February 28, 2008 - March 2, 2008 - Buenos Aires, Argentina

February 28, 2008 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
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I had a leisurely wakeup. I had Table service here for breakfast. The breakfast was decent. My first stop was at the BUQUEBUS office (15 blocks away) to inquire about ferry options to URUGUAY. Crossing Avenida 9 de Julio (the broadest street in the world) can take 2 traffic lights if you walk leisurely!

On reaching the BUQUEBUS office, I had a short wait before my turn came up. Based on the information I received, I decided to take a ferry from Buenos Aires to Montevideo (Capital of Uruguay) and return from Colonia del Sacramento (Uruguay) back to Buenos Aires. These were fast ferries. The trip to Montevideo would take 3 hours, while the trip from Colonia would take 1-hour. The bus ride (which I would book on reaching Montevideo) from Montevideo to Colonia would presumably take 2-hours. The two ferry rides were to cost A$335 (US$112 approx.).

Upon exiting the BUQUEBUS office, it started raining heavily. So, what's new? Every big city greets me with a downpour (Asuncion, Rio, Salvador, Sao Paulo and now Buenos Aires) I ducked into a nearby internet cafe for 30 minutes and waited for the rain to subside. When it did let up a bit, I headed to the American Express office to exchange my Travellers Cheques to Greenbacks as well as Argentine Pesos. It started pouring again as I left the American Express offices.

I visited a tourist office next for Shelter and Information. It appears that the "Train to the Clouds" in Salta (Northern Argentina) is not running at this time. I may have to see what else is there to see and do in Salta as I have already planned on staying there for 4 days.

I visit the Retiro Train Station and inquire about trips to Tigre Delta. There is no advance booking possible for these trains and tickets can be purchased before the time of travel. It appears that the Train takes about an hour from Retiro Station to reach Tigre Delta. I may visit Tigre on Saturday.

I headed to a Telephone centre and called home. All was well. I took a train back to my Hotel. Public transport in Buenos Aires is good and cheap. I rested a bit in my hotel and dried myself. I left the hotel a bit later and went out in search of lunch. I found the famous Confiteria TORTONI and had a Sundae for lunch! Despite the price (A$22 - US$7), it was excellent. The other tourists who were just having coffee, stopped midway to take pictures of me and my Sundae before and during my gobbling!

As it was still raining when I left the cafe, I headed to a nearby Internet cafe and blogged for 3 hours. The cost for 3 hours was 9 pesos (US$ 3). The rain had more or less stopped and blue skies were trying to peek through the clouds. I got back to the hotel, took my camera backpack and headed out.

I headed first to the Palacio del Congress and then to the Obelisk on Avenida 9 de Julio for pictures. It was well past 7 PM and there was still excellent light. After my picture taking, I start my hunt for an Indian restaurant. The restaurant on lavalle and Florida streets - Bombay - is closed. Another vegetarian restaurant - Thulasi - is open only from 10:30 AM to 4 PM - Mondays through Fridays! I decide to head to Tandoor restaurant a bit further away.

I take a train to Recoleta and head to Tandoor restaurant. It appears to be a very nice neighbourhood and the restaurant looks classy as well. I order food and a wine by the glass. 2 men of Indian descent seat themselves on a table next to mine and start blind tasting 4 bottles of wine. I cannot resist commenting and we are pretty soon chatting away and I get to "SAMPLE" wines from 2 of the 4 bottles they were having! It turns out these 2 men were former engineers, who had quit their jobs, travelled in south America and had decided to open this restaurant.

The restaurant has been in operation for 8 months. We chat about wine for a bit and exchange e-mails as well. One of the owners will be in Montevideo (while I am there as well) and he promised me that we could do some joint visits to the bodegas there. I finish my dinner, bid goodnight to Shahrukh and Beliappa and head back to the train station.

Turns out that there are no trains after 10 PM. I take a taxi from Recoleta to my hotel (A$10). During my ride, I chat with the driver. It turns out that he is a realtor by day for REMAX. I get his contact Information. Who knows when I may come into riches and may want to buy some property everywhere!

