day 1 was abit of a nightmare. had no sleep on the plane & on arrival couldnt find the ATM that was only 200 metres away.when we did our VISA card wouldnt work. dumb tourists!!
you have to insert the card & then withdraw it before starting the transaction. got shuttle tickets
to our apartment but the driver said he wouldnt take us there. an elderly lady stepped in & got us delivered to our door. got there 3 hrs after landing.
great apartment we share it with 4 girls.( seperate bedrooms though ). theyre generally out all night & sleep during the day, so we have the place to our selves. has a fully equipped kitchen, a dining room & lounge with TV.the nice lady owner roams around looking after us all.
BA is a great place for eating & drinking in cafes & "people watching". coffee & red wine are the genuine article. argentina is in crisis again, the govt has increased the export tax on agriculture products. farmers have been blocking the roads for 4 weeks to prevent produce getting to the cities. its abit like " Evita " here. the female presidente Cristina addresses crowds of 20,000 people in the Plaza Mayo.
there are protest marches every day, some supporting the govt & some the farmers. ( much beating of drums & pots ).
the contrast between rich & poor is very marked. beautiful looking italian hunks & sexy woman strut around the streets while woman & small children live in doorways.
took 2 days to get our Visas for Paraguay. alot of form filling & waiting. should be a real adventure there. it seems the more third world a country is the more difficult it is to visit.
the people in BA have been very helpful. probably the most helpful of any country we have visited.
my spanish is abit better this trip. i can now negotiate with waiters to get exactly what we want. ( most of the time).
next tues we go across the river to Uruguay for 11 days. we will be holed up in Montevideo.
john & rose.
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2 comments:
Hi John and Rose,
I am new to blogging and was looking for someone to help me find a way to put spanish letters into my postings when I happened onto your website. I love your photos and tales of your adventure in Argentina. I have a friend from Argentina who still has family there so she flies back and forth every 2 years or so. Your decision to get a yellow fever shot is a good idea. Isn't there an outbreak going on in South America somewhere right now? Anyway, I just finished reading the book 'The American Plague' for my book club about the yellow fever epidemic that hit Memphis, Tennessee in 1878. (That's my home town, thank ya very much-my Elvis impression) That year 47,000 people lived here. When the epidemic started 28,000 fled the city and of the 19,000 that remained, 17,000 contracted the fever and 5,000 of them died. It decimated the city and we never really recovered. The cultured rich people never came back. It's a terrible way to die and there is no cure for it. A vaccination is the way to go. On that happy note (hahaha) I would love to continue reading about your adventures. I am also jealous that you are getting to visit these places. I have been studying spanish for several years, but I don't get to practice it much. The only spanish speakers around here are the hispanic and latino illegals who are highly suspicious of strangers who just walk up to them and start a conversation. They have a tendency to run away! If you ever visit my website, the Juan I am writing about is actually my nephew who was playing a joke on me.
Fun to meet you!
Carol
Hi mum and dad,
Great to hear from you!! Your arrival in BA sounds stressful - thats travelling for you!!! Straight back into it!! Just returned from a long weekend in Cornwall which was very nice and relaxed! Will let you know when the blog is updated. Your apartment set up sounds fantastic - having the place to yourself is a real bonus :-) Well better run, take care, talk soon. Let us know if you have a phone number we can reach you on via e-mail.
Love Mich and Ross
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