One month in Buenos Aires
 

We are spending a month in BA and rather than post a long trip report at the end of our visit, I thought I would share a few thoughts along the way and add to this thread as and when…. (plus avrooster told me I had to write about BA!!).

This visit is at the end of our round the world trip details and many many photos can be found on our blog at:

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog...7260/tpod.html

We arrived on the ferry from Colonia in Uruguay where we had spent 4 days at Viajero B&B (US$40), a great new B&B in a fascinating and v. pretty town. It is well worth a visit if only on a day trip from BA. The fast ferry took 1 hour (the slow takes 3-4).
We walked outside of the ferry terminal to grab a taxi to our apartment ($AR20). We have heard stories of people getting scammed inside the terminal with a flat fare of US$20.

10 mins later we are in our apartment in Palermo at Scalabrini Ortiz and Berruti which we had booked through www.bytargentina.com . BYT were very good and efficient throughout the booking process and met us at the apartment together with the owner. The apartment itself was very nice and much as it looked on the website. We have had a few problems with the phone line in the apartment but the owner was very helpful and sorted this out after a few days.

One of the problems we faced was getting together the cash (they insist on cash) to pay the rent and deposit), which was priced in USD. Argentine ATMs do not dispense USD and each withdrawal is limited to 300 pesos (up to whatever your card providers daily limit might be). We had to visit many ATM before we got enough to pay the rent which we had agreed could be paid in pesos. This was not helped when there was some sort of strike dor 5/6 days and the ATM were not working at all.
TIP. Citibank has a much higher withdrawal limit (I think 3500 pesos) so it is well worth searching them out. Also, if you do need USD then Uruguayan ATMs do dispense these so if you do go there it may be worth visiting an ATM.

The apartment itself is in a great location about a 2 minute walk from Avenida Santa Fe and the Linea D Subte station. We bought stored ticket Subte cards @ 9 pesos for 10 trips and found the Subte very easy to use and to get around town.. The apartment is also very close to a lot of parks (including the zoo). One is only about 100m from the apartment and is populated by hundreds of cats which are apparently fed by old ladies in the district. The one negative think I have to say about the area is that there is dog crap everywhere (nearly as bad as Paris!) so you really do have to watch where you walk at times!

The area also has lots of shops in which to by groceries etc. and there are also a number of Carrefour Express and Disco supermarkets where we can by pretty much most things we need. As we are hear for a month we head off to the big supermarket in Palermo which is a 15 minute walk away and stocks a huge variety of foods and other stuff (it even has an international section in case you are missing anything from home. As we have been on the road for over a year now (BA is our last stop on an around the world trip) it is nice to start living a comparatively normally life for a while so we hold back on the sightseeing for a while in favour of just wandering the streets and getting a feel for the city.

The Sunday after we arrive we take a walk through the deserted streets to Recoleta which takes us about 20mins. We have a look around the Design Centre (very impressive) and try to have lunch at the Hard Rock Café (absolute disaster! ). The walk is nice as there is very little traffic around and we get the chance to have a good look around the streets of Palermo and Recoleta. On balance I feel we have made the right choice location. Recoleta is nice and seems a bit more upmarket, but it seems to have a very high concentration of tourists (maybe it was just that day) and the prices in the restaurants seemed higher. Our first impressions... What an amazing city!

Thank you, Crellston!

We are looking forward to MUCH more!

BTW, Crellston, I'm not sure we are talking about the same scam, but the one which was mentioned by another forum member when we had lunch together last Sunday was NOT in the ferry terminal, but, instead, wherever the cruise ships dock.

Forum members should know that whenever someone in BA tells them they MUST pay in dollars, they are probably getting scammed, as all prices are in pesos, by law.

One notable exception is apartment rentals, which usually are quoted in US dollars.

Have a great time in our town.

The Design Center is totally Touristy! It is where the Americans go to find furniture for their new apts and where their designers go to shop for them.
Porteñoes like it too but that is why you will hear so much English spoken, also , the Recoleta Cemetary is on the other side, and the Feria which appeals to everyone including tourists.

I have not been in the Hard Rock Cafe, anywhere.. lol. But I recently heard that they make good fajitas.. my husband said Not even a Good Fajita will get him to go there :)

I love Recoleta on holidays and Sundays, when you can wander and the streets are almost empty ..
They say this heat will end today or tomorrow, be prepared for a good rain sometime today :)

Thanks for posting, I will go read the blog now .. chau crellston!

