Buenos Aires

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We arrive to Buenos Aires in the middle of a strong rainstorm, with the plane (perpetually late in South America) rolling and yawing omnionously until touchdown... I'm not sure if it's a good sign that all the passengers broke into applause upon landing (maybe it's a South American thing). We stayed at this little apartment rented by a friend of a friend in the Recoleta district on like 2081 Paraguay Street. It was a nice, clean little apartment with an internet cafe across the street which we used every other day or so (the exchange rate is like 3 peso : 1 dollar, so it cost like a dollar for an hour of internet usage). There they had some small crunchy croissants and a dulce de leche cookies (specialty in Buenos Aires) that would provide the bulk of our morning diets (I think it was lik 6 pesos for 2 croissants, tea and cookie).

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To my surprise, Buenos Aires has a very strong European flavor to it, with its Spanish roots and large Italian immigrant community it feels very international in size and populace.One noticeable difference it that the people here are unerringly friendly and happy to see you (a marked change in most large city in the US and other countries). Ask for directions? They either walk you there themselves or hand you off to another stranger to take you the rest of theway. Don't have change for a cab fare? Instead of giving Alex change for a 20, a lady simply paid for the $6 fare herself (imagine that happening in NYC!) The cab drivers are generally nice, but some are very annoyed to give change, which I find odd... but we managed.

Home of Tango

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So back to our trip... the first morning in the city we headed for the La Boca history area. This area is known for building painted in vibrant, bright colors... not unlike those building found in Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. There you can find lots of hand-made crafts (paintings, jewelry, belts, etc) you will see lots of leather goods (local leather is *cheap* here) and tons of Yerba Mateand TANGO dancers. Here and in the San Telmo region on the weekends you will find lots of tango dancer pairs dancing in the many squares of the region. If you are interested you can even get a free quick lesson and dance session on the spot!

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For shopping we checked out Patio Bulriche (nice upscale mall) where I got a Carpincho leather wallet for my dad. And Mulriche 666, which is like "leather alley" and you can get good quality stuff for like a third of what it would cost in the States (you need to buy local brands though). Amusingly one of the sales guys took a lighter to a jacket Alex wanted to buy to prove to him that it was real leather (plastic melts) mortifying Alex as he wanted to buy that very jacket.

The next day we walked around the historic Recoleta district and the famous Recoleta Cemetary, which is super difficult to "get into" where only the richest (a plotcancostover $10M USD) and most prestigious Buenos Aires families get into (you need connections as well as the space is "limited"). The notable exception is famous former first lady Eva Peron (the Eva in "Evita"). Neaerby the cemetary there is yet another large crafts fair... a design mall full of cool hip art, furniture and bathroom/housing stuff. A little further is the local law school, which Vicki and Mujon checked out to see if the law school student were more attractive than in the States (verdict was yes for Harvard Law, no for other places). Near the law school is a big scuplture that looks like a HUGE metal flower... the cool thing about the sculpture is that it has solar panels that open the petals when the sun comes out and closes them when night falls, like a real flower.

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Argentines like their beef (and leather) and so we visited the Cabana Las Lilas in the Puerto Madero region - this restaurant is famous for it's award winning beef and we just had to give it a try. We had some ribeyes and ny strip steaks that were quite tasty and juicy (the first of *many* steaks) and we finished it off with a molten chocolate souffle and a dulce de leche cake (another popular item in our daily eatings). While this restaurant is good, it is pricey and definitely not the only place that has good beef and you should look around. We also went to the Four Season's hotel which has an excellent lunch buffet for $35 pesos ($12) this isn't you typical buffet, you still order your main course (we got more beef) but the sides and offers are very good quality for a buffet. Restaurants we ended up checking out are Olsen (http://www.frommers.com/destinations/buenosaires/D55884.html), Sucre (www.sucrerestaurant.com.ar), Casa Cruz(http://www.frommers.com/destinations/buenosaires/D55868.html), Filo and some other places.

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Olsen has a very 60-70's Ikea look to it as it is warehouse converted a Scandinavian restaurant, it has a bunch of cool little Nordic appetizers and entrees.The "extremely attractive waiters" that speak excellent accented English were present as advertised in the reviews. The prices were decent.

Casa Cruz has a very old school Europe look to it for, with HUGE twelve foot tall bronze doors leading the way into a dark redwood dining area and golden cross patterns on the walls... oh yea and a modern rendition of the crucifixion of Christ as a female. It is apparently a very "chic" place and you will see the rich, famous, and pretty there often. The menu is very prententious and a bit pricey for Argentinian standard (not bad with the 3:1 exchange rate though)- most of the entrees were fun to eat, but I'd stay away from the exotic sounding dessert... for instance we had a cheese/spinach souffle with goat cheese ice cream (it wasn't bad, just didn't seem like dessert although ice cream was weird) and like a eucalyptus chocolate cake which again wasn't terrible, just a very very unusual combination of flavors. So really go there for the something interesting to see/taste.

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Sucre is also a very chic/pretentios place... but fun to check out. They shelves behind the bar is 4 stores tall in a variety of interesting colors (you walk by the third level on a catwalk to go to the bathroom) and they have like a "bunker" in the center of the area for the wine. Again the food is perhaps a little overpriced, so go here to check out the atmosphere more than pure good cheap food (which can be found at a lot of other places). Both Sucre and Casa Cruz require reservations.

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Filo is a pizzeria with Argentinian style pizza (basically fresh tomatoesinstead of sauce), with the large Italian immigrant population, there are pizzeria everywhere! Very cheap and hearty. Try them out!

Don't forget that Argentina is a siesta schedule... so restaurants tend to open after 8:30PM and second seatings are like at 10:45PM, clubs open around 11:30PM and don't get started until 1AM!