Adam's diary of the holiday: Buenos Aires

On arrival in Buenos Aires (happily about 15 minutes before our scheduled 6.45 am arrival, despite the late take-off), we were hoping that 4 things would happen:

1. Get through immigration with nothing bad happening
2. Find our luggage had also come to Buenos Aires and not been transferred in Madrid to a flight to Tokyo instead
3. Find the taxi that the Sofitel was supposed to send to meet us
4. Get the early check-in we had asked for but never heard back from the hotel about whether we could have

Well, the first of those went quite smoothly. We had to queue for about 15 minutes, but after the trip to Washington (a 2 hour queue) earlier this year, that really didn’t seem anything to get upset about. The second also went well, as our luggage appeared on the carousel shortly after we got there. On the way out, however, we came across some security men who wanted to see our tickets, but seemed totally incapable of saying what tickets they wanted to see. Eventually, we were able to prise out of them the information that they wanted the sticker matching our baggage stickers that had been stuck onto our plane tickets at Gatwick, and once we had established that and produced the necessary tickets, they seemed much happier and let us on our way.

Coming into the arrivals hall, we were greeted by huge thronging crowds, among which were many taxi drivers with placards carrying people’s names. As they were distributed over quite a wide area of the crowds, it took us some time before we were satisfied that our third objective had been a failure. Fighting off the offers from taxi touts, I phoned the hotel to find out what had happened. Apparently there was ‘a problem’ with our taxi (the nature of which was never specified) and it would be another 30 to 45 minutes before it would be with us. The concierge at the hotel suggested instead that we get a taxi from a particular company that has an office at the airport, and that the porter at the hotel could pay the taxi on arrival at the hotel so we wouldn’t need to worry about having any Argentine pesos (which we still didn’t have). When I explained this concept to the taxi company, it was met first with incomprehension, and then with a strange emotion which I guess came closer to laughter than to any other emotion I can think of. Luckily, however, they were happy to take US dollars for their totally non-negotiable advance payment, and we had some of those. There was some consolation in their $22 charge being $3 less than what the Sofitel would have charged us had their driver not had his ‘problem’.

We emerged into a rather hot and sunny day in Buenos Aires. If this was the temperature at 7.30 in the morning (it felt like high 20s centigrade), I didn’t like to think what it would be like at midday. I wasn’t sure I believed the BBC weather forecast, which told us it would be a day of heavy showers.

On exiting from the airport, the taxi driver had to make several attempts to get some kind of card accepted by a machine that raised a barrier to let him out of the airport. But with a little help from a chap manning the machine, we got through eventually. Bearing this in mind, I was a little nervous when later on in the journey, we came to a similar barrier at a toll booth which apparently didn’t need a card to be inserted anywhere, but presumably read some kind of smart card by remote control. Given the success of Argentine barrier-raising technology so far today, I would have felt more comfortable had the driver slowed down on approaching the barrier. Carolyn and I both felt considerable relief when the barrier rose quickly a split second before we would have ploughed into it.

The journey from the airport was easy enough, and we got to the hotel shortly after 8.00 am. It was with great relief that we discovered our fourth objective for the arrival was a complete success, and we were able to check in to our room straight away. Having spend the night in our clothes, showers were very much uppermost in our minds, and no doubt would also have occurred fairly promptly to anyone coming within a few yards of us. It doesn’t bear thinking about what sort of state Shackleton and his men must have been in after a year in the same clothes.

After returning ourselves to a state of civilisation, we stopped by at the concierge’s desk to see about opera tickets. Another success: we were able to book 2 tickets for tomorrow night’s performance of Puccini’s ‘Manon Lescaut’. The concierge also directed us to the nearest cash machine, which was just at the end of the road our hotel was on, and seemed to work without any problems. All was going well.

Carolyn in the Puerto Madera area

We set off for a little wander around Buenos Aires at about 10.00 am, which is probably not much later than we would have done had we stayed in the hotel the night before, so we really were getting two full days in the city despite arriving there on one of them. We had been told by none other than Steve Cviic (formerly the BBC World Service’s man in São Paulo, so he knows a thing or two about Latin America) that Buenos Aires was a pleasant city for just wandering around in, so that was what we did. I guess Steve is a bigger fan of traffic fumes than we are, as they seemed to be something of a feature of wandering around in the city. We walked up the Avenida 9 de Julio past the opera house (fortunately a fairly brief walk from the hotel) to the Obelisk, and then down to the Puerto Madera area, all through thick crowds of people and equally thick traffic fumes. The Puerto Madera area was more pleasant, and was apparently a regenerated docklands area, somewhat reminiscent of London’s Docklands, or possibly the Nyhavn district of Copenhagen, which is described on my T-shirt of it as the ‘renovated sailors’ district’.

We didn’t find any renovated sailors, but we did find a pleasant waterside cafe to sit and have a cup of coffee, which was really quite good. Afterwards, we wandered along the waterfront a little to try to find the restaurant ‘Cabaña Las Lilas’, which had been highly recommended by our Fodor’s guide, and had also had some good write-ups on the internet. It certainly looked pleasant, so we booked a table for this evening.

We then set off in the direction of the Recoleta district with the intention of wandering around the cemetery and some of the city’s parks. The traffic fumes on the way were really quite oppressive, and it was only of some little relief to walk past a small green space on the way. We passed at monument to the soldiers who had perished in the war over the Malvinas, which was guarded by a soldier with a rifle. It would be nice to think that the British government had learnt from its warmongering past and doesn’t go around randomly killing people these days, but probably also deluded.

