Top 5 Things We Did in Buenos Aires, Argentina
/1. Food
You already saw the food post. What more is there to say? Our trip didn't really start out with a focus on food - we just tried to find decent places to eat. Once we made it to Buenos Aires, that changed. Food was the focus of our time in the city and we had an amazing time chowing down there.
2. Tango
Simply a must. Whether you take classes, visit a club, or find it on the street, tango is a fantastic experience in BA. I wasn't up for actually trying it myself (sorry babe), but thanks to our buddy Alvin we found a really awesome tango club at the intersection of Medrano and Sarmiento called La Catedral. You can take classes here or you can come after 10 PM, grab whatever space is available, and spend your night watching locals ply their skills on the dance floor. Be careful as the bottles of wine start at 30 pesos and between the music and dancing, you might find the bottles start piling up quite quickly.
A band opens the night's festivities after the classes end
We first went on a Tuesday night and the place was absolutely packed from the moment we got there at 930 PM til when we left sometime around 2 or 230 AM (told you the wine goes fast). We went back on Thursday and it was a much more subdued affair. Couldn't say why, but something you may want to consider.
3. Recoleta Cemetery
It's hard to visit this city without paying homage to the dignified inhabitants of this cemetery. The biggest attraction is Eva Peron's crypt, but the paths are packed with ornately decorated tombs housing many generations of the city's inhabitants. Getting a guide of the tombs is a good idea - we just wandered around and felt a bit lost, wishing we knew some of the stories behind the people.
4. San Telmo Sunday Feria
From the collections of Coca-Cola bottles to jewelry, pots and pans to seltzer bottles, vendors here ply their antique and vintage goods to tourists and porteños alike. Tango dancers and buskers also grab what space they can to impress the buyers in hopes of donations. The market is always packed and with good reason, especially for locals looking to decorate their home or find one more piece for an obscure collection.
5. El Ateneo
A setting unlike any other for a bookstore
Take a bookstore with an extensive collection and put it inside an ornate theater and you'll have El Alteneo. Bookstacks line the old entrance, leading you back towards the main seating area, filled with more books. The old stage houses a cafe and adjoining tables, while the overlooking balconies contain even more stacks of books. For us, it was a very unique location for a bookstore and had a bit of magic to it. Definitely stop by if you're near by - it's on the south side of Avenida Santa Fe just west of the intersection with Av. Callao.
Floors and floors of books
Notes:
Honorable mentions go to MALBA, a wonderful art museum northeast of Plaza Italia. We really enjoyed getting a taste of Latin-American art there. We also enjoyed an afternoon stroll through the Botanical Garden adjoining Plaza Italia, but as these types of gardens tend to be in many big cities and is not unique to Buenos Aires, we didn't want to include it in our Top 5.
Also, La Boca is another tourist favorite in BA, but we didn't enjoy it that much. The colors of the houses on El Caminito are wonderful and make for amazing photographs, but the area itself felt overly-touristy for us and didn't grab our hearts as much as it has others. Worth a visit if you have free time, but we feel there are better things to see.