Buenos Aires: Day Three

I had one more day of sightseeing left in Buenos Aires before returning to Chile. So I decided to visit Recoleta cemetery, which some say is the most interesting attraction in the entire city. I don't know if I'd go that far myself, but it's certainly worth seeing, as the tombs are very elaborate and artistic. It's not dissimilar to Cementerio General in Santiago.

The neighbourhood of Recoleta, where the cemetery is located, is a really scenic (and slightly British!) place to look around.

On my way back to the metro station, I went past Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, which is such a huge and impressive building. If I go back to Buenos Aires, I'd definitely like to have a look at the paintings there.

My next stop was the Palermo neighbourhood, where I planned to visit the Japanese garden. However, on my way there, I discovered another interesting place, the Ecoparque. This park recreates the nature that inhabited the area before the city was built. There are lots of animals there, which have either been rescued or are there for conservation purposes. Roaming freely around the park were dozens of Patagonian maras, a species of rodent that looks like a cross between a rabbit and a deer. They were so cute! I also got to see guanacos for the first time, which was great.

I also really enjoyed visiting the Japanese garden, which seems to be a really popular thing in South America. I've never been to one in Europe, but in Chile, there are ones in both Santiago and La Serena (which unfortunately was closed when we visited). Santiago's Japanese garden has the advantage of panoramic city views, and is free to visit! However, Buenos Aires' version is a lot bigger and is also very beautiful.

So that concludes my account of my trip to Buenos Aires. Looking at the pictures is making me wish I was back there already! I really enjoyed my time there and it was so much better than my first trip to Argentina.

Funnily enough, I was considering volunteering for a children's charity in Buenos Aires for my Year Abroad. That was after I'd considered volunteering at a dog shelter in Peru, and also after I'd considered splitting my time between working in Spain and rescuing turtles in Costa Rica... And then I made the rather spontaneous decision to study in Santiago, which I'm very happy I did! But it was great to finally visit Buenos Aires. It's a very different city to Santiago, but I love both of them. I feel like Buenos Aires is best for architecture and Santiago is best for beautiful mountainous panoramas.

I was a little sad to leave Argentina but was very happy to come back to Chile again. I'll be writing a bit about some of the new places I've seen there next!

Read about Buenos Aires: Day One here and Buenos Aires: Day Two here!

An Eventful Day in Uruguay!

I woke up early on my second morning in Buenos Aires and went down to the Buquebus terminal to catch the ferry to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay, a hour away across Río de la Plata. My plan was to spend the day there and get the ferry back at five pm. However, this wasn't quite how things worked out!

Going through security at the terminal was kind of confusing. After getting my passport stamped, I followed some of the other passengers in what I thought was the direction I was meant to be going. I was asked to show my ticket and was then directed through a tunnel. Before I knew it, I was on an amazing boat! It honestly looked like something out of a film.

I hadn't expected to board the boat so early, but I didn't think anything of it until the boat left an hour earlier than I thought it would. When I went to the Bureau d'échange, I discovered I'd made a mistake! This boat was going to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, which is about an hour and a half further away than Colonia!

However, all the staff on the boat and at the port in Montevideo were really helpful and completely sorted out my situation. After I arrived at the port, I was told to come back in half an hour, so I had a little bit of time to see some of the old city.

Then I was put on a bus that went to another part of Montevideo, where there was a big shopping mall and bus terminal. There I was given a bus ticket to Colonia, but first I had an hour or two to look around the mall and the surrounding area.

I spent the following two and a half hours on a bus travelling across the Uruguayan countryside. It's a really beautiful country, with lots of green fields and rolling hills. It looks like England but with added palm trees!

We arrived in Colonia at around half-past three. Luckily, I had been given special permission to use my five o'clock ferry ticket at nine o'clock, so I had plenty of time to explore! As the name suggests, Colonia is an old colonial town. It's filled with riverside beaches and quaint little buildings. It was such a picturesque place to visit and I had an amazing time there.

As you can see, it's a very photogenic place!

The boat back to Buenos Aires was much more crowded and much less glamorous than the boat to Montevideo, and trying to get an Uber at eleven pm from the terminal car park was a chaotic experience! But I arrived back at my hostel feeling very happy after having spent a day in a beautiful country I'd never been to before. I'm really grateful to everyone who helped me after my mistake, and I'm left with many great memories of Uruguay.