Puerto Madero & Heading Home

The last two days in Buenos Aires we spent around the Puerto Madero, Plaza de Mayo and Florida Street shopping areas.

Puerto Madero was a really pretty area with plenty of tourist and English speaking people... and the prices that often come from such areas.  The bridge that links the two sides of the port is really stunning at night.

Bridge at night

Uruguay - historic boat

If you are in the Puerto Madero area I highly recommend taking a tour of one of the two historic boats that are docked there.  The entrance fee is only a ARS 2 Peso donation, which is less than 50 cents US.

Fragata Sarmiento

Below Deck - Fragata Sarmiento

Spanish Controls - Fragata Sarmiento

Helm - Fragata Sarmiento

Tiny Cannon - Fragata Sarmiento

I am not sure what the last cannon pictures is really supposed to do, it was pretty tiny.  I guess you could use  shoot tiny clowns out of it, if you wanted.

We made it to the airport about 3 hours 30 minutes before our flight departure time.  I would recommend between 3 and 3 1/2 hours if you plan on flying out of Ezeiza Airport to an international destination.  I would also recommend printing your boarding passes ahead of time.

Boarding Pass Line:  30 minutes (estimate, we printed ours in advance - but another lady on our flight didn't)
Baggage Check Line:  50 minutes
Immigration Exit:  45 minutes
Security:  30 minutes

Airport

Our plane was having some maintenance issues so we were delayed about an hour.  When we were ready to go it was told to us that the Argentine air traffic control had discarded our flight plan and that we had to submit a new plan.  We were lifting off around 2 hours and 30 minutes after our initial departure time.

I was really impressed with American Airlines when we arrived at Dallas Fort Worth Airport.  They had already advised customs that there was a plan of about 300 international travelers that were delayed so they had extra staff waiting.  We went to collect our bags and took them to the ticket counter that was conveniently located right past our baggage claim area.  We lined up and one-by-one they got us on new flights.  They called over additional personnel here also to process our line faster.  We were through customs, had a new flight and our bags checked within 45 minutes of landing and were only delayed 2 hours and 45 minutes from our original landing time.

Now I am home and back to the daily grind.  So, I guess - this is my last post.  It has been fun and I hope everyone enjoyed reading my entries.

Until next time,

Tim

Let the city take the lead...

Today my Spanish courses were cancelled because of planned protests in the city.  Public transportation was running when I woke up so I decided to go out for the day.  This blog post is a little all over the place, because that's exactly how my day went.

I started off by leaving the house and heading South down Santa Fe.  I knew that I wanted to eat somewhere new and probably needed WIFI if I was going to have any chance of figuring out the rest of my day.  I stopped a nice little cafe and it wasn't anything special, but it was new and different.

Cafe con leche y tres medialunas.

I remembered that one of our professors recommended that we go to "barrio once" to see some of the things there and look at the shopping.  We are studying the Jewish immigrant population in Buenos Aires and Argentina in general and this was one of the first established Jewish communities.

I had a plan, paid my "cuenta" (bill) and headed on my way.  I needed to get over to the subte (subway) and so I walked down Callao to get over to Cordoba to catch the subte.  Little did I know, Buenos Aires had a little surprise for me...

Sarmiento Palace

In an early blog I wrote about going to Sarmiento's home and the school he built in the Delta, but I stumbled upon this palace in his name on my walk to the subway.  

Turns out... I also got a view of the Parish del Carmen on my walk also... and it was a beautiful day.

Parroquia del Carmen

I made it to the subway and got off on my stop near Once.  With no better plan, I just figured I would wander around and see what seemed interesting.

Plaza Miserere

I walked around the Plaza Miserere and was able to take a photo of the monument that stands there as a tribute to the first President of Argentina - Bernardino Rivadavia.

Bernardino Rivadavia - Monument

Near the Plaza Miserere I found a small area that is dedicated to missing/dead children of some sort.  To be completely honest I am not really sure what it was all saying, but I have added it to my list of things that I need to research.  I took some pictures of the memorial...

I can only assume that these shoes tied to the string are the shoes of the missing/dead.

Justice

A view of the memorial area

After walking around and looking at some of the pictures of the missing/dead children I continued my journey of finding new things...

