After a lovely Chilexing time in Santiago Chile (see what I did there?!) it was time to head to an even more passionate football country. The beautiful Buenos Aires of Argentina awaits me!

Sadly this did come with a lot of stress and wondering of whether to shuttle bus for six hours to Mendoza in Chile and spend the night there? Following on from that another eighteen hours to Buenos Aires! Lucky I found that flight I mentioned previous eh! A cheap direct flight last min at £95 flying with a Dutch Flight company ‘EDN’. Seriously the price was just so good and I’m so so soooooo fortunate to be able to of got a seat on that plane! Absolute no brainer. #nomorebuses!

Now this flight I am looking particularly forward to! I’ve the Evita song “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” playing over over and over in my head as I board the cheap and cheerful flight straight across from next door neighbours Chile. I find it remarkable I am going to be in Argentina in little over an hour from now! My fastest flight since Texas to Mexico.

The flight itself is fairly packed out. The food also offered onboard to everybody was a particular tasty sandwich. A chicken mix of some sort that went down so well I asked to see if there were any more left over afterwards for round two lol. I did manage to convince them to get me another but it was cheese instead this time and once heated up this also wasn’t the average cheese sandwich I’ve had before! It was the type that melted in your mouth. Sorted for my arrival now. You don’t ask you won’t ever know will you!

It’s a huge plane full of mainly Asian tourists, surprise surprise. Cameras, selfie sticks at the ready! It was an interchange flight flying into Buenos Aires then onto Amsterdam after. Doubt they are all heading to Holland and I for sure as hell am no where near ready to be going back to Europe just yet! I know where I would rather be ending up, put it that way….. AGUEROOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Entering Argentina was one of the easiest places to get into without many delays at immigration. A lot of other places particularly Bolivia you will recall were difficult and long winded just for a stamp. I got one slight issue with my bag eventually ending up on a different baggage travelator and to my relief a random guy points out to me that the other bags from our flight came out elsewhere. Phew that were a close one! One thing I will say though that has bugged me a lot is the constant putting your bags back through security checks as you are about to enter into the next country. Why they still seem to assume to think you have remarkably had your bags broken into with the padlock still safely secured is beyond me! Trust in la Gringo Senour!

So I jump in a cab which I mistakenly got prices mixed up at the beginning for it being 290,000 Argentine Peso (£15) in English when I thought originally it was actually half of that. This led to a rather awkward scenario with the cabbie but in fairness my hostel was a good 35-40 minute drive from the airport with no traffic so I couldn’t complain and paid the man his correct fare. The hostel itself is lively and huge! I had a four bed mixed dorm booked here as I was cutting back on private rooms again. Once entering it’s always going into the unknown as you have no idea who is behind that door you enter. I find there’s a girl opposite my bed fast asleep. Beauty of hostels is people tend to sleep all times throughout the day due to nature of whether they are simply a lazy traveller or have just had long flight themselves and need some well earned kip.

After unpacking I checked out the local wifi the hostel provided only to find it’s running rather slow due to other travellers probably streaming or downloading films to watch. Big pet hate of mine that. Everybody has to use the wifi in the hostel, particularly a busy hostel and you always get these house hermits who like to abuse everybody else’s wifi usage just because they feel they are entitled to. It can lead to a stressful stay, even more so if you need to put in bank card details to pay for flights, buses etc. How is that fair on rest of us I ask!? Each hostel should have a ban I think on streaming/downloading and if you like the film so dam much then go out and buy from local film/music shop and it’s yours forever then isn’t it 👍.

Time is limited here in BA so I need to seize the moment of arriving in so early and head straight out into the concrete jungle that it is here. Buenos Aires is absolutely huge! I really didn’t know what to make of it all but it is literally massive and in some areas could easily be mistaken for looking a bit like Times Square in New York. Buildings here are very high up and once again no hills! Very flat like Santiago. I was expecting lots of slopes but none are in site, just nice and flat.

Now Argentina as we all know is known for the ‘Tango’ and I was treated to it by a few locals who make their extra Pesos by performing in middle of the streets for everybody to watch. It’s a very much sex oriented dance where the man takes the lead and the woman looks like she is being made to hold on for dear life! Saying that though anybody that knows a bit more on ‘El Tango’ will probably correct me on that one.

I then went on a walk and discovered ‘Plaza de Mayo’ which is something else. Took some great shots of the place and in and around the town. I wanted to try get in as much as I could as tomorrow is the ‘La Boca’ Tour and then on to the incredible Tigre. I was particularly excited about the tour as it meant I was going to get the chance to see La Bombonera (Boca Juniors Stadium), get to try out some local Argentinian Steak and visit other parts of Buenos Aires that just aren’t like other traditional cities.

The tour involved a fairly big group from the hostel. Good chance to meet new people. We were warned in advance that La Boca as an area is a little unsafe, even during the day but particularly more so to tourists so it was in our best interests to take with us as little as possible just in case something happened that was beyond any of our control. With fifteen of us though you would think we will be alright but you just don’t know how things are here so was worth taking the obvious necessary precautions. The tour in itself was only for a couple hours but getting a better idea of the history surrounding us all in BA I found very interesting to learn. This whole trip so far I am forever learning new things, new ways of life, historic facts and this can only be advantageous for me upon my return and the abundance of questions I’m guessing await me. I may just have to point towards reading this and should you find the time to you will know all there is to know about my trip as a whole.

The steak was delicious, the stadium from the outside is absolutely huge and the football player statues made for good selfies, so for me the tour ticked all the boxes and was a good move all round. I made some good friends that day and was surprised to see how many English and Irish were on the tour also. I have to say though what did make me laugh was we had a few Chinese who tagged along to our tour for pictures then disappeared at the end!? There seems to be quite a big Asian based amount of tourists here as I guess it’s a place that is good for photos. There is a lot of tourism here. I also found out a week later that my boyhood hero Beckham visited here and played football with locals in the same place as above and the video below. How unlucky was that! These guys could of well been the next Messi’s and Maradona’s….

Now Tigre is up next…