Buenos Aries

We arrive just after noon, get a taxi at the airport  and before even leaving the taxi queue our taxi driver seems a bit pissed at another taxi driver whose car is not in a location to his liking. The drivers exchange escalating insults resulting in our driver jumping out of his cab and throwing his half-eaten sandwich at the other driver. Luckily that was the end of that and we get on the road. The driver who I expected to be in a bad mood after that incident gives a very nice tour on the way to the hotel. He tells us lots of interesting information about the city. We have some 30+ hours to explore the downtown area with some 3 million inhabitants (metro area 12 million). Our hotel (Art Hotel) is in the fashionable district of Recoleta. They describe their rooms as cozy, which one might read as small, but with the 15 foot ceiling, the maybe 200 ft2 room seemed large enough and was very comfortable.

Evita Vault

Plaza Evita Statue

The hotel is located very near the La Recoleta Cemetery, a burial area dating from early 1800's. The  most famous resident is Eva Peron, beloved heroine of Argentina who died in 1952. Our first order of business is to see this famous vault. It's a short walk to the cemetery, but one could walk around the place for a long time trying to find the vault location from the map (even after figuring out that her last name is Duarte). 

Recoleta Vaults

We take the easy way out and follow a guided group.... The crypt looks much like the others, except for the flowers and ... crowds. One can not see the famously indestructibly embalmed remains, as they are apparently out of sight underground.... probably a good thing...

We do a self guided walking tour of Recoleta, very high density wealthy area, nice homes/apartments, expensive shopping places... However it loses a bit with smelly garbage left on the sidewalks/ streets in bags for pickup later, not to mention a fair amount of dog dirt on sidewalks, most partially smeared by shoes... Not sure who is responsible to clean it up, apparently not the pet owner....We observed a woman using a spatula to extract, what appeared to be a small stool sample, from a fresh dropping her dog had deposited.... But she left the remainder of the turd on the sidewalk.... Huh? Maybe needed it for Vet analysis? There seems to be a lot of dogs in the area, several guys were seem walking up to 10 dogs at a time.... Amazingly seemed very orderly....No evidence of feral dogs here

We had an unremarkable dinner food wise at a nearby restaurant, it was however remarkable for the way the discussions with the french/italian owner and how the bill was paid. I asked the waiter for 2 glasses of vino casa, he told me they didn't have house wine, and didn't have small bottles either .. So I go to choose a full bottle, the owner then overrules the waiter and offers up 2 'cups' of wine... I think he wanted the rest of the bottle himself... As I was low on Argentine pesos, I offered up a Visa card to pay the bill, the owner immediately offered a 20% discount for cash, I offered US$ but he would not accept, I did have $200ar, not quiet the $208+ $18ar tip he wanted (after the 20% reduction), he finally settled for the $200ar and accepted $18ar on Visa as a tip, this process took about 20minutes to deal with.... Was happy to be out of that place, the waiter had locked the door while this process played out.....

The BUS

After a very decent breakfast at hotel we arranged for a 6:30 evening taxi to the airport and then headed out for a look at Buenos Aires. A morning coffee and then headed to catch the double decker bus for a nice neighborhood tour of downtown BA.... Supposedly, according to their website, we could buy tickets on the bus....we went to the Recoleta stop and tried to get on the bus but were told they had no tickets on this bus, wait for the next one... Another would be rider with 20 minutes more experience than us, noted that the last bus had the same story....

Riot Police waiting for action?

We recalled that the website said tickets could be purchased at the information kiosks, and we had seen one several blocks away the day before.... We headed over to the info kiosk, and I have to say not surprisingly were told that they didn't sell them at this info place, only at the one near bus stop 0 some 3 kms away.... A cab is taken to bus stop 0 and we line up and get a ticket for the 14:00 bus, some 90 minutes from then.... We should have listened to the gods telling us to relax and just hang around.... But no, after a walk around the busy downtown area to kill the 90 minutes, we board the bright yellow monster bus for a rollicking ride in busy traffic for 3 hours. We hear a disembodied english accented voice describe pretty much every piece of architecture ever constructed in downtown Buenos Aires, notable or not... This while sitting in sweltering 34 degree heat on a bench seat designed by the same folks that created the rack for the spanish inquisition.... There were a few interesting sights to see, PDA on a street, Salsa street dancers,  fully loaded riot police with nobody to club... but mostly just streets and traffic in a big city....By the end I would have gladly paid double or more just to exit the bus... 3 hours of my life that I won't get back.... If I had it to do again I would take in a Tango dance, the zoo, or anything else...

Spontaneous PDAs common here

Delightful wall Art

Happy to be off the bus we get ice cream and head to the hotel to get our cab.... 

The cab ride to the airport is also interesting, 45 minutes at speeds up to 145 kmh, weaving through traffic, entertained by a Bob Marley greatest hits CD at high volume, being passed by motorcycles on either side, sometimes both at once, driving on the shoulder passing on the right side of freeways.... Driving rules are mere guidelines here.... With delight that no crashes occurred, I pay the driver and head for sanctuary in the airport....

An uneventful 17 hours pass, 2 more airline flights for a total of 9 over the entire trip and we are back on the ground in Calgary, 30 days that include some of the most interesting places and sites on the planet we are lucky to have this experience....