Checking out my area in Buenos Aires.

Arrived after a short flight from Santiago and this time I didn't avoid the reciprocal tax at the airport of $35.00 US. 
My hostel is located in the older part of the central area, as usual.  It is Estoril Terrazas on Mayo.  It is fine as hostels go, not everything in perfect working order but the staff is excellent.

Today I walked to the plazas on each end of the street I am on.

This is the National Congress building in the Plaza de Congreso.

Again there is a European look to the buildings, it is springtime in September and the weather is pretty nice.

Streets like this with shops, hotels and restaurants go on forever.  I didn't ever walk out of this type of area.  I decided to take a miss on the Metro as the routes were not convenient and I saw very few people going into the Metro stations.  Today I heard of a mugging down there.  The streets are full of people and it feels safe.

I was fascinated by the spires and rooftops of the old buildings.

There were lots of pie shaped buildings.

From the Plaza de Congreso I walked the other way to the Plaza de Mayo.

This is the Casa Rosada Museum.  It has pictures of political and national statesmen and heroes.

Looking across the Plaza there is another museum, the white building left of center, but I wasn't in that one.

Guards on duty in Casa Rosada Museum.

This is the Metropolitan Cathedral.  It is on the square de Mayo too.

A peek inside.

Avenue de Julio is a huge main road through the city.  Here we are looking from Ave Mayo toward the obelisk.

This is the elevator in my building.  My hostel is on the sixth floor.  It was constructed to fit the center space in the circular marble staircase and holds two people at a time.  One evening three girls got on with all their bags and it stopped running.  The elevator guy didn't come to reset it until the next day.  It seems the walk up the stairs is tough as even the young ones came in puffing.

This building is the most amazing thing I have seen here.  It was built over 100 years ago by an Italian architect who designed it based on images from Dante's Divine Comedy.  His idea was to bring Dante's body here for burial under the building but apparently that didn't happen.

It is too close to get the whole thing in one picture so here is another view.  There will be more shots later.

It looks like walking will be my method of transport here.  The several things I want to see are walkable distances. Tonight I am settled in and happy with my place.

Last Day in Santiago

One of the streets near my hostel is full of people.

I pass by the Metro stop on the way to Plaza de Armas.

The Plaza is also full of people.  It feels comfortable.

Just looking at the old buildings all around.

This is the Cathedral and very near it a modern highrise.

I passed some chess players in a tournament.

I spent sometime in the local market and just hanging out in the neighbourhood.

Later, I took a couple of shots from my hostel's patio while the sun was setting.

Going to bed early tonight to get up at 3:30 for my 7:00 am flight to Buenos Aires.

Rode the Red Double-Decker Bus

Today, I used the red double-decker hop on-hop off tourist bus.  It showed quite well the different areas of the city.  I am located in what probably is the blue collar area.  It is an older area but in good condition.  There are many modest apartment buildings and small shops.

This sign is stop number two on the route, a couple of blocks from my hostel.

As I waited for the bus I got this photo of the area.  On the left is the river and on the right is a large market.

The river is almost dry as there aren't many rains to fill it in the winter.

The streets are wide and clean and the trees are starting to leaf out.

We passed through a more modern part of town which they call "Sanhattan" after Manhattan in New York.  You can see building just left of center which somewhat resembles the Empire State Building, although smaller.

There are lots of green spaces.

At the far end of the route I stopped off at the largest Mall I had ever been in and had lunch.  That area was pretty upscale.  From there we were shown an even classier area with the finest restaurants and designer stores.
I didn't stop in that one.

Here is the square of my original stop.

Central Market.

I still had time to walk over to the Funicular on San Cristobal hill.  This castle is the entrance to the train. 

I rode the funicular to the top, Bellavista Terrace, which is 300 meters above the town.  The train had large cars with no seats and could hold quite a few people.

It was a sunny day but there was smog in front of the mountains.  Still the view of the city was pretty good.

Behind me are the shops (inevitable) of Bella Vista Terrace and above them the statue of the Virgin Mary.

Beter view of the statue.

On the way down our train stopped on a side track so the train coming from below could pass.  I didn't know that could happen on a cable train.

Back on the ground, I passed the Museum of performing arts and saw it as a possible destination for tomorrow.

I don't know why touring tires me out so, but I'm ready to call it a day.

Travelling to Santiago, Chile.

Todays blog is short, basically, I flew to Santiago, Chile and not much else.

I did shoot a few more pictures as I was riding out to the La Paz airport though.  She is so photogenic.  I love the way these red brick houses cling to the hill.

They need to cling during "rain time" in case their sandy perch gets washed out from under them.

And a view down the highway.  Farewell La Paz.

My flight wasn't until 5pm but I went to the airport early because I knew they had Internet.

I flew on Lan over to Santiago and they scheduled a stop in Iquique (say E-Key-Key) Chile on the way.  We had to go through immigration there and get our stamps into the country.
The airline does that so that when we fly into Santiago we don't get charged the $135US entry fee which is only charged to persons entering Chile through Santiago by plane.  Smart.

Then we went through customs when we got to Santiago.  I had a bag of Palo Santo wood and the customs guy looked at them one piece at a time.  He found one with several tiny holes and asked me what they were.  Of course I didn't know.  He kept that one piece.  Hopefully, it didn't contain the bugs they are trying to keep out of the country.  Now I can safely take the rest to Canada.

I got to my hostel about 11:30pm and was alone in my dorm for the first night. Sweet!

Tihuanacu Ruins

There was no sunshine this morning as we headed out from La Paz 72 km across the country to the town of Laja which is where the town of La Paz was originally established.  It is there that we will visit the archaeological site of the ruins of Tihuanacu.

First we stop at the museum which is in the town.

Looking around town.

It is very small but does have all the necessary facilities.

This restaurant doesn't look used but there are others.

Out at the site of the ruins there is a model of what the site used to look like.  That is a good thing because a lot of it is missing.  The stones were taken and used to build the church so now to reconstruct they must find other stones.

This is the temple of Mother Earth (Pacha Mama).

This large area is the temple to the sun.

Showing the detail of one of the walls.

A carving.

This is the only side where the five levels of the pyramid are visable.

Here is our guide standing beside what amounts to an early microphone.  He asked us to stay on the other side of the temple and then went behind the stone and spoke through the hole.  We were able to hear him like he was standing beside us.

Looking at the hole from the other side.

This is the sun gate.  It is situated so that the sun, this gate and one of the corners of the temple line up exactly in a straight line on each of the equinoxes.

Here is a pretty impressive hotel for the size of the town.

The restuarent where they gave us lunch.

Back at La Paz and looking down on the city on the way into town.

A view of the mountains surrounding the town.

Tomorrow I go to Santiago by plane.