Buenos Aires City Tour - Sunday

Like many other big cities, Buenos Aires has its hop-on hop-off bus tour.  It's not cheap ($25US p/p) but we decided that in this city of almost 3 million, it would be a good way to get an overview before we attempt to explore other parts of the city on our own.  The buses are double decked open on the top with headsets to plug in and listen to BA information as you're riding along.  It was Sunday and so we thought it would be a good time to tour with less traffic on the streets than there would be during the work week.  They only sell tickets at the beginning which was quite far from our apartment and at the stop near the Recoleta cemetery so that one worked well for us.  We showed up and bought our tickets which were good for 24 hours.  However, we decided that we would just stay on the bus for the whole route in order to see everything - the whole tour without getting off lasts for over 3 hours.  They wrote the time that we could get on which was more than an hour from when we bought our tickets so we strolled around the neighborhood and then stopped for a sundae at Freddo since we knew we would be on the bus for a long time.  They are a big ice cream chain all over Buenos Aires.  We ordered a mini-Oreo sundae and it was very nice.

Finally we got on the bus - upper level, of course, in order to have unobstructed views of the city.  You do have to watch out for tree branches, though.  The headsets and where you plug them in were in really poor condition so John had one and he was supposed to repeat back to me what they were saying while I took pictures.  That did not work out real well since he was too busy listening and forgot to tell me what they were saying.  Oh well.  The bus covered a lot of ground going from centro south and then around back to the north covering all of the most well known neighborhoods including some areas we probably would not go to on our own - like La Boca where the big soccer stadium stands.  You probably know that futbol is big - VERY BIG - in Buenos Aires and the fans get really into it with fan clubs.  I doubt very much if we will be attending any matches while we are here.  But at least we saw the stadium and the neighborhood which was

pretty decrepit in comparison to where we are staying - lots of differences in various parts of Buenos Aires. La Boca is where immigrants first arrived to BA and it is still kind of like a "Little Italy" - very bohemian with colorful old corrugated tin houses and lots of graffiti.

One of the most noticeable things about riding around town is that you see that the architecture is a mish-mash of styles and ages.  There are many apartment buildings, office buildings, government buildings and the contrasts are stark.  You see an old french type architectural building right next to ultra-modern building and then something else on the other side. The fact that Argentina is broke shows up in lack of public maintenance - the sidewalks are particularly hazardous - you really have to watch your step.  We are doing a lot of walking and it's becoming quite natural to look where you are about to step. But then I guess we've had good practice walking around in San Miguel.  

It was very sunny, warm and muggy on top of that bus for three hours so we were ready for a cold beer and some sustenance when we finished.  We stopped in at a little Italian restaurant/cafe just on the corner near our apartment.  They had a 3 course special of the day with a few choices.  Being adventurous I ordered something I didn't know what it was - turned out to be meat - no surprise.  I looked it up later - pecheco - roasted beef round.  It was very lean thing slices with a nice flavor.  John had a chef salad with chicken and we had chocolate ice cream for dessert.  The bill was around 150 Arg. pesos (abt $30US).  

On our way to the bus tour, we purchased Sube cards - these allow you to use the public transportation system without having to carry a lot of coins around.  Bus rides vary in cost depending on where you are going but you have to use coins.  So with the cards you can recharge them with whatever amount you want and there are shops everywhere to do this.  Now that we have a pretty good street map from the bus tour, we can figure out where we want to go and take the bus.  That will be an adventure.  I think we are about ready to try it but Monday we are going to the Teatro Colon which is within walking distance.

Here is a link to way too many pictures from the bus tour.

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