ARGENTINA (01.11-04.11.2012)
After a very long BA flight from London (LHR), I did reach Buenos Aires in the morning of 01.11. The airport of EZE (Buenos Aires International Airport) had a suprise for me. We couldn't leave the plane easily, because the immigration queue was starting almost from the plane door. It took more than 1 hour to go through the immigration (passport) control. I don't know, what was the real reason about it. Just a plane was there and there were many officers but maybe there a special day. So, don't be surprised, if you have to wait in the queue more than 1 hour, before entering the country. When you pass the immigration, you will come to duty-free than the baggage collection carousels. You have to put your bag on the x-ray scanner before you head to the bank (changing money), transfer or car hire companies.
Transportation from Ezeiza Airport Buenos Aires:
There are couple of solutions. But you need to be careful not to took any taxis, which are not registered. Many people are hassling you to take you downtown and they try to convince you for that.
Avoiding this people on the exit of the airport, the cheapest solution is the Public Bus, but don't recommend it, because of the location and the duration of the journey. I took the second cheapest solution for that transfer (for a solo traveler), which is the only private shuttle-bus service, Manuel Tienda León Bus Company. You can just walk direct to their office after custom control and buy a ticket (even with a very small change until your hotel). You can pay buy USD or by credit card as well as the local currency. I paid 75A$ and another 10A$ for the transfer from the bus-terminal (opposite of Sheraton Hotel) to my hostel. The drive was 50 mins with a luxury bus. When we arrived to the town, a taxi took me to my hostel.
On the way to the town, there was heavy traffic on the motorway and poor neighborhood with unpainted or without roof houses around.
After I left my handbag to hostel, I went out to have a walk in the down-town. My hotel was in Palermo area, which is a real rich & pretty neighborhood of BA with full of trendy bars,clubs & restos. The weather was 29C but not disturbing :-)
I had a walking tour, which I did read in another bloggers recommendations. So, I took his recommendation and made his recommended path but than I continued more to see the rest of the city.
The city is flat and you can easily reach from one point to another with easy walking. Roads are not crowded and enough space for walk on the pavement. But crossing the road may be a different experience. Some avenues are really big (maybe 8 or 10 lanes, each direction). So, crossing these avenues is time consuming :)
The city center is easy to recover in 2 days with all the museums and tourist spots.
What not to miss is to visit the famous cafe Tortoni and have the hot chocolate (which is served with hot milk and water).
Another important thing is to visit the Mothers of the lost ones. As you know, approximately 30+ years, mothers of the lost people (around 30,000) in Argentina are demonstration on May Square every Thursday at 16:30.
In the same square, you can meet the war veterans of Falkland wars, as well as other demonstrators as well. When I was there, it was quite crowded and noisy but extremely peaceful. The police blocked the road for the other drivers but nobody was over-reacting to that.
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