Day 37-40:
Buenos Aires, Argentina. “What's new Buenos Aires? I'm
new, I wanna say I'm just a little stuck on you. You'll be on me
too” Lyrics by Tim Rice, music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, vocals
by Madonna.
I must admit, I'm
not really a city person. Give me a choice between a weekend in
Manchester and a weekend camping in the Lake District and I'll
normally have the fold-away
stove and my walking boots in the back of the car before you can say
'Helvellyn'. And so, as
we boarded the Airbus 320 to fly us the three hours or so from the
beauty of Southern Patagonia, to the smog and pollution of Buenos
Aires you'd have thought that I'd have been a little disappointed.
In fact you'd be wrong: So much had people raved about the wonders
of Argentina's capital that I was actually very intrigued and very
excited. For BA is one of South America’s most electrifying
cities; graced with European architecture, atmospheric
neighbourhoods, and bustling night-life. It has the charm of an
unshaved Casanova, the mind of a frenzied lunatic and the attitude of
a celebrity super-model. She is a boiling, bubbling cauldron in
every sense of the word, but after four full-on days,
Karen and I just couldn't help falling in love with her - warts and
all.
Into the
Cauldron: The Metropolis. Arriving in from the cold and the
wind of the South West, BA's 30 degree temperatures, 80% humidity,
skin frying sunshine and lung choking pollution came as a bit of a
shock, but nothing was going to stop Karen and me doing Buenos
Aires from top to bottom. From the fabulous art-deco buildings of
the Microcentro, to the tango bars and antique markets of San
Telmo, to the trendy wine-bars and restaurants of Palermo
Viejo we did the lot: Everywhere we went - the two sides to BA:
The cutting-edge designer boutiques, the ritzy neighbourhoods and the
grand parks set against the unkempt streets full of spewing buses,
the crumbling buildings, the piles of dog mess and the ubiquitous
graphitti. But for us, it was precisely these rough edges that gave
Buenos Aires its appeal – elegantly seductive but decidedly ragged.
Strangely familiar but unlike any other city in the world.
Quirkiness fills
BA's restaurants with great food somewhat and amusingly tempered by a
decidedly macho theme. If you want a pizza here you'll be offered a
choice of grande (large) or chicas (for girls!) and if
you happen to order a meat pizza you'll get exactly that: Tomatoes,
mozzarella cheese, olives, peppers and onions... all topped out on a
15oz prime beef steak with not a bread base in sight! Mind you, you
should try it – it's delicious!
...And then there's
the infuriating money thing! So tightly does the government control
it's money supply in a flagging attempt to control Argentina's run
away inflation that the city ran out of coins years ago. That's all
well and good but the cities buses only accept small change so
you have the crazy situation where locals and foreigners alike can't
actually use city's (otherwise excellent) public transport system.
This in turn has fuelled an industrious black market economy whereby
change sells on the street corners and in the local bars for a highly
inflated price. Arriving in BA you'll see beggars with cups full of
coins, which I naively thought they were collecting for a meal
or something. But once you've been around for a while you realise
that they are actually selling the contents of their mugs to
the highest bidder!!!
Like most South
American cities crime is rife here, as we were to discover only too
quickly! Within two hours of arriving at the city we had been robbed
and to the day that I die I will never understand how these
light fingered thieves could have possibly dispossessed us in an
empty café with our belongings in full sight of us at all times.
Into the
Cauldron: The Dance. “Y uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco,
seis”, that's all Miriam our incredibly patient teacher told us we
needed to know in our afternoon tango classes. All very well and
good for her to say but try as I may I just couldn't remember whether
I was supposed to go forwards or backwards on tres and cuatro and
whether I should use my left or my right foot on cinco! And even
when we did manage to get the sequence right, the finale still let us
down. Karen could just about manage to get her leg around my waist
but then when we had to pull our 'tango faces' we just ended up in a
hopeless heap on the floor in fits of laughter!
Thoroughly
exhausted, we made way for the professionals at Complejo Tango, one
of BA's leading tango clubs. In this colonial 19th
century building the size of Steeple Morden village hall we were
treated to an outstanding exhibition of the cauldron boiling passion
and sexy athleticism of these elite dancers in a powerful production
worthy of a any west end show as they enacted the history of the
dance from its working class
origins in the brothels of early 19th
Century Buenos Aires to its current 21st
renaissance.
Into the
Cauldron: The Game. As a Watford and England fan for many
years, I have managed to visit some pretty impressive grounds to
watch some pretty intense games of football (and before anybody says
anything, yes as a Watford and England fan I have also been to
some pretty diabolical grounds to watch some some appalling
games of football)!!
But, without doubt,
securing a pair of tickets to see the top of the table clash between
River Plate, Buenos Aires' most famous team and their rivals
Independiente Rivadavia from Mendoza at the Estadio
Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti stadium will be one of
the highlights of my South American travelling experience. A
capacity crowd of 75,000 electrified the World Cup final venue. As I
marvelled at Mario Kempes' brace of goals back in July '78, never in
my wildest dreams did I expect to sit in the alta tier of the
Belgrano stand of the very same stadium watching the very club that
he served so well all those years ago in front of the most passionate
and fanatical fans in the world.
An intense,
intimidating and deafening atmosphere from start to finish, this
particular cauldron made the hairs on the back of your neck stand on
end and from now on, it will make an English premiership games feel
like a high school netball game by comparison.
In the end though a
comfortable 3-0 win to the home side meant that every one went home
happy (except the Mendoza fans who thought it would be funny to set
fire to the stadium – a plan which to me seemed fundamentally
flawed as they set fire to the part of the stand that they were
currently occupying!!)
And not only was it
a great game of football but as part of the experience, we also
managed to expand our Spanish vocabulary at the same time! A
innocuous yellow card for the River Plate captain caused all sorts of
commotion from the home faithful giving me the opportunity to learn
to Spanish phrase for “You're a very bad referee”. And after the
Independiente forward ballooned the ball in to the top tier of the
stadium from all of 10 yards I am pretty sure I now know the Spanish
equivalent of “What on earth was that!”
From start to finish
Buenos Aires provided us both with a roller coaster, topsy turvy,
helter skelter of a ride and, like everybody said, we fell head over
heels in love with her. I'm sure we weren’t the first and I'm
absolutely positive we won't be the last.
No comments:
Post a Comment