It’s hard to believe we’ve already been in Buenos Aires for 3 days — they’ve flown by! I think the number one thing about Argentine culture that I love is how laid back and genuinely helpful everyone seems to be. I know we’re in a relatively safe and sheltered neighborhood, and that there are areas of the city that are very rough, but overall all of the people we’ve met have been invested and interested in helping us out, which I truly appreciate.
We’re staying in Palermo Soho, the southern section of the Palermo neighborhood, located west of the more central, downtown area. Our B&B is through a simple, almost hidden, wooden door on a smaller side street, and the interior has gorgeous exposed brick and spacious rooms. We’re in a triple (I’m sleeping on the top of a bunk bed — Tawonga throwback!) so that when Alison’s sister gets here on Monday we can all share a single room. There are only 4 or 5 other rooms in the B&B, which is owned and operated by two sisters, both of whom are so so sweet and incredibly helpful — they give us great advice and suggestions as to what to do, where to go and, most importantly, how to get there!
Day one — Thursday
On our first day, we walked north east to check out the botanical gardens and the zoo, since they were both close to where we are staying. We were a bit underwhelmed by both — the zoo is massive with a wide range of animals, but isn’t well kept like American zoos, and most of the animals looked sad and a bit out of place, which was strange. Throughout the zoo grounds, there were hundreds of guinea pig-like creatures that looked like a cross between a jack rabbit, rodent and overgrown squirrel. We could not figure out what they were to save our lives, despite asking one of the zoo workers who was far from helpful. After lots of googling, I discovered they are a breed of Patagonian Mara. Sort of creepy, mostly cute — Alison and I were just glad they didn’t attack us for food the way we thought they would!
Here are my pictures from the zoo & botanical gardens, though they’re not exactly my best.
We walked down to Plaza Italia and split a veggie calzone for late lunch, then window shopped as we wandered back to our B&B, perusing all sorts of local adorable Palermo shops.
After some relaxing, we made our way to La Fabrica del Taco, a Mexican taco restaurant. A bit more expensive than we were anticipating, but absolutely delicious nonetheless. Alison ordered a Michelada — beer mixed with salt, lemon juice and hot sauce — which was actually way better than it sounds. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
Day two — Friday
On Friday we braved the Buenos Aires bus system and took the 152 all the way down Santa Fe Ave. to San Martin Plaza, where we began a walking tour of downtown BA I’d found in my guidebook. We saw the plaza and walked down Florida St., a pedestrian avenue filled with leather and clothing shops, and then saw the Colon theatre (pictured below), one of the oldest theaters in BA, where you can still see orchestra, opera and ballet performances.
When it started to rain, we had a quick bite to eat at their cafe to avoid getting soggy, then wandered down to the judiciary building and out to Plaza de Mayo. Friday was a national holiday in Argentina, so much of the city was closed, but there was a huge celebration being set up in the Plaza, where the Casa Rosada (the BA version of the white house, painted pink) is. All along Ave de Mayo were street vendors selling empanadas, jewelry, Argentinian flags, and other knick knacks. We wandered along the fair and then up to Cafe Tortoni, one of the most famous BA cafes. We had heard great things about the cafe, but I think we ordered wrong — since we were craving salt instead of sweet we opted for a cheese platter, which was far from impressive. I did get to try Quilmes, the Argentinean equivalent of Bud Light, which is just as tasteless, and also unimpressive. We were pretty disappointed, but we stayed and relaxed for a bit before hopping on the metro back to our B&B.
Though our intentions were to get back to room and relax for a bit before meeting up with my friend Erica, who is in BA for a month doing research for her Northeastern honors thesis, we accidentally fell asleep for 3 hours. Being a tourist is tiring!
The other interesting thing about BA — which I can’t decide if I love or hate — is their timing for dinner. We met up with Erica for dinner at Bio, a vegetarian restaurant in our neighborhood, around 10 PM, and even then, we were early for a dinner seating! Everyone in BA starts their night at midnight, and parties through the entire night, until 8 or 9 AM. It’s certainly a whole other world, especially compared to the 1:45 AM last call in Boston.
After a leisurely and delicious dinner, we met up with Katie, a friend of Justin, a mutual friend that both Erica and I both know from Northeastern. The four of us drank two delicious bottles of Malbec at an outdoor table in Plaza Serrano and had a great time chatting and getting to know each other. By 2:30 AM we were exhausted and ready for bed, so we headed back to our B&B to crash.
Day three — Saturday
Because we had a late Friday night, we set a later alarm this morning and didn’t end up eating breakfast until after 11:30. We decided to try taking the bus again, but this time we almost got on the 110 in the wrong direction. Thankfully, the bus driver was smart enough to ask where we were trying to go, and when we explained he quickly told us we needed to get off and cross the street. Oops!
We took the bus down to the Recolata neighborhood, where we saw what we thought was a gorgeous old church. After wandering inside, we discovered it was actually an engineering school building and not a church at all. I didn’t get a picture, but this is what it looks like from the outside: a gorgeous old building!
We made our way to the Recolata cemetery, one of the more famous tourist sites in the city, where many famous and wealthy Argentinians are buried. The cemetery isn’t what I had pictured and is drastically different from American burial grounds — coffins are held in ornately decorated mausoleums above ground. There are no headstones and no grassy fields, instead there are thousands of mausoleums: row after row everywhere you look and turn, all lined up adjacent to one another with neat paths in between. Many have huge statues or bust sculptures in front of them, but others don’t have much upkeep, and their gates are rusted and covered in cobwebs. It was certainly an interesting visit, and though I appreciated the beautiful structures, because we wasn’t familiar with any of the individuals buried there, it was a bit strange for Alison and I to be wandering through a plot of mausoleums.
From there we spent a while checking out the neighboring church and wandering through the artisan market that had been set up outside. We walked past over a hundred stalls selling mostly hand-made jewelry, leather goods, children’s clothing… really anything you can imagine, including a plethora of empanada stands. I bought a beautiful pair of earrings made with inca rose stone, and Alison and I each bought beautiful silver link bracelets.
Erica came and met us in the area and we wandered a bit through the neighborhood before settling on a cafe that served sandwiches and delicious looking helado (ice cream). We sat and ate and relaxed for almost two hours before we decided we were exhausted and ready to head back to the B&B to nap. Siestas are addicting! We’re still deciding what the plan for tonight should be — we may do another late dinner and wine like last night before we crawl into bed, or head to a tango club Alison’s friend suggested. Or, maybe we’ll experience the Argentine party life and stay out until all hours of the morning — TBD. I’ll keep you posted!