adios amigos y amigas

In an hour I must say goodbye to the beautiful Andrea (the guapa in the photo) and Maxi at the most gorgeous boutique hotel in BA – Lola House. If you’re ever here and you value peace and quiet (which is hard to find in this city of car horns), delicious big breakfast options, security, excellent service and smiles, this is your best bet.

I’m on my way to the reason this whole thing started: Patagonia.

First stop is on the way down to the bottom of the world: Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdes where I hope to be lucky enough to see southern right whales, penguins, sea lions and sea elephants among the wildlife.

Before I go, let me tell you about the awesomeness that was yesterday.

By the end of the day I had three new friends from Argentina, Brazil and Cuba with their email addresses and phone numbers, two bottles of malbec and a free beer and a kiss while chatting in the park outside Recoleta Cemetery. Who’s a lucky girl?!

I met Veronica from Say Hueque travel company in the morning to go over the details for my trip south – remind me to find good gloves and a jacket down there or I’m going to freeze while trekking on the glacier! We rode the subte into the Plaza de Mayo in enough time to chat and know there are some really good people in this world and Veronica is one of them.

I took the tourist bus (hop on and off, open top, double decker, every 20mins type of deal) around many of the sights before alighting at Recoleta Cemetery. This took a few hours owing to the amazing traffic and distances covered to include a drive by Boca Juniors stadium – not a game day though 🙁 – through La Boca, Caminito, San Telmo, the gardens and Palermo, past Puerto Madero, the obelisk and down Av. De 9 Julio – the giant 12 lane avenue – the widest in the world.

While in line waiting for the bus, Jussara from northern Brazil struck up a conversation with me and we were bus buddies till Caminito, she was visiting with her family and spoke English to single-lingual me, another of the good people of this world.

Recoleta Cemetery is beyond words. The grandiose mausoleums are impressive, some decrepit, some solid and some taller than my house. I spent a couple of hours wandering the alleys, each one is different, and Eva Peron’s doesn’t stand out until you are right upon it and see all the flowers and rosary beads strung along the wrought iron gate.

Some things I wasn’t expecting were the scale of the monuments, the state of some of the older ones, the views down into the below-ground chambers full of coffins and then there was the modern facade for the family “O’Leary” – amongst the Duarte’s, Diaz’s and Borges’, there’s Irish blood here too. The peace was another surprise, it seemed the rest of the world was so very far away and this really is a place people come to rest in peace.

I followed this up with a steak and a beer, as you do. Clark’s was just outside and that’s where Peter from Cuba charmed me with his exclamation of disbelief that I was sans boyfriend. Lunch was ok and late enough that I didn’t notice it was 6pm till Peter finished his shift and asked to grab a beer together in the park, as you do. Large can of Heineken in hand, we sat outside the cemetery and chatted about the world, the benefits in travel, why we are in BA and picked numbers for the lotto. If he wins we’re hitching up and living as king and queen of Cuba 😉

With a smile, and yes a few kisses, we said our goodbyes and I caught the tourist bus back to see the Casa Rosada lit up in all her pink glory before taking the subte home. Time flies here and I was up till 1am without realizing.

Buenos Aires was always on my bucket list and with the new friends, glorious weather, and fab hotel I have had a sumptuous introduction to South America!