C & C globetrotting around the world…

We arrived in safe and sound Buenos Aires in the morning after a long bus ride. From the traffic you right away get a feel of the second-largest city in South America (after Sao Paulo). We heard a lot about Argentina’s capital and Christoph had been here about 10 years ago, so we were very excited to be here. This city with 13 million inhabitants has lots to offer and we stayed a week. It has history, culture, arts, beautiful architecture and a certain vibe to it. To top it all off, we were visiting friends we made in Vietnam on the Cuchi Tunnel tour: Sabrina and Gaston.

For the first 2 nights we stayed in a hostel in San Telmo and were happy to be able to check in right away. After all that sitting on the bus, we walked around the neighbourhood admiring the nice architecture. We had lunch on a terrace and took in the atmosphere of San Telmo, a famous neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. It’s full of cobbled streets and aging mansions. Historically its low rents have attracted artists, but now there are lots of boutiques and restaurants. The neighbourhood was a fashionable place until 1870 when a series of epidemics drove the rich elite northwards. Subsequently many mansions and houses were subdivided and turned into immigrant shelters. Our hotel was one of these beautiful mansions. San Telmo is also home to Tango, so there are many restaurants offering tango shows. Unfortunately it’s too expensive for us on this trip to attend one. While walking around in San Telmo, we saw lots of small shops making and selling fresh pasta. The big Italian influence is visible by the many pasta and pizza shops, but also in the fact that people speak Spanish with an Italian accent and use Italian expressions. It’s really funny actually. For dinner we went to “Don Ernesto”, a well-rated steakhouse in San Telmo. We celebrated our 4-year wedding anniversary there with steak (duh!) and wine. It was all very good and we even got some Limoncello on the house. Not a bad start to Buenos Aires, eh?

The next day we set out to visit the city and walked towards the Plaza de Mayo. We passed by the “Manzana de las Luces” (Block of Enlightenment), a solid square of 18^th century buildings including Iglesia San Ignacio (BA’s oldest church) and Colegio Nacional, an elite secondary school. Underneath this block are old defensive tunnels built by the Jesuits in the 18^th century. Arrived in Plaza de Mayo, we did a tour of the plaza. It is the city’s oldest square and its current name commemorates the May Revolution of 1810. Around the plaza are located several city landmarks. We took a look at Casa Rosada (actually pink), the presidential palace. We wanted to visit it, but it’s only open to the public during the week-end. We passed the Banco Nacional before arriving at the Cathedral, where we saw the changing of the guards for liberator San Martin’s tomb. The Cabildo, seat of the government during colonial times, is also on the square in a nice building. From there we walked around on Florida Avenue, a pedestrian street alive with shops and vendors. We walked until the fancy Galerias Pacifico shopping mall which has painted ceilings and chic boutiques. The food court there was very expensive; actually the same price as a lunch menu in a regular restaurant in San Telmo. McDonald’s menus were also the same price with a Coke: 44ARS ($11-12). Why would anyone buy one instead of getting a real lunch with a glass of wine?! Later we met up with Salim, a friend from the Uyuni tour in Bolivia, and took the metro to the Palermo neighbourhood together. The metro is pretty old and very crammed, but they have cool mosaics and it was a fun experience. In Palermo Viejo we walked around the tree-lined streets and sat down on a terrace. On the way back to the metro, we passed many trendy boutiques and chic restaurants. The area is also known for its nightlife, but we didn’t stay.

