Buenos Aires, Argentina: Vida, Cultura, y Tango!

(La Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo)

On Friday morning, we caught a (ritzy and thus ticket price explaining) bus/ferry combination over to Buenos Aires, Argentina via Colonia, Uruguay. After grabbing a taxi to our hostel from the boat station (and not being ripped off this time!) we quickly got right to the BA experience by consuming some very incredible empanadas at a hole in the wall bakery near our very cool hostel. We then got straight to the sightseeing. We went to Plaza de Mayo and saw La Casa Rosada (white house equivalent for Argentina) and then spent 5 hours(eek!) shopping along Florida street which is the cheapest, most famous boulevards for shopping in BA. After some leather boots, a scarf, and a sweater all of which cost under $50 combined, we called it a day and headed back to get ready for dinner. Everyone in BA dresses very well, so some actual getting ready was involved as opposed to when I usually say "get ready" meaning take a nap and then leave. We actually wore make up and such on this trip, imagine that! Then we ate the cheapest steak dinner ever and it was delcious; our wine was 75 cents a cup and good!

(Puerto Madero, part of our bike ride)

(Eva Perón's grave in Recoleta Cemetary)

(At a bar after dinner with Mari, a friend from High School)

Saturday, we rented bikes and rode ALL around the city for 6 hours seeing all sorts of things and eating all sorts of incredible food. It really was the PERFECT way to see a lot of the city in a quick, fun way. We went to tje ritzy port area called Puerto Madreo, the nature reserve, ate the biggest and best sandwich of my life from a sandwich cart of parrilla, rode down a huge street to the many markets we encountered and saw all sorts of things along the way. We went to the Recoleta Cemetary and saw Eva Perón's grave (pretty much the main attraction of this stunning cemetary) and a lot of other incredible graves. It was really interesting to see cultural differences even in this, as the incredibly wealthy families buried in this cemetary have crypts that they continually add family members to and here are often clear windows in to where you can see the caskets. We saw on crypt that had to have had over 30 caskets inside of it! We then road down the widest street in the world, 9 de Julio, and managed not to be killed by traffic in the meantime. For dinner, we went to a hughly recommended restaurant with one of my friends from high school and one of Gina's friends also, both of whom are currently studying abroad in BA. The food was absolutely incredible and afterwards we headed to a bar with Reese and Mari and had a few happy hour drinks before heading to Mari's friends apartment where we hung out with some of Mari's American, Argentinian, and Ecuadorian friends until almost 4AM, which is technically still early as far as South American standards go.


(La Boca)

(Tango Show at Café Tortoni)

Sunday, we wandered the San Telmo Fair (neighborhood our hostel was in) which is a huge artisan's market right outside our hostel every Sunday. Afterwards, we hailed a taxi to take us through the ghetto to La Boca, the most famous tango district full of street dancers and colorful buildings. It was a really cool part of town, but unfortunately the street performance presence was particularly low on this day. It was however, to see everyone decked out in Boca soccer gear for the game that was that night. Argentinians take their soccer VERY seriously! Then, we walked through a park and all around the city once again, ate ice cream in the park, took the subway back to Plaza de Mayo and chilled a bit before heading into the Cathedral (after using 3 maps to locate it) where mass was happening. Then, as the excitement just kept coming, we almost got robbed but our paranoid vigilance saved us and we hopped in a taxi for 3 blocks to get out of the situation. That evening, after getting dressed up in dresses and boots, we headed to a TANGO SHOW! at the oldest cafe in Argentina called Cafe Tortoni. It was one of the coolest things ever, complete with a live orchestra, 6 great dancers, once incredible singer, and great entertainment in a fairly small salon which made it even greater! While the tango show was incredible, the food and waiter service definitely left something to be desired but our purpose for going was the tango and that DEFINITELY came through!

On Monday morning, we caught the boat/bus back to Montevideo, wandered the streets of Montevideo and ate lunch one more time in the Mercado del Puerto, bought some Medio Medio, looked like crazy people with all our luggage, and then grabbed a (much cheaper) taxi to the airport and headed back to Santiago after and incredible and amazing trip around these cities.

Next time: OUTDOORS!