Tan Tastic, Japenese Gardens and Cat Poo

Hello everyone,

I trust all is well back in the UK despite being in the middle of a Siberian Snow Storm, I would like to say I'm sorry I'm not there, but well, quite frankly it's averaging around 28/29C here in Buenos Aires and I'm quite happy thanks!

On a serious note - I do hope everyone is ok - take care out there on the roads!

So it's a day since I last updated you on what's been happening here, well the sun has been shining and there has been lots of lounging around the pool, but we've also done a bit of sight seeing too - We've decide to break the days into morning sight seeing then afternoon by the pool :)

Yesterday being Steve and Leighs first day, we didn't do a great deal, pretty much the same as what I did on my first day - I gave them a quick orientation of the area and then we just spent the afternoon by the pool drinking cold beer.  In the evening we went out into San Telmo and found another steak house, yet another delicious piece of meat, washed down with an equally delicious bottle of Malbec! Whilst the steak was tasty, the one I had the previous night was a lot more tender, still I have plenty of time to try more and compare ;)

Back at the hotel, there was a free Tango Show - well it would be wrong to come all the way over to Argentina and not see a bit right? It wasn't a big show, and most of the show was a guy singing, I'd like to say I knew what he was saying but it was all in Spanish and we had no idea, Steve coped well though when the microphone was put in front of him to sing along...

The dancing was amazing, just what you'd imagine from the Argentine Tango - the things the girl was doing with her legs was mesmerising! I tried taking a few photos - I've put a couple on this blog for you to see.

Today after breakfast we decided to battle Buenos Aires metro (or Subte) and head to Palermo and the Botanical Gardens.  Once we found the station and established how it worked, we were soon on our way - a pretty straight forward and cheap means of travel, however not air conditioned, needless to say it was a little sticky!




After navigating our way across "The highway of doom" (Has to be said with a deep booming voice), we arrived at the gardens.  The highway I refer to was one way, 12 lane behemoth - insane to say the least!.

The botanical gardens, were....different...They have so much potential if a little money was pumped into it, but it just had a bit of a dilapidated and unkempt feel about it.  Full of stray cats too and an overwhelming smell of cat poo if you got down wind or passed by some that was in a particularly unshaded spot!  This led to many a joke about steaming poo/baked poo/Poobabs etc - I won't go any further!

We then went into the Jardin Japones (Japanese Gardens) - these were beautiful - it just shows what a small entry fee and bit of TLC can produce - landscaped perfectly with a lake and huge Koi carp.  It was approaching midday and we were starting to feel a bit baked but we decided to carry on a little further and enter the final garden - we couldn't quite work out which bit of it we entered but we finally stumbled across some beautiful Rose Gardens - nice but you know, once you've seen a few hundred roses it kind of gets a bit montonous!

It was time to head back and bake a little further round the pool - I chose to stay in the shade today as I was feeling a little cooked from yesterday, already signs of "Flip Flop feet" to gauge the level of tan is looking impressive!

Time for a quick shower and then it's Saturday night so we're going to head out and see what Buenos Aires nightlife has to offer - it could be entertaining....