New Year in BA

We left Rosario to go to Buenos Aires on the day after boxing day, one of the guys working in the hostel we stayed in in Sao Paulo recommended us a hostel in BA, but after a Google search we found some horrendous reviews of it so we were dubious about staying there for the full 6 nights we had planned on being in BA for, so we only booked 3 nights there and would need to get another hostel for the first 3 nights. We’d heard good stories about one hostel when staying in Rosario, so we booked ourselves in there. We got there and found out we didn’t have a bed for the night in this hostel due to a balls up with overbooking. Not great once you’ve just got off a 6 hour bus journey and are sweating loads! They managed to sort it all out and we had to stay in another hostel a few streets away for one night. We went out for a walk and bumped into one of the girls that did the Inca trail with us. It was really strange actually seeing someone you know on the street rather than being a total billy no mates for a change…

The following day we went for a walk and found a Burger King in the middle of the city at this point we had been away for 6 weeks and have not yet  eaten a Mcdonalds or a Burger King. Not bad going considering we’ve not got a clue what we’re ordering and sometimes its quiet nice to be able to walk into somewhere and order something and know what it will be! Anyway after a quadruple burger I was fed and watered and we went off to explore the city. BA has a reputation for being a massive party city but there is so much more to do there. We walked for miles and got back to the hostel, fortunately one the lads that we had met in Rosario told us about an awesome Chinese around the corner, as some of you know what Leah doesn’t’ know about Chinese food isn’t worth knowing about. In fact she’s Wales’s version of Gordon Ramsey when it comes to the Chinese take away. After our meal she sat there and announced that it was the best Chinese meal she’s ever had! So, if Come Enjoy in Aberdare is closed, head to BA next time!

One of the things we’ve learnt (and were told when we left home) was that Argentinians are very strong willed. We were also told on the bus from Rosario that if a bus is late by more than an hour then a riot may get started. After walking the streets of BA I can believe this, everywhere we walked there were people protesting about something or another, from the dread sporting hippies moaning about the price of conditioner to students moaning about the increase in price of Rizla papers.

One of the big things that we wanted to see whilst in BA was some people performing the tango. Lots of restaurants had dancers outside and whilst you were eating your dinner, you’d often have two people kicking their legs up in the air and strutting their stuff. However, we were told about a tango bar where you got very close to the action. We ended up there one night and were lucky enough to be two in an audience of 10 watching a tango show , which was just great. However, as there was a shortage of men in the room, they kept picking on me when it came to someone practicing the tango. I’m sure Len Goodman would have given me no more than a 5 but I was wearing flip flops…

It was now time to leave our other hostel and make our way over to our new hostel, filled with total fear of the hole we were about to move into. Due to our first hostel’s total inadequate organisation skills we weren’t able to stay in the same room twice and had moved 3 times! We got to our new hostel and were pleasantly surprised and found the staff to be quite helpful, the only downside was no air conditioning and a distinct lack of ventilation in our room but we weren’t going to be there much!

As I’ve said many times before, my friends are football mad and they’d mentioned Boca Juniors to me many times when I said about visiting BA. So on NYE day we went down to the area of La Boca, this area has a bit of a reputation as being a bit rough so we were armed with our abusive language and one hundred security devices. We got to the stadium and decided that I would go on the tour of the stadium as there were loads of shops that Leah could get lost in for an hour or so. I went to the counter at 1:05pm to be told that the last tour was at 1 and I was too late. I do however have photos of the stadium…

Believe it or not Argentina is a fairly corrupt country with Buenos Aires being the most corrupt city out there, the height of corruption being all the bus companies running a racketeering scheme to keep all the coins that exist within the country and then sell it back to the government at a profit of around 20%, this then causes more of a problem because they will only accept coins when you go to catch a bus in the city, so it’s a bit of a catch twenty two situation.  This situation is then compounded by shops refusing to give you loose change when buying things, in most situations they would rather give you more change (in notes) than to give you change. However the only way of getting to La Boca is via a bus and we’d manage to accumulate enough change to get there but not quite enough to get home. So we tried everything we could to get change, Leah started tango dancing with Men on the street and I started singing but after an hours effort and no change we quickly realised it would be better to walk. We even restored to scouring the streets for loose change! However, Leah sharp as a knife said to me :

