Buenos Aires… where do I even begin. We adored Buenos Aires from the moment we landed in the sprawling capital city. In total we spent 5 nights in the city, cramming our days and nights with excursions and socialising.
We planned our stay in Buenos Aires to fall on a weekend to sample both the night life and a football game. Caoimh really wanted to see Boca Juniors play so we ensured we arrived early on a Saturday allowing us enough time to seek out tickets for the Sunday game versus Temperley. The membership only club means resale of tickets to tourists is an extremely profitable business, tickets are resold at several times the face value. Despite the high cost, “we” felt the once off experience would be worth it. Sadly what we didn’t realise was that the match was rescheduled to the Saturday at short notice to accommodate a cup game. Arriving the afternoon of the match it was too short notice to obtain last minute coveted tickets so, we had to make do with watching it on television.With all the confusion we didn’t get much exploring in our first afternoon in the city.
I can’t write about Buenos Aires without mentioning our choice of accommodation – Milhouse Hipo. We’d heard about the lively and popular Milhouse through various recommendations. Milhouse have two locations – Avenue and Hipo, located within a couple of blocks of each other. The Hipo location is a beautiful, old building with all the rooms facing into a central courtyard. The hotel like private rooms were comfortable and spacious and far enough away from the night-time antics to still allow for a decent night’s sleep. The negatives of Milhouse was that they managed to monetise every possible thing and it felt more commercial than other places we stayed. The positives outweighed the bad though and after initially booking three nights stay we extended for a further two.
Our first full day in Buenos Aires was a Sunday so we strolled over to the neighbourhood of San Telmo and the antiques market that spills onto the streets. Content with window shopping we wiled away the afternoon exploring the various stalls and side streets of the famous market. The early Summer sunshine and curbside entertainment was the perfect background for a relaxing afternoon.
That evening we booked a tango experience through Milhouse to avail of a discounted rate. The evening consisted of a lesson, three course meal, open bar and a professional tango show. First, we spent an hour learning a basic tango sequence. The instructor ensured that everyone rotated dance partners making the whole experience inclusive for singles and couples alike. Afterwards we were treated to dinner and free flowing wine. Once dessert was served the lights dimmed and the venue was transformed from restaurant to theatre. The six professional tango dancers through dance and the medium of music told the story of tango from its beginnings back in the early 20th century to the present day. Conceived in brothels, in the poorer migrant populated areas of the city, the style of dance which was once outlawed has become a defining factor of Argentina and in particular Buenos Aires. The sultry moves and revealing attire still hint at the dance’s seedier beginnings. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience albeit it was one of the more catered tourist experiences of our trip to the city.
Buenos Aires is a huge city, filled with numerous, diverse neighbourhoods each offering something different. Unlike other cities there is no catch all walking tour. Milhouse run different neighbourhood tours on different days of the week. We felt a trip to Recoleta and Buenos Aire’s famous cemetery would be an apt way to spend Halloween. The affluent area is heavily inspired by European architecture. Strolling through the embassy and tree lined streets you could easily be in a European suburb rather than Latin America. But with limited time in the city it wasn’t the most efficient tour (as was the case with most of Milhouse’s offerings). After an overly prolonged lunch we visited the cemetery. It is strange that one of Buenos Aires most popular “attractions” (for use of a better word) is a graveyard but it has become the final resting place for the rich and famous with families paying huge rents to entomb their loved ones in elaborate and decorative tombs. Aside from the grandeur the cemetery is also the place where Eva Perón is buried and her grave has become a shrine to her legacy. Bizzarely we have now visited the two most visited graves in South America (one being Eva Péron and two being Pablo Escobar’s).
That evening we headed to La Bomba de Tiempo, which is a weekly percussion show held in the outdoor Konex Cultural Centre. The particular Monday we visited guest starred the musician Lisandro Aristimuno. Although we were clueless to his fame, the locals seemed to love him. By the time we arrived the queue lined the block and disappeared around the corner, but with a capacity of a couple of thousand the venue easily accommodated everyone. The open air venue provided the perfect accoustics for the 17 strong ensemble and created an electric atmosphere. After the show finished we took a taxi back to Milhouse for some Halloween festivities which culminated in delicious 5am empanadas post nightclub (not quite the chips we were hankering after!).
We had ambitious plans for our last day in the city. We had an issue with our room and Milhouse gave us tickets to their La Boca neighbourhood tour as a goodwill gesture. It wasn’t ideal to spend a large portion of our last day on another Milhouse tour but we wanted to visit the neighbourhood and it also inlcuded entrance to the Boca Juniors stadium so we went along. Historically an emigrant area, the neighbourhood is still one of the poorest in the city despite being home to one of South America’s most famous soccer teams. It also has a reputation for being one of the more dangerous parts of the city. Formerly the main port for the city, the inhabitants of the surrounding streets built their homes out of the scrap metal and other shipyard cast offs that were easily found on the docklands. They painted the ugly corrugated metal with a myriad of leftover paint resulting in the patchwork buildings which are synomous with the area. Nowadays the overly touristy Caminito Street is home to some of these recreated buildings and one of the main reasons people visit the area. The other main draw to the area is ‘La Bombonera’ (Spanish word for chocolate box due to it’s D-shaped stadium), only a short distance from Caminito and the yellow and blue home of La Boca Juniors. Back in the day it housed both La Boca and Riverplate but after a play off for ownership La Boca won out and Riverplate relocated. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see the stands filled for match day but seeing the small stadium with it’s lack of seating and far reaching protective barriers I wasn’t too disappointed that we’d missed out on the experience (Measuring Stubble’s edit – Caoimh was!!!).
It was late afternoon before the tour concluded but we managed to quickly visit the last few places on our Buenos Aires list – La Casa Rosade or the Pink house (presidential home of Argentina), the Palace of the Argentina and El Ateneo Grand Splendid (an incredibly beautiful bookshop housed in an old theatre. After the beautiful architecture we finished off our stay with a lovely three course meal as we discussed our whirlwind stay.
For me, Buenos Aires dislodged Medellín from the accolade of my favourite South American city. During our six days we only saw a glimpse of it’s offerings but it was enough time for us to fall in love with the city and ensure that we definitely hope to come back some day… until next time Buenos Aires!