The City That Never Sleeps

Time for a city break.

With my time in Patagonia (sadly) over, it was time to hit the cities again, and this time it would be the Tango Capital of Argentina - Buenos Aires. Home to nearly 3 million people, the name means 'good air' but it is sometimes called the city that never sleeps too. Many cities have the reputation of not sleeping - New York is the main example, but other cities such as London, Paris, Sao Paulo and Hong Kong have also been referred to in this way, by it's locals and tourists. But does a city really sleep? Does it ever completely shut down, go quiet and get it's 40 winks? Sydney, thanks to new 'lock-out laws,' sadly goes to bed at 3am drunk but wanting more. London's famous Underground stops at around midnight, but you can still get a Chinese meal and a pint (as well as a knuckle sandwich) well after that. I will tell you something - the night that I went out in this crazy, sweaty city, it did not sleep very much. Then again, neither did I. More about that later.

Parliament building in Buenos Aires.

A church.

Damn pigeon...

My first impression of the city when I landed was 'it's hot!' After being down South for the better part of December and January, the humidity of this city hit me like a sweaty palm-slap to the face. I knew that this kind of weather brings trouble in a city... trouble that I wanted a peace of. I hate getting off at an airport in the middle of a big city and trying to navigate the maze of transport to the centre and your hostel, but BA did it in style! A young woman at the information point spoke wonderful English (also quite cute too!), and helped me to the local bus stop - 3.5 Argentina Pesos (35c) later I was on the bus and heading to my hostel! My Bip Card (equivalent to Sydney's Opal and London's Oyster) from Bariloche didn't work, but a guy on the bus handed me his card before I even asked, and even refused me to pay him (which I did anyway), and when I said 'thank you very much,' he just replied in the typical Argentine way 'no, no please!' Walking the short 10 minute walk from the bus stop to my hostel, I wasn't impressed with the city. I was sweating out of my elbows, strange people were walking around everywhere (Saturday night), and the area seemed a bit seedy. The hostel seemed equally as dodgy as the neighbourhood, 12 sweaty people in a dorm room, my bed wasn't made (and it turned out to be someone else's bed that I had 'stolen'), kept awake by drunken Poms and Aussies singing Oasis songs, and then bitten by something in bed. The next morning, I changed rooms to one with air-con and less people, ate the terrible breakfast of stale bread and cereal with warm milk, then hit the streets to try and keep my spirits up and to keep my opinion of this bustling city from straying the wrong way.

Giving Buenos Aires a chance - and I'm glad I did!

and the other celebrity.

BA's little celebrity...

The area I was in is called San Telmo, and is the busy pub area of the city, full of cool shops, bars and restaurants. My hostel was right opposite the 'Mafalda' bench, where a little minature of the cartoon character is sitting on the bench, just waiting for you and your selfie stick. I think Mafalda is one of those Buenos Aires icons that people come and take their picture of, even if they never watched the cartoon - just something you do I guess. I didn't. I wandered around the Sunday markets that ran in the street joining mine, and then just continued to meander around, taking in the buildings and sights of the city. The buses are cool, and all decorated too. It's a strange city, hot and humid, and the people are very relaxed - guys walking around with no shirts on, wolf-whistling to passing chicas, and they really do call each other 'Che' and 'Beludo' - the city was growing on me.

One of the many cool and colourful shops in La Boca.

Yet another cool bar in the city.

Mate anyone?

The city has a very eclectic architectural style - a mis-mash of old and new as well as empty spaces where building used to stand, and now carparks fill the spaces. he city of Buenos Aires was first established as Ciudad de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre ("City of Our Lady Saint Mary of the Fair Winds") after Our Lady of Bonaria (Patroness Saint of Sardinia) on 2 February 1536 by a Spanish expedition led by Pedro de Mendoza. The city is actually an autonomus states iteself, and has been a real advocate of immigration, which you can still see today in the variety of people wandering it's streets. By 1910, Argentina had the 6th largest economy in the world, and the buildings from this era show the wealth the city had, much like Barcelona (with Guadi) and Madrid at the same time, but during the 20s and 30s there was too much decadence, and added with the dictatorships, the country suffered and you can almost city this transformation in the city in the buildings - a virtical time graph.

One of the empty spaces in the city, but now functional and arty at the same time.

A Buenos Aires meet-cue.

A trendy city cafe.

