The adventure started the 26th of February...

We didn't need too much time to get use to the time difference and from 2pm on we were wandering the streets of the capital to find out about our new environment. The city seemed pretty desert and strangely quiet. On Sunday, following the advice of the manager of our hostel, we went visiting the market of San Telmo which is located in one of the oldest areas of Buenos Aires. The atmosphere is very nice : tango in the air and bright colors everywhere !

Obviously our trip wouldn't have started well without some incidents happening to us...we needed some stories to tell you! We booked two nights only in our first hostel. We wanted to be free to move soon in case we didn't like it. So on Monday we packed our bags and were ready to check in in a new place. The guy at the reception told us that our room had been overbooked by mistake. Great news as we were to stay there three nights at least! He told us that he took care of the problem and that we were expected in another hostel two streets away from this one. He added that our room would be much nicer and less expensive... I can already see you smiling!!

To our surprise, it is great indeed and somebody was expecting us. But that was too nice to be true... the hostel is actually under construction. Some tourists already stay here but there are also lots of builders making noise... and holes in the walls!! To give you some context, on the wall facing our bed is a big painting freshly finished (2mx2m). We were peacefully resting on the bed on Tuesday morning when suddenly some pieces of the wall in front of us fell down. The builders were finishing up the room next door but they obviously forgot to check the size of the drill they were using before starting drilling. Once the surprise effect gone, we realised that the guys didn't even realised what happened. We went to see them and tried to communicate by signs (our Spanish level is not good enough yet to say anything different than ‘hola'!) ... you should have seen their faces when they saw the mess in our room. Believe it or not 5mn later the five holes in the wall were filled and we have been told to enjoy our stay!

We had a good laugh for a while until we entered a bank few hours later and that my bank card was swallowed by the ATM. No need to say that I wasn't in such a good mood anymore. Against all expectation, everything was sorted out quite quickly and I got my card back at the end of the day. If there is one enjoyable thing in Buenos Aires, it's that people are friendly and helpful.

Since we got here, we've basically spent most of our time wandering around to get to see the places recommended in our travel guide. The architecture is quite heterogeneous. And the standard of living can change from one street to the other. The contrast is quite impressive. And even if we initially found the city quiet last week-end, it's a complete different story during the week. Buenos Aires is extremely lively and noisy.

On Wednesday we went to Recoleta, famous for its cemetery and Eva Peron's (Evita) grave. This cemetery is a city in the city! And it's by far what we have been the most impressed with until today. Graves are huge and luxurious. We regret not to have gone there later in the day. Pictures of this place The sunset would have made our pictures much more interesting!

Yesterday we took it easy. We needed to think about what happens next. We will leave Buenos Aires tomorrow (Saturday the 6th). We will take the bus to Puerto Madryn, further down on the South. The journey is about 18 hours, so we should be there by Sunday morning.

While waiting for the next post you can see what Buenos Aires looks like here.