For us it was a place of comings and goings as we used it as a base to travel to Iguassu, Uruguay and Paraguay. All together we spent nearly 2 weeks there and there was plenty to do!! But first we said goodbye to the Dragoman gang…
The time had come for us to leave Amber and the crew and we were soooooooooooooooo ready for it!! Of course we were sad to be leaving the guys who we had spent the last 2 ½ months with. We would miss everyone who we had picked up and left off along the way (wee Jenny and Mike especially), our reliable tent - Daniel Craig, flapping dishes after meals to dry them, our truck jobs - backlocker and pub, cook groups and truck border crossings :o) But we were ready to get off the truck, scrap the schedule and take on the rest of Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay on our own :o)
Football
Before they all left to head on to Carnival in Rio without us, we all headed to one of the biggest attractions in BA, for locals (Cuscenians??!!) and Gringos alike - the Boca stadium to see Boca Juniors (Maradona’s old team) play!! Al the legend managed to get us all tickets when he arrived up to BA before us and what a match it was!! We started the day off learning a few chants from a die hard fan on the bus on the way out, followed by all you can eat pizza and beer in a pub beside the stadium where there was more chants and singing and we bought our Boca jerseys, then we followed the massive crowd towards the stadium where the fun really began!! Even though the result didn’t go Boca’s way (they lost 4 -1 on the night) you wouldn’t have guessed it from the constant drumming and chanting from the Boca supporters for the whole 90 minutes!! The atmosphere was unreal - there was a band in the stand opposite us and they must have had about 2mins break in the whole match, if a supporter was shouting negative comments at the team all the fans around him would tell him to sshhh as Boca fans believe that you always have to stay positive towards all players no matter how bad the play is. The fans op
posite unveiled a huge flag at the beginning of the match which covered one whole terrace of the stadium. Its the fans flag and apparently goes to every match - the Jugador 12 refers to the 12th player on the Boca team - the fans!! Watching it move back and forth as the fans swayed underneath it was AMAZING!!
I have been at my games in my time and I have never experienced an atmosphere like it - The Boca fans live and breathe football, its running through their veins and its contagious; we were jumping up and down and egging them on when they had any half chance…It will remain in my memory for a long time to come.
Tango


Protests
Protests are a daily part of life in the centre of Buenos Aires and they reckon that there are at least 2 or 3 a day!! Many were legitimate marches about various political parties and their agendas however our guide also pointed out that often the people marching didn’t even know what they were protesting about!! Many parties would use local poor people living just outside the city to bump up numbers showing support for their policies!! They would pay for the bus journey and food for the day for these people to come into the city and march and they were more than happy for the day out!!
Graffiti
Everywhere we went around the city there was graffiti to be seen. It certainly beat some of the graffiti we see at home ‘School sucks or I woz here’ etc. and a lot more creative. Some of it was delivering some important messages and others just brightening up a derelict building in a poor neighbourhood of the city. Some of these guys had real talent as you can see from the photos below. In the past the graffiti was seen as a hindrance and an expense to the local councils to get rid of it. Nowadays there is a completely different perception of graffiti. The locals are quite proud of it and a lot of businesses hire some of these artists to create eye catching pieces to encourage customers to come inside their bars and shops.
What impressed me most about Buenos Aires is that no matter what neighbourhood of the city you visited there was always something going on, asado’s (bbqs) being held in parking lots at weekends, dancers and singers performing on the streets, markets selling anything from art, food, junk and even old music records. It was a great city to just pick an outside terrace in a nice café and people watch (you might even bump into someone you know!! Michaela met one of her students who still called her Miss Duffy!!!!). You can see so much of the European influence in this city but it certainly has developed its own character as well. A city that certainly must be visited.
No comments:
Post a Comment