The Argentinian Tango

Eleven hours of smooth sailing with SAA at 35,000 feet brought us to Buenos Aires. A new adventure had begun. When one starts a holiday it always seem to take a particular space, or distance or time before one actually ´feels´ like it has started. Landing at Buenos Aires did  that unequivocally.

We had been informed that Canadians did not require visas to enter Argentinian space. To our surprise we saw poster indicating we would have to pay Cdn$75 per person to enter. The immigration officer kindly explained that while no visa was actually required because Canada charged $75 for someone with an Argentine passport they were ´reciprocating´.  Oh well - such is the nature of global politics and I hauled out my plastic card to pay when the officer told us that because we were staying under 24 hours (by 15 minutes) we did not have to pay the fee. So that was a relief.

Our bags had been checked through to La Paz, Bolivia so we took our carry one and found a ´remis´ to take us to our hotel.  It was located in the beautiful and very dynamic section of town called Palermo.  Tall buildings crowded both sides of the street with shops below and accommodtion above. People filled the sidewalks and cafes that were everywhere. After checking in we went for good long walk and found families, children, young and old wending their way down the sidewalks. About 8:30pm we found a little organic cafe and had some supper. Negotiating that without any effective Spanish was interesting but eventually the food came and it was more or less what we thought it should have been. As we ate families with small children came in and ordered their meal - so we had come a bit on the early side.

 We had hoped to find a place where one could have dinner and watch Tango dancers perform but our timing was out so we just wandered arond until we were tired and then returned to our hotel.  Next morning after the requisite continental breakfast we explored the numerous plazas and parks in the neighbourhood.

 After living in Joburg where the vehicles are no respecter of persons it was a pleasure to have them stop at all the cross walks and let pedestrians have the right of way. The thoroughfares through the city were amazingly wide and at one point when we crossed the street there were twelve lanes of traffic coming one way towards us. It seems that Buenos Aires residents like their dogs - even in the urban core. We saw many ´dog-walkers with 6-12 dogs on leashes walking the pets around the parks and down the streets.

We had arranged a return ´remis´ ride to the airport and our driver came about an hour early. So he showed us around the city with a delightful running commentary on things from politics to soccer to tango.

Our flight on AeroSur´s 737 took us to Santa Cruz de la Sierra and then to La Paz, Bolivia. Stepping out of the plane into the rarified air of the La Paz airport at 4000 metres literally took our breath away.  But then there was Melanie to welcome us an introduce us to her friend Chuma.  Stepping into a taxi we took a hair-raising ride down 500 metres into the city of La Paz which is located in a canyon below the rim of the Alti Plano.

So more adventures are in store...