Day 4 - ANTARCTICA TRIP - Buenos Aires

4 March 2011

Lovely dinner last night at a restaurant across the road from the hotel.  It was recommended to us by our waitress the night before.  She told us it has been around for forty or more years, the food hasn't changed but captures what real Argentian food is like.  So we went there.  What an interesting place.  Decor old style but did not look tired.  All the waiters were men over 60.  Good service but they didn't hurry.  Food was good.

Today we met up with the rest of the group we will be travelling with to Antartica.  Our trip to Antartica is organised by the Lithuanian World Amateur Alpine Ski Association.  It is the first Lithuanian expedition to Antartica and they hope to hold a downhill skiing race Antartica.

An official web site has been set up by the association for this trip: www.antarktida.lt 


I felt sorry for the rest of the group as a decision was made to go on the city tour straight after disembarkation.  Some of them looked tired.  We got a call to tell us that we would be picked up at the hotel.  We were expecting the tour to be in the afternoon.    Luckily we were in when they called as we had been out walking around and posting the postcards to the grandkids.

So today we got a good overview of Buenos Aires.

We drove through all the major areas of the city - the Ricoleta,  Palermo, San Telmo, La Boca.  It highlighted for me again the stark difference between the have and have nots.  The south is not as pretty as the north of the city and the buildings show the hardships being experienced by the locals.

It is mainly the immigrants who live in the south.  I was surprised that they were also referring to it as an area of immigrants from 1800s implying their families have continued to live a hard life in the same area.

However, this is the area of town where people have a sense of humor as seen by some of the street art in place.

The Floris Generica sculpture is impressive.  It opens up due, to the hydraulics system integral to the sculpture's structure, every morning from the sun's rays and closes as the sun sets.  It is a 13 meter tall sculpture at the intersection of two major roads.

The Ricoleta Cemetery was not quite what I expected in that it was so crowded.

We visited Evita's musoleum/crypt.

As we walked through it it was difficult to really appreciate the scuptures as everything is so crowded particularly in the paths off the main paths.  Very few sculptures were able to be viewed fully

In this area we saw a dog walker at work.  Apparently many people have dogs but no time to walk them.  So a dog walker is hired to take the dog out for three hours each day.  A walker will walk up to 15 dogs at one time and be paid 200 pesos per dog per month. That is 3000 pesos per month or $750 per month.  Most dog walkers do two shifts a day - three hours in the morning and then three hours in the afternoon with another group of dogs.  That is considered very good money here.  We were surprised how well behaved the dogs were during their walk.

We revisited Plaza de Mayo after driving past Teatro Colon.  A highlight for me today was seeing Caminiti in La Boce.

The literature describes it as the only part of the city that does not resemble anything European.  It was created by Italian immigrants.  Caminito - a street museum - was exactly as I imagined except on a much smaller scale than I thought it would be.  It is just so colourful and full of humour.

After the tour we returned to the hotel and had a large lunch with the group.  It will take some time to get to know them all.    It was great to catch up with those we knew over lunch.

We did get a shock when we heard we had to leave at 3:45am for our flight to Ushuaia tomorrow morning.  No late night tonight.

During our stay here we have been quite amused by the sight of this pool on a building top across from the hotel.

In the evening a meeting was organised for the group with representatives of the Lithuanian Brazilian community.

It was interesting to here about the community and its endeavours to keep the community going for the last 100 years here.  Some of the issues paralleled those we have in Australia within the communities.
After a group photo most of us retired for the night.

Day 3 ANTARCTICA TRIP - Buenos Aires

3 March 2011

A hot day today.  We spent six hours walking around the city.  It is a great way to get a feel of a place, the rhythm of life here.  You would think we were in Europe.  Many buildings seem to replicate architectural styles of Italy, France, Spain.

Some buildings have been maintained whilst others look very tired or are in need of severe renovation work.  Interesting scaffolding in places.

What a city of contrasts!  The have and have nots.  Very obvious.

Beautiful old buildings, modern 'glass' buildings, derelict buildings all side by side.  Very wide main streets and very narrow avenues.  Footpaths are appalling.  Obviously government is not concerned about being sued if someone injures themselves.  Potholes, broken pavements absolutely everywhere.  Mainly modern cars but also some real heaps, but nothing in between.  The traffic seems to flow in an orderly fashion.  The cops and others in uniform all carry guns and many wore bullet proof vests.  This doesn't give a good impression.

After visiting the big 'I' we walked Florida street.  It is the main shopping mall and has everything.  Galerias Pacifico shopping mall is stunning with its painted dome ceilings.  You would think you were in a church.  A century ago it was called Bon Marche.  Same place, same purpose, same paintings.

The avenues and plazas - small open areas with trees are nice and shady.

We made our way to Catedral Metropolitan.

We couldn't work out what the occassion was but the Mausoleo del Gral San Martin was open and the coffin draped with a large flag and soldiers dressed in 1700s outfits stood guard at the entrance to the crypt.

Mayo Plaza was interesting in how it links the administration and government buildings together.  The statue has pride of place in the plaza.

Statues and sculptures abound in this town.

Christopher Columbus has pride of place to the side of Casa De Gobierro.

