From Madrid, we flew overnight to our first South American destination, Buenos Aires, the buzzing capital of Argentina. Dubbed by some as the “Paris of the South” for its eclectic mix of architecture, Buenos Aires is teeming with design, food and language influences from its heavily European immigrant population. Upon arrival to Argentina, we met up with Krista’s sister, Leslie, who flew down the same day from San Diego for a week of vacation. To fight the inevitable jet lag awaiting all of us, we set out aggressively to explore Buenos Aires from our accommodations in the heart of the city. This included a stop for coffee at the famous landmark, Café Tortoni, a stroll around Plaza de Mayo, a busy square that is overlooked by the President’s and executive branch’s offices, and a walk down Calle Florida, a pedestrian area full of shops, restaurants and endless people-watching opportunities.
To close our first day out, we went to a hip area of the city called Palermo Soho for large and tasty drinks outside. We followed this up with a stop at a milonga we had read about called La Virtua. A milonga is like a regular dance club, but offers tango lessons at the beginning of the night. (The beginning of the night in Argentina, by the way, is 11pm.) Predictably, Krista and Leslie gracefully tangoed the night away like pros, while Scott was left leaving footprints on strangers’ shoes.
Still reeling from our evening of tango, we set out the next day, Sunday, to a sprawling, open-air market in the San Telmo area. The market featured everything under the sun, from jewelry to cooked meat to street performers, and it was a great place to wander for a couple of hours. Next, we attended an exciting football match between home team RiverPlate and rival Arsenal. The crowd, as is customary for Argentinian football matches, was wild, passionate and singing chants constantly. Security was at a premium. In the end, the teams were knotted in a 1-1 tie.
On Monday, we boarded a ferry from Buenos Aires to Uruguay, where we would spend the next 5 days. More on that soon.
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