My long awaited and expensive application for residency has been well on it’s way for a while now. When you do receive it, you are asked to leave the country to collect it, making it easier on the immigration system. This way they see a tourist leave and a resident enter – rather than them having to put a function on the system to change the status.

Argentina is a land with a currency at the same value as the Peruvian Nuevo Sol, which means its relatively cheap. The only problem for us was finding the money and waiting for a good offer on a flight. After more than a month waiting to travel it finally happened.

Photos at end.

Day 1:
Annett and I spent the first full day, a Sunday, in San Telmo, a bohemian district that has a large market on this day of the week. It is also said to be the birthplace of Tango, but we couldn’t afford to see if they danced best here as the shows are 30 pesos per head.
After several kilometres of walking we made sure to stop by the Peruvian embassy to be sure where it was, but as today was election day and a Sunday, everything was closed and we couldn’t get anywhere near it. With just a fair idea of where it was, we headed home to Almagro on Buenos Aires’ busy subway.

Day 2:
Waking up early didn’t go very well with the 2 hours time difference and the amount of walking we did the day before. We did finally arrive at the embassy at 10am, but by that time the small lobby with the windows you must queue up at was full with perhaps 600 people. The air-conditioning was broken or maybe had no effect.
We queued for two hours, swapping orderly, patient and polite Argentina for Peru and it’s noisy queue-jumpers. These hundreds of Peruvians were renewing their passports or ID cards. It took a while but we made it to the window, where I filled out a few forms and was told to come back at 3pm.
For the next three hours we explored Plaza San Martín and it’s English Tower and Falklands War memorial which sit happily almost side by side.
After collecting my visa we spent the evening looking at the fancy shops along Florida street.

Day 3:
With my Visa locked away safely, we went to La Boca, a district in the poorer side of town famous for its colourful streets and its futbol team. Here we walked, ate cheaply, and took photos.

Day 4:
After 3 days of sunny weather it rained. So we went to the impressive Abasta shopping centre. We looked at shops, saw BODIES… The Exhibition, and ate. In the afternoon, the rain stopped so we headed on foot to nearby Palermo, which is so big we soon regretted walking. Afterwards we took the bus back.

Day 5:
Our flight left at 8:15pm so we had most of the day to explore the ecological reserve on the Río de la Plata. We hired bikes and road around for about an hour and a half before going to get some ice cream. Eventually it was time to head back to Almagro, get our things and take the 86 bus to the airport.

Photos –

Tags: argentina, buenos aires