The End of the Road

We decided to end our trip (or at least the bus part of it) in style so we got first class tickets for the final 18 hours to Buenos Aires. Full beds, champagne before the meal, wine with the meal and whiskey after the meal. And they even showed some half decent films (although nothing has quite touched the unreachable standards set by Frankenfish in those early days). On arrival in Buenos Aires I realised that I only had a very vague idea of the location of the apartment where my family was staying. A few emails, phone calls and poor Ari waiting on a doorstep for a bit later we tracked them down.

As I recall, the first day we went to La Recoleta where Eva Peron (and a few thousand other people) is buried. We also got our first sightings of the ubiquitous "Dog Walkers" for which BA is famous-people who are paid to take care of sometimes up to 8 pooches by their doting owners. Not a a bad job though really, lounging around in a park drinking mate (the national drink!)while the dogs entertain themselves!

One night we had a great meal out with my sister's host family at a Chinese-Argentinean buffet-the food selection was immense, as was the grill where meat and pancakes were cooked to order. On Christmas Eve we had rather disastrous meal out involving some unsightly lumps of uncooked and reheated 3 times meat)which ended in a row with the management and an offer of a free bottle of champagne which for some reason we turned down. Perfecto!

But anyway, after surviving the journey home while little kids threw random fire crackers at us (apparently an Argentinean custom) we had our own champagne and Jen and Ari put on quite a spectacular Harry Potteresque fireworks display for us in the park below the flat. Oh and we tried to light a fire- lantern which should in theory float away from the heat but ours ended its short life as a charred mess in the flower pot!

Hmm what else? Lots of good meals out, a nice picnic in the park on Christmas day, a visit to La Boca (lots of colourful houses and tango shows), wandering in La Plaza de Mayo and a random Milonga (informal tango event in the square) where my sister tried out her new skills with some old guy. In short, a great city although don't forget your mate cup!