I walked along the building above until it opened up into a shopping center and subway station.  I was immediately greeted by some of the protesters that were en route to the Plaza de Mayo for the demonstrations that were to take place.

This is the protesters as they were leaving the inside of the building - where they were drumming and setting of fireworks that sounded like gunshots.  They are carrying a large Argentine flag and were going to march the plaza.

The shopping was decent and cheap as promised by our professor.  I didn't carry a lot of pesos on me, but I believe that I will be returning to purchase some new shoes.  I found a great pair for under $40 USD.

I decided that one of the other things on my Argentine bucket list was the take one of the original subway cars that run on the A line here.  I decided to figure out how to get home from one of the stops or just transfer to my regular subway.

Original Subway Car - still in operation

I didn't have to decide which station to get off at or whether or not I was going to use the transfer because the rail line shut down at one of the stations and the workers made everyone get off the subway.  They weren't going any farther because of the demonstrations.

I arrived on the street from the subway platform to the following:

This road was basically cleared of all automotive traffic...

because these protesters had the other side of this intersection completely blocked...

and three helicopters like this were flying over the situation.

So, I started to walk in the other direction and wouldn't you know it... I got another surprise from the city.  I came across the national congressional building here in Buenos Aires.

Plaza in front of the national congressional building and the congressional building in the background on the left.

I walked around for a bit and had lunch at a nice cafe near by.  I decided to get in a taxi and go home as I watched a large police vehicle traveling the direction of the demonstrations...

Police vehicle traveling down a street in Buenos Aires littered with protest fliers.

It was an interesting day and I truly enjoyed it...

Ciao,

Tim

To the Delta and Back

Today we all met at China town again and then headed back to El Tigre.  It's a little bit of a trek to get there, but it's been worth it both times now.  Last time we went to the museum and walked the river banks, but today we actually went on a boat bus out to one of the areas in the center that can only be accessed by boat.

This is one of the houses in the city area by the bank of the El Tigre... but these aren't the types of houses we were bound the experience.

We left on the boat taxi and after about a 30 minute ride we arrived at our destination.  During the trip I learned that they actually have boat school buses that take the children to school, boat grocery stores that travel up and down the river and also they have these buses (like the one we were riding on) that the locals pay a fee monthly to utilize.

Sarmiento's Residence

Our first stop once we arrived was the house of Sarmiento which is encased in this large glass structure.  Approximately 30% of this structure is original.  He was a famous educator and President of Argentina from 1868 until 1874.

Sarmiento's original desk

Next we traveled on canoes up and down the portion of the delta that was right outside the place where we ate our lunch.  To get to the starting point of the canoe adventure we had to cross over several bridges.  I believe it to be true that infrastructure is not a top priority in this part of Argentina (see caption below).

This is me on one of the bridges.  I am alone on this bridge for two reasons 1) I was posing for the picture and 2) only one person was allowed on this bridge (like many) because with too much weight it would probably collapse.

Side-note:  One of the girls stepped a little off of the trail and fell completely into a mud hole filled with water.  She was okay, but needed a change of clothes and time to recover from the embarrassment.

The place above is where we had lunch.  The food was absolutely delicious.  It was a quaint little place and the woman who cooks there is apparently known for her ability to add her own twist to some of Argentina's favorite dishes.  I'm guessing you won't see this on Diners, Drive-In's and Dives...

Locro

The above dish is called Locro and is one of the traditional Argentine dishes.  It was absolutely delicious!  It is generally made with the left over parts of cows and pigs that are butchered for other fine cuts, but in this case I don't think it included anything too odd.  

After lunch we made our way around the neighborhoods in the Delta.  One of our guides actually has a home in the area and showed us where he lives.

This house was constructed by him in about 5 months.  It is made from bricks of mud and blades of grass hand-compacted together.  He used the bottles to create his own version of stained glass.  On the property he dug a hole which pumps water into a tank inside of his house and purifies it for use.

He has several animals on the property including this adorable 5 day old kid.  

All in all it was a pretty interesting day.  It was fun to see people enjoying such a primitive way of life.  They canoe to their friends houses and are relatively self sufficient.  It was a great change of pace from the day-to-day in Buenos Aires because it is such a large city with so many people.

Until next time,

Tim