The city of Buenos Aries, one of the most important in South America, has been around for almost 500 years. A settlement was originally founded here in 1536 by the Conquistador, Pedro de Mendoza. Sitting on the banks of the Rio de la Plata (River of Silver), the city has enjoyed a tumultuous history under a predominently Spanish influence. That notwithstanding, Buenos Aries has also secured the unenviable distinction of being invaded by British forces twice in the one year – 1807. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, Buenos Aries has seen considerable immigration from many counties in Ireland and the military, social and cultural history of the region is dotted with names like Santiago Phelan, Benito Lynch, Rodolfo Walsh, Ricardo Lopez Murphy, and, perhaps the most famous immigrant of them all, Admiral Guillermo (William) Brown. Brown was born in Foxford, Co Mayo in 1777 and after emmigrating to South America became a national hero and is credited with founding the Argentine navy. Brown is still revered in this country but he is possibly trumped in the fame stakes by another legendary Argentinian of Irish descent, Che Guevara, the Marxist revolutionary who played a major part in the Cuban Revolution. The Irish Diaspora in Argentina is significant and it is currently and variously estimated that the number of Argentinans of Irish descent is of the order of between 500,000 and 1,000,000. Sadly, the Fearless Four won’t be adding to that number as our stay here will be all too short. For us it is only a staging post on our way further south to the Great White Continent of Antarctica. However we are conscious of the Irish connections with this great city and we do have two days here which we intend to make the most of. We arrived this morning after a door to door journey lasting 26 hours. This included a 14hr flight from Heathrow which was made a little more bearable by virtue of being upgraded by British Airways to Business Class. The food was excellent, and we all managed to grab at least a few hours sleep in our very comfortable seats that converted to lie-flat beds. We have now set a standard that we hope to maintain for the remainder of our adventure. Things became a little more difficult once we landed in Buenos Aries, however. The immigration hall was a teeming mass of people and, having already travelled for almost 23 hours since leaving home, we were forced to endure a further 2 hours queuing to enter Argentina after which it took another 40 minutes to collect our bags, clear customs and arrange a taxi to our hotel in the centre of the city. We are now rested and actually managed to enjoy a splendid afternoon tea in the elegant surroundings of the Alvera Palace Hotel in the company of Beatrice, a local Argentian friend, and her son Alan. Unfortunately as I write this, and struggle to build an appetite for dinner in an hour’s time, it is teeming with rain in Buenos Aries which was not something we had been led to expect. Hopefully it will have cleared by tomorrow when we hope to explore the city, and particularly the old town, a little more. And tomorrow night is tango night. Looking forward to that.
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