Sydney (Australia) - Buenos Aires (Argentina)
18 AUG 2012
Your life is filled with 'game changers', roads that will never ever be travelled and those little incidentals, or rather chance decisions that either did or didn't make an impact on where you find yourself at this very moment. Every now and then I think back to an intriguing middle aged man that JJ and I were somehow drawn to whilst traversing the back alleys of Chefchaouen in Morocco (Dr.Destiny). Without having to recount the story because the link is provided, Hammou at some point in our short conversation discussed his activities in undertaking trans-Saharan trade and how he and his 'pre-colonial' style trading caravan would regularly venture from Morocco, across the timeless sand dunes of the Sahara to fairy-tale like Eastern African destinations, where he would acquire items of intrigue and rarity in order to sell in his Moroccan store of 'antiquities'. To me it was somewhat of a romantic notion, in a Lawrence of Arabia meets Paolo Coehlo's Alchemist type of way.
After leaving Chefchaouen the concept of the slow overland journey remained in my mind for weeks, so much so that I e-mailed Hammou several times in order to try and secure myself a berth on one of his cross contintental treks.He never replied. But there it was, in those moments of whimsical fantasy I worked hard at throwing away a life long dream of travelling to South America for the sake of riding on the back of a dromedary in 50+ degree temperatures, negating camel ball sweat, fountains of couscous and the inevitable shifty Arabian traders. It would have been an adventure though I'm sure, but it was the road that I never turned onto.
Sydney airport - flight AR1181 ready to roll!
My standard pre-flight ritual - Sydney Airport
My ride to BA (Aerolineas Argentinas flight AR1181 waiting for a red wine fuelled Mr Elisher)
The genesis of my love for South America came out of a bizarre fascination for all things Amazonian, everything Macchu Picchu related and a 1978 football World Cup that remained eternally embedded in the recesses of my mind for the mythical status which I somehow assigned it from when I was three years of age. Buenos Aires on the other hand was a city that I fell for hook, line and sinker during my first escapade to the South American continent in 2010, and a return for me on this occasion was an indulgence that I was more than looking forward to.
Catch you on the flipside SYDNEY!
Some 12hrs flying time out of Sydney and a little under 3 hours from Buenos Aires, the sun and my vehicle of transportation had repelled one another like the magnetic pole brethren of the skies that they are. All that I was left with was a magnificently coloured sunset at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet and the feeling that somehow my return to BA was redemption for the way in which I was forced to exit the city two years earlier.
Sunset at 35,000 feet - 2hrs out of Buenos Aires - Argentina
Sunset over Argentina
There's two things I love about arriving at a foreign destination, both of which are not mutually inclusive. The first is the uncertainty and slightest bit of apprehension that you carry upon arriving at a destination completely unknown to you. Your mind is filled with the obvious questions of 'where will I exchange currency?','how will I get by without knowing the language?' and 'Will selling my body on the street be worth anything here?'. Then there's the destination that you know and feel comfortable with, BA is one of those places for me. Like landing at BA's Ezeiza airport and knowing that the battleground that you must encounter for the purposes of immigration, luggage collection and customs is an inevitable 90 min ordeal that you just have to accept. It's simply the price of admission kiddies and accepting that prevent you from reaching your internal boiling point and igniting the readily flammable Latin carnival that is unfolding before your eyes. Then there's also the 'advanced' knowledge you have of the transport system where dodging a 200 peso cab ride in favour of a 50 peso bus ride and 2 peso train ride is a saving which can be translated into a more than sumptuous welcome dinner at your favourite parilla in San Telmo.
So it was that my love of the 'known destination arrival' which combined for a simple short walk from the bus station to Retiro station and then a relatively short ride via the subte to the Independenzia stop. From there my half decent skills of orientation led me directly to the bright coloured La Boca like doors of the Ayres Portenos Hostel on calle Peru, and a few minutes later I was standing on my balcony overlooking calle Chile in the barrio of San Telmo and planning my first attack on the neighbourhood parillas.
A meat lovers paradise! Desvivel on La Defensa - San Telmo - Buenos Aires - Argentina
The great thing about BA is that the nightlife doesn't really start to spice up until near midnight, which also means that restaurants, cafes, and bars are open into those early hours of the morning where by comparison, a sad nightlife deficient city like Sydney would already be kicking out their drunken patrons onto their desolate streets and funneling them off to those omnipresent e-coli riddled kebab haunts that we actually dearly love. Not the case with BA my friends, they know how to work their clocks 24-7! Which meant for me that on the stroke of midnight I was walkin in El Desvivel, a typical Porteno parilla in the heart of San Telmo, ready to get started on my meat and Malbec conquest of the town.
That's what I'm talking about! El Desvivel - San Telmo - Buenos Aires - Argentina
Now for those of you that may be a little clueless about what a parilla actually is, don't be alarmed, let Mr Elisher fill in the missing gaps for you. Good 'ole Wikipedia states that a parilla is a style of grill used for cooking asado (barbeque), commonly found in South America. I however know it is a place where a carnivore can gorge themselves on exquisite meat, made in typically South American fashion, which makes you want to bleed blue and white for the simple fact that you know your state of euphoria can never ever be replicated outside of this country. A bottle of Argentinian Malbec, a morcilla, a fantastically made bife de chorizo and Mr Elisher had well and truly checked out for the evening!
San Telmo - Buenos Aires - Argentina
San Telmo - Buenos Aires - Argentina
One block up from calle Peru & Chile - San Telmo - Buenos Aires - Argentina
Hours later, glowing in my first night indulgence, I walked around San Telmo for what must have been hours, just taking in the night time splendour of its cobblestone streets, deteriorating old world charm, it's night time vibrancy. Settling for a little pit stop at the well known Bar Dorrego, on the boundary of the more than well known Plaza Dorrego, I had myself a double cap and drifted off into my self induced Porteno wonderland. This stay was 'gonna be good!'
3:00am at Bar Dorrego - San Telmo - Buenos Aieres - Argentina
