The city that NEVER sleeps

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After the boozy and foody heights of Mendoza, we trooped east to the Big One, the one that we had heard from almost everyone was amazing, and the one we were looking forward to the most...... Buenos Aires.

We arrived again expecting much, and we got plenty. After spending lots of time in Peru and Bolivia, the relative luxuries of Argentina had been warmly welcomed, but we weren´t ready for the complete European styles that B.A had. With more shopping options than London and much better nightlife too, it´s hard to place B.A in the catagory of South American Capital City. With a huge Italian influence it feels very different even from the rest of the country.

We decided that the best option was to hire an apartment for the week, which then quickly turned into 10 days, and had it not been for other plans to go to Barcelona we may never have left. Yes a big city, but easy to navigate, plenty to keep you occupied and if you want to Tango, there is no better place to be. We were fortunate to have rented our apartment in the lovely and bohemien San Telmo district, which happened to be the focal point for a Sunday market each week, where you could buy almost anything from antique bits and bobs, posters, clothes, collectable coins, shoes, the usual selection of hand made handicrafts, and as we found out the biggest empañadas is the whole world.

If this wasn´t enough to pry the pesos from your leather wallets, there was enough shopping in the centre, or many malls to keep even the most hardened clothes fiend satisfied, and we hadn´t even gone out to dinner yet!!!! The wine (of course) was cheap and fantastic and the restaurants were extremely reasonable, especially as it is a capital city. The nightlife was excellent too although it doesn´t really get started until around 2 am so we had to practice pacing ourselves with the early evening drinking, and learn that bed time is somewhere around 8 am the next morning.

We spent a day in La Boca, home to the famous Boca Juniors, and of many a colourfully painted house which gives the area a lovely feel and the sheer array of football merchandise (albeit Maradonna based) was incredible.

There is not much more to be said about Buenos Aires apart from go there, its amazing. The people were extremely friendly and there was minimal talk of la mano de Dios, although obviously it came up once people knew of our Englishness, and we had no problems with any talk of wars or islands and who they were technically owned by. This is a place that cannot be recommended enough, with diversity and something for everybody.

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