When you go to Buenos Aires and google what to do, the most popular things that pop are tango show, Asado, tango show,drink mate,tango show, watch boca, tango show, Evita museum etc etc. what the guide books don’t tell you to do, is rent an apartment in a non touristy part of town where all the locals hang out and live for a short while like the locals do. We did exactly that, we hired ourselves a really nice 6th floor apartment in San Telmo which is sandwiched between the very touristy Centro barrio and La Boca.
After our first weekend staying in a hostel, so we could orientate ourselves with the city and hopefully meet some people, we checked into our apartment, which happened to be walking distance from our hostel. The street that we stayed on doesn’t immediately jump out at you as ‘luxury’ living, but neither does it as slum living, instead what you get is beautiful old buildings and a mix of tarmac and cobbled streets, which help San Telmo become the historical and bohemian area of Buenos Aires, where all of the arty, student and quirky types hang out. Throw in a few historic local cafes and cozy local bars/pubs and you have quite a nice living environment. As we had been travelling for so long, the novelty of not only being able to fully unpack our bags, but also flush paper down the toilet and have our own space, almost made us house bound for 2 weeks, so we could soak it all up before moving on again and hostel reality kicking back in.
There was a big city to be explored though and it wasn’t going to do it on its own. The first stage to becoming a Porteño (port people and name given to people living in BA) was to adopt the argentine clock, which is eating at 11pm and starting your night out at 12/1am! Or if its a work night, calling it a night at 2am, obviously for us this didn’t really apply, so our nightly schedule involved us eating at 10:30-11pm every day and then going to bed at 3am! This obviously means you can’t get up until at least 10am, at earliest, which means the day really starts at about 11:30am once your fed and ready to go. In terms of exploring such a big city, this obviously doesn’t leave you with much time to explore, without missing meal times, which is obviously as big as breathing to Argentinians as every meal of the day is a big fuss and should be never rushed or missed, friends don’t just say hello and have their sandwich to go, friends order a litre of beer and finish that before their food arrives and then treat themselves to another whilst they wash down the grub, all the while completely engaged in conversation and I know this might sound crazy to modern British society (possibly US too) but this was all done without ever removing their phone from their pocket, checking their friends sitting opposites Facebook or updating everyone else about what their eating! Fascinating! Its also impossible to live this lifestyle without indulging in the practise of ‘cafe y medialunas’ or in English ‘afternoon tea’ every day, which again is a staple diet of the social needs of Argentines, retreating to the local cafe or where you were for lunch 3 hours ago, as obviously your next meal is after 10pm, so you need to curb the hunger somehow.
The area we stayed in gave us easy access to some of the best free attractions BA has to offer, either accessed by foot or by Subte (BA underground network) this included visiting La Boca area, which is mostly famous for Boca Juniors football club, where some of Argentinas most famous players including Maradona played at, not to mention the best football ground atmosphere in the world. Unfortunately without selling all of your worldly goods and paying somebody off big time, getting tickets to a Boca home match is as easy as getting into Oxford, where money opens the right doors. We just so happen not to be millionaires and do care about every penny, so couldn’t justify the ridiculous fee that was involved to only ‘maybe’ get us a ticket, no guarantees though!!!! Walking around La Boca though is a free affair and although recommended not too by every guide on the planet, we decided to make our own way there and back to Caminito, which is an area famous for painted corrugated iron houses and said to be the birth place of Tango. Now there is a open top tourist bus which takes people from the centre district and drops them right at the bottom of the only policed street in La Boca, Caminito and they can frolic with cameras around their neck, purses open and handbags in plain sight!! Yes, that is a little dig at stupid tourists. We however hid our valuables, took little cash and hid my camera, so as not to draw attention and took in some of the sights of the less seen streets of La Boca and the old transport bridge. Ending up at the Caminito street, where every other person is hassling you to enter their restaurant and German men think its fine to walk around in creme suits and smoke fat cigars!! Each to their own I guess, but this did actually happen as were walking through!
