Tuesday, 6-Feb-2007:
I'm sitting in the dining room of the Tolkeyen Hotel, a few miles outside Ushuaia. It's getting dusk and I'm looking across the Beagle Channel to the snow-covered mountains on the other side. Magical! Tomorrow I embark on a 10-day cruise to the Antarctic Peninsula. I may be quiet for some time.
All my Ushuaia pictures are now available here.
6-Feb-2007:
After an all-to-brief stay, I'm leaving Buenos Aires. Things followed a familiar pattern: On arrival, the place seemed almost alien, unknown. The hotel proved a good choice (it was my choice). It has 'a bit of age' which always helps with me. But then I have to summon up courage to actually leave the hotel. People don't believe me but, travelling on my own, I don't find it easy. Once I get started, the challenge of trying to come to grips with a new culture takes over. I always think "I may never pass this way again" and, as I get older, the prediction becomes ever-more-likely to come true. So I feel it my duty to extract everything I can from the experience.
I was picked up from the hotel, on time, by the lady who met me on my arrival, Mary Luz. She claimed to be amazed at what I'd seen in one day, saying people take a week to see less. She added that a lot of local people would be afraid to catch an ordinary train! Well, I have an advantage with trains and subway systems in that I'm interested and have a fair idea how they work before I start.
15:30 sees me boarding aircraft LV-VBZ at Jorge Newbery domestic airport (ticketing code AEP). It's far more modern and spacious than the international airport Ministro Pistarini (EZE) I arrived at yesterday (It seems much longer ago to me - I've commented on the Time Dilation Effect experienced on my holidays before). The aircraft is an MD Series 80 built, the bi-lingual Aerolineas Argentinas flight magazine informs me, by Boeing, with 8 business class seats (I'm in one of only two seats occupied on this flight) and 140 tourist. A glass of champagne, the Buenos Aires Herald in English. The Government have just replaced the Chief Statistician and issued a delayed January monthly inflation figure of 1.1%. Commentators were expecting at least 1.5% and are crying 'fix'. So, we Brits can still show the Argies a thing or two. I imagine our inflation is nearly as bad but Gordon only admits to two or three percent in a year!
We take off at about 4.00 p.m. for our 3 hours 10 minutes flight to Ushuaia, right on the Southern tip of South America. Immediately after take-off, the cockpit door is opened and remains open for some time. It's a long time since I've seen that sort of informality! During our climb, I get a good view of the extensive modern housing around Buenos Aires. The area is divided by the roads into rectangular blocks, USA-style. Large areas are low-rise, then you get a number of blocks which are high rise. It looks quite pretty from the air, but I wouldn't like to live there.
Once we're above the cloud, the terrain is only intermittently visible but soon we're over the sea, heading South.They serve a modest, but pleasant, light meal then I sit it out until we descend through the cloud for a textbook landing at Ushuaia. As you'd imagine, it's a fairly modest affair but it does sport two airbridges, so we get into the terminal without sampling the outside temperature, but there's late afternoon sun. After a short delay, the luggage arrives, there's a cursory but friendly customs check and I meet up with the bearded young man from the travel company. It's cold outside after Buenos Aires, but nowhere near as cold as New York.
I choose the Marriott Plaza as a landmark hotel, designed in 1907 (by a German). I like exploring these hotels with a bit of history. Well, the staff are friendly and quite attentive so, so far, I'm very happy. See the hotel's web site. I will only be in Buenos Aires about 1 day. I'd originally scheduled more but there were problems with the onwards flight so we've had to shorten the stay. It's hot! After New York, it's wonderful to be warm again! The capital has a population of about 4 million but, with the surrounding area included, it's about 14 million - around 40% of the population of the country! Ethnic background is Spanish (which I knew) and Italian (which I didn´t) plus the indigenous Indians. But now there's Koreans and Chinese coming in. Faith is mainly Catholic, but there is freedom for all sorts of persuasions.
Somehow, I'd failed to anticipate the nondescript concrete buildings everywhere: not very appealing. And the wide, busy toll road in from the airport could be anywhere in the world. But as you approach the old parts of the city, the European influence is obvious. They have a number of very wide avenues (they claim to have the widest streets in the world, but I think this claim is disputed). I did count six and seven lanes each way in places. There are some fairly grand buildings, like the Colon Theatre where they stage operas and, of course, my hotel. Just like Europe, these buildings now share space with indifferent modern stuff.
