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Published: February 13th 2007
Buenos Aires is such a vast city that we decided to do it twice! (it was nothing to do with the cheap flights back to the UK), its an amazing city and I am sure in our time there we only touched the surface....
Buenos Aires - Take 1
We arrived at The Chill House hostel in Palermo at 7am in the morning, there were a lot of people up already and we thought 'Wow what a bunch of early risers' - it turned out that they had not gone to bed yet!
We took breakfast in a sweet oldy worldy cafe nearby to watch England beat whoever their were playing in one of their first World Cup matches - yippee!
Our first day was spent walking from Palermo, a stunning area very similar to Soho - thriving with Designer boutiques, yummy restaurants and fantastic interior shops, down town to Recoleta. We thought it was only a short distance but we actually ended up walking about 6 miles, still it was a good way to see the city. We visited the very grand Recoleta cementry where the infamous Eva Peron is buried alongside her family in a
San Telmo Street Band
Check out the moustachemausoleum. Very few people are buried in a grave here as most are housed in their coffins in these huges mausoleums - all very ostentious.
Our first evening was spent treating ourselves to a sumptious steak (the first of many) in a beautiful little restaurant 5 minutes walk from our hostel, it was superb and all thanks to Robin and Laura who had given us some money to splash out - shame I did not have room for desert. My steak was huge, Nick's steak was unfathomable!
On Sunday we visited the Tango district of Buenos Aires, namely San Telmo, where each sunday there is an open air market where you can chill and watch tango dancers perform. It is a lovely area and very typically argentinan; it was very happening, full of street artists (there was even a band with a full size piano playing on the streets, god knows how they got that there 😊) - it reminded us a little of Covent Garden. After spending a couple of hours mooching there we walked to Boca, an area famous for being the home of one of the best football teams 'La Bocas', Maradonna and also brightly
coloured houses - the reason for which is that in the old days they used to use the leftover paint from the shipping yard to brighten up their houses. It definitely worked!
Our first stay was pretty short but it was a bit wierd being in a big city after being in smaller towns for so long so on Monday we made our way to Puerto Madryn.
Skip about two and half months and then we arrived in Cordoba...
...our main reason for visiting this town was actually to visit the nearby town of Altagracia, the place where Che Guavara grew up before becoming a revoluntionary. We visited the Che museum that is actually his house so nestled in a neighbourhood street 15 minutes walk from town. It was a really good museum (and we do not normally like museums) as took you through his life and that of his family. We spotted a signature book in the hallway only to find that his old mate, Fidel Castro, and Fidel's new mate the Venezulan president had visited the museum just a week earlier - if only we had been there then!
The town of Altagracia is
Puerto Madero
Developing the old docks - nice quite small and quaint but did not entice us to stay longer than our day trip, it was a good day out though.
Buenos Aires - Take 2
We had a nightmare finding accommodation in Buenos Aires the second time around, everywhere seemed to be full so we ended up in Downtown Mate, in my opinion a wee bit of a dump especially as we were given a smelly damp room to stay in on our first night! Beggars can't be choosers as they say!
Apart from our day trip to Uruguay we visited the Eva Peron museum that was ok but nothing amazing. We also went down to the renovated dock area 'Puerto Madera' that was a nice area to have a stroll around but we did not spot the infamous cow statues that we went to see.
We also took a trip to the zoo that was teeming with children. It was quite a good zoo considering it was bang in the centre of Buenos Aires, they had lots of different animals on offer (surprisingly enough!). We also went to a fantastic Parilla (recommended by Graham and Lynny) called Desnivel that was buzzing and
also provided very cheap steak and chorizo - what a bonus!
One evening we spent at a fantastic 'Gypsy' spanish tapas restaurant right opposite our hostel where we were treated to one of the most amazing and passionate flamenco shows we have seen. It inspired me to take it up as a hobby, watch this space!
Our last couple of days were spent buying pressies at Recoleta market (which I loved), visiting the cinema, eating at a very touristy Parilla on the main shopping drag and an afternoon at a spa called 'Aqua Vita' (£25 for jacuzzi, full body massage and the best facial I have ever had)....I convinced Nick to come with me but it was very bizarre that we were allowed to share the same jacuzzi bath, luckily it was in a private room!
Before catching the most hair-raising taxi rides to the airport, we took a quick visit back to San Telmo and dined in a posh French restaurant which served some of the most fantastic food - shame we did not have time to relax and spend all afternoon there drinking lovely french wine!
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