Buenos Aires 5th - 13th May

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Buenos Aires was a city that we´d been looking forward to since we started planning this trip. The Porteños (as the locals like to call themselves) have the ultimate cosmopolitan lifestyle - up late (until 3am), tons of coffee and lots of eating out. What better place to spend Katie´s birthday?

We absolutely loved BA.
We´d sat on an overnight bus from Mendoza (which was of such amazingly high standard that the word "bus" doesn´t really do it justice - we were served both wine and champagne during the ride!), which left us pretty keen to get to our hostel. After narrowly avoiding what we thought was a dodgy cab, we jumped into a legit one and went to the hostel that we had booked - only to be told that we couldn´t check in until 2 pm (it being 11.30 at the time). ARGH! Seems like the Spanish exported the "mañana" attitude here as well.

By far the most interesting thing to do in BA is to walk around the city and enjoy the different neighbourhoods (or Barrios) and the cafe cultures; all radically different and with a flavour of their own. Our favourites were San Telmo (with rows of cobbled streets and amazing Parrilladas), La Boca (the most colourful docks you will ever see!) and Palermo (where all the late night bars and clubs are).

Colourful Bocca - home of tango and ...

... Bocca Juniors.
The Argentinians have taken barbeque to a completely new level with their parillada restaurants; huge grills covered in meat of every variety (even intestine) heated by open wood fires. After all that time loosing weight in Bolivia and Peru, we were definately feeling it come back on in BA what with steak and coffee for every meal! BA is a real vegetarian hell, since they not only exclusively eat meat but they just don´t understand the concept of vegetables...

All-you-can-eat steakhouse!
The other thing that the Porteños are renowned for (other than meat) is for being real night owls. Most restaurants don´t even open until 9.30PM, with people going out to eat at 11 or later! It puts New York to shame - this is the real city that never sleeps! Night clubs don´t even open until 2AM (usually closing at gone 8 in the morning)! We think people here just function on unholy amounts of coffee and the occassional siesta.

Most visited grave in Argentina - that of Eva Peron or 'Evita'.
What trip to Argentina wouldn´t be complete without a trip to go and see "El Futbol"? River Plate vs. Gimnasia was the match we went to go and see (with the old style of terraced stands - although we got seats), which ended with one sending off and a 4-2 win to River Plate. Eventful match - which is perfect for a tourist!

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