But parts of Buenos Aires are being developed differently, as I found when I walked from my hotel to Puerto Madero, the old docks. There is an enclosed dock system with a number of sepate basins, a bit like, say, the Royal Docks in London. Most of these docks are redundant and lots of new commercial and residential buildings are appearing. The old brick built warehouses have, in general, been retained and developed as apartments with posh cafes and bars on the ground floor. Some of the dockside cranes have been kept, to add character, and the whole area seems very popular with tourists and locals alike. There are also fairly spectacular tall apartment blocks either being built or already sold. I don't approve of it all, but at least the thinking is more joined-up. There is clearly a burgeoning rich middle class in Argentina who are buying into this dream, but you don't have to walk far to see that not everybody is benefitting equally from this prosperity.
The docks are big! I wasn't sure how long my energy would last in this heat, so I turned back towards the city and headed towards the Plaza de Mayo. This proved to be the usual grassed park with large statuary that they seem to do well in this part of the world. I spotted the entrance to Line A of the 'Subte' (presumably a contraction of 'subterrainean' and purchased a ticket for 70 cents, 7/10 of the Argentinian Peso. I found no ticket machines - just a tiny window at each station, often with a queue of people waiting to pay their 70 cents. This gets you a thin card ticket with a magnetic ink stripe which gets you through a fairly modern ticket-reading barrier. Logically, the 'A' line was the first to be built, opening in 1913. This line runs quite elderly trains - all wood inside and sliding doors you open yourself.
I took the line a few stops to Plaza Miserere and had a look around. A very vibrant area but worlds away from the smart new dock area. Buildings quite run-down but supporting lots of small businesses. One firm apparently reclaiming used cardboard boxes spilled out onto the pavement as young boys flattened boxes arriving by lorry. There's a rather grand station building, now abandoned, which was Estacion Once. I catch a 'Subte' train back to station Piedras, standing right at the front of the train by the open window which serves as air conditioning. The driver works from a tiny wooden compartment, like a wardrobe, front left (the lines are left running). It's raining heavily when I reach the street and people are sheltering under shop awnings or scurrying to the next bit of cover. I hurry one block in the rain and regain the shelter of the 'Subte' station on the more modern 'C' line. A few stops brings us to the terminus, Retiro and Buenos Aires' main station.
As I expect, this is an impressive place retaining its elegantly-proportioned original buildings and two arched train sheds. Ceramic tiled walls have very elaborate detailing from an earlier age. Set against this elegance is the hubbub of dozens of shops, stalls and snack bars and the clamour of the people thronging to and from the platforms.
Outside again, there are lines of buses and, having run the gauntlet of crossing at least twelve traffic lanes, not too busy, fortunately, I reach a clock tower carrying the British royal coat of arms. This is the Torre de los Engleses, donated by Britain to commemorate 100 years of Argentinian independence gained in the May revolution. Because the English are not flavour of the month, the clock has been renamed 'Monumental Tower' officially, but everyone still calls it 'Englishmen Tower'. A short walk along the length of the Plaza Saint Martin brings me back to the hotel.
I have to try and pace myself on these rather demanding trips so, although it's still light, I decide to stay in for the rest of the day. I spend an hour doing e-mail and blog posts in the business centre, explore the hotel and arrange for laundry to be done. Then I eat in one of the hotel's restaurants, 'La Brasserie' (coke, ministrone and an excellent Pizza Margarita twice as big as I can manage). After that, I just collapse on the bed and go into a deep sleep for a few hours, waking in the 'wee small hours' no longer sleepy. On Tuesday, I have just a few hours to see some of Buenos Aires other sights before I'm booked to fly South.
Today, Tuesday 6th February, I got up early and had a good buffet breakfast. There's a chef on hand to do things like eggs to order. Then a pleasant walk across the gardens of the Plaza San Martin where there are some very old trees to Retiro station. Decide to travel to the first stop, 3 de Febrero. Fascinating journey. I won't bore you with the details just now. Then start walking back through the huge park of Palermo. There's lots of joggers and hundreds of power walkers (or not-very-power walkers). It's getting quite warm. Leaving the Park, I pass through an area of posh apartments, embassies and museums before coming to Recoleta, old buildings brought into use as a tourist destination. There's an old church and a famous cemetery with countless mausoleums, some very old and grand.
Then I walk about ten blocks to the nearest Subte Station, Calleo on Line D. With one change I make my way to the end of Line C at Constitucion. There's a big surface railway station here called Estation Constitucion. Very impressive architecture. Seems to be two suburban railways now, one diesel, one electric. Seeing me photographing the platforms from the ticket barrier, a young man lets me through to get a better view. But seeing what a thorough job I'm making of taking photographs, he follows me and politely asks me to stop. "Security" he mutters in Spanish. But I thank him for his inital generosity.
Back to Plaza de Mayo in the centre to check out the old buildings of Casa Rosada, but there's a lot of building work going on making it difficult to see much. A visit to the nearby cathedral and then I walk along the pedestrianised Florida, lined with shops and street sellers, ten blocks to my hotel. Quick shower, finish packing and, hopefully, post this.
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