Within walking distance to our apartment as well, was the Puerto Maderno, Montiserrat and Constitucion barrios, which were really nice to just walk around, take in the general sights, dine in new areas and if we were really, really lucky…….eat Sushi! We were craving asian food since leaving and had heard of the quality of asian food in BA, which unfortunately for us we only had Sushi, but when you have been eating beyond your body weight in Asado, Sushi is the perfect alternative and was actually really good, just do your research before going and there are two great choices in San Telmo called ‘Shokudo’ and ‘Comedor Nikkai’, selling lots of authentic japanese dishes. As well as the local ‘medialuna’ shops selling various pastries and the fruit n veg shop, we also had the delight of having a very uninviting shop on or corner which as well as sold beers and the standard corner shop affairs, also was fully stocked with coffee beans from around Latin America and an in house roasting machine!! So you could pick your favourite beans, how roasted you like them and then have them grinded down or just order a cup with your favourite choice. We stumbled across a gem of a cafe/resteraunt too, which served the best salads and sandwiches, so much so we went there twice for lunch and treat ourselves to a beautiful dinner, accompanied by a fine bottle of wine, which they have a vast selection of. If anybody is ever in Buenos Aires, I recommend trying ‘El Refuerzo’ in SanTelmo, you will not be disappointed. Aside from food and coffee, we also had some really cool quirky bars in our neighbourhood, including ‘Gibraltar’ which was decked out like an old English pub, along with wooden seats, the subtle smell of stale ale and beer on tap, including ales!! Usually we would avoid these places as their full of traveller louts who are simply trying to recreate their local, however Gibraltar blasts out latin tango and salsa music on the speakers and nobody in there is English, as its out of the main stream tourist scene, so for brits, creates quite a weird atmosphere, like the local boozer has been taken over by a Latino landlord.
As we were in BA for a fortnight, we had agreed that we would ‘try’ and do some much needed fitness, in anyway we could. After searching many gyms and finding out exercising in BA is a costly affair, I managed to find a company called Futbol Amigos Buenos Aires, which organise weekly 5-a-side games for expats and travellers in different areas and it has a very user friendly online system to find info and sign up. We also managed to find a gym on route which was a lot less than all the others we had found, so it all fit in perfectly. I got to meet some great people, which the majority were expats or students from around the world who were now living in BA semi permanent, as well as a few locals thrown in the mix, making a great mix of people and a very funny game of football given the different languages being used. The football games were mainly in the Palermo area, so it gave us a chance to explore that area of the city for the day before heading to the gym/football. This area is classed as the richer side of BA and certain streets can be laced with multimillion pound houses and VIP night clubs, to give an idea of the area, a kind of Kensington/Chelsea of BA if you like. It also is the neighbouring barrio to Retiro, which is home to the ‘Cementerio de Flores’, which people know more widely for the ‘Duarte’ family tomb and where Eva Peron is buried. It sounds strange to walk around a cemetery, but this is like no other you will ever see in your life! The cemetery houses the Argentina once mega elite and their family tombs, which some of them are bigger than a 3 bedroom house and have more marble and roman columns than Tony Montana’s mansion.
We really enjoyed our time in BA and contrary to popular reports, we weren’t mugged and we didn’t need to stay in our hostel to have fun (mainly because we didn’t have a hostel!), we went where the locals went and did as the locals do, rode the Subte nearly every day and wined and dined like a true Porteño. Partying from 12am onwards and people watching in cafes with medialunas and coffee was a daily affair. If I was to return to BA, my only change would be packing more cash, as (same for all of Argentina) it ain’t cheap and unfortunately aside from the free attractions and walking around, to fully enjoy the city, cash needs to be parted with, to put it in perspective we survived on £60 per day for two of us including rent and we just managed, if we had £60 each per day, we would have left very fat and very hungover!
Now we are taking a quick ferry ride across the pond and will be arriving in Colonia De Sacramento, Uruguay for yet another new adventure.
—ACastling—
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Our trip around the world 