On Saturday we got picked up by Sabrina and Gaston in our hostel. It was nice to see them after having met them in Vietnam almost a year ago. We drove to Puerto Madeiro, the city’s newest neighbourhood, is an area of renovated docklands lined with pedestrian walkways, restaurants and bars. Since it was Saturday midday, there were hardly any people out yet (everything happens much later in Argentina), but the area is nice and it felt good to walk around and enjoy the crisp but sunny weather. Afterward a quick bite (“bondiola” sandwich), we went to Reserva Ecologica made on reclaimed land. Here we walked around on the dirt paths and enjoyed the nature around us. In the afternoon Sabrina gave us a car tour of Recoleta and San Isidro in their new car. On the way we stopped at a spot by the Rio de la Plata where you can see Buenos Aires from the water. The river is so large, it appears to be a huge lake. These fancy neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires have beautiful mansions and romantic tree-lined streets. We also drove by the President’s House, but you can’t see it due to high walls. In San Isidro we walked around a little bit through a market fair and visited the Cathedral. For dinner we all went to an all-you-can-eat meat restaurant (“tenedor libre” – free fork) called “Lo de Charly” (Charly’s Place). Sabrina and Gaston had suggested going there because this way we can try the zillion different Argentinian beef cuts on the grill and see which ones we prefer. That was a great idea and they could explain to us each one too! We tried everything: morcilla (blood sausage), chorizo (sausage), rinon (kidney) and chinchulin (intestine). We tried these, but what we were really there for was the different cuts of meat. We had vacio (very good), bife de chorizo (excellent), entrana (also very good), tira de asado (ribs), matambre and matambre a la pizza (they love meat so much, they even use it instead of pizza crust!). It was fun and interesting to try all these different cuts adn you can even chose how well each piece should be grilled. Amazing restaurant! We had some wine and stayed for a long time, longer than anyone else around us.

We were happy that Sabrina and Gaston were free this week-end and we could do things together. On Sunday we drove to Tigre, a favourite week-end destination for Portenos (people from Buenos Aires). There we walked around a bit and took a guided boat ride in the Delta del Parana. This is the only delta in the world that ends in a river (instead of the sea). It was really interesting to see and we admired the cute little houses. We stopped for a quick visit to the house of former Argentinian president Sarmiento (who reformed education) before resuming the tour. From there we drove to San Telmo to walk around a pedestrian street-market area (only on Sundays) until Plaza Dorrego. This is the second-oldest square in town and is surrounded by cute little restaurants and cafes. For dinner Sabrina and Gaston had invited some friends over, so we went to Chinatown to buy some specific groceries. We had all been to Thailand and loved the food there, so we cooked some Thai green curry. It wasn’t as good as in Thailand (lack of ingredients), but still nice to have. Cecilia told them about “mango sticky rice” and was surprised that the others hadn’t even heard of this dessert. Our trip to Thailand wouldn’t have been the same without this delicacy…

Sabrina and Gaston worked during the week, obviously, so we kept busy visiting various attractions. One day we stayed home to work on the Blog, sort pictures and plan the next few weeks of the trip, something that is necessary every now and then. We spent the evenings with Sabrina and Gaston and it was always a lot of fun. One day we went down-town early to explore the city more. We took Avenida Florida until the Plaza de Mayo where we bought our tickets for the double-decker TouristBus for 2pm. We continued walking to San Telmo. We walked around looking for a lunch restaurant, but then decided to go back to Don Ernesto where we had been for our wedding anniversary the previous Thursday. Cecilia ordered a menu of the day and Christoph a piece of “bife de chorizo” (our favourite cut). It was a huge piece and very good. We passed the Danish church before hopping on the TouristBus – finally. The bus was heading to La Boca, a working-class district situated along the old port and at the “boca” (mouth) of the Rio Riachuelo. It was built by Italian immigrants from Genoa and is also home to the Boca Juniors soccer team and Maradona. We got off the bus at the stadium, but it was too expensive to visit, so we just took some pictures. Unfortunately there is no game on during our time in BA, otherwise Christoph would have loved to go. La Boca’s main attraction is “El Caminito”, a short pedestrian walk lined with corrugated-metal buildings painted various bright colours. Since this was a poor neighbourhood, people would paint their houses with left-over paint from the shipyards. This resulted in houses being painted in many different colours, depending on the quantities left over. Today, it is very nice to see and adds life to the place. There are also many local painters who sell their art here (some of it very beautiful) and people dressed in tango clothes offering to take pictures with you. We sat down in a restaurant to have a coffee and watch a dance performance. There were 2 couples dancing tango and then we also got to see a traditional dance of a “gaucho” with a “china”. It was lots of fun to watch them and we even took some pictures with them, for free.

