Another godforsaken early start, this time on Tim’s birthday.   54!   Not the most exciting of birthdays as most as spent at the airport or flying, but we managed a glass of something sparkling as we left Lima.   

Where would you find the Andes?   At the end of your sleevies……

We landed in Buenos Aires in the evening.   Met by our guide Jonathan.  I’m not sure why they feel we need a guide and a driver to get us from the airport to the hotel. It it certainly makes things easy I guess.  Our hotel is in Palermo, pretty cobbled streets and fairy lights, cool bars and restaurants and small independent clothes shops.  

We thought Cusco was cold…..Buenos Aires is like the arctic!   I was expecting winter, but not this.   Thank goodness I invested in the llama hoodie, gloves and Cusco hat!   The people here dress so stylishly that I look like a steak and kidney pudding on a plate of sushi in comparison, but needs must.   

We went out for steak, what else, which was very nice,  but as the restaurant was full we had to sit outside.   They gave us blankets.  I must have had 15 layers on by then!

In the morning Jonathan met us and we did the city tour.  Various parks and a million statues of generals and presidents.  

 Our knowledge of Argentinian history is even worse than Peruvian.   The Peruvian is fascinating, whilst the Argentinian is a long list of leaders who screwed up the economy in their own special way and It seems that most of the money was spent on statues of themselves.   The main square is an indelible reminder of the political problems, particularly the “disappearance” of 10s of thousands of young people in the 80s.  The government still denies the extent of this but every Thursday a group of mothers march silently in the square outside the “pink house”,  their symbol a white headscarf.   500 babies were born in captivity and given up for adoption, so now there is a grandmothers group too.   They have found over a 100 of these now grown children but are still searching for the rest.   

There’s a big shiny flower in one park.  Very popular.   

A cathedral.   Not a patch on Cusco, but grand enough, and they now have their own pope!  

Then the cemetary at Recoleta.  Mind blowing.   Streets and streets of marble and statues adorning little houses holding coffins.   The rich and important people in Buenos Aires clearly like to leave their remnants languishing in opulence.   

Buenos Aires is familiar.   Someone took colonial Spain, 19th Century Paris, 20th century Barcelona and threw in a touch of New York for luck.   It’s a very cool modern city.   

The sun came out on day 2 and we went for a tango lesson.  Tim did pretty well and by the end we had a pretty good routine going.   There’s a video but luckily I can’t get it to upload.

The the market at San Telmo.   Such a change from Peru and Cuba.  Much lest touristy, antiques, crafts, weird and interesting stuff and live music on every corner.   

After another steak dinner we headed for a community centre to try out our newly learnt tango talent.   Disaster.  Tim couldn’t remember anything beyond the first 3 steps so we bumbled around feebly trying not to bump into anyone.   I don’t think we’ll be making the Strictly finals this year.   

So, on to Rio for the last part of our trip!   One of the nicest airport views we’ve had.