I quite like Buenos Aires as a city. Much more western than anything in I-have-the-population-of-your-entire-country-in-my-capital Mexico, but still with its own distinct personality and Latin America feel. We only spent a couple of days there (we will be spending one more night there, though more in transit than anything else), but it was enough to get a taste for the city.
We stayed the first night in a really swish hotel (courtesy of a friend of Andrew’s) complete with King Size bed, which sure as hell beat the lumpy doubles we’d been sleeping on for most of the time in Mexico.
Didn’t do much at all the first day thanks to an overnight flight that left us bleary-eyed and grump-tastic. The second day we explored the city on foot. The centre of the city an ocean of skyscrapers, flecked with the occasional older building. The further out you move, the modern buildings melt into the background and the old stone buildings come to the fore. As you increase your radius, the dilapidation increases and sidewalks disintegrate away, albeit not to the standard of Mexico.
One of the main streets in the city is Av. Lavalle, a shopping strip not dissimilar to Melbourne’s Bourke St. One thing I particularly like about Buenos Aires is the number of shops selling chocolate. I have also discovered that the city has a Mel obsession though. I saw a few shops (and took a couple of pictures) with ‘Mel’ and ‘Melanie’ in the title. It’s okay, I guess they’re only human too.
Anyway…we walked around the city, looked at the Obelisk near the centre of town, a couple of plazas and a couple of markets. The market at San Telmo was very funky, lots of stalls with an antique feel and hundreds of people milling around. You should be proud though, I bypassed all the jewellery, though I did end up buying a dress. It was needed though. I almost forgot – I have some horrible news. It is with deep sadness that I report the death of my green skirt. We shared some wonderful times that I will hold dear in my memory. Unfortunately however, Mexico was just too much for her. R.I.P. I also ended up buying some sunglasses, even though I SWORE I would never own sunnies that big. I blame Andrew, because he told me they looked good. I figured, hey, it’s my birthday, I’ll buy what I want to…with Andrew’s money. I love you baby!!
Anyway, so it was my birthday. Snuffy also bought a really sexy shirt and we went out for din-dins. I wore my new dress and we went out to one of the best steak-houses in Buenos Aires in an area called Recoleto. Now, Jenny kindly told me not to go out before 9 o’clock. Did I listen to her lovely advice? Not to a T. We arrived around 8:15 and NOTHING was open. Not till 8:30. We made a reservation and went for a cocktail. When we returned to the restaurant just before nine, we were told to wait half an hour because the restaurant was FULL! Only half an hour earlier it wasn’t even open. Sheesh! Thankfully the restaurant across the road was open and it was essentially the brother to the first restaurant (and it turns out the one we were recommended in the first place – brilliant!)
We had an AWESOME meal, steaks and bits and pieces of salad. Unfortunately they don’t sell cocktails so I had to order a vodka. When the waiter poured it, my jaw nearly hit the ground. It would have been about 5/6 to 7/8 vodka, with a mere dash of lemonade. BLEGH!!! But, I managed to drink it. Then, even more unfortunately, we ended the meal with a complimentary glass of champagne. That did it. I HAD to go back to the cocktail bar to wash the horrible, horrible taste out of my mouth.
Whilst we were there though, the most awesome thing happened. They played old, bad 90s music. I’m talking Toni Braxton, Boyz II Men, and even my perennial favourite, All-4-One’s ‘I swear’. So damn good.
Well, good enough to give me a damn good hangover the next day. What? I have to get up and board a freaking plane? Whose stupid idea was that??
Well, on the bright side, I only felt sick for most of the day. Okay, the real bright side is that the plane took me to Puerto Iguazu, the town closest to Iguazu Falls, the spectacular kick-the-pants-off-Niagra set of waterfalls on the border of Argentina, Brazil and essentially Paraguay. We arrived at a hostel which used to be a casino which is sometimes difficult to believe that it is a hostel. It has an awesome pool and a restaurant in addition to all of the things that a hostel comes with.
We had a bit of a nap and then trundled into the city, having a look around. It is a reasonably nice small town, in a similar vein to some of the small Mexican towns that I visited. We headed back to the hostel and had dinner at the restaurant. They also had a tango show on, which was, in a word, hot. We ate, watched and then had to go to bed because we had to get up at ridiculous o’clock to go to the Falls, which deserve a post of their own…
Buenos Aires photos
