Farewell Argentina.

19th April 2012 Buenos Aires to London

Well the end is insight and after 6 months we are heading back home. The trip has been amazing with many ups and many down and all taken in our stride, but nothing could prepare us for the taxi trip to the airport!
Before this though we had a number of hours to sit around and wait. Sarah became over come by a bout of gastric irritation without being to descriptive. This was ill time seeing we were going to spend a long period of time on a plane.

The time does give us chance to read and do a little surfing on the internet. Our taxi arrives with a short slightly mad Argentinian taxi driver, the slightly mad part would turn into completely crazy by the time we got onto the highway. We have in the past mentioned the driving skills of the locals and that there seems to be very little in the way of road rules. This journey was to confirm it.
Sarah skillfully convinced me to sit in the front, now this was either because of  the smell of our vertically challenged driver or the fact she knew that the journey would appear more acceptable in the backseat. she was right! I've never seen so many cars flying around in all directions. It became obvious that I was wrong about the rules in South America, there are rules and the first is, if the isn't a space make one. second rule; if the first rule doesn't work try again. Lights on the car are generally use for entertainment purposes and gesturing with both hands at the same time is the norm. I would of preferred it if he hadn't been doing it a 70, whilst looking at me and laugh like a mad man.
Once we got to the airport I staggered out of the car and around to the back to get our luggage, Sarah said it hadn't been a bad journey, amazing what a headrest can obscure. With bags loaded on to a trolley we made our way to check-in, this didn't take long and once we had clear security we headed for our departure gate.
The flight it self was pretty uninspiring, films were poor and the food was OK,  I did get extra as Sarah was still feeling pretty unwell. We had a stop over in Rio and sat in the same area as we had sat in on the way over, just like groundhog day. Soon though we were on the next plane.
As we made the final decent into London our trip came to an end. We made our way through customers only to be stopped and ask "whats in the bike boxes?" I had to bite my tough and thankfully Sarah piped up "we had bikes in them". He then proceeded to tell us that we needed to pay the VAT on these two items as they may not have been purchased in this country and that the VAT may not have been paid. Yet again a rule that is conveniently forgotten when you leave the country, only to be present to you on your return. Well I had no intentions for handing over money to anyone and neither did Sarah, so we dug our heals in and he gave way before us. We did make a hasty getaway though just in case he changed his mind.
Nick had very nicely laid on a car for us and we were whisked away in a  very nice chauffeur driven car and with a driver who was not at all crazy.
And that is were our journey ends. Where to next?

Madness and Mayhem

18th April. Buenos Aires.

Slept really well after the flight and the madness of getting from the airport to the hostel. After we had had breakfast we chatted with Natalia to find out what she would recommend we did with our final day in Buenos Aires and also to organised the transfer for tomorrow. She recommended we take the bus over to Boca Bairro this area has many gift shops and markets, but it is best known for the brightly coloured houses that line the streets and the Tango dancers that entertain passers by. The decision was made.

Now as it has become apparent though this trip and my life (meaning Gareth) I have very little ability to both navigate or read a bus time table especially when it's in Spanish. However, Sarah has this superpower were it all makes sense and she guided us safely through the madness on one bus after another and soon we found ourselves in Boca Bairro. It was bustling with fellow tourist, for that is all we are now, gone are the days of adventure. We strolled around enjoying the sights and sounds, wondering in and out of gift shops. Some were full of what can only be referred to as crap other however had beautiful leather goods and others local art and handmade products.

The original plan was to do our gift shopping, but the fact that even though we had slept well the night before the fatigue of the past 24 hours soon took over and the need to shop vanished. We found a little cafe and sat and had a coffee in the hope that this would inspire the senses. It didn't have the desired effects and the decision was made to head back with the meager purchases we had made. With the ever increasing tiredness came the "didn't care attitude" and this meant deciding where to eat became a heated debate and after some very tiring bickering we ended up in the same restaurant that we had eaten in on our first day here and what did we order? Pizza! With food in our bellies and a feeling of sadness at the fact that we would be soon saying farewell to this country we headed back to the hostel.