Buenos Aires part 1 and La Porteña

So, Buenos Aires. After a 20 hour bus journey, I reach Buenos Aires city. I get a cab to the hostel and the nice driver gives me a mini-tour of the city and warns me that now is not a good time to be English (the anniversary of the Falklands war is coming up). Once settled in, I head to Vila Crespo (a very non-touristy part of town) to meet up with Nick (from Torres del Paine) and his sister, whose birthday it was. After an "asado" which was actually more like a BBQ, we headed to Bomba del Tiempo, a 14-piece improvisational drumming sensation! It was BRILLIANT.

The next morning, I take a very early cab to the airport with my driver Eugenio to surprise Thiv at the airport. His flight was delayed by almost an hour, but I did finally make contact and somehow still managed to surprise Thiv even though I thought I had made it far too obvious (thanks Mum!). We checked into a small "trendy" hotel in Palermo, the shopping district, and spend the afternoon walking through the parks. We go for steak - unfortunately they're cooked to oblivion (helpful pointer, if you're in Argentina, always ask for your steak to be done one or two grades below your usual preference...unless you like the taste of charcoal of course). The mashed pumpkin sure made up for it though, that bit and the wine was delicious!!

Next day, a fun-filled shopping day in Palermo Viejo (the old part of town), having a nose around at the leather goods here, much cheaper than at home in the UK. Will definitely have a harder look when we get back from our stay in the estancia. We even have a look at some fairly cheap leather jackets up in the leather district. We save it for another day, we're so shopped-out we head for dinner at the famous La Cabrera, where it's apparently common to wait for up to 2 hours outside (with free champagne while we waited so we weren't too fussed). Stomachs were definitely gurgling when we were finally seated at midnight; mine was overdone (standard Argentinan cooking), although the side dishes that came out with it were pretty AWESOME!! So many to choose from!

So next we head from Palermo to San Antonio de Areco, where we're staying at an estancia (ranch) for a few days. Fate had another idea for our morning. Magical pickpockets on the Buenos Aires tube system manage to separate me and Thiv and stole my camera. And I hadn't backed them up! That will teach me for next time. At least it wasn't the passports. A fun trip to the police station to try and describe what happened (impressively I managed to do this in Spanish!) and then finally managed to get the bus to the estancia La Porteña and we make the final horse ride of the day. The rooms are so picturesque, exactly what I imagined.

The birds are so noisy here that we wouldn't have been able to have a lie in even if we wanted to. A great sunny day though so we chill out by the pool for the morning. Then empanadas and wine in hand we walked through the grounds and were treated to an asado for lunch. I have never seen people take meat so seriously! After the lunch, we had the staff at the estancia serenade us with traditional folk songs and teach us some traditional dancing, before the gauchos race and give a demonstration of how they used to traditionally propose to women of the estancias. They basically try to loop a ring suspended by a hook onto a branch and then present this ring to the girl of their choice. Pretty funny stuff. The second ride of the day was somewhat eventful. Seriously, the first time we're allowed to go faster than a walk, the gaucho hadn't put the saddle on properly, and it came off as soon as my horse got going! Ow!

By the next day we're ready to get back to the civilised world of Buenos Aires. We have a friendly visitor at breakfast and then we head off ready to explore the real Buenos Aires. Can't wait!!!