Buenos Aires - hmmmmmm........

Before I left for this trip I was told by a lot of people that I'd just love Buenos Aires.  Well, right now I'm on the plane leaving there, heading down into Patagonia and I have to say I'm not sure it lives up to the hype.

Let's get the touristy stuff out the way first.

Right on the edge of the city are the docks, there are four of them in a row, and adjacent to the high end residential area.  It also has this funky pedestrian walking bridge.....

And then there's this guy...........

I have no idea who he is supposed to be but it's a statue just standing out on a street corner.  Kind of strange.

It was hammering it down with rain all of the first day I was there - that may have something to do with the impression I formed - so I retreated back to somewhere dry for a while, a pub.  But not too much because the following morning I had a city tour.

City Tour

SAGA louts alert!  So this needs so,e explanation to my non-UK readers.  Basically a lot of places that used to be the domain of younger people backpacking and such like are being taken over by the over 70s, particularly the British, a lot of this is because they have the money unlike the rest of the country.  Anyway, this bus was full of them, there was me and an American couple that were under 60, that was it.  At the first stop the guide told us we had to get off the bus quick because we were parked in the wrong place, amazingly they all managed it, kind of.

Anyway, First stop the central square. This is where the Argentinians come to protest, or celebrate en masse.  It is where the government palace is, although that has a big fence around it to keep protestors away which thankfully was open when we were there so we could get a little closer.

It also has something for my catholic readers.  The cathedral that the pope used to hold mass, apparently he took the subway there every day.

From the square onto La Boca.  A district that is 'famous' for tango.  In my opinion it should be famous for finding many different ways to vacuum money out of tourists' pockets.  They basically set up four blocks as the 'traditional' neighborhood and you get warned by the guide not to stray out of those blocks into the actual neighborhood, great!

There are several cafés on this street with makeshift stages with people dancing tango very slowly, primarily I think the 'stage' could not take anything in full flow and second from what the guide told me they don't really know how to dance, they're just there for photos, and the opportunity for people to charge for you to take them.

Last up really was the main cemetery in the city and the final resting place of Eva Peron, it's kind of creepy wandering around there and there are actually some of the mausoleums available for rent!  Not quite sure how that works, timeshare?

Anyway, here's Evita's plaque.

My last photo is nothing to do with the city tour, but I just love the name they have for a hardware store........

No matter how much I asked they didn't have any furry animals that you might keep as pets!

So that was Buenos Aires from a tourist side.  I'm going to digress now but I think I'll do that in a separate post.