Buenos Aires

This is a message I sent to someone in early 2016. Kade and I were very impressed with the Argentinian capital.

Steaks & Seafood

All I can say is that I likely had my best steak experiences ever in Buenos Aires, and I def had a Top 5 seafood experience in Chile. - 2016 message

The Best Steakhouses in Buenos Aires: A Beefy Guide to Eating Steak in Argentina

La Olla

Buenos Aires

We're staying in the Palermo district, a very popular area for dining, fashion, drinking, and shopping.  The pool is on the 17th floor of our apartment building, and the city's skyline actually encircles the building.  Buenos Aires is a huge, cosmopolitan city with any convenience the world has, and is to South America what New York City is to us, what Paris is to Europe and what Tokyo is to Asia.  Argentinians eat very little for breakfast, and their day gets started late.  They lunch around 2 PM, have a coffee and mid-day snack about 6 PM, then dinner is usually served at 9:30 PM.  They are very passionate people, crazy about football, barbecuing beef, dancing the tango and drinking wine.  There's also a certain energy here.  People are having fun, they're really living and romance fills the air.

Tomorrow we're going out for Part 2 of our city tour with Joy from Buenos Aires!  We're starting the day at Café Tortoni, a 158-year-old coffee house of historical and cultural significance in Argentina and throughout world.  Later in the day, we visit the city's most famous cemetery to pay our respects to Eva Perón.

e-mail on 2/22/16

Today in Buenos Aires we toured two or three Catholic Cathedrals, walked around an enormous cemetery (eva peron, Argentinian presidents, poets, generals, aristocrats, etc are buried there), and sat under a tree planted by monks over 200 years ago.

2/22/16

Have had two over 10 mile days and probably have been averaging 6 miles a day, when you take into account the much needed breaks after intensive walks. The built-in recovery days have been vital.

2/24/16

Leaving for Santiago, Chile tomorrow. Two more days and then back to cold Asheville! Have walked more than 10 miles in a day three times! all on asphalt. back, hips and calves now hurt. luckily we built in "rest days."

Brazen Pastry Names

Click here for  The surprising origin of Argentina's brazen pastry names.

I will add some photos of some of the pastries we ate in Buenos Aires.  We brought some back to our AirBnb, and ate them there.  Other times, while starting our day, or taking an afternoon break from walking, we'd stop in shops for some treats.  In one coffee shop, I mentioned it was our anniversary, and the owners gave us one of their delicious croissants.  Argentina's food scene is very good!

Tango Painting

Finally got around to getting this framed.  Purchased in Buenos Aires!

Start of Journey

Use the map to see our itinerary.  You can open a new window, enlarge, zoom and click on sites for details.  We arrived in Santiago, ready to go.  Our checked luggage didn't make it, however.  It was lost in Miami!   Fortunately, it was recovered and sent to our apartment in Santiago the next day. Anyway, we were picked up at the airport by our driver (holding a funny sign!) and taken to our Airbnb apartment. Spent the first afternoon walking a bit around the neighborhood (in Providencia) and stocking up on some essentials for the kitchen.  Enjoyed seeing all the rollerbladers and bicyclists out having a good time.  It's an active city, I could quickly tell.  The time difference in Chile was not significant - just two hours ahead of us in the Eastern USA.  

My cover was immediately exposed!

Buenos Aires, First City Tour

 

 

an oil painting we bought

tour with Joy of Buenos Aires

click here for short videos of the scenes depicted in the images 

La Boca BBQ

When you're in Buenos Aires, you can count on trying barbecue.  And it's mostly beef, beef and more beef.  I had been anticipating a very tasty lunch on our first day out with Joy of Buenos Aires, and we certainly were not disappointed.  El Gran Paraiso in La Boca satisfied us on so many levels!

Getting Ready for a Buenos Aires Sunset

Click here for the Airbnb apartment where we stayed.  We highly recommend it.