At the end of our last post, Boxing Day had just pulled an absolute blinder and saved our Christmas spirits with a cracking meal at Don Julio. We awoke the next day absolutely starving, as is often the weird way after a large meal the night before. After another breakfast downstairs, we packed up all our things, said goodbye to the mega king sized bed, and jumped in a taxi to move to our air bnb that would be our home for our remaining time in BA. After a bit of luck and some seriously weird WiFi magic (with my phone miraculously finding some WiFi out of nowhere which allowed us to contact our BnB host) we settled into our new gaff, did about four loads of washing, and then walked into town to try and find Hoff a replacement guidebook for the one she’d lost during the salt flats. Despite a search of numerous English bookshops we couldn’t find anything useful so we wandered around the park before heading back to our old hotel to have lunch (long story short – they felt bad for messing up Christmas breakfast so gave us a voucher to use). After having breakfast for lunch (weirdly they only let us have the breakfast menu despite it being 2pm, but we were saving ourselves for take two of the tango show, so it wasn’t a big deal) we walked to couple of km back to the apartment.
Once back at the apartment we showered, put on yet another load of washing and then hailed a cab to take us back to the tango show. Thankfully this time it was open and we were shown to a table right next to the stage. The waiter wasted no time in bringing us a glass of sherry (of all things) and soon we were chowing down on steak two of the last twenty four hours. For a free meal it was excellent and once we had finished, the tango show began. The music was not quite what we had expected – think jazz accordion mixed with electric synth – but it sort of worked, and the dancing was excellent. Our waiter even brought us over a free bottle of wine as the evening went on, so by the time it had all finished we’d basically forgotten about the Christmas Day fiasco and had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We again used the WiFi from the restaurant opposite to grab a taxi home, where we hung up the last of our washing and basked in the cool air conditioned air, most content.
When we first arrived in BA, Hoff kept mentioning someone called Evita (something to do with ABBA, or so I initially thought) and was keen to go to the museum about her life. Therefore the next day we walked a couple of km to a house that had once been one of Eva Peron’s hostels for disadvantaged women, and looked around the museum. It was quite interesting and without going into too much detail, it was weird to see how much good she appeared to have achieved in her short life despite the rather negative view the world has about her husband (the former president with a rather questionable human rights track record). We then wandered around the local zoological gardens where we felt very sorry for the camels and llamas all penned in into tiny enclosures, before walking back to the flat. That evening we treated ourselves to an amazing burger at a nearby burger joint before watching the Gavin and Stacey Christmas special (thank goodness for VPNs!). We went to bed discussing the pros and cons of them doing another series (on balance we agreed that they should do it, if anyone is interested).
The 30th December was our last day in BA and Hoff was keen that we go to the other end of the city to see the bird garden. When we got there it was pretty hard to find (finding a big patch of green space in a city was tough) and when we finally worked out where it was, it seemed to be closed, so in the end we wandered through a memorial dedicated to ‘the missing’, the 300,000 plus people who disappeared as a result of Argentinian government purges (aka indiscriminate murdering) in the 70s and 80s. We then worked our way back towards the city centre, stopping off to have lunch next to a lake before we got a taxi (we were bored of walking by this point and in need of some air con) to the main cemetery. Although it might seem weird to most westerners, visiting cemeteries is a big tourist thing to do in South America and we’d heard that the main one in BA was a ‘must see’. Despite our reservations we went in and saw Evita’s grave, but got creeped out by the rest of the place so left shorty afterwards. On the way back to the bnb we stopped off for a well needed lager shandy, and after some packing ahead of our flight south the next day, went out for dinner about an absolutely amazing Mexican place, where we toasted our time in BA over burritos and mojitos. We had enjoyed our time in the city but, being country types, we were ready to move on to a place with less people and cleaner air!
The following morning we were up early to get to the airport for our flight. It was a three hour ‘hop’ down to El Calafate (and we weren’t even going the length of the country, which shows how big Argentina really is). Grabbing our bags the other end, we were startled to see a fellow passenger collect her dog from the the baggage carousel and proceed to carry it in a Baby Bjorne-style harness. It was very bizarre but we didn’t have time to stare as we jumped into our bus and arrived at our hostel in the town. Dropping our bags off, we quickly headed down to the Main Street to scope out the options for later that evening and to get some supplies (I.e. champagne for NY). Back at our hostel we decided to open said champagne and watch a Top Gear, only to discover that it was in fact a local cider, much to my amusement and Hoff’s annoyance (she’s not a massive cider fan).
We finally got hungry and walked into town, thinking we’d have heaps of places to choose from. How wrong we were. Everywhere was reservation only, and those places that did have space were asking for $120 USD a head. We eventually found a place doing cheapish beer and amazing pulled pork sandwiches (we got in just before they closed – winning) before walking back to our hostel where we saw in the new year over a glass of the remaining cider (#notwinningsomuch). 2019 had been a massive year for us – what with us getting married, leaving our jobs, packing up our lovely flat in London and heading off on our big trip – but 2020 had lots in store for us already, so we fell asleep, dreaming of the hiking that lay ahead of us.
Up next – Hoff takes you through the first part of our W trek.
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