Buenos Aires
Argentina - the capital of steak and tango, done right.
Buenos Aires is an absolutely huge city, as well as the capital of Argentina. The province of Buenos Aires holds about 16.5 million people. It is a cosmopolitan city, and I could not discern where its city limits were due to its size. We stayed in the Palermo Soho region, which is known to be trendy and boutique. But there are multiple recommended neighborhoods for your stay, including Recoleta, Puerto Madero, Monserrat, and San Telmo.
Pictured above: Our super cozy AirBnb in Palermo Soho.
I flew into Ezezia Airport, which is about 31 km from Palermo Soho. Tips for getting into the city. There is a taxi counter inside the airport where you can buy a ticket to your hotel/airbnb. You just give them your destination address and pay first, and then head to the actual cab line outside and show them your ticket. Alternatively, you can call an uber. What I did was go to the cab counter to get a quote first on the cab fare, and then check the price with uber, which was quite a bit less. However, on the way back, I noted that the cab was cheaper than uber, so it's best to check and compare as it fluctuates.
Caminito, La Boca
The Caminito area in La Boca barrio is where you'll get to see the well known, brightly painted shacks, street artists, and street wares.
It's worth a stroll for the photos but it did feel like a tourist trap. Caminito was also a very small area which I estimate could be seen in an hour or less.
Also, the street vendors sold a lot of souvenirs but I did not find any of the items to be particularly eye catching or good quality. After a while, it all appeared to be the same wares being sold from stall to stall, booth to booth. The items looked to be poor quality, however I don't want to condescend the industry. It might be good if you were looking for a small and inexpensive token from your visit.
Finally, our cab driver mentioned that it was not a good idea to wander out of the Caminito area after dusk because the area was not safe in the evenings, due to it being one of the poorest neighborhoods of Buenos Aires' approximately 47 districts. Even in broad daylight, I kept to the main alleys of Caminito as I noticed that there was almost no one in the other streets.
San Telmo Sunday Market
On Sundays, you should make your way to The Feria de San Telmo, which is a major open air flea market that goes for blocks and blocks in each direction around the Plaza Dorrego. It generally runs from 10am - 4pm. If you wanted a souvenir of your trip, I highly recommend this over the souvenir stalls in Caminito. The fair is a bustling event in which you can expect heavy foot traffic against cobblestone streets in an architecturally beautiful and one of the oldest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. We stayed in Palermo Soho, which was about a 20 minute Uber or taxi ride from the fair.
El Zanjon
After the fair, stop by at El Zanjon de Granados, which is practically right next door. El Zanjon is the site of the first settlement in Buenos Aires, founded in the 1530s. They have managed to restore the building, including its labyrinth of underground tunnels and even old colonial houses beneath the ground level ruins. They offer 1 hour guided tours which you can purchase right at the entrance.
La Casa Rosada and Plaza de Mayo
Your trip to Buenos Aires is not complete without visiting Plaza de Mayo, pictured above, which sits between several notable landmarks, including La Casa Rosada, or the Pink House, the office of the President of Argentina. (We have the White House, they have the Pink House! Pink seems easier to clean.) There is also a museum inside the building, which display objects relating to former presidents of the country.
While in Plaza de Mayo, you might be approached by someone handing out maps. At first, I was wary, as I thought it was surely someone attempting to sell us the map or a tour, however, he made clear that he was only offering information. Surely enough, after handing us the map and providing helpful tips on what to check out, he left.
Metropolitan Cathedral
Another must see, and located right next to the Plaza de Mayo and Casa Rosada, is the Metropolitan Cathedral. The cathedral has been rebuilt numerous times, but the final rebuilding was done in 1791. It is well worth a look inside, as there are numerous side chapels, including a huge one on the right side which houses the mausoleum of of General Jose de San Martin, a war hero credited for liberating South America from the Spanish. Two live guards stand watch over the mausoleum, and if you are there at the right time, you can watch the changing of these guards.
Obelisco de Buenos Aires
The obelisk is a famous monument located in the epicenter of Buenos Aires, in the Plaza de la República, in the intersection of two of the most important streets of the city - avenues Corrientes (entertainment hub) and 9 de Julio (which is the widest avenue in the world, named after the independence day of Argentina, which occurred July 9, 1816). The obelisk was erected in 1936 to commemorate Buenos Aires' 400th anniversary.