Back at the hostel for lunch and a nap (I now had an air-conditioned room!) and a bit of chill out time, but little did I know that the evening would be be the Buenos Aires version of that night in 'Lost in Translation.' It all started out with a quiet beer at a cafe just down the road with 2 girls that I met in the hostel - one girl was Colombian (who now lives in the US) and the other was a German girl whose dad is from Uruguay and now lives in Africa. Yes, the weirdness starts already. After the beer, it was dinner at the hostel, then things really turned mad - we hit the streets, minds set on finding a Salsa show. Drinking 1L beers on the street, we got mixed up in some sort of parade, drums beating, people dancing and singing, then made it to a plaza where absolute strangers were dancing Salsa together. There is something about the Salsa and Tango - the passion, the look in their eyes, it's just so sexy that you want to get up and grab someone and dance them off their feet - but then you feel self conscious as you would probably embarrass yourself (not being Latino), so you don't dance and instead watch, but feel a bit creepy like you're intruding on a very sensual moment. Can't win. Without going into too much detail, we drank and talked to people, looked for that club, never found it, but found a cool bar and started talking to locals. Many, many drinks were had, including champagne at some guy's apartment at 1am. I woke up feeling fine (in my own bed), and a real, functional and not touristy Mate cup and spoon sitting on the table next to my bed. Wow what a night!

Tango in the street!

La Boca - sold out to tourists.

I decided on a quiet day after the previous night, and headed to La Boca. This area was once the port area, and the first place where the new immigrants stepped off the boat and tried to make a life. The walk was supposed to easy and fun, but me being me I strayed off the main road (and also refused to get a bus). Block by block the area became slightly seedier, and I was warned by 2 ladies in the supermarket not to walk there, and another gentleman on the street told me "señor, por favor, don't walk here, it's dangerous and you will get robbed." I took his advice to heart, and found the main road, and eventually found the port and the area I was looking for. It was completely different to what I imagined - it was over-the-top touristy and I didn't like it. The houses are very colourful and made out of anything that the owner could find, cobbled streets, and once it would have been cool and authentic, but has since turned into a tourist trap - expensive, crap meals, souvenir shops littering the streets, people harassing you to get a picture taken with a Tango dancer. The only thing I liked really was that at every restaurant there were a couple dancing Tango - I watched, took some pics and moved on without paying for their expensive menu. Glad I went there, but from what an ex-local told me, it has changed a lot.

One of the coffins that I found open... this one wasn't smelly thankfully.

One of the many statues at Recoleta.

Just relaxing at the cemetary.

Continuing on the tourist trail, as you should do in a city as big as this, I visited the Cementerio de la Recoleta - also a must in Latin American cities like BA and Santiago. The cemeteries here are so different to back home - here they are monuments to people and families, tombs to show off and to remember, not just a grave and a marker. Australia has more of a modern way of looking at it - functional and space-saving. Eva Peron is buried here (which I found out after my visit, so I missed her) and other famous people, and it is quite the tourist attraction. Some of the older parts of the cemetary were very run-down, sometimes  a bit smelly (guess) and some of the caskets had fallen into such disrepair that they had opened. Eeww. I also took the Free Walking Tour, which I loved in Santiago. We started at the Parliament building and walked in a straight towards the centre of city. Unfortunately this guide wasn't as much fun as his Chilean counterpart, droning on about architecture (which is interesting, to a point) and didn't really have much of a sense of humour either. I snuck away half-way during to the tour to do my own thing - which happened to be an afternoon siesta.

Art in La Boca.

Whose been a naughty girl?

My own tour of the Colon Theatre.

I spent a little more time in the city than originally planned, but that was because I liked it more than I thought I would have. I visited the churches, ate cheap and good meals with the locals at small bars, and did a few touristy things too. One highlight was the Teatro Colon. A grand old building on the main road of the city, I wandered in for a look, not realising that you need to book and pay for a guided tour. Maybe it was my confidence, or the large, professional camera that I carry around, but nobody stopped me and I had free-run of the place. There was a lot that I missed here, but as with any city, if you have the time and the money you still can't see everything. I'm very happy about coming here, as I was nearly going to miss it. My next move was on to Mendoza and the great Argentine wines that are world famous - and lucky enough to catch up with two Canadians that I met just before doing the Torres. Funny how these things work out, but that's part of travelling and so you roll with it and enjoy it without thinking about it too much - it's natural!

Can't lounge around all day - time to move on to Mendoza!