Buenos Aires - steak, wine and ice cream!

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I arrived in Buenos Aires late on Weds evening and had a full day on my own there before Lara arrived on the Thursday. I checked into the hostel and then went to meet up with Nick, a former CVA colleague who now lives there. He took me to the first of many amazing steak restaurants in the Palermo area of Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires has a very Italian feel as many of the inhabitants are originally from Italy. The great thing about this is that they also have amazing Italian ice-cream so between cheap steak, delicious red wine and Italian ice cream I was already in food heaven!

On the first day I wondered around the city - saw the government house known as the casa rosada which was used in the Madonna film of Evita. By chance I also happened to be in the main square the Plaza de Mayo on Thursday at 3:30pm when, every week, women march around the square to remember the Dirty War. Many people lost family members and friends during the late 70s and 80s during the war and have had no explanation about where they went or how they died.

Lara arrived that evening and we again met up with Nick for some amazing steak. I'm sure this much red meat can't be good for me but it just tastes SO good. We spent some time organising what our plans were for the next few days and then walked around the various districts of the city seeing the Cimiterio de Recoleta, various ferias (markets) and the main parks and gardens. The cemetry was crazy - almost a city itself with massive family vaults and plenty of crowds outside the Evita Peron one!

On the Sunday we went to a local derby match - River Plate (not very Argentinian-sounding I know!) and sat through a surprisingly low quality match which ended 0-0!! Lara seems to have a jinx against football matches as she has now been to two in her life and both ended goalless.

Buenos Aires is really similar to Paris in a lot of ways. It has a very European feel (aided by the ice cream!). I really enjoyed it and it had a very laid back relaxed atmosphere whilst still being very cosmopolitan and city-like! The people, like Parisians, are very smart and elegant but nicer than Parisians I think (Sorry to any Frenchies reading this!) so all in all a very nice city. Will miss the dulce de leche ice cream as I have had some every day for 5 days...hmmm Fruit juice is apparently good in Brazil so will be a welcome change!!

We have decided to 'rough it' by opting for a Brazilian company rather than an Argentinian one to take us up to our next stop, Iguazu Falls. The Argentinian ones are known for fully reclining seats, steak and champagne seat service and are frequented by lots of backpackers. Instead we've gone for one which will cost us around 60 pounds for the full 44 hrs over to Rio de Janeiro with a stop for a few days in Iguazu. Great value but we'll see what the bus is actually like!!

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Photos

Tango show at Casa Tortoni
our kind waiters gave us these lovely roses

Tango Show
This lovely young lady wore such short skirts that we got a bit too good of a view at times. A few outfit changes later, we were even treated to a see-through red number complete with visible nipples and belly buttons. Nice...

Casa Tortoni
A Buenos Aires institution!

OH MY GOD
The best steak I had in Argentina. Not only did they bring along 20 side orders, fries and bread but this and 2 bottles of wine between 3 set us back around 7 pounds each. Oh and Lara got a free pudding as we used this day as her replacement birthday!

Yes that is a bulb of garlic
that was served with bread and was very yummy

The cemetry
Never seen anything like it!