We hopped back on the TouristBus and drove through the Baracas and Puerto Madeiro neighbourhoods before getting off at Plaza San Martin and taking pictures with the clock tower. We walked around passing Teatro Cervantes and Teatro Colon. We would have liked to visit the latter, but again it was too expensive. Avenida 9 de Julio is one of the broadest streets in the world with its 16 lanes (8 in each direction). In the middle is the Obelisco commemorating 4 important moments in Argentina’s history. On the way back to the train terminal we walked on Avenida Corrientes, a busy street, and then Reconquista Ave, which has recently been turned into a pedestrian area. Around this time people were coming from work and we saw many cafes packed with people. It seems they go for a bite after work before going home. Then they have dinner at 10pm or so. Portenos live on a different rhythm where everything happens later. On week-end, people don’t go to the disco until 2am or so, which is quite funny for us since discos close at 3am in Montreal. We took the train from Retiro home where we met up with Sabrina and Gaston again. Together we went to buy some artesanal pasta: 4 kinds of raviolis filled with different things and “caseira” sauce. It’s nice that there are so many of these shops around selling fresh pasta. The taste is sooo much better. While we were waiting for the pasta to cook, Sabrina and Gaston were telling us about making raviolis and gnocchis at home and showed us the tools used. It sounds easy and fun. Maybe we’ll start doing that since you can really taste the difference. We also talked about other Argentinian and Hungarian food, which was lots of fun. Dinner was delicious and we had a Rose wine from Bodega Nanni in Cafayate to go with it. Overall a wonderful day.

On the last day in Buenos Aires we took the train down-town with Sabrina. We bought some pastries and coffee before hopping on the Tourist Bus again in Plaza San Martin. We drove to Recoleta, the fancy neighbourhood, passing the Faculty of Law and the “Flower”. At some point we got off the bus and admired the huge ombu tree on Plaza Intendente Alvear. Then we visited the 1732 Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Pilar before entering Cemeterio de la Recoleta. In this classy necropolis surrounded by high walls rests Argentina’s elite. We wondered through the alleys admiring the detailed marble facades and grand statues. We saw the grave of former president Sarmiento, but the most people were at Evita’s grave. We hopped back on the Tourist Bus until the end of Avenida de Mayo where we saw the green-domed Palacio del Congreso, modeled after the Capitol in Washington DC. It was finished in 1906 and faces the plaza. For lunch we went to “La Americana”, a place known to have the best empanadas in town. We had some empanadas (they have a big variety) and also a slice of fugazetta and everything was really delicious indeed. We wanted to visit Palacio Barolo built in 1919 and considered the first highrise of Buenos Aires (at 100m). It pays homage to Dante’s “Divine Comedy” featuring references and analogies to his epic poem. Since it’s an office building, there are no tours until 5pm unfortunately and we didn’t want to wait around for 3 hours. In the evening we made “sarmalute in foi de vita” (wine leaf rolls) with Sabrina and Gaston. We had fun making them and the result was pretty good too. It was our last evening together and we had fun chatting. We were so happy to see them again and hope to see each other again soon. Thank you so much Sabrina and Gaston! We had a great time in your lovely city.

Buenos Aires is big, but it’s not oppressing. There is so much to do, hence the lengthy post (sorry!).  It reminded us of Paris with its beautiful architecture, elegance and culture. If we were to move to one of the cities visited on this world trip, Buenos Aires would be one of them. Beautiful city, pleasant climate, good food and nice people… what more can you ask for?