Mimicking a European city the Argentine capital put me at ease from the start, and being home to my favourite guy Papa Frankie made this city complete for me. Arriving in Buenos Aires a little trip to the cambio was in order. Basically the Argentinian economy is shot and their money is pretty useless, the fact their largest bank note is the equivalent to six dollars gives you this impression from the get go. For the visiting tourists this is good news- welcome the blue market, where if you are in possession of US dollars or Euros you can change them on the street at a significantly higher rate than what the banks give you. Once we made it to the appropriate street everyone was wanting our dollars. Knowing the going rate for the blue market we simply went to the first person who was willing to give it to us, and we were thrilled we did, on one swift move we were in the back of a tiny flower stand swapping cash behind a curtain, definitely adding to the experience, and making it feel a whole lot sneakier.
Buenos Aires is huge with over 15 million people, but in no way gives the feeling of its size as it is divided into multiple neighbourhoods. During our stay we tried to visit a few, starting with Recoleta, which contains what is strangely enough one of the city’s main tourist attraction the Cemetario de la Recoleta. This cemetery almost like a mini city holds the crypts of Argentinas elite, built up and decorated with marble and gold it is huge and even offers a map to assist with your visit, definitely reflecting the neighbourhood it is housed in.
Palermo was next, said to be the hipster neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, we wandered the funky streets surrounded by bars and cafes but We were there for one main reason, La Cabrara! This fancy restaurant houses what is believed to be one of the best steaks in Argentina and they do a pre Argentina dinner time seating, where they offer 40 percent off. Once again my dislike for steak didn’t work in my favour and my options were limited to salad. According to Ruth the steak was superb and my salad wasn’t too bad either. La Boca the colourful working class district of BA was our last visit, Full of coloured buildings and tango in the streets, this neighbourhood was great to spend some time wandering in, but definitely too overpriced for us to eat.
Before we knew it, our time in this wonderful city was over, one filled with so many different areas you could spend countless weeks there, said to be the Paris of Latin America and we definitely felt that European influence like no where else here.
HannaH Backwards. 