Buenos Aires, Argentina

My holiday didn't get off to the best of starts when on the Wednesday afternoon of the last week of school I started to feel headachy, nauseous and dizzy. By Thursday I had a raging sore throat. My cheeky husband joked that he knew I was properly sick as I was off my food, not eating anything at all between Wednesday lunch and Thursday afternoon. Things hadn't improved by Friday, and I was getting a bit worried since I was due to fly to Buenos Aires that evening. I decided I had better visit a doctor (for the first time in 7 years, not counting visits for the occasional sporting injuries!). It's a good thing I did, because the doctor thought the most likely diagnosis was Strep Throat. Due to my imminent departure we didn't have time to wait for my test results to come back from the lab to confirm it, so she decided to give me a 10-day course of antibiotics anyway, as well as a 4-hourly ibuprofen/paracetamol combo to manage pain and fever, plus a nasal spray to try and keep my sinuses clear and reduce pain associated with the buildup of pressure during the flight.

Suitably dosed up, the 13 and a half hour flight wasn't actually too bad. I finally got a chance to watch the 'Hidden Figures' movie which I had been wanting to for a while (it was excellent!). I also slept more than I usually do on a flight.

I arrived at about 5pm local time on Friday, which messed with my brain somewhat, considering my flight from NZ had departed at around 7:30pm that same day! From the airport I took a bus to my hostel. I was staying at Hostel Estoril which had an excellent location on Av. de Mayo, one of the main thoroughfares in the city centre with Congress at one end and Casa Rosada, the presidential palace at the other. It had a nice little outdoor patio area, and from the rooftop bar and terrace there were great views of the impressive Palacio Barolo building.

I pretty much just hung out at the hostel that evening. I didn't even have the energy or inclination to pop out and get something for dinner. I had to stay up as my friend Nicola was arriving on the ferry from Punta del Este, Uruguay that evening. Nicola has taken a year of leave from her school in the UK to take part in the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race on the Team Great Britain boat. She is partaking in 4 of the 8 legs, and travelling in-between legs. The first leg was from Liverpool in the UK to Punta del Este, Uruguay which took 5 weeks. It was awesome seeing her walk into the hostel at around midnight. It was pretty amazing that the date that she arrived in South America coincided perfectly with my school holiday dates, making our 2-week adventure possible. Obviously it was just meant to be!       

The next day we set about exploring Buenos Aires by foot, starting with the impressive Congress building which was only a few minutes walk from the hostel.

We then walked the length of Av. de Mayo to Casa Rosada, the balconies from which Evita made her famous addresses to the nation.

The cathedral off Plaza de Mayo was the former seat of Pope Francis. It was a nice cool place to sit down for a bit and have a rest. I was feeling OK, but was just lacking in energy which was a bit annoying.

From here we walked to the San Telmo area where we enjoyed a wander around the San Telmo market. 

I loved all the little green-grocers dotted throughout the city, most of them displaying their wares in the original wooden crates.

After refueling with empanadas in a very cute little local restaurant, we continued walking to the La Boca area. We walked past the famous La Bombonera stadium, home to Boca Juniors who Diego Maradona used to play for. It would have been amazing to see a match there, but it wasn't to be this trip. Judging by this video footage, it would also be pretty scary! I can't believe they are allowed sparklers and flares in the stadium!! It must be pretty noisy on game day for the apartments below in the stadium's shadow.

Football is definitely king in Argentina, and walking around La Boca it was incredible how many people were kitted out in Boca Juniors colours.

Our destination was Caminito which consists of a few streets of colourfully painted houses and buildings typical of the early immigrant dwellings. It is possibly the biggest tourist trap in the whole of Buenos Aires, but we enjoyed exploring it and it was very photogenic.

We then walked all the way back to our hostel. Retrospectively, I read that apart from the Caminito area, La Boca isn't really safe for tourists to walk around! Nicola and I felt perfectly safe at all times, although we did wonder at the number of prostitutes working the streets in a couple of specific areas.

That night I had a treat in store for Nic and I... Watching the All-Blacks play the Pumas in Buenos Aires!!! This was something that I had always wanted to do since Argentina started playing in the Rugby Championship in 2012. Whenever I watched the matches on TV the atmosphere looked awesome. I couldn't believe my luck when I looked up the All-Black's fixtures and saw that the Buenos Aires match happened to be when I was in the city. I also couldn't believe that I could buy tickets online for $40 NZD each, less than half the price of what it would cost me to watch the All-Blacks at home.

After a short rest to recover from our BIG day of walking, we set out for the Jose Amalfitani Stadium by subway, followed by train.

We were way up with the gods in the second to top row, so we had a great birds-eye view of the match.

The atmosphere was electric, especially during the Argentinian national anthem, and when the Pumas scored their (highly dubious) try. As raucous as it was beforehand, during the haka you could hear a pin drop. I was highly impressed by the respect shown to the All-Blacks.

The first half was fantastic (unless you happened to be a Pumas fan!) but the second half wasn't much to write home about... Nevertheless, it was a brilliant night out. South American fans sure know how to support their teams!

The next morning we just had time to walk to La Recoleta Cemetery. This is an incredible place. It is like a walled 'city of the dead' set in 5 and a half hectares. There are over 4600 vaults, all above ground, with whole families using the same vault. It would have been nice to have a longer walk around, but we only had time to locate and view Evita's grave (which was the one with all the people around it!) before walking back, picking our bags up at the hostel, and catching a bus to the airport, ready for our flight to El Calafate in Patagonia.