Scarlett - yes i know I am sad but I make a point of visiting Hard Rock cafes around the world as i am a long time Eric Clapton fan (who started it all offin London many years ago!). Sad to say that I have been disappointed by many of the venues around the world apart e from London, New York and Bangkok - BA Hard Rock took three attempts to deliver hot fajitas and buffalo wings and failed miserably on each occasion - I will stick to parrillas in future!!

Thanks for sharing -- love your blog. Spending a month in BA would be heaven. Oddly Citibank was the only ATM that kept refusing my card. We were able to get up to 700 ARD at most ATMs, but imagine that it would take many visits to get apt rent for a month.
Looking forward to hearing more about your stay in BA.

clive---great start...i hope to learn tons here for our trip in april...

Just a quick post - we visited the artesania fair at La Rurala couple of days ago, just a few minutes walk from our apartment in Palermo

http://www.artesaniasbue.com.ar/queofrecelaferia.htm

It was well worth the 12 pesos entrance fee (avrooster tells me this goes to charity). there are stalls from all around the country selling all manner of goods from all around the country - leather, ceramics, metal etc. most seemed good quality and reasonable prices. Well worth a trip if you are in BA at the moment. It is on until the 14th Dec.

A good parrilla restaurant in Palermo is La Payuca - Arenales 3443 a short walk from Scalabrini ortiz subte station. We have tried it once for lunch (ejecutivo @29 pesos)and once for dinner. Both times the food was excellent including teh best steak we have eaten in Argentina (probably anywhere else for that matter!). A dinner we shared a bife de chorizo which the waiter cut with a spoon! Now that is just showing off!!

The service is great too.

www.lapayuca.com

Enjoying your report. We will be there in April for the first time, so I look forward to any recommendations, tips!

A few days after our arrival in BA avrooster and his wife Teresa kindly offered provide a whirlwind tour of the central areas of the city which has proved invaluable as an orientation exercise because all of the maps seem to be orientated differently i.e. North is never at the top where you would expect it! Which for someone like me who has little sense of direction at the best of times provides an additional challenge. The drive through the virtually traffic free streets gave us the opportunity to gain a perspective on the various areas of the city and where they were in relation to our apartment. This is not possible by walking alone and certainly not by Subte.

Along with fellow fodorites Todd and Denise we all had lunch at an excellent parrilla - Fervour

http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/detail.php?ID=3995
which has great fish whcih made a pleasnt change from the vast quantities of beef we had been eating!

Having now got a better feeling for teh geography of teh city we are going to explore teh various barrios in more depth.

Puerto Madero - This is the comparatively new development in teh city down by the docks a bit like Londons docklands. A mixed used development of residential offices and restaurants it is very modern with lots of skyscrapers and is set between the docks (digues)on one side and an eco park and the river on the other. We spent a long afternoon here looking around and looking at some of the apartments for sale (very impressive!). In some respects it reminded us of our old home back in the UK and we felt very much at home here.

There are lots of very nice restaurants along the docks here and strangely prices seemed lower than in places like Palermo?? We did return the next day to lok at some more apartments and stayed for lunhc at Siga la Vaca (follow the cow) and all you can eat parrilla restaurant (45 pesos weekdays). Like most all you can eat restaurants this is not Haute Cuisine, but the meat was excellent and provided the oppotunity to sample the varioos different cuts and achuras (innards) at leisure. Included in the price is a bottle of wine - EACH!, water and a dessert. The place was very busy but service was good and my only complaint was that they did not provide a place to lie down after the meal. If you do go, do not eat beforehand!

http://www.sigalavaca.com/index.php?...les&lng=es

Allow me to point out that the "whirlwind tour of the central areas of the city" which we gave Crellston and his wife was purposefully done on a Sunday, which made possible the "drive through the virtually traffic free streets". On a working day, this would probably have taken hours, instead of minutes.

clive you are already giving tons of info...thanks

how are you liking the apartment and its neighborhood??

crellston,
Thanks for all the great info, we're heading down in March for 2 weeks, our third trip, but we haven't been back since 2006. Really appreciate all the restaurant info!

owlwoman. You should try La Cabrera on Cabrera in Palermo Soho. We have just got back from lunch there and it was fantastic! The steaks (and chicken) are the biggest I ahave seen to date and one main dish is plenty for two. They dont tell you that each main comes with an array of tapas style hot and cold accompanyments, so be careful ordering any sides. They steak was cook to perfection and it was one of those rare places that as you watch the waiters bring out other peoples orders, you wonder whether you have order the right thing! Our bife de chorizo was cooked to perfection, but all the dishes looked great.

