San Telmo and down town BA

After checking out of Palermo we headed to our next hostel based in San Telmo, this is when the real travelling starts with our shared 8 man dorm. We checked in and headed to Plaza de Mayo which is the main city square. Here the Casa Rosada stands proudly, over looking the busy plaza. Casa Rosada is better known for the building of which Evita and Peron would stand on the balcony, overlooking a sea of cheering crowds. It was said that Madonna filmed Evita using this very same balcony. I read in the Evita museum that locals where not happy that Madonna had been casted to play such an important character such as Eva Peron. The Casa Rosada was actually smaller than I had imagine but still grand, painted in a pink hence the name.

The Plaza was littered with banners in Spanish  words like ´Justica´ sprayed in bold blue. Every day at 3pm there is a march around the Plaza, this march is in protest against in the ´Dirty War´. They believe that a great injustice was done from 1976 when the President at the time Isabel Person was exiled by the military. “What followed was a seven-year period of unprecedented human rights abuses.” Here is the following crimes generally accepted as true:

• Over 30,000 people were disappeared, most of whom were never seen again.
• Some 500 young children and babies born to mothers who were kept alive long enough to give birth were appropriated and given to the families of high ranking military officers and their accomplices, thus robbing those children of their true identities and families.
• There were approximately 350 detention centers and concentration camps, some large and some small, spread throughout the entire country.
• Over 1,000 military personnel were involved in the abduction, physical and psychological torture and murder of the disappeared. These activities were sanctioned and planned by the military.

Even as a tourist you can see great political unrest around this beautiful city. There is a lot of graffiti in and around the city and most are done as a political stance. I spoke to a local yesterday Patricia and when she asked on her views of their current president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and she had muttered she did not like her, but hurried to say she did not want to say this out loud. This shocked me, imagine someone keeping quite about their views on Cameron.

Buenos Aires city center is very westernised and busy, streets like Florida are filled with Mcdonalds and Burger King etc. We walked around there for a bit then headed to Puerto Madero which is the business district. Posh restaurants line the docking area, its a bit like Canary Wharf in London. We then went to back to San Telmo, San Telmo is a beautiful neighbourhood. It is full of antique shops and San Telmo market is amazing, I wish I could have shipped all those vintage bags back to England. We settled for a drink on the local square called, Plaza Dorrego and watched a Tango Dance. This is a running theme in BA, for tourist purposes you will fine a couple who will dance the tango and pass a hat round for money at the end. Not truly authentic but nice none the while.

After another day walking 5 hours or so we went back to our hostel, back to our nice comfy bunk beds. I haven't slept in a bunk bed in years! We got acquainted to our ´Bunk Buddy´ Jason from Florida, USA. He was a plump man in his late 30s I would say, we later learnt that Jason from Florida also liked to snore, fart and belch in his sleep, lovely!

Later that evening we went to eat on a road called Chile, it was advised in Lonely Planet that there are nice restaurants here. We ate at ´Las cosas como son´ and ordered the Argentinian grill for 2, which included intestines, which is mushy and chewy, safe to say it wasn't very nice. At that point were still yet to have a nice nice meal. We paid the bill and intended to walk to Florida area where its said to have more of a party feel.
On the way down, we walked down Defensa. The streets are dimly lit and there are a few people walking past but no much going on, it was Thursday night. We suddenly heard a sound of good beats, we walked past and looked up and we could see what looked like a projector on the roof, there was definitely a party up there. Me and Michael where like, we gotta get in this party. We walked to the entrance where a man was holding a guest list, trendy Argentinians were giving their names and going up. We hung around to see how we could go in, every 2 minutes more and more trendy looking people were getting out of taxis and getting in. Finally we had a window and spoke to the man who thankfully spoke English. We asked what was going on, he said it was a secret terrace party and you have to email this guy to be invited. We were like, but its our last night and we would really like to go in. Luckily he said go on up, result!

We got in the lift and headed to the top where there was a pool party going on, we were the only tourist or English for that matter. This was party that the locals went to. We got our and drinks and met two locals Miguel and Hostel who we hung out with most of the night. The music was pumping and the Argentinians know how to party. They could also give the English a run for their money on the fashion front, everyone was just as or more trendy then the people you get back at home. I think Michael and I looked pitiful in our slacks but hey we didn't know we would end up at some fashionista pool party haha! Anyway, we danced the night away then went back to our less glamorous dorm, back with Jason from Florida and his many farts.