingly essential coffee stop I hoodwinked Ari into going shopping again, on the premise that he didn't want his wife to look undignified in a pair of worn out old jeans. Actually jeans shopping is not my idea of fun either but was necessary as they were about to fall fall apart and with only one other pair of trousers I did not fancy my chances of finding anything half decent in Patagonia. Brent Cross fix number two was a quick military operation and suffice to say, mission accomplished. Time to head home to pack as our BA experience was nearly at an end. Quick dinner stop, maybe steak on the menu?
We have all decided that Buenos Aires is a beautiful city, and a place where we could easily live. Everybody always says how much of a European feel it has but it really is true, you could actually be in Europe. Definitely would come back again in a second. Alas, that was it for now, for it was time to head off to deep south Argentina, Patagonia territory.