The place was packed for saturday lunch but service was good and there is a nice ambience. One guidebook described it as the best parrilla (how they can make that judgement here, I don't know!). Apparently it gets book solid in the evenings so reservations are required.

I am pretty convinced that if your card has a Cirrus flag you can draw up to US$ 1,000.00 in pesos or US$ in ATMs in Buenos Aires.

I never needed to draw that much amount of cash at one time, but draw with ease up to 1000 pesos at a time.

On a different subject, one of the worst culinary experiences in my life involved a parrila, in BA.

I innocently ordered a full parilla for 2 and we got huge quantities of grilled kidneys, grilled tripe, grilled "morcilla" (a sausage made with blood), grilled (chorizos, not TOO bad), grilled etc...

Summarizing, right after paying for the "delicacies", we bought two sandwiches to cope with our hunger.

Sorry "portenos", but an absolutely disgusting experience...

Otherwise, a quite pleasant experience in BA and Patagonia, for that matter.

My ATM cards (HSBC & Nationwide - UK) have cirrus, maestro plus a few other symbols on them and the withdrawal limit is definitely 300 pesos. When we first arrived in Argentina 3 months ago the limit was 700pesos, it was then suddenly reduced to 300 and as stayed there. The only exception is, as I mentioned Citi. Maybe it is different for cards from the US but some Argentine friends say that there cards have teh same limits.

As regards the "delicacies", with the exception of tripe, I like them! Shame that you opted for the sandwich after the delicacies as you would have missed out on the main point of the parrilla, the steak.

A "parrillada" (mostly grilled innards) is not for everyone.

As with so many things, it is a matter of taste.

For instance, Crellston says: "with the exception of tripe, I like them!"

While jfcarli says: "an absolutely disgusting experience...".

I find the latter a rather extreme opinion.

Time for some xmas shopping for the folks back home so we head off on a seemingly endless trek around teh thousands of shops here in BA (I hate shopping!). I have to say that BA is not the bargain basement for shopping that we had been led to believe, but maybe we are looking in the wrong places! We got the Subte to Murrillo which is supposedly famous for its leather shops. The prices did not seem particularly low but, in many cases, the quality of the goods was. In all a waste of a morning. One we then headed off to Trust Leather (Uruguay 469, 10th floor, Apartment A; 4373 7354). There's no shop front, this is in an apartment block so we ring the brass bell and take the rickety lift to the 10th floor. We find a jumble of off-the-peg leather at much better prices than in the tourist haunts. I take a shine to a (Timberland)leather jacket which at 650pesos is a third of the price back home). They dont have my size but offer to make one up within a week - apparently they are manufacturers for Timberland and some other labels.
Looking around for other souvenirs to take home it becomes obvious that there is a wide disparity between prices. Exactly the same goods can vary by as much as 100% and it is clear that we would have done better buying stuff in the regions rather than waiting to BA. Oh well!

Yesterday we decide to check out La Boca. We have heard many different reports on the area most saying how touristy and overpriced it is. Not being a a great fan of "touristy" places we don't hold out too much hope of being impressed. We decide to go by bus and jump on the #29 around teh corner in Avenida Santa Fe. This is a great bus to use if you want to see the city on the cheap (1peso), the journey takes 45 mins and winds through Palermo, Centro, Once, Monserrat,Puerto Madero, San telmo before we arrive at the end of teh line in La Boca.

Touristy it may be but we really like this place, the buildings are VERY colourful and many have mannequins hanging out the windows, murals on the walls etc. There are tango dancers in the streets and cafes all very picture postcard and a great place for taking photos. I an glad we came on a Monday afternoon when it was relatively quiet and not at teh weekend when I am sure it must be mayhem!

We head back to Palermo on the same bus but this time it takes a diferrent route and twice as long as it is rush hours. The bus gets packed as we pick up along the route and we arrive at our destination more than a little "moist"!