I could not write the diary after 4 glasses of wine. Amor had left a message at the Hotel's front desk that she would stop by tomorrow morning at 9 AM. Based on my observations over the past 2 days, women in Buenos Aires are very Average looking. Certainly nothing to write home about!

February 29, 2008 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
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I woke up at 8:15 and decided to snooze for a bit. The next thing I knew was Amor calling me at after 9 AM! She had to visit a travel agency and was going to be delayed a bit. We agreed to meet up at 10:!5 AM near the Obelisk on Av. 9 de Julio. I got ready in a hurry and just had a tall glass of Juice for breakfast before heading out of my hotel. I reached the obelisk area around 10:20 or so and walked around a bit. Amor showed up around 10:35 AM and apologized for being late.

We headed to her hostel as she needed to check out. We headed next on Av. Florida. Florida is a peatonal - pedestrian only street. As my Brazilian Phone was not working in Argentina, I had asked Amor (since she is a fluent in Spanish and English) if she could help me find a decent Mobile telephone company in Buenos Aires. During our walk, we headed to the nearest Western Union and I exchanged 122 Brazilian Reais into 180 Argentine pesos. We found a MOVISTAR office and approached a customer service representative. After a long back and forth between me and the customer service representative (with Amor as the translator), I decided to purchase a local Argentine SIM Card for A$12 (US$ 4). The Chip came with a 5 peso credit.

I used my Argentine MOVISTAR Card (that I had Purchased in USHUAIA in late January) and it worked. I now had A$25 credit on my Phone. International roaming was not possible with this number. While Chilean MOVISTAR had all the features including International roaming. However, I would be able to use this Number in Uruguay - as Argentina considers Uruguay to be part if it :)

Amor and I headed to lunch at Thulasi. I had rice and Vegetable Kofta. It was a tad bland and I asked for pickles (the Indian Kind) to spice things up. Amor had rice and Chana Masala. We walked back and bid adieu. We plan to meet up again in Mendoza (Argentine Wine Region) in 2 1/2 weeks.

I headed next to the Aerolineas Argentinas office to reconfirm my flights and to explore the flight options to visit Bariloche from Mendoza. On reaching the office, I found out that the flight to Salta had changed. It was no longer at 3 PM. I was offered a flight either at 11 AM or at 5:30 PM. I chose the 5:30 PM flight. However (and they tell me this after all the time I have spent there) , I need to get my PAPER tickets (already issued to me) before they will issue the new tickets with the changed flight timings! I had to go back to my Hotel to get these. All flights within Argentina passed through Buenos Aires. To go from Mendoza to Bariloche, I would have to go from Mendoza to Buenos Aires and then to Bariloche which seemed quite a waste of time. The flight option was to cost me an extra A$1100 (US$350). As the bus from Mendoza to Bariloche takes 19-hours, I may decide to skip Bariloche during this visit.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Casa Rosada (Presidential Palace) were nearby. I spent the next 45 minutes visiting these places. I then took a train to my hotel and rested a bit, did an internet check and headed back again to the Aerolineas Argentinas office. In many of these offices, one needs to take a number and wait their turn. I was a bit late in responding to my number (when it was called) and the agent told me that I needed to retake a new number. I blew my top. It worked! An English speaking agent took me right away and helped me out. After all this huffing and puffing, she finally tells me that the paper ticket (with the changed flight details) would be issued at the Airport (on the day of my flight). And I have already wasted 2 hours on this! I wish all agents would read from the same Script.

I headed next to the Movistar office to confirm the International code for sending TEXT messages to friends and family. I was asked to use the "+" sign rather than "00". It seemed to work. I took a train to Callao station (near Recoleta). I walk to Espacio Norton. I ran into a young man called Marcelo who works for the Marketing department for Bodega Norton. An excellent English speaker, he tells me that Espacio Norton is holding a wine tasting that evening at 7 PM. He asks me to come by at 7 PM and assures me that he will ensure that I am on the list of Invitees. The Sommelier for this evening's wine tasting would be a Spanish speaker and I may not understand all of the comments or discussions that take place.

