Descending into Buenos Aires, it’s fairly obvious that the airport’s location was chosen with awe-factor in mind. Our plane flew directly over the city’s core, dipping low between the buildings. When it felt like we were going to be touching down on one of the streets below, the plane gently banks and lands at the airport, directly next to the harbour.
I couldn’t wait to get out and experience the city, Buenos Aires was top of my bucket list. Researching the city, it was a constant stream of amazing food, history, and culture. Instead of sugarplums, it was visions of empanadas and alfajores dancing around in my head.
For the first couple nights in Buenos Aires, we were staying in the Central area. The city core was bustling during the day, but as we quickly found out, a ghost town in the evenings. On the bright side, it was within walking distance to San Telmo, and our hostel was a minute walk from a stop on Buenos Aire’s fantastic metro system, the SUBE.
But, it was still a bit too quiet for my liking at night. There was also minimal restaurants open in the evening, since the area caters to the business crowd. If I was to do it again, I’d probably book a little bit closer to the San Telmo area. Since we ended up heading that way in the evenings, it would of just cut down on walking time.
San Telmo is the oldest neighbourhood in Buenos Aires, and has worked hard to maintain it’s roots. Throughout the neighbourhood the old ways still reign supreme. Old school cafes serviced by bow-tied wait staff are on every corner, and bistro tables crowd the tree-shaded sidewalks. I absolutely adored it.
While wandering through San Telmo we made our way to Plaza Dorrego, where tango dancers perform for tips in the late afternoon. Enterprising cafes set up tables throughout the square, and it was a great way to spend a couple hours, having a couple drinks and watching a tango show.
As the birthplace of tango, Buenos Aires has a ton of different clubs and shows to choose from. Experiences range from small and intimate clubs to large productions, so whatever floats your boat. We decided to skip the large dinner and a show set up, and headed to Maldita, a tango milonga that features a live orchestra with a bit of a speak easy feel.
Unfortunately, Google lead us astray with the opening times. Buenos Aires is a city that doesn’t get into it’s groove until 2 am, with a lot of clubs not shutting down until after sunrise. Google told us that Maldita followed the same late night schedule as the rest of Buenos Aires. So, when we got there around 12:30, we managed to catch the band’s last set and a couple dances, but it was very firmly shut down by 1:30.
Since you can’t go to Buenos Aires without going to an old school Argentinian steakhouse, we went to Pena Parrilla. A traditional steakhouse in Central, it’s a neighbourhood staple. There are a couple more well known higher end spots in the city, but we decided that a glass of welcome champagne didn’t really matter a whole lot to us, so we opted for a bit more of an authentic experience (a bit more authentic price tag as well).
A new hostel friend joined us for dinner, and between us we ordered a full blown feast. Empanadas, chorizo, bife de lomo, roasted veggies, and the largest plate of a garlic fries I’ve ever seen. Washed down with three bottles of Argentinian red, it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had. Also, the fact that it cost us the equivalent of twenty dollars each was pretty nice as well. (Sadly there are no pictures, since we were already a little bit Argentinian wine drunk when the food showed up).
Our time in Buenos Aires coincided with Women’s Day, and I doubt the celebrations anywhere else could be as passionate. While exploring Palermo for the day, we didn’t realize that an absolutely massive march was gathering in the area around our hostel. When we returned, things were just kicking off. The entire downtown core had entirely shut down as hundreds of thousands of women (and men), gathered in the streets surrounding the Argentina Congress building.
Groups gathered, colour-coded depending on what platform that particular group was marching for. The issues ranged from legalizing abortion, Madres de Plaza de Mayo, equal pay, and so many more. Buenos Aires is a city with a long history of strong female activists, and being able to experience just a little bit of that was an extremely cool to experience.
We headed to La Recoleta Cemetery, the final resting place of many of Buenos Aire’s elite, most famously, Eva Perón.
Unfortunately, when we got there we found out that the english tour posted on the cemetery’s website was no longer a thing. And, the hut outside the cemetery gates that sells maps didn’t have any english tours coming up. I had a map of the cemetery downloaded on my phone, but there was no information besides the names of some of the more famous inhabitants.
We spent an hour or two wandering through the different mausoleums, but without knowing the stories of the people we were walking past, it didn’t really have an impact. We did sneak behind a couple who were on a private tour, so we got to eavesdrop for a few minutes at least!
After finishing up in the mausoleums, we wandered around Palermo, a swanky little neighbourhood with a bohemian feel. Known as the Soho of Buenos Aires, there are tons of hip little cafes and boutiques to pop into during the day. At night Palermo is where to go as well, since the city’s most popular clubs and bars are there too. Plus, since gelato is taken extremely seriously in Buenos Aires, there were SO MANY heladerias (ice-cream shops) to choose from!
Up there on my list of places to visit (along with every other traveller in Buenos Aires), was La Boca. The neighbourhood is most famously known for being home to the Boca Juniors and Caminito – a street museum and traditional alleyway lined with colourful houses and storefronts.
La Boca began as a shanty town for the mass amount of immigrants making their way over from Europe, in the 1800s, mainly Italians from the Genova area. For the freshly arrived Genovians, the shores of what would become La Boca reminded them of home. Over the next couple centuries, the neighbourhood continued to grow as newly arrived immigrants made their homes in La Boca.
After the railway train that ran through Boca shut down in the 50s, Quinquela Martín, a famous artist with Boca roots, set to work to save the barrio. He gathered neighbours to paint the houses bright colours, a throwback to the early immigrants days. It obviously worked, since Caminito is now one of the largest tourist draws for the city.
This small alleyway’s popularity has spread to the surrounding streets, which are now just as colourful as Caminito. If you venture out of this colourful area though, you’ll see a different side of La Boca.
Caminito’s infamous colourful buildings draws in flocks of tourists. Souvenir shops line the streets and traditionally dressed dancers tango and pose with tourists for photos.
After we had thoroughly explored Caminito we walked through the less colourful (and less touristy) surrounding streets. We lucked out and stumbled across some street art, passionate Boca Junior bars, and made a stop in a bakery selling some of the best gnocchi I’ve ever had. (I. Love. Gnocchi). I would of included a picture of it, but it was inhaled way too quickly.
(Fun trivia tidbit – Because of the deep Italian roots in the area, there’s some fantastic Italian food in La Boca. The 29th of each month is Dia de Ñoquis in Buenos Aires, since in the past this is when money was the tightest, so gnocchi was the cheapest thing to make!).
Our last day in Buenos Aires was a Sunday, which I had planned meticulously. Starting at San Telmo Market in the morning, the taking tango clan ses in the afternoon. We were ending at Plaza Dorrego since supposedly Sundays were the best day for the plaza dancers.
I woke up with a bit of a headache, but took an advil and figured it would go away. Long story short, I ended up spending the day in our pitch black room trying not to move or think. It wasn’t the most opportune day to get my first ever migraine.
Thankfully, by the next afternoon I was feeling a million times better, since we were catching a flight to Salta that evening. I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t get to take my tango classes or check out the market. But, we did spend our last afternoon in a pretty great way. We wandered through Palermo, checking out the street art before heading to the airport for our flight to Salta!
This is where I would usually include where we stayed and some great spots to visit or eat in the city But there were too many to choose from! So, I’m going to be putting up a city guide in the next couple days. Stay tuned!
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