I’m not going to harp on about the trauma of my delayed and cancelled flight from Miami to Buenos Aires. Suffice to say I spent around 15 hours in Miami airport over the course of two days (yes, in the airport, that’s not including the 9 hour flight). By the time I arrived in BA at 3am on Sunday, I was kinda beat. 3am has not been a regular part of my vocabulary for decades. Having arrived on time a day earlier, Darren had a head start on me. We still had five full days to explore, albeit we were working for three of those days in the run up to Thanksgiving.
The Airbnb in the Palermo district turned out to be a great place to work for a few days, and we were treated to some awesome sunsets.
It was also well situated to watch the World Cup, with a temporarily erected massive screen in a nearby park. The Argentinians lost against Saudi Arabia in their first match, so not a lot of happy faces. Fun place to watch the game though.
One of the things Argentina is famous for is steak. Along with chimichurri sauce. And empanadas. And Malbec red wine. In other words good food and drink. So eat and drink we did.
Starting off in a restaurant called Fogon Asado for a five course tasting menu (which turned out to be seven, as they threw in a couple of surprises) and wine pairing. All the punters had a ring side seat from which to watch the proceedings as we were seated up at the countertop surrounding the feisty grill centerpiece. Just a touch on the touristy side with lots of drama – from waving flaming pine cones around to iron branding the dulce de leche pancakes. They even had us making our own chimichurri sauce at the table.
And the food extravaganzas didn’t stop there. There was a European style bakery and coffee shop located way too close to our Airbnb. The freshly baked bread from there was a treat, as were the dulce de leche croissants and melt in the mouth macarons.
A bottle of the finest Gran Malbec went down nicely with a Spanish-style meat and cheese plate.
And we rounded off our last night in Buenos Aires with cocktails at the Crystal Bar on the 32nd floor of the Alvear Icon hotel followed by an Airbnb experience of a rooftop bbq with a small group of like-minded people.
With all this food, it necessitated some sort of balance by way of running, walking and exploring.
Many streets are lined with Jacarandas, painting the city purple around November time. I found their lilac hue almost as pretty on the ground as on the trees.
The Japanese garden is a tranquil serene place to meander and contemplate.
And no visit to Buenos Aires is complete without a wander round the Recoleta Cemetery. Less of a cemetery, more a self contained mini city paying homage to dead people of ages past, with grand crypts, tombstones and statues. The light wasn’t the best to capture the atmosphere but I did my best.
And finally, one very good reason to visit Buenos Aires is that it’s little more than a hop, skip and a jump to ‘the end of the world’ or the southernmost point in South America, Ushuaia. Which itself is the jumping off point for trips to the Great White Continent. Antarctica here we come!