Buenos Aires (Part 1)

We said farewell to the wonderful Iguazu falls and caught a bus straight to Buenos Aires, not knowing what to expect from a city we´ve heard so much about. Unfortunately the sight seeing had to be delayed as I got sick on our last day in Iguazu (the shower under the falls might have had something to do with it!) We therefore "upgraded" to a hotel in central Buenos Aires near the Argentine Congresso National. After a full recover we moved over to a Hostel in the neighborhood of San Telmo.

San Telmo is characterized for being the oldest neighborhood of Buenos Aires and the birthplace of the tango. We often walked around the cobblestone streets to admire its bohemian charm through the colonial buildings, churches, cafes, tango parlors, bookstores and antique shops. We had the fortunate oppurtinity to watch a tango show on the main square while enjoying a couple of beers in the Buenos Aires sunshine. We also really enjoyed the Sunday market where artisans, musicians, performers and antique vendors share their talents and goods on the streets. From gramaphones players to antique passport holders, soda siphons to silverware from the early 1900´s, we were thoroughly pleased with the treasures San Telmo had to offer!

We also spent a lot of time in the barrio of Recoleta. We got lost in the cemetario de la Recoleta, the resting place of Argentina´s past presidents, national heroes, and famous personalities (one of the most famous being Eva Peron, a.k.a Evita). Later we visited Argentina´s largest art Museum, Museo Nationale de Bellas Artes. The museum offered a impressive collection of Pre-Columbian to 20th Century Argentine Art as well as an international exhibition of collections from Middle Age to 20th Century. Afterwards we walked passed the famous Flor de Metal statue (which open and closes with the sun via hydrolic machinery) unroute to the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA). We were most impressed by Carlos Cruz-Diez: Colour in Space and Time exhibition which included the Venezulan´s silk screen prints and room sized light instalations of his experimental works with colour and movement. With our feet sore from walking through Roceleta and the Palermo neighborhood, we ended our day with a short rest at the Jardin Japones.

As we reached our first week in Argentina, we thought we´d take a break from home-made pasta to try out more traditional cuisine...meaning STEAK STEAK STEAK! We quickly made a reservation for a table at a steakhouse along the Puerto Madero waterfront. We took a few minutes to compose ourselves after eating the best steak we´ve ever had, and walked along the waterfront past the beautifully lit Puente de la Mujer (Woman´s Bridge) and managed to get all the way back to our hostel in San Telmo by foot.

On one of our last days we went to visit La Boca, a neighborhood made famous by its Artists, Tango, Boca Juniours Football team, and iconic mutli-coloured houses. Unfortunately the neighborhood is notoriously unsafe for tourist (we were warned not to stray off the touristy route), so just walked around the famous Caminito street. Though very touristy, we really enjoyed the colours of Caminito (attributed to one of Argentina´s most famous artist Benito Quinquela Martine, born in La Boca). We later settled down for a couple of beer at a tango parlor to watch another brilliant live show.
There was so much of Buenos Aires that we enjoyed, and spent many moments imagining living there owning a bookstore while renting a colonial apparment in San Telmo... one can dream hey? We were not too sad to leave as we knew that we would be back in four months time to fly to Sydney. So more time to see all the sights we missed! We bought our train tickets to Bahia Blanca, near the coast to start our journey through Patagonia. On our dark and rickety old train filled with locals chatting away, we managed to drift to sleep, anxious for more Argentian treasures to come...

Check out more pictures from Buenos Aires from my Facebook Album:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.549723549673.39786.223200117&type=1&l=f70264f70a