We then came across the most amazing tree. The trunk must have been at least 12 feet in diameter, and the branches went out all over the place. Many of them had been propped up to stop them falling off under their own weight. While we were wondering what it could be, we were approached by a friendly chap in a bright green top with a red cross on it, who first tried to tell us where we were, but once we’d explained that we knew where we were but didn’t know what the tree was, told us that it was a Ficus (rubber tree) and that it was about 300 years old. After explaining about the tree, he then explained that he was collecting money for the Red Cross to help look after children with aids. We did wonder whether this was a scam, but figured that he’d probably earned 20 pesos just for the information about the tree even if it was.

Our plan was to wander on to the Recoleta district next, but on the way we discovered that the weather forecast had been right after all. And once it had decided it was going to rain, it didn’t muck about. Luckily, we were only a couple of blocks away from our hotel when the heavens opened, so it could have been worse. There was a certain irony to coming on holiday laden down with a whole bunch of expensive waterproof and weatherproof kit and then getting caught in the rain anyway.

We stopped off at the hotel for a quick drink, and then when it was apparent that the rain was probably here to stay, consulted the guidebook for a nearby restaurant, donned our waterproofs, and made for the restaurant.

The restaurant, ‘Juana M’, was our first chance to sample the famous Argentine steaks. After having been told how wonderful Argentine beef was, I was ready to be disappointed by the reality, but in fact the beef really is as good as everyone says it is. Carolyn and I had different types of steak, which were both fantastically tender and delicious, washed down with some perfectly pleasant local beer. The bill came to 52 pesos, which as far as I understand is slightly less than £10, which is astonishingly good value.

After lunch, the only sensible thing to do was to return to the hotel for a siesta. I tried and failed to get the World Service on our short wave radio, so had a little snooze instead. Afterwards, there was time for a swim in the hotel pool before going out again. Carolyn didn’t join me for a swim, which was probably just as well: hotel pools are not noted for the huge size in general, but even so, this one was smaller than most. With both of us in the pool, it would have felt a bit crowded.

We set off for the restaurant shortly before 8.00 pm, and still had to contend with crowded pavements and thick traffic fumes on the way. We passed various other waterfront restaurants on the way to ours, which were all practically empty. We thought that maybe 8.00 pm was too early to eat for the locals, but were surprised to find our restaurant was very busy, and that it was certainly a good thing that we had booked. Whether our restaurant was popular because it was genuinely the best or whether everyone else had the same guidebook that we did, I cannot say.

In any case, the restaurant was wonderful. We were brought a rather splendid tray of hors d’oeuvres to start with, and then once again ordered steak. I had previously heard the term ‘melt in the mouth’ applied to particularly tender steaks, but never really believed it until now. However, it was a perfect description of the steak I ate at Cabaña Las Lilas. Carolyn had a kebab-like thing, which she assures me was equally delicious. To accompany the meat, we had some salad and what was described as ‘soufflé potatoes’, which we ordered mostly out of curiosity. They were a rather strange cross between chips and crisps, with a hollow middle. I have no idea how they were made. The problem of Carolyn and I liking different colour wines with our beef was solved by the inclusion of a few half bottles on the wine list. The red that I had was wonderful. I was only sorry that I couldn’t finish my steak, as it was just too huge. I think I’m beginning to understand how the Atkins diet works. The bill came to about 180 pesos, which although much more expensive than lunch, was still amazingly cheap for what we got. Walked back to the hotel and went to bed feeling very content with Argentine cuisine.

Didn’t set the alarm this morning, and woke up about 8.30, just in time to make the 9.00 laundry deadline. Went down for a not terribly exciting breakfast of cold meats, cheese, pastries, and yoghourt.

We were woken up by the alarm at 5.45 am and found that we had in fact timed this perfectly, as we were all packed and ready to check out by 6.30 when the restaurant opened for breakfast. Checkout was quick and efficient, and came to about 1500 pesos, or roughly £250 (I think), which was amazingly good value for 2 nights in a 5-star hotel with one room service dinner, a batch of laundry, a couple of trips to the coffee bar, and extensive use of the mini-bar. Our taxi was ready for us on the dot of 7.00 as ordered, and got us to the airport comfortably in time to check in for our flight.

Once again, we were very glad to be able to go straight to the business class check-in and avoid standing in the queue with the great unwashed. Strangely enough, our flight left from a different terminal from the one in which we checked in, but it was only a short walk to get there. Boarded the plane after only a brief wait in the departure lounge, and found the business class seats weren’t quite as cramped as the ones on the London to Madrid flight, but nowhere near as spacious as on the Madrid to Buenos Aires portion. But fine for the length of flight we had. They were also almost completely empty: no wonder the business class upgrade was such a good deal.

We felt a little bit like hobbits when they served breakfast, as this was for us a ‘second breakfast’. Carolyn had the ‘omelette’ which was totally unlike any omelette either of us had experienced before. It contained two whole poached eggs, some mushrooms, and some random goo. I guess it just proves that actually you can make an omelette without breaking eggs, or at least while keeping the yolks intact.

We discovered the answer to the mystery that had been puzzling us about why the flight there was two hours longer than the flight back to Buenos Aires: we had a stop en route at a place called El Calafate. This was in the wilds of Patagonia, and the scenery on the way into it was amazing. There were vast expanses of what appeared to be totally barren landscape, and I couldn’t believe that there was such a conspicuous lack of vegetation. When we got closer it was apparent that there was in fact a lot of scrubby grass, albeit still with many bare patches.

I don’t think El Calafate International Airport is quite as busy as, say, Heathrow. A clue to this came when the plane had landed and reached the end of the runway, and then turned round and proceeded to taxi back along the runway to get to the terminal. We had about an hour to wait before we took off again for the final part of the flight to Ushuaia. It was only a brief flight to Ushuaia (although long enough for the crew to serve us a snack), and we arrived there slightly ahead of schedule, shortly before 2.00 pm.