Buenos Aires

After a 4 hour flight across the Andes from Lima, we had a long taxi ride into Buenos Aires, passing the famous Obelisco and arriving at our fairly central accommodation. We were initially a bit confused by the double currencies of Argentinian pesos and US dollars, and had what we thought was a quite expensive meal by Peru standards, but after a good sleep and some reflection we realised it was actually quite cheap.

Just a few thoughts about money in South America. Ecuador uses US dollars as their currency, credit cards are widely accepted and we had no trouble drawing cash from ATM´s, but cashing American Express Travellers Cheques took most of a morning. In Peru the local currency was the sol, but many prices were quoted in dollars. Peru Rail for example would not accept payment in any form other than cash dollars. Most ATM´s dispensed either dollars or sols. In Argentina the local currency is the peso but the symbol for it is "$". Some things like hotel rates are quoted in dollars but then it´s shown as "U$S". That was the reason for our first night confusion. Most annoying though was that many places, including restaurants and hotels, will not accept credit cards, or will surcharge massively if you want to use one. The ATM´s will only dispense pesos even if they say they offer a choice, and they are all subject to a daily limit of 300 pesos which is less than 50 pounds. Eventually we discovered a bank that could bypass this limit but we had to queue for over an hour to do it. None of this information matched what our guide books told us.

We took a couple of bus trips in and around Buenos Aires, the first being delayed due to mass demonstrations about the complaints of the farmers. It was quite interesting seeing the main square gearing up to the expected influx of demonstrators. The second day was a public holiday to remember the Malvinas ( Falkland Islands ) war. We thought we should just keep our heads down! Judging by the editorials in the local papers there are still some issues to be resolved.

We did a walking tour which was very different and much more informative than the bus tours, then followed this up with a visit to Eva Peron´s grave, the Evita Museum and of course the balcony where she made her speeches (and the other balcony where Madonna practised her speeches for the film ). Eva Peron and Madonna have a lot in common besides being actresses.

Buenos Aires is in many ways quite European and a lot different from Lima or Quito. Our walking tour guide quoted a well-known film director (whose name we have forgotten) as saying its citizens are Italians who speak Spanish, and think they are English living in France. We could certainly see all these elements, but there is another side to Buenos Aires. In the evening the smart areas of the town centre fill up with the cartoñeros. They are the hidden poor who come to rake through the garbage in the streets for anything of value, and leave a considerable mess in the streets. Most Argentinians seem not to even notice them. They live in the poorest neighbourhoods like La Boca, and the shanty town under the motorway flyover next to Buenos Aires´s smartest neighbourhood, Palermo, whose inhabitants shop at Armani and Gucci and employ people to walk their dogs for them. Local heroes, much celebrated in posters and T-shirts, include Evita (of course), Che Guevara and Maradona. We passed up the opportunity to buy a T-shirt showing Maradona scoring the famous "Hand of God" goal against England. After all we have a few English friends and family.