Last night we visited our first Tango show at Cafe Tortoni, apparently one of the oldest tango cafes in Buenos Aires. It was just as we had imagined with waiters, seeminly all in their 60s buzzing around with trays of drinks and food the only thing missing (thankfully) from the 1930s is the smoke filled room! as in BA most places seem to be smoke free. We both love live music but have never really listened to any tango music before as my musical tastes run more to Clapton, Springsteen etc. so this was a new experience for both of us.

The tango orchestra consisted of a pianist, a violinist, a bass player and a guy playing a bandoneon (a bit like an accordion). We had popped into the cafe a few days previously and booked the 9.00pm in the smaller of their two rooms and as we were first on the list, we got pole position right at the front on a table of four that we were to share with two others. We had chosen the smaller, more intimate of the two rooms and this was certainly intimate as we were virtually sitting on the stage! My fingers were crossed in the fervent hope that there would be no audience participation! We ordered a bottle of champagne (at 50 pesos a throw it seemed silly not to) and settled down in anticipation of the show. We were shortly joined by a German couple who didn't seem to happy with the table arrangements and the guy tried to arrange a seat for his wife on the table next to ours, much to the annoyance of the four people at that table! I am just surprised that he hadn't arrived at breakfast time and thrown his towel over his preferred seat - sometimes national stereotypes are just so true!

The show commences with a tune from the band and then the dancers arrive. Now, we have watched Strictly Come Dancing (I am embarrassed to admit) but seeing this dancing up so close and in such a small space was incredible. Both of the dancers were amazingly fit and flexible (how many women can touch the back of their head with their stilletos whilst still wearing them?) The male dancer was just how I imagined a tango dancer to be with slicked back hair, wide lapelled suit and the tango shoes that were literally falling to bits (you could actually see his socks. It all just added to the overall, sleazy look. The music too was excellent and all of the musicians were incredible. Then came the tango singer, who, judging by the reaction of the Argentines in the audience was well known and a bit of a comedian (at least I think he was - my Spanish has not improved that much!) was a real character and held the whole show together. At the end of the show the concertina guy, a real virtuoso and well into his 70s, got the longest ovation by far and seemed a bit overwhelmed by it. All in all a great night and so much better than at least I was expecting and we are seriously thinking about booking another show somewhere else.Plus we have already bought a couple of tango music CDs to take home.

I look forward to a new post every morning, love following you and your adventures. I'll be there in Feb so I am very interested in EVERYTHING that you have to report, thanks

I'm glad you are enjoying it Susanna. I will be adding the BA pages to our blog soon so I will post a lnk here to the photos etc.

We take another walk out to Recoletta, this time to visit the famous cemetery, surely one of the worlds more bizarre tourist destinations! The cemetery itself is very large covering 4 blocks and it is packed with over 6000 mausoleums/ tombs and is almost like a small barrio of its own. The tombs are a bit of an architectural free for all, with many styled like greek temples (plus one or two pyramids). Some are in great condition and some are literally falling down and we see more than a few broken coffins with their contents exposed! The dead however, are not the only residents as the entire place is teeming with cats and we see a few local women setting out bowls of food for them all around the cemetery. The dead buried here include the great,the good and the not so good of Argentina including many ex presidents whose names are familar from the street names, bank presidents (surely not the most popular people at the moment!) and strangely the past presidents of the Argentine Automobile Association,Jockey Club and Taxi Drivers Associations. The most famous resident is of course Evita herself. We read that husband Juan Peron had her buried here covertly at the dead of night allegedly against the wishes of BA's high society. She is buried under 27 feet of concrete as her body has been dug up and stolen on several occasions! As cemeteries go it is certainly one of the most impressive in the world not that we have made a habit of visiting many and is certainly one of the must do's in BA.

There are so many good stories about the people buried in Recoleta Cemetery.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Recoleta_Cemetery

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...pagewanted=all

Some heartbreaking, as in the grave on the right, as you walk in, a young girl was buried,.. Cemetery workers heard sounds , called in for help, the child had not been dead and had tried to get out of the coffin. Her grief stricken mother built this coffin in marble with a carved rose behind a glass wall... on it is a marble statue of a young girl with her hand on the door of her tomb...

Pere LaChaise Cemetery in Paris is larger and much more falling apart, but this one has some wonderful examples of art from each tombs time period.
The Art Nouveau is just amazing..
There are many graves to soldiers too.. not just generals but young men who died ..
It can be very moving if you read some of the stones..

A few photo from our stay in BA

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog..._UID=candcthai