Off the mark - Blogabond

Well, here I am, almost at the end of the first leg of this Epic Detour. I'm into my fourth day in Buenos Aires, and it's been a very enjoyable start to the trip. B.A. is a huge, very metropolitan city. I was expecting something a lot more third world and impoverished, but here you have pretty much every convenience you need. The cliche that it's more like a European city (many say Paris) rings true for me, although the street layout reminds me a lot of New York.

I spent the first couple of nights in a hotel to try to get over some mild jet lag, and get a good night's sleep after the 18 hour flight (we got an extra 2 hours, as they heard a "loud banging" coming from the freight compartment in London before take off, and had to wait for them to check it out. Turned out it was some loose freight, so it was probably a good thing they found it). The hotel was nice enough, although I had to move rooms after the first night, as my original room flooded. Luckily, nothing important (e.g. laptop) got wet.

Yesterday, I moved into a very social hostel down the road. Made plenty of friends here, and we went to the pub last night to watch Argentina play Brazil in a World Cup qualifier. The home team lost, but the locals here seemed to take it pretty well, even though it means they might not qualify for the WC. Pretty different to the response New Zealanders have to the ABs losing.

I guess they have good taste in music in BA

I spent today wandering through the Sunday markets, which are massive (actually, I think I've seen enough market stalls for the rest of the trip). But there were plenty of street performers (the guy doing a tango with a dummy was a highlight) and had a huge steak for lunch.

Tomorrow I have another long flight to Quito, Ecuador (slightly strange route, I know, but that's down to some somewhat poor planning), before heading off to the Galapagos for a boat cruise.

Photos to come soonish.

written by

Sam_C on September 6, 2009 from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Argentina

from the travel blog: Epic Detour

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Looking forward to hearing what you're up to :D.

written by Andrew Baird on September 6, 2009

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