El Ateneo Grand Splendid
While you are in the Recoleta neighborhood, make sure you drop by and visit the world's second most beautiful bookshop, housed in a palatial theater. The theater, built in 1919, and later a cinema, retains original ceiling frescos, ornate theater boxes, plush red stage curtains, rounded balconies, and gold and red trimming throughout. If this were at home, I'd come here every week to lose myself with a good book in one of the nooks, but I could not really immerse myself too heavily there because all the books were of course in the local language of Spanish, which I'm unable to understand.
La Recoleta Cemetery
La Recoleta cemetery is located in the Recoleta neighborhood, and has been hailed by BBC and CNN as one of the world's most beautiful cemeteries. The sprawling site houses the graves of many notable people, including Eva Perón (aka Evita), presidents of Argentina, Nobel Prize winners, and a granddaughter of Napoleon. Many people who visit make a beeline to the final resting places of these individuals. As there are almost 5000 vaults, you can also opt to take your time strolling from row to row, as the cemetery is laid out like city blocks.
We took our time walking through the various aisles, admiring the elaborate marble mausoleums and statues, decorated in a variety of styles, including art deco, art nouveau, baroque, and neo-gothic. We thought about the rich and famous who could afford to buy and build such vaults, as well as how much accumulated history was contained here, and left with a humbled feeling.
Steak, Steak and Steak (After this, you will want to stick to salads for a few weeks)
You came here for steak - or at least I hope that was one of the reasons. We stayed in Palermo Soho, just 2 blocks from an excellent steak house called Don Julio. People here seem to eat late, as we were waiting in a crowd to get seated at nearly 10:00 p.m. Not to worry, for Don Julio had servers outside, who served you wine and kept you happy while you waited. Further, it is legal to drink on the street so that was a nice surprise.
The food here was excellent, but the portion was so large I inexplicably lost my appetite at seeing the huge slab of meat and instead just had a salad. I know, my readers are shaking their head in shame and judgment, especially when you read that I asked for my steak to-go, and it was enough to last me , I kid you not, the next 3 meals.
We also visited another steakhouse near our AirBnb, called Calden del Soho, where I had a large cut of steak (honestly I cannot remember what kind of cut it was), salad, and an espresso for about $15 USD, which is just unheard of back home.
Tango Show
Your trip to Buenos Aires is not complete without seeing a tango show. Interestingly, tango began as a dance between men in the 1880s in the impoverished areas along the Argentinian/Uruguay border. It is supposedly a mix of various dances- waltz, polka, mazurka, habanera, candombe, and milonga.
There are plenty of huge tango palaces in Buenos Aires that will charge you $100-$200 for a show, which I felt was far too much and could only have catered to tourists. This did not appeal to me as this would have cost the same as a full day admission to two theme parks. So after doing some research, I found an intimate and authentic show located in the San Telmo neighborhood, called Taconeando, for less than $40 USD.
Taconeando offers a dinner plus show package, but we decided to do just the show, as reviewers stated the service could be slow, which we found to be the case when they took 30 minutes to bring out a cup of coffee. Regardless of which option you choose, make sure to call and make a reservation ahead of time as the place was sold out when we went. We sat right in front of the stage, but because the venue is so intimate, any seat is good.
This show felt very authentic. They interchanged between tango dancers and solo tango singers who performed traditional songs interpreting the feeling, the dance, and the charisma of the country.
We were surprised by the composition of the audience, as we thought it would be filled with nothing but tourists on a budget, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how many people were from Argentina. There were also many people from neighboring countries like Bolivia, Ecuador, and Brazil. We knew this because the host went around and asked every member of the audience where they came from. I would say 85% of the audience spoke Spanish, and the majority knew the local songs and could sing along with them. At the end of the show, they allowed the audience to get on the stage and practice their tango.
Floralis Generica
Located in Plaza de las Naciones Unidas, is a giant sculpture of a steel flower, placed above a reflecting pool. The interesting thing about this is that it moves very slowly, closing its petals in the evening at sunset, and re-opening them each morning at around 8 a.m. While we did not have the time to revisit the site to observe the changes in the petals, it would certainly have been interesting to see. Alternatively, it would be nice to just leave a camera there and create a time lapse video of the event.
