Today was a fairly laid back day after encountering some of the big icons of Argentinian life yesterday. Adriano had been up to Palermo (a plush northern suburb) and said that the area around Plaza Italia was nie. I decide to head for there. I feel really lethargic today with no real enthusiasm for what I´m doing. I started sneezing at the match yesterday. Now I feel as though I´m getting a full-on head cold.
Its hot and sticky on the subway out to Plaza Italia. I glad to get out into the open air. There are a lot of ornamental parks in Palermo. Its all nice but my hearts not in it. I just stroll around aimlessly for a while. The highlight was probably seeing the dog walkers. They take the dogs of the wealthy residents for long walks while their owners are out at work. Some of the walkers had up to 20 dogs on the leash and made for quite a sight as they all walked happily together as one large pack.
Tomorrow I take the ferry to Colonia Del Sacramento in Uruguay. so I went over to the port to buy the ticket and suss out the place. Also I need to top up on some Pesos so I went to the Avenida Cordoba/Florida district to find an ATM that accepts Mastercard.
I caught a glimpse of The evening rush hour in Buenos Aires. The exhaust fumes were smothering and made my head cold feel a lot worse. The centre was a log jam of exhausts, car horns and people rushing home from work. I went back to eat in the restaurant I´d been to on the first night, Desinel on Defensa. It was a nice place with plenty of character and a chef who carved and cooked the steaks over an open grill at the front of the house. Over here beef is king and you´d better believe the steaks are juicy and wide as the pampas they came from. Don´t make the mistake that I did of ordering any thing else. The beef, accompanied by mash or papas fritas and washed down with a litr of Quilmes and you´re sorted. If i´d had this amount of protein going into me across the States I´d have knocked two weeks off the crossing.
Tonight the restaurant was busy. The chef was kept busy throwng sides of beef on to his counter to carve into steaks. A mixture of locals (always a good sign) and travellers. An Aussie couple sat close by me, a fussy Japanese couple a few feet away. Up front a group of lads in their early 20´s who looked more like surfers than backpackers. Over in the corner a group of elderly French loudly discussed something ....in French. Everybody was eating steak.
Up at the fron bar two little street urchins came in beggin for food. The barman gave them handfuls of bread and pastries and they tottered gleefully out the door with their little haul of grub. It was a bitter sweet wee scene which brought a smile but also engendered sadness at the sight of two wee toddlers scrounging for food on the streets at 10 o´clock at night. Both were in filthy clothes. The elder was only 4 or 5. The younger no more than 3yrs.
I took a last stroll up to the hostel. My head cold was feeling worse now, more like flu. A last chat with Adriano and I hit the sack. I had to be up at 7, at the ferry by 8 for a 9 o´clock sailing. I didn´t sleep well though. I was bunged up, hot and feverish throughout the night. Trust me to pick up a flu in 24c.
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