Beautiful Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, Argentina

The "Paris" of South America

... and I can definitely see why.

On our first full day in Buenos Aires we decided to check out La Boca. This neighborhood is located in the very south east section of the city and is generally a very poor part of town. Though one street in particular is pretty safe and brings in the tourist crowds. A street called "Caminito".

Although very touristy, I would definitely recommend visiting Caminito. This small winding street is out of this world with colors and culture. The pops of bold primary colors are one thing, but the street also has lots of artwork and crafts for sale, as well as all sorts of street performers, mostly of the tango dancing variety. I was told that La Boca is thought to be where the tango originated.

Most of my travels in the world, thus far, have been in Europe. Two years ago I traveled to South America for the first time and experianced Peru. So going into this trip I expected the rest of South America to be like what I had seen in Peru. There for you can see why I was quite surprised apon arriving in Buenos Aires.... very European. This is not a bad thing, just very interesting to see... and of course very beautiful!

 

On our last night in Buenos Aires we ate at a very cute and amazing little restaurant in Palermo, Buenos Aires. It was called " ", if you ever travel to Buenos Aires... I highly recommend dinner here. I had the rabbit and it was spectacular, but I also snagged a bite of the pork off of Steph`s plate and that was really great too. 

Great Flavor, unique dishes, big wine selection, everything sourced locally, decent prices, and amazing neighboring table company/conversation = perfect dinner and last night in BA!

Things Argentines like...

Asado

aka.... meat, meat, steak, beef, and more meat

 

Ham and Cheese

Dulce de Leche

This is put on everything, even toast. Go to most places and something on the menu is dulce de leche flavored.

I share this love with Argentina!

Mate

This weird tea that is only drank out of  these types of cups. You see the people around Argentina walking around everywhere with these sipping on Mate.

Wine

We traveled to Medoza, Argentina... one of the big 7 wine regions in the world! They specialize in great reds like Malbec and Cabernet Sauvingnon.

 

Very Late Dinners, followed by even later nights out

In the style of the Spanish it is not uncommon to go to dinner at 9, 10, or even 11pm in Argentina. As for going out, if you show up at a bar or club before 2am... it is very likely to be empty.

 

Fernet

A liquor the Argenine´s love.... i tried it and wanted to barf. Definitely an acquired taste.

 Pronouncing the ¨ll¨ sound as a ¨shhh¨sound

This accent makes it very hard to understand what they are saying to us who speak very little spanish.

Not flushing toilet paper down the toilet

this is really found everywhere in South America though.

Closing down everything at noon on a Saturday, and not opening back up until Tuesday morning.

Talk about a long weekend. Sounds lovely, but tends to be a bit of an inconvenience to us trying to see things around the country. 

Bienvenido Argentina!

Welcome to Argentina!

Well we got our bags packed and ready for one month of traveling. It's crazy to think everything can fit in one bag. It's also makes me feel very free!

 

After 15 hours of traveling and one layover in Chile we finally arrived safe and sound to beautiful Buenos Aires. As soon as we stepped outside the airport doors stripping down was required. It was quite the temperature difference from New York in the middle of February! Since we are across the equator and now in the Southern Hemisphere of the world it's summer here... And thank God! 

First stop:(after the hostel to drop off our bags and clean up a bit, of course) Cementerio de la Recoleta

 

This cemetery holds the remains of Buenos Aires' rich and famous, including Evita Perron. It is a labyrinth of huge stone and marble crypts and mausoleums. Needless to say if it were not closing an hour after we got there, we could have stayed for hours. 

Outside of the cemetery there was this amazingly huge tree, it was so beautiful! I felt like It belonged in the Lion King or something. It's huge branches stretched out so far horizontally, that there were metal structures that were made to b like crutches and hold them up. 

I feel this photo though does not give this tree justice to its size!

Second Stop: Microcenter and the Plaza de Mayo

The Microcenter is the center of the city where most of the big buildings and business men reside. This is also where there is the main city square, "The Plaza de Mayo", and many beautiful historic buildings. So basically it's like downtown Manhattan meets Washington DC.

The big pink building on the Plaza de Mayo is La Casa Rosado. Here lies the offices of the President of Argentina and you may also recognize it and its balcony from Evita!

Don't cry for me Argentina!

..... Even though I leave you tomorrow. As you can see I have gotten a little bit behind on my blogging, more than I had hoped, but hopefully in the next few days I shall catch you all up! Lo siento! Lo siento!

Tomorrow morning we are on our way to Chile!