As I had some time before the tasting, I visited a nearby music shop called NOTORIOUS. I was able to sample 4-5 CDs of Argentine jazz music, before I decided to purchase a couple for A$51 (US$ 17). That's the kind of price all CDs and DVDs in the US should be (US$4 - US$8). Anything higher and downloads are justified! After all most of the money is skimmed by the fat cats (in the marketing and publicity) and very little goes to the artists anyway.

I had a brownie and coffee at Notorious cafe and headed back to Espacio Norton. I was welcomed and given a welcome glass of Sparkling wine. I chatted with an Argentine in Spanish (as much as I could). 2 Sommeliers walked us through the tasting of 3 wines - a Sauvignon Blanc, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Malbec - all from 2004 vintage. The Sauvignon Blanc was the best of the lot. It was a good tasting session with the sommelier asking and responding to questions from the tasters (In Spanish, of course). At the end, we were given a tour of the house of Norton. On departing the place (after the tasting), I was given a bottle of their 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon as a gift for showing up!

Some of the tasters were rather well dressed. Women here may be ordinary looking but they do dress well. I took a train back to Centro. I headed to a cafe and had a simple cheese sandwich and coffee. The white bread was excellent. It reminded me of tasting similar bread (many decades ago) at Dasaprakash in Chennai! I headed to an Internet cafe to back up my memory cards. On my way back, I came across a cinema theatre showing "There will be Blood". I may see it tomorrow.

I plan to visit Tigre Delta tomorrow.

March 1, 2008 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
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I woke up early and was done with breakfast by 7:20 AM. I took the metro to Retiro Station and purchased a roundtrip to Bartolome Mitre Station for A$1.80. Retiro is a grand old station. The train carriages (on the train to B. Mitre station) were quite old and the seats were worn. I noticed a large mosque on the train route (close to Retiro Station). I assumed that Buenos Aires must have a decent Islamic Population to warrant such a large mosque.

The train ride to B. Mitre took 40 minutes. I had to walk to the Coastal Train Station (called MAIPU) to take another train to Tigre Delta. The ticket office was not open. The train (a short one with just 4 coaches) came in to Maipu station a little before 9 AM. I purchased a 1-way ticket to Tigre for A$5 on the train. There were 10 station between Maipu and the final destination of Tigre. Every station had been highlighted (on my train map) for some attraction or the other. The train was much newer and it was air-conditioned.

There is a lovely residential area close to Maipu train station. I wondered how much the property prices here were. The ride to Tigre delta station took 30 minutes. I walked for about 10-minutes before coming to the dock area. To appreciate the central attraction of this area, one needs to take a boat trip on the tigre delta. Boats trips were being offered for 60 minutes for A$18 or 90 minutes for A$30. The weather was dull and grey and showed increasing promise of rain. I decided to walk around the place until the sky cleared up and before I took a boat trip on the delta.

I noticed people rowing on the tigre river. There were single row boats and rowing teams practising. I suppose, Argentina, must have a decent rowing team at the Olympics. I took a long nice walk. There were many old buildings and museums. The Museo del Arte, Tigre is an excellent building on the waterfront. The museum opened at Noon and it was hardly 11 AM!

As with all my days (thus far in Buenos Aires), there was a light drizzle followed by a brief downpour. I waited it out in a shelter and continued my walking tour. I reached the Central area of Tigre around Noon. I walked around the Tigre Station (as opposed to the Tigre Delta Station) which has direct train services to Retiro Station in Buenos Aires. The fare is cheaper as well (A$1.00).