“Rich, if we buy me that bracelet, ring and necklace then we’ll tell the chap that he has to give us change so we can get home”

Brilliant idea I thought, until we were paying for it and I realised how much it cost… Nevertheless the guy was more than happy to give us a £1 worth of change for us to get back to the city centre in return for £50 of jewellery he made when he was stoned last night.

{Leah: ‘He is such a liar, I only bought a ring and it was a total bargain! He wasn’t complaining when I got the change for the bus back….’}

Now, for me New Year’s Eve is one of those times of year that no-one ever knows what to do, do they stay in, do they go out and spend a fortune or do they have a party, then you end up having to wake up and clean up all the empty cans and pasties that are left over. Thankfully, our hostel had decided that they would have a BBQ on the roof and get some beers and champagne in for everyone. Awesome idea we thought as there were a good group of people in the hostel and we’d know where to go and the Argentinians love a BBQ more than anyone else so we knew we’d eat well that night.

Now after celebrating midnight with a group of pissed welsh lads we left the hostel at 3am to go and find somewhere to go, now in my book if you’re going out at 3 then its normally 3pm and there’s football or rugby on, but in Buenos Aires  3am is a normal time to go out. Unfortunately as with all groups there was one girl who insisted that she could speak Spanish (even though she was American) and knew where to go that night. Now, when someone sticks their head above the clouds and says that they know where to go and no-one else does then you have to admire her for it and follow her like a lemming.  So we leave the hostel and get in a taxi (flagging one down there was hard enough!) and set off in the direction that she’s giving the driver.

I’m sure we’ve all had “fun” taxi journeys, whether its you’ve either been sick in the back of a taxi and the driver doesn’t know, you’ve tipped you’re cheese, chips and beans on the backseat or you don’t have enough money to pay him and you’re waiting for the closest red light to home so you can do a runner. However, this taxi journey was slightly different. There were 5 people in the back seat, Welsh, English, American, Chilean and Argentinian (The UN would be proud of our peace keeping) and I was in the front.  Now we’ve all been in taxi journeys where the taxi driver smelt or was a bad driver but I’ve never been in a taxi with a driver who has gold teeth and has a crazy glint in his eye. How do you define a crazy glint in his eye? When he thinks it’s funny to start cutting people up, doing wheel spins from traffic lights and starts lighting fireworks from his cigarette and throwing them out of the window of the taxi. This was his way of ringing in the new year with a bang!

As we’re travelling along out of the city, its quickly apparent that this girl who thinks she can speak Spanish and knows where to go hasn’t got a clue, we eventually get out of the taxi near a “club” which when we get there is closed but thankfully across the road there is a party that we can go to. As I’d had a drink, I decided that this girl should have a piece of my mind (and in much embarrassment to Leah which I’m sorry for) in fact looking back at the incident she was quite possibly  the most annoying person I’ve ever met. As someone said to a mate of mine when he was drunk, I should have said to her:

“I’ve been around the world and met lots of people, but you really are the biggest prick I’ve ever met!”

Anyhow after getting this off my chest we managed to find the party in one of BA’s biggest parks. We got there and found a lot of DJs playing different music in this huge park, after falling over in the dark a few times we found the field playing the best music. Now South American music does leave a lot to be desired, in most bars and restaurants that you got there’s either annoying samba beat or its Phil Collins crooning his best songs. However, we did manage to find a field playing something half decent and stayed there until day light managing to see the first sunrise of 2011!

Hopefully there’ll be more like this to come…