Friday, May 6, 2011
Buenos Aires
Not letting the scam get to us we had some food and enjoyed the various buildings that BA has to offer.
La Boca = One of Buenos Aires dodgiest areas and COMPLETE TOURIST TRAP
Looks like Uruguay is off the cards, I've gotten travel burnout after those 2 long haul buses and even updating this blog is an effort for me at the moment, but we'll soldier through and see what BA has to offer.
We headed to La Boca this morning, one of BA's dodgiest areas, so armed with just our old camera and loose money in our pockets we hopped in a taxi and headed there, the streets are nice and colourful but I raise an eyebrow to whether this tourist bubble actually reflects the true area itself as it's one of BA's poorest areas.
The streets are full of touts trying to get you into there into there spot...Where are you from??? "Ireland"...Conas ata tu! Is there a book they get this shit from? I laughed and pretended it wasn't the millionth time I heard this from a tout. It was actually as bad as Spain or the Canaries, I was waiting for someone to jump out and ask if I wanted to go to Linekers Bar!
And just by wandering several blocks over from this trap your likely to be met with someone packing a gun to relieve you of all your belongings. Several tourists with pretty flashy cameras around their necks were wandering from the "safe zone", I question how far they made it through the real La Boca, which is a shame as I would have liked to see the real La Boca, but as personal safety goes it's just not worth the risk.
We had a beer and watched the Tango which was enjoyable but I still felt the place was rather fake.
We headed back in a taxi where we unfortunately were scammed for the first time in 10 months, he was a professional, took the hundred (15 euro) off us, asked had we anything smaller, I'd only 20 and the meter was 38, told us it was OK it was for Bono and handed back a dud 100 which we only realised after getting out of the taxi, seems silly but it all happened so fast..I hope him and his taxi find a nice big brick wall with his name on it.
Verdict on La Boca = Nice to see but definitely miss-able in my opinion.
We headed to La Boca this morning, one of BA's dodgiest areas, so armed with just our old camera and loose money in our pockets we hopped in a taxi and headed there, the streets are nice and colourful but I raise an eyebrow to whether this tourist bubble actually reflects the true area itself as it's one of BA's poorest areas.
The streets are full of touts trying to get you into there into there spot...Where are you from??? "Ireland"...Conas ata tu! Is there a book they get this shit from? I laughed and pretended it wasn't the millionth time I heard this from a tout. It was actually as bad as Spain or the Canaries, I was waiting for someone to jump out and ask if I wanted to go to Linekers Bar!
And just by wandering several blocks over from this trap your likely to be met with someone packing a gun to relieve you of all your belongings. Several tourists with pretty flashy cameras around their necks were wandering from the "safe zone", I question how far they made it through the real La Boca, which is a shame as I would have liked to see the real La Boca, but as personal safety goes it's just not worth the risk.
We had a beer and watched the Tango which was enjoyable but I still felt the place was rather fake.
We headed back in a taxi where we unfortunately were scammed for the first time in 10 months, he was a professional, took the hundred (15 euro) off us, asked had we anything smaller, I'd only 20 and the meter was 38, told us it was OK it was for Bono and handed back a dud 100 which we only realised after getting out of the taxi, seems silly but it all happened so fast..I hope him and his taxi find a nice big brick wall with his name on it.
Verdict on La Boca = Nice to see but definitely miss-able in my opinion.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Buenos Aires
Our last long haul journey, 22 hours on a bus from Iguazu to Buenos Aires...nearly double the time it will take us to fly back to Dublin...it puts things in perspective! Our plan is to spend 2 nights here and then go into Uruguay for 4 days and then spend our remaining days eating steak, drinking some malbec while doing the Tango!
Monday, May 2, 2011
Iguazu Falls....probably the best waterfall in the world
We made it at 10am this morning we arrived at Iguazu Falls, the largest falls in the world, it's no 'pul an ass' but it's nothing short of impressive. As you can see from the pictures the weather was on our side today, although when we arrived it was overcast. It's a big enough park to get around and there is a train service to bring to places off the beaten track, which is good as you do enough walking anyway.
The park has lot's of wildlife as well, unique butterfly's, coati's and birds wander the park, didn't see any Toucans today, they were probably off somewhere having a sneaky Guinness!
After a couple of hours in the park, we headed to Il Piacere's for some steak, we heard the steak was good out this direction but this was the best steak of my life, it was 3 inches thick cooked to perfection with pepper sauce and creamed potatoes...I'm watering at the mouth even writing about it now!
Tomorrow were going to do feck all and then head to Buenos Aires the next day where we'll wind down for the last few days of what has been a wonderful journey around the world. I've a few panoramics off the falls, not able to stitch them together on my existing machine but I hope they can do the falls justice!
The park has lot's of wildlife as well, unique butterfly's, coati's and birds wander the park, didn't see any Toucans today, they were probably off somewhere having a sneaky Guinness!
After a couple of hours in the park, we headed to Il Piacere's for some steak, we heard the steak was good out this direction but this was the best steak of my life, it was 3 inches thick cooked to perfection with pepper sauce and creamed potatoes...I'm watering at the mouth even writing about it now!
Tomorrow were going to do feck all and then head to Buenos Aires the next day where we'll wind down for the last few days of what has been a wonderful journey around the world. I've a few panoramics off the falls, not able to stitch them together on my existing machine but I hope they can do the falls justice!
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