It was still cloudy. I decided to take a boat ride at 3 PM hoping that it would clear up by then. I continued to see a lot of interesting properties. This might not be a bad place to live as it may not be as expensive as Buenos Aires and yet it is quite close to Buenos Aires. I spent an hour at a local Internet cafe to kill some time. I walked by the tourist office and picked up a vegetarian empanada for lunch from a nearby shop as I did not want to eat Italian food again!

I walked to the Tigre Delta Station and the Portos de Frutos area 20 minutes later. I purchased a ticket for a 90-minute boat ride. It was close to 2:30 PM. As there was a weekend flea market going on, I spent some time walking around the place. Nothing interested me.

I got back to the dock and boarded the boat. We departed around 3:15 PM. There were about 30 passengers on this 100-passenger boat. We had a decent bilingual guide. We started along the Sarmiento river and a few other tributaries. We observed a lot of nice houses. Some of these houses were on stilts. I hope the waste is treated before being pumped back into the river. Within 10 minutes of our departure, the clouds opened up and it poured for 15-minutes. Once the rain stopped, I headed to the upper deck to take in the view and some pictures. One could see the Skyline of Buenos Aires in the distance. We were even catching glimpses of a blue sky!

The tour ended around 4:30 PM. The guide wanted to see some of my pictures. I obtained her card (with her e-mail address) and told her I would send here an invitation to my online album, once the pictures are uploaded. I got back to Tigre delta station and purchased a ticket to Maipu station. It was A$8 this time! It appears that I was treated as a resident of Buenos Aires on my way in and hence I was charged A$5.

I would probably not recommend this day trip. Frankly, there is nothing of terrible interest here. Of course, if you want to escape the big city for a day, then this would be a good place.

I got back to Retiro Station around 6:20 PM. As the movie "There will be blood" was playing at Recoleta, I decided to see it. I had a long, long walk (as I had underestimated the distance of the theatre from the Station) before reaching the theatre a few minutes before show time. The only tickets available were in the first row! I passed as I was not that desperate. I took a bus back to my Hotel. I rushed to the nearby laundry (before they closed at 8 PM) and gave my clothes for washing.

On my return, I decided to sample the other Indian restaurant in Buenos Aires - Kathmandu. It was a little ways from the centre of town resulting in a 15-minute train ride and a 15-minute walk after that. I reached the restaurant at 9 PM and got a table. By 10 PM, the place was packed. The restaurant is run by folks who hail from Jaipur in Rajasthan, India. The chef is from New Delhi. "Kathmandu" is a name presumably chosen at Random - or to avoid the tedium of "Taj Mahal" or "India Palace" :)

The food was OK. It was certainly better than eating bland pasta again! I took a taxi back to the hotel and it cost be A$12. It was close to midnight, but the streets were completely alive with activity. Locals were out and about everywhere. Needless to say, the tourists were safely tucked away in bed - and I was headed there as well. Buenos Aires may indeed be the Paris of South America.

I wrote my diary and headed to bed. I may head to San Telmo tomorrow. I would also need to pick up my laundry - late in the afternoon - tomorrow.


March 2, 2008 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
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I had a bad sleep. The rich Indian food gave me heartburn and I was forced to wake up in the middle of the night and take a few pills to take care of it. I had a really leisurely wakeup and wound up missing breakfast.

Teatro Colon - the most famous theatre in South America - was closed for renovations and no tours were possible. The hotel front desk offered to pick up my laundry in the afternoon thereby saving me a trip back to the hotel. I was also informed by the front desk that River Plate (one of the two Soccer team in Buenos Aires - the other being Boca Juniors, from where Diego Maradona rose to greatness) was playing a home game today. There was a tour company that was providing a ticket to the game along with a pickup / drop-off service - from/to the hotel for A$130 (US$45). I passed as I knew that by going on my own, I would have a better experience and definitely save a lot of money. The hotel front desk also said that River Plate was located in a nice neighbourhood and that I could go there on my own.

