Verdeta Journey

10:40am, trying to get a taxi using BA Taxi app and no luck. It took me 15 minutes until I found one. Streets very busy, full of cars, traffic jams... We got to San Telmo 15 minutes later. Paid 200 pesos for taxi and went to our tango lesson. Gerry and Lucia were excellent, we really enjoyed the lesson with them and they spoke perfectly English. The lesson cost 700 pesos and it was good fun.   Then we walked to see some live tango performance to Plaza Dorrego, around 1pm and then had lunch in Pasaje Solar. Looked like French food type restaurant, but we were hungry, so stayed in. Decent lunch, paid 440 pesos for both of us, including two small beers, coffee and desert.  The next plan was to get to Caminito and google maps showed me where to take a bus number 33 apparently going there. First local public bus we were taking. Didn’t know how we find out where to get off and by mistake we crossed the bridge to La Boca and rather got off the first stop after the bridge. Quite wor

We had to withdraw money from an HSBC ATM nearby. Maximum is 3000 pesos and you pay extra 176 pesos fee to Argentinian bank. (plus whatever your bank charges extra on top of if) Then tube from Bulnes to Retiro station. There are not enough signs where to find Omnibus terminal. Before you get out from the underground station, there in one arrow pointing to Omnibus terminal, but outside, there is nothing. It took us while to figure out that you have to walk quite far, passing one or two train stations, before you get to bus terminal building. Just stay on the same side of the road as you get of the tube station and walk. The omnibus terminal is big and the tickets are sold on the second (top) floor. We read (in some blog) that La Plata till is number 5 (there is about 200 of tills). We waited until someone showed up and tey told us, that we have to use the SUBE card to get to La Plata. They don't sell tickets anymore. So simply charge your Sube card with enough money and find

It's raining today. We are heading to MALBA gallery, which is only 15 minutes walk from our accomodation. Unfortunately MALBA is closed on Tuesdays. Well, the rain is not so pleasant, so we don't want to go anywhere far and decided to visit Jardin Japones (Japanese Garden). The entrance is free for locals today, but for foreigners it's 95 pesos. We spent about an hour in the gardens, it was empty of people, nice and quiet. Had a coffee next to the ponds and went to find something to eat for lunch.   Not wanting to spend a fortune for lunch, we were discovering what is on one of the streets nearby and found La Juvenil deli shop on Jerónimo Salguero street. Bought one Tortilla and some Dulce con Leche desert.  In the afternoon, walking to Plaza Italia to a Claro shop to get mi SIM activated. Got lucky with the customer service representative, he could do a bit of English and activated my SIM and sold us second one for 10 pesos only. Then we walked to Honduras street,

Breakfast at Cafe Martinez, the same street as our Airbnb flat. Sunny day, so we took a long walk to Floralis Genérica with a massive mechanical tulip flower (free entrance), visited Facultad de Derecho university (free), and then old Recoleta cemetery (free). The Recoleta cemetery is an interesting place, where you can see huge variety of tombs. Each one is different, many of them also have a basement floor. There is Evita Perón’s tomb.  Lunch at Romario pizzeria (chain), right behind the Recoleta cemetery. We had few different posadas and two small draught beers. I noticed that sometimes the draught beer is called chop. We could pay by card there, so I had to get some cash from an atm of Banko de la Nación Argentino located on a parallel street behind us.  Then we walked to Las Heras underground station. On the way there, I stopped in Kiosco to get an Argentinian SIM card for 45 pesos. Inside of the tube station, we were wondering how to get a ticket or something to use for

The company we flew with was Level operated by Iberia. Boeing or Airbus something-something and had 2-4-2 seats layout. So me and Denisa could sit together without any issues. We sat in row 17 on the side. They served breakfast and very late lunch. The movies choice was rather good and the meals were okay. No complaints. And USB charging is quite normal these days. They gave us a customs form (I took a picture of). Similar to one you get when you fly to the USA. We filled that very simply and then handed to a police man at immigration booth after landing. The queues weren't bad. The flight was 13 hours long and we landed at 5pm Buenos Aires local time. It is 4 hours difference to Barcelona during winter time. At the Buenos Aires Argentina EZE international airport, we were looking for an ATM cash machine. Found HSBC on the left after exiting the baggage area, but neither of two HSBC ATM in that area worked. We didn't see any other cash machine and went to Banko el Argent

After few days trying to write something for my blog, while failing asleep during my photos are being backed up to cloud, I decided to do it more simple and quick way, like a little diary I then can come back to later. So I don't forget the main things I want to highlight and can get it out quickly. I'll call it a Little diary.  16/12/2017 leaving Czech Republic After many weeks of trying to prepare for our travels and juggling little things and constant interactions with both families and going from one house to another (since we stopped renting a flat in Prague and were staying half in house of my parents and a half in house of Denisa's parents), we sat on a plane from Prague to Barcelona. Landed at 11pm at El Prat Airport, empty and cold and tried to sleep somewhere to catch our connecting flight to Buenos Aires at 8am. McDonald's was okay option to stay and sleep there, but it was quite cold as the restaurant is right next to doors to outside patio. So we ende

It was all new for us We spent ages trying to find out what equipment we need to buy for the South America travel trip. Since we haven't done any backpacking before, neither proper hiking, we didn't have anything at all. I think I can divide the stuff we got to few sections: Equipment Things like backpack (rucksack), sleeping bag, tent, sleeping mat, stove, etc. I think we started with the rucksack. Based on various blogs and reviews, we went to try one of them on. Osprey. Well known brand, apparently excellent quality stuff. I didn't find them comfortable around my neck area, but my wife chose one. I then went to see Deuter and Lowe Alpine and decided for the latter.  Rucksack size. Some of my friends recommend 80 litres, some of the others 60 litres. Internet and blog posts said less is better. But for how experienced travellers? I have almost none experience to start with. So we both went for 65 litres extensible to 75 litres. Osprey Ariel 65 for her and Lowe Alpi