Latin American Adventures with Scarlet: Tuesday 6 January, 2015 (my sister, Joanne's birthday!) Buenos Aires, Argentina

We spent the day of my sister’s birthday in the port of Buenos Aires, Argentina!

‘Most Argentines refer to Buenos Aires as “La Capital” and most English-speakers call it simply B.A. Its full name is the City of Our Lady Holy Mary of the Fair Winds”. Buenos Aires translates as ‘fair winds’.

11 million people live in Greater Buenos Aires – one out of every three Argentines – and most of them live in the one of the thousands of high-rise apartment buildings that make up a huge portion of the city.

Argentines eat well and they eat a lot of meat. Beef is raised to the level of ‘culinary art’ in Argentina. Steak lovers will be able to fulfill their fondest fantasies several times over in a few days time. Many restaurants, called parrillas, specialize in parrilladas (meals the British call mixed grills) consisting of an enormous platter of several cuts of meat.’

We alighted the ship and waited for the Viator tour bus to pick us up. Our half day city tour took us around all of the major tourist sites and inner city suburbs. Our favourite was La Boca – an area well known for its artisan community, complete with colourful buildings, tango dancers and all types of art for sale. The day was overcast with showers, so we were grateful for the bus tour and being able to walk around La Boca, looking at the art, the people and the shops.

After the tour, David and I went walking down Calle Florida – a pedestrian shopping mall in the heart of the city. Many people around but the most interesting activity was the large number of mainly young males who called out ‘Cambio! Cambio!’ to people like us as we passed. They were offering to exchange large $US notes for a better exchange rate (known as the ‘blue rate’ – 12 pesos to the $US) rather than the official one (known as the black rate 8.25 pesos to $US) - (such is the economy here)…. David was looking to have lunch at a parrilla and we found one named ‘La Estancia’. We were not disappointed! David had a large (300g?) sirloin steak which he could have cut with a spoon and I had a ‘milanese’ – crumbed steak, along with 2 x 600mL cervezas (beer – local Argentine brand, Quilmes) and bread, chimichurri, salad for $US38.75 and $US5 tip. We staggered out of there!!!

Did some shopping and bought some beautiful things before having to leave for the ship. Had some interesting exchanges with the locals whilst trying to speak Spanish, but for the most part we managed very well. Our 25min ‘dash’ back to the ship was the most fun – running with parcels across intersections! – there was no point trying to find a taxi with the city streets in 7pm gridlock! The ship was leaving port at 8pm and we made it in plenty of time. Managed to enjoy a beautiful sunset as the rain cloud cleared.