I took a train and a Bus to visit the stadium of Boca Juniors. The area is quite old and many of the houses were painted in bright colours. There were Tango street performers who were dressed to kill. They offered to pose for pictures - for a fee! I passed. I walked to the nearby Boca Juniors Stadium. I paid the A$17 (17 pesos) fee and started with a visit to the stands. The spectator areas are barricaded from each other and from the players with barbed wire. I guess this must be a far rowdy crowd than the crowd that visits Maracana (Brasil).

I also visited the adjacent museum which had profiles on the all the former greats of CABJ (Club Athletico Boca Juniors). Yes, Diego had a 20-feet long statue at the entry to the museum. The museum had videos of some of the great games from earlier years. One of the videos showed a goal by Diego Maradona against arch Rival River Plate in April 1981 - indicating signs of greatness that was to come in future years. A truly gifted player.

Although I wanted to buy a souvenir, the jerseys were way too expensive and I passed. I had lunch at an Italian restaurant in the neighbourhood and the food was simply horrible. I ate it anyway. This is what I called "between a rock and a hard place". I eat Indian food - I love it but get heartburn. I eat Italian food - the food is bad and I simply hate it. What's a vegetarian to do?

As I had decided to visit River Plate stadium and try for tickets there, I needed to take a bus to get there. I had to be rather delicate in asking directions to "River Plate", as this was "Boca" Country. The buses here require exact change. I spent a fruitless 20-minutes walking up and down many store entrances, asking for small change for my larger peso bills. None of the shops had change. I think they were being jerks. I finally found a 1-Peso coin in the deep recesses of my trouser pockets and was quite relieved.

The bus ride to River Plate took about 40 minutes. The bus had man River fans dressed in their regalia and chanting all their slogans. I got off wherever they did and followed their trail for 15-minutes before reaching the River Plate stadium. The neighbourhood was quite classy with really nice houses. There was a security check outside the Stadium and I was asked to throw my water bottle (a plastic one) away. I went to the ticket counter and purchased a ticket for the upper deck for 70 pesos (US$23) which I thought was a tad expensive.

There were barricades (barbed wire) here as well - between the stands and between the stands and the playing field. There was no shelter for any stands as I had experience at Maracana. The opposition team (from San Juan) was relegated to a stand of their own. The crowd was vociferous. There was a heavy police presence all around. Unlike Maracana, there was no Samba drumming here - just chanting.

River Plate scored twice in the first half. San Martin scored on a penalty kick but River still led 2-1. The second half started in pouring rain. I had my raincoat on and watched the game. Both River and San Martin scored, but River still led 3-2 when I decided that I had had enough and headed out to the stairways to take some shelter from the rain. The game was called off after 15-more minutes of play. The teams will apparently meet again and replay this game.

I waited for an hour at the stadium hoping for the rain to stop. When it let down a bit, I started walking to the main road. All buses and taxis were full. The rain picked up again. MY BLOODY LUCK! After another hour or more of waiting, I finally managed to get a bus and a seat on the bus. A local Argentine gent helped me get off close to Retiro Station. I took a metro train back to the hotel.

I was surprised to find that my laundry was not there. As the evening manager was different, he had no clue as to what I was talking about! I leave for Montevideo (Uruguay) early tomorrow morning. If the Laundromat opens at 8 AM, I have a chance to pick up my clothes otherwise I need to think of a Plan "B".

I had originally intended to leave my larger duffel bag in the hotel during my 5-day trip to Uruguay. After the laundry fiasco, I decided not to trust these folks with my bags. I packed all my belongings into the 2 bags that I intend to take with me to Uruguay.

I walked to a nearby street and had a late dinner. I had a cheese sandwich and coffee. The white bread was excellent. Post dinner, I headed to an Internet cafe to pay my credit card bills and backup my memory cards. I saw a note from Shahrukh (the Indian restaurant owner in Buenos Aires) about visiting bodegas around Montevideo tomorrow afternoon.

I got back to the hotel, wrote my diary and went to bed. I keep my fingers crossed for the Laundromat to open by 8 AM so I can pick up my clothes before I head to Uruguay.