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DAY 185-205, April 12-May 02, 2012, Buenos Aires, Temp 15-27C (300/27,820km)
Out of Rosario easy enough as you take the river to RN9 and a straight shot to Buenos Aires C1/2R7T2/3V5/6 farms and flat land. Probably the most notable thing as I got closer and closer to BA was the expansion of lanes on the highway from 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 to 6! 13,000,000 people need a lot of highway.
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| View from Rosario Inn, nice day |
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| What kind of bus? |
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| BA this way |
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| Lots of farming |
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| Hitch hiker |
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| 2 lanes on Route 9 at this point about 150km out of BA |
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3 Lanes with under 100km left with
speed designation for each lane |
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| Big Toll Booths, bikes pay too |
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| 6 Lanes with designation for what and how fast. |
Made my way in to the very high end community of Palermo easy enough. I was very surprised how easily the traffic flowed considering the size of the city. I liked this place immediately.
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| Buenos Aires and the end of the Panamerican |
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| 6 Lanes or more, as I hit Palermo |
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| Busy side streets in to the lovely Palermo area |
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| Inglesia Guadalupe |
The first couple of days I met up with David and Gui and stayed with them in Palermo. David was there for only for my first night. It was good to see him before he took his bike and flew back to Arizona to do more travelling in the US and Canada (he'll be in Aussie in December or so). A very nice loft style apartment in Palermo going for about $550 a week.
Sweet Side Story: While out for dinner one evening Gui stumbled across a wallet with only identification remaining inside. Regardless we decided to find the owner and the best way to do this was through FB. We did a search and somehow got to Patricio through his friend who I think just made a page for him that day. Within 48 hours Patricio contacted us and he came by to get the wallet. A really nice guy who speaks english as well so we had a good chat. He invited us to Sugar and we met up with him the next week. My first BA friend. Note: This is not the first time he's lost his wallet, but at least we were able to save him 4 weeks waiting on new ID from the government. Good deeds = good people.
Tour of Palermo apartment, nice
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| Last night with David and his favourite street guy with a TV |
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High end steak and high end wine.
Tasty and tasty. |
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At the lights the bikes always get
the front and blast off on the red. |
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| Confused? Which lane is which? |
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| Gui and me out for a couple |
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| Gui speaking spanish with some girls at the end of the night |
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| Blues night! |
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| Great stuff |
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| The Lioness Monk bar in Palermo, excellent music and vibe |
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Nice to see the Police being
multilingual |
Leaving Palermo me and the Gui machine moved over to Nunez to a place owned by my best friend's brother's wife's sister, Soledad. It was a little further out than the flash Palermo place, but a much better price, lots of shops around, parking included and the subte (subway) very close. A great place to really feel Buenos Aires and what everyone deals with on a daily basis (or as much as two non working guys could).
Our first couple of days were internetless (a new word for Webster's) until we begged our child expecting neighbours to use their Wifi. Thanks Fernando and Tatiana and congratulation on the beautiful baby boy Julian.
Pretty routine days in the Nunez place where Gui and I kicked back after riding for 6 months from Canada to Argentina. Reaching my end goal of the trip I was loving just sleeping and taking in my surroundings. I guess the highlights for the 3 weeks would be visiting an Argentinian dentist to get a crown put on a tooth that blew up, meeting some locals and simply cruising around the city checking the architecture and people. Gui was a bit of a tour guide with his better spanish and 2 weeks previous knowledge of the city before I arrived. I think of Buenos Aires as the poor man's version of New York because everything costs 75% less than New York. A good steak dinner with a bottle of red, although more expensive in BA than other parts of Argentina, is only $20 or less.
Sole's Nunez apartment, I like it.
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Gui's room / our living room. He looks
like Zorro with his sleeping gear on. |
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| Off to get Gui's bike. |
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End of the D line Subway at our
front door. $0.80 to ride. |
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| Circulo Militar |
Oh crap! Broken tooth. While I was enjoying a nut filled pastry I crunched into a nut shell. I spit the shell out and continued thinking that was a close call. If you have ever crunched on something hard in your food, like me, you probably figure it was just unlucky that one piece of shell got in the mix. So, I figured I was home free to bite in...No. Two more shells were crunched and the 4th was my tooth now in the mix of food which may have broken off on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd crunch, who knows. The good news was I was able to find a lovely English speaking dentist near by who was friend's with Sole, Dra. Natalia Karol. And the other good news was dentistry in Argentina is 25% or less the price of dentistry in Canada! My Xray, repair and crown would have cost $1500 USD in Canada.
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| 2nd from the back |
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The culprit. I finished it and you might think I'm crazy, but
who wouldn't finish a $400 pastry no matter what. |
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| Dra. Karol at work |
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| Around the neighbourhood |
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| Let's go to Sugar |
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| Racing the streets of BA in the night |
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| Sugar in Palermo |
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| Lovely Mexican girls on a University transfer |
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Where you put your money when
taking the bus. $0.20. It sorts it. |
Another night I met up with my new friend, Diego, I met in Rosario. Bar Club Culture Matienza about a 5 minute bus ride from the apartment. Roof top patio accessed by the most narrow and dangerous stairs I have seen at a bar (not possible to legally have this bar going in Canada).
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| Club Culture Matienza, packed. |
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| A little bar trick I put to all |
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| why not |
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| "Chris Cornell" and Diego |
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| Me and Diego |
A day on tour with Gui and the bikes. Checking out the city centre.
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| First looks at 9 de Julio the widest road in the world |
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| Gui in action at a weigh your plate buffet |
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tight squeezes, check the guy on the
bike's back tire. Totally warped.
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| Sexy Argentinian version of Abbey Road |
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| 9 de Julio, let's cross it! |
Crossing 9 de Julio, 2 lights needed.
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| The famous Obelisco |
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| Courier bags for wind protectors |
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| Nature and urban influence |
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| Hey Gui, try the big bike |
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| A night at our local pizza place |
In and around Recoleta Cemetery.
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| A small market on the weekend |
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| The church next to the cemetery |
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| Cemetery entrance |
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| Inside the cemetery |
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| far wall of the cemetery |
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| A street performance |
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| Supposed to be a bike lane |
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| Gui leaving for Brazil, we will be meeting at the Falls! |
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Seems I'm not the only shampoo
thief, Sole...haha |
RECOMMEND: Temple bar for Mundo Lindo (language exchange) a good place to meet travellers and Argies. Sugar bar can be good. Matienza bar and drinking caipivodka. Dakar Moto a traveller friendly bike service shop.
DON'T RECOMMEND: Tarts with nuts as they often have shells that break teeth. Trying to sell a motorbike in Argentina as it's illegal and people pay very low for just the parts.
Is this the end of the trip? Stay tuned...
Other Stuff
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| Pollution! |
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| One of the best signs of the trip |
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| Cardboard collectors everywhere |
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| Now that's a leaky washing machine drain |
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Ambulance bikes quicker through
traffic in order to stabilize the victim |
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| That shower curtain/door is a little high |
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Buses are privately owned so the
schedule can be sporadic |
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