Rich and poor BA
Over the last 24 hours we´ve seen both sides to BA. Yesterday we went to La Boca, home to Boca Juniors, which Lonely Planet calls "vivid, working-class Buenos Aires." It also said not to stray from the touristy areas, but our inability to communicate with the Spanish-speaking bus drivers meant that although they agreed we could go to La Boca, we actually took a wrong turn just before. So we cut our losses and attempted to walk, but quickly found ourselves in the wrong part of the neighbourhood and took the cowardly way out and got a taxi to where we wanted to go. We took the Boca Stadium tour, which was a bit of a letdown cos I had my hopes set on getting to a game, only to discover January is close-season for the team. The stadium tour was also pretty limited, as we weren´t able to get up to the top parts of the ground.
The Argies are obviously mad for their football. In both rich and poor areas, more so poor, there are football pitches everywhere. And not just single pitches, fields and fields full. It´s no surprise that they have a better national team than us.
The language barrier is something you have to deal with while you´re over here. It´s not common to find someone who speaks English, except perhaps in hostels, but the trusty phrasebook has served us well. It´s rewarding to be able to communicate, even on a basic level, with the locals using their language, as it´s quite rude, I think, that many Brits just expect other countries to treat English as their second language at least. It´s just a bit gutting when you spout out something you have rehearsed well, only to be replied with something that sounds like noise, or just plain, "Que?" and then have to reply with the ol´ classic, "Hable Ingles?" after staring confused at each other for a second or so.
We spent another night eating far too much red meat in one of the steakhouses, this time the meal being a lot cheaper, though, alas, not as tasty as the night before. Mind you, we both ate like kings for about a tenner each.
Today was a bit more relaxing. After checking out of our hostel, we went up to the northern, richer, trendy area of BA, Recolata, where we visited a cemetary for the wealthy, high up deceased members of Argentinian history. It was more like a village than a cemetary, with huge encased mini buildings with coffins enclosed. There, we saw Evita´s grave and sat and ate a picnic after visiting the local market.
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