We hate it when our friends become successful - Chris Binding in BA

In a publishing first, here's our first ever 'guest blog', courtesy of Mr Chris Binding. And blow me down with six packets of Skittles Sourze if it's not pretty damned good...


Luke and Louise asked me to write a brief, guest blog (presumably to make their musings look better by comparison).  I’ve never written a blog before but Luke scares me, so here we go.

A last-minute decision to fly the 7,000 miles to Buenos Aires on 3 January (I only booked on 30 December) meant I didn’t really have any preconceptions of what the city would be like.  I did, however, know it was warm and as the UK was experiencing severe snowfall I made the booking and heading for sunnier climes.

Luke had kindly agreed to meet me and the airport and he looked genuinely happy to see me – although I suspect it had something to do with the large jar of Marmite I had brought with me from Blighty.

Despite spending the first day recovering from jetlag we managed to see much of the posh Palermo neighbourhood.  Trendy boutiques, up-market bars and restaurants and ice cream shops (my personal favourite was Dulce de Leche) dotted almost every street.

One of the first things you notice is the lack of money in the country.  There’s a physical lack of cash and each bank is given an allocation each day.  This results in queues of porteños (people from Buenos Aires) outside banks each morning to make sure they have cash for the day.  Once banks run out they have to wait until the next day.  Coins are in even tighter demand (as mentioned in the previous post) and most shops were willing to knock something off the price to avoid giving change – a courtesy we returned by paying a little over to avoid receiving change.

To fly to the other side of the world for a week might seem a little short but I still managed to do a number of firsts, mainly thanks to Louise’s famous organising skills.  An election campaign grid-like timetable was worked up and only the lethargy of Luke and myself knocked us off course.

Horse ridding was absolutely fantastic.  The gaucho (cowboy) showed little interest in health and safety (perhaps he’s a secret admirer of the Tory Lord Young?) and gave no useful tips on controlling the massive equine I was now ridding called Gato (which was unfortunately the Spanish for cat, and not a treat associated with Sara Lee).

A quick-ish stroll around the beautiful surroundings of the ranch and we were back at the stables and the ever-helpful gaucho left us to our own devises to get off the horses.  To make matters worse a small child of no more than 4 then ran over, jumped on the horse and rode it off like a pro.  Clearly a job working the ranches of South America is not my true calling.

Buenos Aires has a fantastic culture of which it is rightly very proud.  Latin America is well known for its dancing and what visit to the city could pass without some dancing?  We opted for a tango lesson (yes, Luke and Louise joined in too.  Well… for the first five minutes).  Whilst language was a barrier, I had no problem understanding the ‘oogh’ and ‘argh’ sounds coming from the poor lady I danced with.  I hope she knew a good chiropodist!

On to possibly the scariest event of the week, Spanglish.  A truly terrifying hour of conversation with porteños who wanted to learn English and English speakers learning Spanish.

Despite their protestations at being ‘learners’ most of the people I talked to had fantastic English which made me feel even worse that I could only speak in Spanish for 30 seconds.  There’s only so many ways I could have a ‘conversation’ by saying my name, where I was from and what I did!  Thankfully most of the people took pity and spent time helping me to count to ten.  It felt like primary school all over again.

The political highlight of the week was being able to visit the Casa Rosada (Pink House) home of the Argentine President and a large collection of memorabilia from Eva Peron.  Casa Rosada has some spectacular artefacts, grand State rooms and picturesque gardens and for any political geek like me, Luke or Louise this truly was a once in a lifetime opportunity – made all the more special as the opening formed part of the country’s celebrations to mark 200 years of independence.

 

Having arrived in Buenos Aires with a shameful lack of knowledge about the city I left with a heavy heart and a strong sense that I’d like to return some day – but will stay for longer than a week.

A brilliant week’s sightseeing and, even better, a catch-up with friends on their adventure around the world.

Chris

(Posted by Chris Binding)