Buenos Aires - Take 3

Day 8 - School and Laundry

I think the heading should be pretty self explanatory.


Another pic of the hostel, looking up the Atrium at night

Day 9 - One day we'll actually go to Japan

We had school again the morning. Erin has her teacher Leandro amused refering to nouns as boys or girls depending on whether they are feminine or masculine, for example "oh, so maps (las mapas) are girls?" [edit - OK, so that turns out to be a bad example because the word map is irregular, maps are boys!]

In the afternoon we headed to the Japanese Garden and Botanic Garden (Cat garden it seemed). This seems to be a recurring theme (Montreal and Vancouver for example), maybe one day we'll go to Japan and see the real thing...


Samurai and Geisha


Furry thing that likes to eat yellow flowers, didn't seem very Japanese.


Erin in the Japanese Garden

Day 10 - Hasta Luego Buenos Aires

While Erin had her last Spanish class (for now), I hastily tried to plan transport connections and accomodation for the afternoon/night. At about 1 we left the hostel, bags in tow. As well as losing my bag, Qantas seem to have managed to bend all the back support bars, so it now acts as a kidney tenderiser as well as a backpack. Anyway, we walked to the Subway in the rain and changed at one of BA's main stations, Retiro, to a train toward Mitre (made the connection with about 2 minutes to spare).


Retiro Station

At the end of the line we changed to the Tren de la Costa (again with only a couple of minutes to spare), a little electric train that runs though a handful of quaint stations more reminiscent of Britain than Argentina. In fact many of the stations had tea houses or art galleries in them.


Tren de la Costa

Again we disembarked at the end of the line and found our way to the international ferry terminal. This time we had nearly two hours until our connecting ferry, but were greeted with the news that the ferry was full. Instead we were put on a waiting list and assured that there was a good chance we would be allowed to board. About 5 minutes before the ferry departed we were issued ticked and rushed though Argentine immigration and onto the boat.

The small ferry (which takes about 140 passengers) runs from Tigre, through the huge Tigre Delta to the small Uruguayan town of Carmelo. I spent most of the trip on the back deck watching the scenery through the rain, while Erin napped inside in the warm. The delta was quite scenic, even in the rain. We passed the rusting hulks of old ships, resorts and camping grounds scattered on the islands, and many private houses with lush gardens and private beaches.


Some kind of former industrial building


Rusting hulls


I guess when you live on a delta stilts make sense

We got to Carmelo way too late to make our bus connection (the boat timatable was in Argentine time, including for the arrival in Uruguay, which threw us off), so we had a nice dinner in Carmelo before eventually getting a bus toward Colonia at about 11pm. After a short nap, and once again at the end of the line, we finally arrived in Colonia del Sarcramento. I don't think the other people in our dorm were too impressed with us arriving after midnight, but some others came in after us, so it wasn't too bad.