BA to BA (and beyond)

And so it starts….

A mere 27 hours after leaving the house in Glasgow, I arrived in Buenos Aires on thursday, via a prolonged visit to the new British Airways terminal 5 at Heathrow. It was there that my bank card stopped working, which is part of the reason that I now find myself touring South America without a Spanish Phrasebook.

When you have yourself psyched up for the wide open space, the peace and quiet and the mountain scenery of Patagonia, Buenos Aires can be something of a shock to the system. It’s dense, loud, hot and fascinating in equal measures. There’s so much to see and do in the city that you could easily spend a lot of time there; it’s got an atmosphere to it that makes you want to really get to know the place.

And they do like to party here.

parque Colon

Av Rivadavia, Buenos Aires

So I have spent the last three days visiting various museums, wandering the city and even just sitting back with coffee and watching the whole crazy mess of it all pass by during the day. At night I explored the bars, savoured the most succulent steaks I’ve ever tasted, and joined the others from the hostel in a cerveza or two. If you can’t beat them join them: with AC DC playing in the city while I was there, there was a lot of people in the hostels on a bit of a mission. Ah, the joys of shared dorms!

If I’m being honest though, it didn’t really feel like I’d actually arrived. For all the culture, meat and art, BA felt like an extended stopover on the road to Patagonia rather than the start of the trip proper. The Bank of Scotland managed to get my card working well enough to take cash out of the ATMs (even if I still can’t use it over the counter) and I managed to book a flight to El Calafate for today.

Without doubt, one of the more spectacular views I’ve seen from a plane window. Getting off the place, everything was as it should be: the air fresh, clear and blowing along faster than a Buenos Aires taxi driver (fast). And the views….

I am now sitting in a new hostel on the edge of town, and so far I haven’t seen an AC DC t-shirt since I got off the plane. I think perhaps it’ll be a good night’s sleep tonight. Tomorrow I visit the Moreno Glacier. It’s a guided tour, which I wouldn’t normally jump at, but it includes everything I would want to see and for less cash than I could manage on my own. Keeping up with a group might cramp the photography style a little (I’m not sure how far you can stretch the “just shout to stop and take photos” claim), but with every single cash machine in the area out of order the fiscal argument had to win out for the moment.

I shall try to post this tonight*, though the internet connection seems about as active as the bank machines at the moment. Suffice to say that it’s good to finally be here. udging from the view from the plane, I think the next few weeks could be quite special.

Take care folks, I hope that you all had a good weekend!

Dougie

*I did try and I failed – this was written yesterday….