Buenos Aires

October 17-21 & 23-25, 2007

We were both pretty excited to arrive in BA as it was the second time Davo had been and Fi had heard a lot of good stories from him about it, especially about the steak. It was Fi´s aim to put on 3kg. Davo suggested she just eat 3kg of steak!

Our first day there we freshened up after our long bus ride with a few ham and cheese empanadas and a fresh OJ from an old favourite shop of Davo´s next door to the hostel, before doing a bit of window shopping in the low priced and quality shops that BA has to offer. Afterwards we went to Davo´s and now one of Fi´s favourite restaurants in the world, Siga la Vaca, translated to Follow the Cow in English. It is all you can eat steak and a bottle of wine each plus dessert and salad if you want it! All for a rediculously cheap price. We spent three and a half hours there enjoying some fantastic grub and even better company.

We spent just over a week in BA and broke up our time there by heading over to Uruguay by ferry for a couple of nights (see the following blog). During our time we did a fair bit of relaxing and taking it easy while also checking out some of the highlights of the town from Davo´s last visit and also some even better new ones.

We wandered around the colourful streets of La Boca, watching street tango and admiring the artwork and touristy shops. We had a peep at the elaborate Recoletta cemetary with massive tombstones and chapels built for BA´s rich and famous dead people, including Evita (Eva Perón). Afterwards we toodled around the weekend market. We hoped to see a polo match (which is big in Argentina) but unfortunately there were no matches on at the time so instead we had a peek at tthe empty arena. We wittnessed the marching of the mothers (Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo) which takes place every Thursday. Mothers of the children stolen by the Argentine government in the dirty war (1976-83) gather every week wearing white head scarves as a symbol of peace, in hope of being reunited with their children.

Just by chance, we ran into our Aussie mates Mike and Anna who we had met in Rio. We went searching for an ideal place to see the rugby world cup 3-4 playoff between Argentina and France. It was an electric game and a great atmosphere seeing Argentina win. Although I think the locals would have been a lot more excited if it was a football (soccer) game.

We´ve both decided to have a career change when we return home and become Australian champion tango dancers. We had a short tango lesson before having a sit down meal, all you can drink wine and bing treated to a spectacular live tango show. Having the leson really made us appreciated how difficult it is and how good these guys were. However, we rated ourselves as good beginner tango dancers and reckon we´ve got what it takes to take it to the next level!

After returning from Uruguay we stayed in the trendy area of San Telmo, famous for being the place where tango originated and also for its antique markets and shops.

We were lucky to have been put in contact with Juan Pablo, (thanks to Alberto from Uruguay) the manager of a dairy farm 50km from the centre of BA. He had very generously offered to take us to his farm for a tour for a peep at the Argentinian dairy industry. His farm was special in that it was surrounded by suburbia since BA is a rapidly expanding city and also because the primary aim of the farm is genetics. They milk 170 Jersey cows, some three times a day and others twice a day. They have about 500 hectares and use a lot of the land for cropping. It hurts to say it but everything was so green, the pasture was beautiful and lush and so long in parts that it was a problem for them to keep it short enough.

A unique aspect of the farm compared to Australian dairy farms were the flood lights in the back paddocks which helped to reduce the incidence of cattle theft, along with the patrolling security guards. Another major difference was the supply and cost of labour. They had approximately 20 people working for this farm.

We were really impressed by their calf rearing system where each calf was tethered to their private little house and small grassy area (see the picture). They live here more or less isolated from contact with other calves for the first 2-3 months of life. The area and labour available on the farm, coupled with their rotation system, means the incidence of disease is low and the calves grow strong.

They supply an icecream company called Munchi´s, owned by the richest man in Argentina and we were lucky enough to be treated to a sample. The factory was next to the farm, as was a big educational animal park, established by the wife of the richest man. Juan Pablo took us out for lunch and icecream and then allowed us a few hours to wander around the park. It was like a zoo but better. We saw hippos being fed which was amazing, zebras, flamengos, crocodiles, meer cats, tigers, all sorts of African animals, Patagonian wildlife and even a few wallabies. Then there was the aquarium which rivals the one in Melbourne.

On our return trip to the centre of BA, Juan Pablo drove us around some of the outer suburbs of BA which gave us a very unique insight into the life in Buenos Aires which most tourists would shurely not be exposed to. We saw an example of the rapidly expanding city, many new middle-upper class homes being build on land that was formerly swamp land, but has been transformed by landfill. We also saw examples of the slums and the lower class areas. One of these was neighbouring an upperclass area. We drove along the fence line that separated the two. A large, strong fence that was about 3m hight that you could not see through. It separates two classes of society that live next to each other but in reality are worlds apart. We also got a glimpse of the ritzy, classy suburb of Tigre which thrives on weekends along the banks of the river and is frequented by water sport fans.

We cannot thank Juan Pable enough for his generosity and kindness and for going to so much trouble for us amongst his busy schedule. He has joined the long list of people who we are extremely grateful for helping us along our travels.