Buenos Aires
'sniffing the air of greatness...'

The famous obelisc marking the centre of Buenos Aires

The Casa Rosada or 'Pink House,' home of the Argentine President Nestor Kirchner

The Plaza de Congreso, a beautiful park often the scence of protests

El Caminito de Boca is a neighbourhood known around the world for its vibrant colours

The cemetery in Recoleta is home to many famous Argentines including Evita Peron

After a number of trips with the students and a few days while on holiday, I'm becoming fairly well acquainted with the capital of Argentina - Buenos Aires. The city is huge, extending over 50km from the obelisc in every direction. Quaint 'village' suburbs such as Pilar are interspersed with villas or slums. Due to its size and importance politically and economically Argentine people consider there to be only two main parts of the country - Buenos Aires, and everywhere else.

The buzz in BsAs is leather and parrilla. The leather is some of the best, and cheapest in the world - they have to do something with all the hides of the millions of cows slaughtered every year - and the streets are filled with hawkers trying to lure you into their leather factories. The traditional parrillada or barbecue of the Pampas is know by many New Zealanders by The Amazing Race challenge that defeated a number of competitors. The meal includes brains, intestines, kidneys, liver, tongue, morsilla (sausage made of blood) and chorizo (spiced pork sausage). With the Kerby's at a traditional place called La Estancia ('the station') we managed to completely finish one, a feat that impressed the waiter who wondered if we might prefer the tamed tourist version when we asked for it.

Recoleta is a beautiful suburb full of parks, museums and huge old trees. There are plenty of delicious, relatively cheap restaurants covering all tastes - the only drawback for the kiwi being that dinner is served from 10pm until 2am. Even better, the combination of Argentina and Italian heritage of the place has provided plenty of icecream shops selling icecream by the quarter litre with more than 40 flavours in all including 15 different types of caramel or dulce de leche.

Boca is a word that no Argentine takes lightly. The poor suburb is home of CABJ - Boca Junior Football Club, one of the two major clubs in the country. Either you support Boca, or you support River Plate - out of interest, we support River. The stadium is known for its atmopshere, for better and for worse - a loss by Boca often results in riots and thus injury or even death. Going to a match there was named in Time Magazine as one of the ten things to do before you die. We tried to get tickets earlier in the year, however they were fully booked months in advance and we missed out. In November the traditional matchup is at River Plate Stadium (often used to host the All Blacks) and we are making the necessary preparations so as not to miss this one. Another attraction in Boca is the Caminito - brightly coloured neighbourhood full of history. When I visited it with Alejandro we were mobbed by all manner of people soliciting tango shows, food, and donations for volunteer firefighters. The decrepid state of the firetruck of the volunteers and the cool cap they were offering eventually swayed me into parting with 30 pesos. We almost need the help of the crew a couple of weeks later when Jandro threw his pillow into the heater in his sleep, filling his room with thick smoke - waking just in time to prevent the place from burning down!

The city is often disrupted by protests. Everybody is underpaid or over-worked, and with such high unemployment this state is easy to sustain. The main roads are frequently blocked by protest action and on the walk to Boca, Jandro and I witnessed two demonstrations. From memory they concerned angry drum beating bus drivers and placard wielding university staff. Flying into the domestic airport after the trip to Bariloche to engineers and baggage handlers were conducting a loud, disruptive protest outside the airport. They had airhorns and little explosive flares and there were about 12 riot police by our departure gate!

Puerto Madero is one of the best places to visit by night. It is the place where cruise ships dock and a casinos and top hotels are centered. The area is bounded by a great big wooden boardwalk, and is full of restaurants, many specialising in fresh seafood and parrilla. They are lit up as is a new white sculptural bridge designed like a mast. I apologise for the lack of photos to show you this.

(by the way, if you want to have the photos the right way up, rightclick on them, save then view in Windows Fax and Image viewer where you can rotate them)