Buenos Aires Part 01

We arrived in Buenos Aires on the 26th of March. We made a reservation for an apartment but there was a misunderstanding with the agency about the date and it took a couple of hours to solve the issue. Those first 2 hours in BA we spent standing on the sidewalk, trying to remember Spanish we learned a while ago. Finally we were inside and happy. The apartment was very nice, too big for just the two of us but Sanja and Eda were arriving soon so it was going to be a full house.
On our very first night, we went outside looking for a place to eat and got a first glimpse of the neighborhood San Telmo - our home for the next month. We found a nice restaurant/bar only a block away Bar El Federal, all wood inside, nice atmosphere. We realized quickly that we needed Spanish classes. None of the waiters spoke English, and the menu was only in Spanish.





It was the first time we were going to stay in one place for so long and it was welcomed. We started getting tired of moving around all the time, especially Hana. It is a nice change of pace, but even more so, it is a new experience on this trip. Instead of being visitors, this time we are actually temporary residents. We were lucky to find this apartment in such a great neighborhood. Thank you Patricia for putting us in touch with Juan.

After visiting the city, San Telmo is definitely our favorite part. It is very touristy but still very authentic. It is full of old buildings, cafes, restaurants, boutiques, antique shops, and little supermarkets owned by Asian people. The whole mix is very charming. It has a strange feel to it, kind of melancholic, maybe because San Telmo is the center of tango.
Oh, tango. We have heard about it, everybody has heard about the Argentinian tango. But to see the couples dancing right in front of you is something else. It looks so difficult and complex. We love this dance, we love watching it, and would love to know it. Watching couples dance tango, it is like a lover's game, an indefinite tease. Hot, hot, hot! It looks so cool, sexy, and sophisticated. And the legs, oh those legs, they move like they are "croshaying".
Our apartment is very close to Plaza Dorrego. There you can see people dancing tango almost any time of day or night. Specially Sunday's night, after the antique market, locals come to this plaza to dance tango and it is always crowded. Sometimes there is a band playing and you get to see some really good dancers.





Two days after we arrived in Buenos Aires, our friend Sanja (that we stayed with in Vienna) joined us. A few days later, another friend from San Francisco arrived, Eda. From then on it was girls gone wild for shopping. We have spent the next 2 weeks visiting, shopping, eating meat & empanadas, shopping, drinking Quilmes, shopping, walking around and going to every possible market, and shopping, shopping, shopping....especially Sanja & Eda :)
What follows is a brief description of some places we visited.



Recoleta Cemetery

Reminded us of the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, just smaller. It is like a little "neighborhood" of mausoleums with streets and plazas. It is the place where only the rich and the ones with the right last name get buried. There is a saying here: "It is cheaper to live extravagantly all your life than to be buried in Recoleta". This is also were Eva Peron's remains are. A few days after we have arrived, on April 1st, Raul Alfonsin died. He was the first democratically elected president in Argentina in 1983 after the Dirty War. He was considered the father of Argentinian democracy. Miko actually ended up going to his funeral at the Recoleta Cemetery by accident. He was going to visit the Ciruelo exhibition at the Cultural Center next door but ended up staying with the huge crowd that was gathered to pay the respect to Alfonsin.















Tigre

We did two day trips outside of Buenos Aires. The first one was to Tigre, one hour away by train.
The town of Tigre is a pleasant riverside town, but it is the Delta that everyone is after, a popular weekend getaway for "portenos" (people from BA). The Delta was a complete opposite of what we expected. We thought the boat ride there would be about beautiful scenery and nature, but the main attraction here are the local houses along the shores and some of them are real mansions. It was still very nice to walk around, so quiet and peaceful. We had a nice, long lunch at the Alpenhouse (owned by a Viennese family) and ate a lot of sausages.
It turned out not to be so simple to buy 4 round trip tickets when you don't speak Spanish and don't consult your phrase book before. Imagine the 3 of us, talking at the same time, saying every relevant Spanish word we know, and the poor guy behind the counter, who does not speak a word of English, trying to make sense of our Spanish marmalade.
We needed Spanish classes really bad.

























Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay

After our trip to Tigre, we went to Colonia, Uruguay for one day. We took the ferry from Buenos Aires to cross the river. The water is mocca-brown and looks really nice against the blue sky (even if it is very polluted). Colonia itself is a really cute place to visit. Like Arrowtown in New Zealand, or Locronan in Bretagne, it is a pretty town with character and history, many restaurants and cafes, and also very touristy.














































La Boca

On Eda's first day in Buenos Aires, we visited around El Caminito, a very colorful area in La Boca but also very touristy. We walked there from San Telmo and on the way, two teenage girls stopped us and told us that it is not safe to walk around with our cameras out, even during the day. Oops. This place also has a nice artesan market and a great store that sells clothes of the independent, local, designers. That's where the shopping craze began. The store is called Alicia Maravilla.






















That night we went to Hostel Clan and partied with kids. Especially Sanja, she partied hard and you could not tell the age difference on her (by the way 10 years min).





Puerto Madero

The newest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Sanja's favorite from the architectural point of view. The highlight here was the Puente de la Mujer (The bridge of a Woman), representing a tango dancer. The neighborhood reminded us of the Mission Bay in SF. Brand new and modern, it creates a contrast with other parts of Buenos Aires, old and crackled.






























Recoleta & Palermo

These two neighborhoods are the upscale parts of Buenos Aires. Recoleta, is more of a cultural center with many museums and galleries. While the gardens and parks are in Palermo. And great shopping as well in Palermo Soho ;)























Hana liked the Floralis Generica, a gigantic flower made out of airplane parts that opens up during the day and closes from dusk until dawn.
Miko liked the Botanic Garden (Cat's Heaven). It is small, green, very calm. It is full of cats and lovers.
We both liked the Malba, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. Great museum displaying modern Latin American art. It is not very big, so you don't get exhausted by the end of it.















Markets

There is always a market somewhere in Buenos Aires, specially on weekends. We regularly went to the market in San Telmo on Sundays. The entire street Defensa is closed for traffic and there are many artists selling their crafts. There are performances, bands playing, clowns, tango dancers. It is very popular with tourists and locals alike.














There are other markets in La Boca, and Plaza Francia in Recoleta, and in Puerto Madera, but our favorite one was the Feria de Mataderos, almost one hour bus ride from the center. It is comunal, more country side and we loved seeing the gaucho side of Argentina. Especially the folkloric dancing. There was a group of kids and they danced really well. We loved their postures, their chest forward, head up high. So much attitude and pride in it. My favorite was the drumming group "Sol Argentino", men dressed in black, and women in red with traditional blue ponchos. Their energy was great, it was breathtaking to watch them. The women were drumming and sometimes yelling some words, banging their heads in the rhythm, their black, long hair tossing. You would not want to mess with these ladies.
In between performances, many old couples dressed in the traditional outfits would dance in the middle. I like that about Argentina, that old people still go out and socialize and have fun.
There is also a funky Gaucho Museum. Beware of the two old ladies selling tickets there, the pink tickets are for women and white for men! Miko tried to get in on a pink ticket that Hana bought for him and almost created a riot.
There is also a great artesan market, stands with food and asado (Argentinian bbq), and more locals than tourists :) Loved it.