It was getting hotter as the day progressed but that did not deter us.  We made our way to Puerto Madero - the restaurant arcade is how I would call it.  Situated along the canal, that cannot boast that its water is clean, is a beautiful walk along four docks.  The stunning Puente de la Mujer is situated here.  It is a pedestrian swing bridge that opens to let boats through.  It's a stunning work of art as well as being a functional piece of architecture and infrastructure.  It is 160 metres long,  6 metres wide and the metal pole is raised 39 metres.  According to the artist it represents a couple dancing tango.

At Dock 3 there was also an old ship Fragata Sarmiento Ship Museum that was worth a look after we lunched at Fragrata cafe on the canal wharf.

We tried to get to the river but there was quite a bit of construction going on making it hard to get to it where we had planned to go so we turned aback and made our way slowly back.  We decided it was also time to indulge in some refreshments and stopped and enjoyed people watching near a corner with four different wine/beer houses.

We enjoyed the day.

Day 2 ANTARCTICA TRIP - Sydney to Buenos AIres

2 March 2011

We had two days in one today.  We left at 11.00am on Wednesday and arrived at 10.00am on the same Wednesday.  It made for a very long one day!

The flight was fine, not too long - just 13 hours.  What a rigmarole at the airport though.  You are barely out of the plane when you have to start lining up in the corridor before going downstairs to immigration.   I am sure some people must get held up in the planes at times during this process as the line in the corridor is just as you come out the disembarkation tunnel.  All Aussies, Canadians and US citizens have a 'treat' waiting for them - a reciprocity fee of a US$100 every time you enter Argentina.  You then move on to immigration.  Having finished there you go to pick up your bags.  They seem to wait till a load of bags is claimed before putting on the next load from the plane but those people may still be lining up.  Once you claimed your bag you lined up through the baggage area to make your way through customs.  It is not streamlined and they don't have the room for the lines.  The need a better a bigger area to cope with it.  There were not that many arrivals, compared to what we experience in Australia but it was taking a lot longer and seemed messy.

Finally 90 minutes later we were out and it was just so great to be met and taken to our hotel by car.  It was a 45 minute drive along a fast motorway into the city.  The last part along 9 de Julio, the very wide street divided into two, was a little slow but gave us an opportunity to see the famous street and the 67meter high Obelisk dividing the street.  It was erected amongst a lot of controversy in 1936 to mark 400 years since the first foundation of the city.  Beautiful trees grew along street.  Some seemed very similiar to our Bottle Trees in northern Queensland. Others had stunning pink flowers.

Our first impression was of a tired city.  You could see evidence of poverty and wealth along the way.

After settling in we walked around the neighbourhood of the hotel Argenta Tower for a little while.  Right next door is the Basilica.  I was expecting bells to toll but have heard none.

We had trouble staying awake today.  The 14 hour time difference is playing havoc with our body clocks.  We barely stayed up for 7.00pm for dinner.  A bit disappointed when we found out that it is a snack menu till 8.30pm and that the dinner menu comes on only at 8.30pm.  What a late time to eat!  Our waitress told us that most families eat around 10.00pm including children.  I'm usually in bed by then!

DAY 1 ANTARCTICA TRIP

1 March 2011

JINDABYNE - SYDNEY

First day of autumn and the first day of our trip of a lifetime.

We woke early this morning to howling winds and forecast temperature here in the mountains of 11C. Forecast was for gale force winds with a reminder to secure everything. Sydney on the other hand was expecting 32C.

Our 5 year old grand-daughter told her mother we were ‘going by bus, then plane and by boat across the seven seas’. When shown on the world globe where we were going she wanted to know why we would go that far.

Well she was not quite right. We left by car to Cooma, then caught a bus to Canberra, a train to Sydney.  We thought it was a relaxing way to go to Sydney.  It proved to be otherwise.  Tomorrow we will be on a plane for Buenos Aires for our first taste of South America and then a few days later we will fly to Ushuaia and go on cruise to the white continent.

We have been dreaming of going to Antarctica for many years. Last October an opportunity came up to join a group of Lithuanian skiers who intend to ski on the white continent. This was just too good to believe for my ski crazy husband. So here we are today on our way to see this amazing continent.

It has been a rush to get ready for this trip as we have just moved. A very early start this morning to make sure everything was in order and of all things hubby forgot his hat. He never travels without his hat. I suppose there is a first for everything. So here we are rocking and rolling in the train as it heads towards Sydney. For all our overseas trips we will now have to allow a day to get to the airport but we won;t go by train again.  It was just too tiring and long.  From home to hear nearly eight hours.  It would have been quicker by car.

We have moved

18 Feb 2011

I had intended to keep up the blog whilst getting ready to move.  However, it did not happen.  There was just so much going on.

The big move is behind us now, but lots of unpacking still to go. The garage is stacked high with boxes with narrow paths between them. They will probably stay that way until the shed is built and we can move some things in there whilst we decide what we do inside.

We are just loving it here.  It is so peaceful.  Each day the view has an element of surprise - wispy clouds, hovering above the lake, or a heavy mist obscuring everything. Feels like we are in paradise except for the actual block of land.  Lots of potential.

Hubby has started checking out the site for his shed with his little helper.

Scoop and Digger, as I am informed by the little expert, has started levelling the ground for the shed.

In the garden - the block - I have a blank canvas to work with.  I must be patient and think through how I wish it to look and do a lot of research and planning.  So between creating textiles, when I can get to my stuff, and creating a garden I have lots to keep me occupied.  Added to this we are off to Antartica via Sth America in a couple of weeks.  Haven't had time to get too excited about this yet.