In just a few days Buenos Aires has become my second favourite city in the world (I am not yet tired of life and so London retains the top spot).
I have to say that I love everything about BA, it's a really atmospheric city one that I am enjoying just 'being' in if that makes any sense. It is of course a city and so there have been no 'Fitzroy' moments here but there is something about it, particularly in and around the area in which we stayed. As with all cities the closer you get to the centre the more cars and people there are but the whole of Palermo, not just Soho has interesting cobbled side streets, beautiful old buildings and some amazing graffiti which I think, as I did with Valparaiso completely adds to its charm.
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| Wonderful street art is everywhere |
Our apartment in Palermo Soho was the perfect base for us, we were surrounded by the coolest cafes, bars, restaurants and boutique clothes stores; it's possible to keep yourself fully occupied without even leaving the district to see some of the sights of BA, however we did.....
El Ateneo is a chain of bookstores; some of you will know that I absolutuley love killing time in a bookshop (can't recommend Daunts on Marylebone High Street highly enough) which is increasingly difficult to do in England since the clever people at Amazon made book buying so easy online, however bookshops seem to be something of a phenomenon in BA. El Ateneo Grand Splendid on Santa Fe is definitely worth a visit as it's in an old and beautiful building that used to be a theatre. The majority of the books are as you might expect in Spanish so we popped in to have a quick look around the building but only minimal book browsing was done.
Having visited Recoleta cemetery we then visited the Evita museum to find out a little more about her, the museum is small and in the main is a display of her dresses and shoes with some video footage of her speaking and of her funeral. Portenos (the term used to refer to people from BA) seem to be split on the topic of Evita as to whether was she a force for good or not.... The information available in the museum didn't really help me to form a strong view though from what I saw I would suggest that she was incredibly self indulgent. Something that I hadn't realised was that she died so young, she was only 33.
We visited San Telmo on what felt like the hottest day ever, we visited La Casa Rosada (The Pink Palace) famous for being the platform from which Evita addressed Argentina and then we sat in a lovely plaza watching a couple dancing the Argentinian Tango, the music and the dancing evokes thoughts of days gone by, made all the more so as the music was being played on an old 8-track.....
We also went to Tigre; we took the Tren de la Costa which, following an attempted scam by the lady selling tickets (accused us of taking our $AR100 bill back - which of course we hadn't), took us past some beautiful properties where I imagine the super rich live, dropped us in Tigre which was incredibly busy as it's peak season in Argentina. There wasn't all that much to see in Tigre but it's the place to take a boat down the river to Tres Bocas which we did. As with almost every day we've had so far the weather was perfect and whilst all of the waterways in the delta were busy with tourists boats and locals alike, it was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. We had an asado for lunch a very traditional meal of several different meats (different cuts of steak, chicken, chorizo and black pudding) served on a mini hot plate at your table.
We definitely ate well in BA, my favourite meals were at Osaka a Japanese/Peruvian fusion restaurant (not as unusual a combination as you might imagine) and I Latina which is a 'closed door' restaurant, a model which is increasingly popular in BA - I misunderstood the description thinking that it was the same as a pop up restaurant but it isn't. A closed door restaurant offers a set menu anything from 5 to 10 courses and it's necessary to book in advance as they don't accept passing customers. I Latina is run by two brothers from Colombia one cooks and one is front of house, in just a year they have made it to number one on TripAdvisor and having now tasted the food I'm not at all surprised, it was delicious.
It was so nice having a base for more than just a couple of days and I can't describe the pleasure that can be derived from being able to completely unpack a rucksack and to put clothes in to a wardrobe, a small and simple pleasure.
So, as I said no 'Fitzroy' moments but a definite moment or two of wondering if I could (with ever so slightly improved Spanish!) live in this city and after nine days I have to say that yes, BA is definitely my kind of city.
Raine x
El Ateneo is a chain of bookstores; some of you will know that I absolutuley love killing time in a bookshop (can't recommend Daunts on Marylebone High Street highly enough) which is increasingly difficult to do in England since the clever people at Amazon made book buying so easy online, however bookshops seem to be something of a phenomenon in BA. El Ateneo Grand Splendid on Santa Fe is definitely worth a visit as it's in an old and beautiful building that used to be a theatre. The majority of the books are as you might expect in Spanish so we popped in to have a quick look around the building but only minimal book browsing was done.
Having visited Recoleta cemetery we then visited the Evita museum to find out a little more about her, the museum is small and in the main is a display of her dresses and shoes with some video footage of her speaking and of her funeral. Portenos (the term used to refer to people from BA) seem to be split on the topic of Evita as to whether was she a force for good or not.... The information available in the museum didn't really help me to form a strong view though from what I saw I would suggest that she was incredibly self indulgent. Something that I hadn't realised was that she died so young, she was only 33.
We visited San Telmo on what felt like the hottest day ever, we visited La Casa Rosada (The Pink Palace) famous for being the platform from which Evita addressed Argentina and then we sat in a lovely plaza watching a couple dancing the Argentinian Tango, the music and the dancing evokes thoughts of days gone by, made all the more so as the music was being played on an old 8-track.....
The 'Pink Palace'
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| A very provocative dance |
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| En route to Tres Bocas |
It was so nice having a base for more than just a couple of days and I can't describe the pleasure that can be derived from being able to completely unpack a rucksack and to put clothes in to a wardrobe, a small and simple pleasure.
So, as I said no 'Fitzroy' moments but a definite moment or two of wondering if I could (with ever so slightly improved Spanish!) live in this city and after nine days I have to say that yes, BA is definitely my kind of city.
Raine x
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