Day 21 - Arriving from Buenos Aires to Mendoza

Our first experience travelling on an overnight bus wasn’t too bad. Slightly chilly, slightly cramped, slightly noisy – but overall not a bad experience. Fortunately these busses also have toilets so midnight pit stops were possible.

The bus arrives to a small town at around 6am, where we’re offered complementary medialunas (small, sweet croissants) and coffee. After about a half hour break we’re back on the bus for the last short jaunt to Mendoza.

The bus pulls into Mendoza terminal and it’s a manic grab for the bags (unless you tip the baggage handler – in which case you get your bag first). We get our packs and head straight to a bus operator office to buy our tickets into Santiago, Chile. This time we buy an early morning bus, as the Argentina – Chile border crossing is notoriously lethargic. After purchasing the tickets – we suit up and walk into Mendoza proper. 

During the 30 minute walk to our hostel ‘Wine Aparts’ – we notice a distinct lack of people. There was no one. Admittedly it was a Sunday, which means your life will be more difficult in South America – but Mendoza was literally a ghost town. Wandering through the beautiful, wide, tree covered streets of Mendoza we were immediately attracted to the serenity of the place. Finally arriving at the hostel we drop our bags off and head into town.

If you can picture a horror movie where an entire town’s population has mysteriously disappeared – this was it. We walked around the plazas and squares for an hour or so and came across maybe 5 people. Eventually, we stumble across where the majority of people seemed to have been hiding (in plain sight), at a protest. There was a new politician or something being inaugurated, so naturally people were happy/angry and were being vocal about it! 

At around late afternoon, restaurants and cafes began to open and Mendoza sprang into life. We stop at a warm patio restaurant and have a nice relaxed meal, of course with some famous Mendoza Malbec.

Finishing our meal, we were determined to find a tour operator that was also open – fortunately we found one and booked a trip into the Argentinian Andes later that week. Having completed our mission – and having literally nothing else to do in town – we head back to our hostel and call it a night!

Day 15 - Buenos Aires, Evening Free Walking Tour

What is with cities in South America? Our room, on the 5^th floor, felt very secluded and quiet. That was until cars entered and/or exited the parking garage across from the hotel – triggering a flashing light (luckily we couldn’t see it) and a loud siren – presumably to warn other cars and passengers about the emerging vehicle. A good theory, in principle, however, this garage (and seemingly all of them throughout the city) was constantly busy – meaning that darn siren was going off every 10 minutes every hour of the day and night. Eventually your mind drowns it out, getting used to the shrill cry – however, the first night we weren’t sure whether to evacuate the building or what to do, as it sounded exactly like a fire alarm.

Anyway. 

We awake to a small continental breakfast – with terrible, burnt coffee – and make our way to the meeting point for our walking tour. The tour, Buenos Aires Free Walking Tours, was led by a well-informed, well-spoken sociologist named Martin. The tour began at the Congresso Nacional and meandered through the city – highlighting key elements from Buenos Aires’s rise and fall from grace. A very beautiful city, Buenos Aires is an eclectic conglomeration of European architecture – a result of the aristocracy trying to mimic the grand cities of Europe – Paris, Florence, etc… Buenos Aires has many parks, statues, and importantly to portenos' (locals), wide avenues. We toured around parks, observing and learning the importance of many of them – including one of the (16?) Rodin’s Thinker statues. We observed many sights including a high rise inspired by Dante, a giant homage to Eva Peron, as well as the central obelisk – commemorating the independence of Argentina from the Spanish.

As we walked through the city, Martin describes in detail the rise of Argentina – with wealth overflowing among the aristocracy, each trying to outdo one another by building the next grandest building. Buenos Aires was the most important port-  as such the wealthy became immensely wealthier. However, the stability of the economy in Argentina was never very solid – leading to many recessions throughout the decades, slowly reducing the influence of its finest city, Buenos Aires.

Many dictatorships occurred throughout the 20^th century – including one military coup, which resulted in the, reportedly, 30,000 disappearances of dissidents within Argentina. Argentina has never recovered from corrupt governments, leading to its current economic crisis – with around 35% inflation – reducing the buying power of the locals’ currency immensely.

We finished our tour at the Pink Building, or the office of the politicians. In Plaza de Mayo – the building is surrounded by iron gates and a constant police presence – often including a riot water cannon. Buenos Aires has seen many protests (rightly so), and these measures surrounding the presidential office are a constant reminder to the people – do not disobey.

The Plaza de Mayo, excluding the militant feel, is very beautiful – with many historical buildings brilliantly lit at night. The cathedral – fashioned in Roman style – faces one of the only remaining colonial buildings (the Argentinians destroyed most of them to erase their Spanish past), which is a Museum of Colonial history.

With our informative tour now over, we wandered through the lively streets of Buenos Aires – enjoying the animated atmosphere – before grabbing a pizza and calling it a night.