Arrived at the end of the afternoon when it wasn´t too hot any more, though still a bit sticky. Found a place in my second choice of hostel. Have a room to myself and am actually quite happy to pay the extra now for a bit of peace and security after the hassles of the big city I think.
Not that it feels like a dangerous place at all. When I was wandering about in the evening I didn´t feel at all unsafe, despite the fact that there were often groups of people rummaging through the piled up garbage. It´s indescribably filthy in some places. They seem to be looking for paper to recycle as they pile it up seperately but the rest just gets strewn about the street. You have to remember that toilet paper doesn´t get flushed away here so is put out with the rubbish... it all adds to the stink.
Anyway, it´s not all garbage rummaging: if you remember to look up there are lots of beautiful buildings in between the modern ones. A sort of Cuban ´fallen splendour´ kind of architecture.
One of the first things I passed on the way from the bus station was a huge circle of beautifully painted bears from different countries, part of some peace initiative. Couldn´t find the Dutch one but did find Zambia and Italy, so took them for Mau. I´ll no doubt pass them again some time when I don´t have my rucksack with me. I suddenly realised that I should be off finding a bed for the night instead of wasting time gaping at international bears. Once I´d finally found a place to stay I quickly went back out on to the streets before it was completely dark. It was all very lively in one of the main shopping streets. A very good young live reggae band were playing on one corner (for some reason reggae is very big here). And a bit further was a live tango demonstration. I went on down to the harbour and sorted out my boat ticket to Colonia (Uraguay) tomorrow. I´m just going there and back for the day. It is possible to stay a night but I´m not sure there´s really that much to see, I just fancy getting another stamp in my passport really...
Might go on one of the organised sight-seeing bike trips on Wednesday as I´m not sure if it´s possible to hire a bike by yourself here and even if it was I´m not sure if it would be sensible as the traffic is fairly mad. Don´t think I´ve seen anyone cycling at all. And on Thursday afternoon I want to see if the ´traditional´ protest against The Disappeared is still going on. The Plaza de Mayo seems to be a general protest sort of area, there was a big thing up about how the Malvinas (better known as the Falklands for some ridiculous reason outside Argentina) are and will be Argentinian...
(This is the first hostel I´ve been in where I´ve had time to upload photos and write my blog. Anyway off to bed now as I need to get to the harbour in time for the check-in stuff tomorrow.)
