Day 5, Part 2: Buenos Aires, Caminito

After spending many hours in the San Telmo Fair, we took a cab towards La Boca. This colorful neighborhood is one of the main tourist attractions in Buenos Aires. It used to be an Italian immigrant's neighborhood. Now it is a street with shops, restaurants, and tango dancers. We couldn't resist and paid around $3 dollars to take our picture behind one of the window frames on the street. I tried to get Andre to "dance" with one of the tango dancers to take a picture of them making a complicated pose. Sadly, he didn't want to do it. I think that it was also $3 for a few seconds of the pose.

After a long bus ride back to my friend's house, Andre told me that I needed to get ready because he had a surprise planned that night. He contacted one of my friends weeks before our trip asking her to recommend a nice restaurant to take me. She made reservations for us at a place in Palermo Soho called Cabernet. The restaurant was great! We had dinner at 8:00 PM and the restaurant was completely empty. Argentineans like to eat very late starting at around 10:00 PM. The food was delicious, we both ordered pasta since I was completely impressed by the last pasta that I ordered a few days before at a different restaurant. This time it was even better. All of the food that we had in Argentina was really good. After dinner we walked many blocks looking for an ATM machine to pay for the taxi to take us back home. We finally found one after asking several times for directions.

Day 5, Part 1: Buenos Aires, San Telmo

This was probably my favorite day in Buenos Aires. It was a Sunday and the plan was to go to San Telmo because of the famous street fair. One of my friends hosting us was our tour guide this day. 

Buildings in Belgrano

Morning coffee close to where we stayed

I wanted to try this but it was too early in the morning

We took the subte towards Plaza de Mayo. The fair was at least 10 blocks long. It was amazing! We had plans to eat a Desnivel, a famous restaurant that many people recommended including my cousin who lived in BsAs and Andi’s argentinian husband. We got too distracted by the fair and suddenly we were hungry and completely forgot about Desnivel. We had lunch somewhere down the main street and it was great. I don’t think that I ate a bad lomito (sirloin steak) in Argentina.

Cabildo

We got many things at the fair, but the best purchase was a cone filled with dulce de leche. We bought a big container of that of dulce de leche to bring back home.

Best Dulce de Leche: Forcinitti

Mafalda has been my favorite character since I can remember. My dad had the collection of her comics. I tried to read them even before I knew how to read. Mafalda was big on social issues and I didn’t understand most of the jokes. However, we had something in common: we both hated soup!! Mafalda is Argentinian and there is a bench with a statue of her in San Telmo. Her apartment is also in San Telmo. This was probably the picture that I was most excited to take during the trip. By the way, my only big purchase in Buenos Aires was a copy of Mafalda’s VERY HEAVY collectors book.

Mafalda

Mafalda's Building

We found a tango band that was playing close to Plaza Dorrego. My friend had plans to take us to a show the following day where that same band plays on Monday night. My parents would be in heaven since they do love tango. They can’t dance, but they love Carlos Gardel. 

Orquesta Afronte

This was the day where  I finally felt that I was in Buenos Aires. Probably because I slept so many hours on the airplane that I couldn't grasp how long we had traveled. The fact that we were with 2 of my Colombian best friends made it even more difficult. I might be crazy, but I felt the same way in London. I didn't feel that I was in Europe until I was in France and heard people talking in another language. In Buenos Aires, it was the music and the tango dancers that made me feel in Argentina. 

Day 4: Buenos Aires, Palermo & Recoleta

The plan for the day was to go to the Recoleta and Palermo areas. We had my good friend Andrea as our tour guide this day as well. The first stop was the flower in the Plaza de las Nationes Unidas (UN Plaza). Our guide said that sculpture used to open up to the sun every morning and close down at night. It only stayed open on special nights, but apparently the mechanism is down and it is permanently open. 

 

We walked about 1 mile towards the famous Recoleta Cemetery. Normally I don't visit cemeteries as a tourist attraction, but this one is special. I heard about it before because Evita's grave is here. An urban cemetery is different to what I've seen before. The entrance to the cemetery is free.

 

Entrance to La Recoleta

 

Evita's Grave

Recoleta Cementery

 

Since it was Saturday there was a flea market on the streets. I got a few things to bring back including alfajores. Alfajor is a sugar cookie sandwich filled with dulce de leche. My favorite is just the basic cookie, but the most popular is covered in chocolate. We took a break at Plaza Francia and continued walking towards El Ateneo, a bookstore located on Santa Fe Street. We walked at least another mile, but we were distracted by the beauty of the Recoleta neighborhood and the shops on Santa Fe Street. The building used to be a theater, and it is the most beautiful bookstore that I've ever seen. We had a coffee break just to sit down where the stage used to be. I tried taking a picture inside, but I still don't know the settings to take a good indoor picture.

El Ateneo. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

After El Ateneo we were meeting our other friend for dinner. We were meeting at Plaza Serrano located in the Palermo Soho neighborhood. We took a taxi this time, we were exhausted from the previous day. The plaza is surrounded by restaurants and bars. If I go back to Buenos Aires I want to stay in Palermo Soho. There were so many trendy stores to see!!! I decided to stay on my budget and shop at the crafts fair. I bought MANY things including enough rings and earrings for me and my sisters. We walked looking for a place to have dinner distracted by the stores. We ended up walking over 10 blocks without even noticing. We had dinner at Forneria. I had the best pasta that I've had in my life!! Even better than in Italy! It was that good!!!! I had the "Penne rigatte con ave ahumada, espinacas, tomates asados al horno y crema" = penne with chicken, spinach, tomatoes and cream sauce.  The following day we had plans for another intense tourist day so we decided to go home. That pasta was the end of another perfect day in Buenos Aires.

 

Day 3, Part 2: Buenos Aires

After a long morning walking around Buenos Aires most famous sites, we were exhausted and ready for a long break. Our feet were hurting, but we were so close to the obelisk that we kept walking.  We walked across the famous 9 de Julio Avenue and took many pictures of the obelisk. This 16 lane avenue is supposed to be the widest avenue in the world. Since I am a transportation engineer, I was more than excited to walk across this beautiful street. 

 

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

We couldn't walk anymore so we had lunch at the first place that we saw after crossing the avenue. We ate at the restaurant of the Hotel Republica. Service in Argentina is not the best (Just like in many places in South America!), but it was perfect to allow us to rest for a while. After a 2 hour break we were ready to keep walking. We walked towards Teatro Colon. We decided not to do the tour inside (approximately $30 dollars) and kept walking towards Avenida Corrientes. We got tired again and found the perfect place for another break and have some Freddo's ice cream.

 

Teatro Colon

We had plans to go out that night but we were exhausted. We stayed in, ate dinner, and went to bed early. I have to admit that at first, I was not impressed with Buenos Aires because it was dirty and it looked like nobody cared to keep it beautiful. There is trash and dog’s poop everywhere. I was expecting the Paris of South America. I guess it is the Paris of South America because many buildings look Parisian but it truly reminded me of Rome. Buenos Aires is definitely a City of contrasts and there is something for everyone. After a few hours, I accepted it with its flaws and started appreciating the beauty of it. I was very careful not to step on poop, but it eventually happened. After our first full day in Buenos Aires I was  really loving it. I still think that if the citizens tried to keep it cleaner it would be 10 times more beautiful.