South America

On the evening of the 10th, we arrived back to multi lane roads and traffic entering Mendoza, a contrast after 2 months in Patagonia. Here we met Philip at Parque Central where we parked the van before hopping on a night bus to Buenos Aires for a city break!

Fresh off the bus, we found our way to our hostel for a nap before heading out and exploring the botanical garden park near Plaza Italia and street art around Palermo district. Back to city life, we enjoyed some beers at plaza serrano and Korean food at Maniko Palermo.

The next day we joined a walking tour exploring La Boca, one of Buenos Aires’ poorest barrios and once the location of the citys port where 6 million Europeans immigrants arrived to make Argentina their home. Left over paint used to maintain the port’s barges was used to cover the corrugated iron and zinc walls of the poor immigrants homes which gave this famous barrio its unique and colourful identity. La Boca is also famed for the origins of tango as well as the football club Boca Juniors. After the walking tour, we enjoyed pasta at Cantina Patio La Boca for lunch before heading to Plaza de Mayo, the main public and political square of Buenos Aires. On route back to the hostel we stopped for cones at the famous ice cream shop Cadore before Joe headed to his asado course for the evening (Secrets of asado by Sacha Bro, found on air bnb).

On the 13th, we organised a few hours of much needed Spanish lessons at Vamos Academy in the morning. Afterwards, we enjoyed a coffee at Negro Cueva de Café and a wander around El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookshop followed by a famed empanada lunch at La Cocina. In the afternoon we visited the Cementerio de la Recoleta on a walking tour. Here we were able to see numerous and impressive mausoleums and vaults, belonging to many of the main protagonists of Argentine history, such as that of Eva Perón (Evita). The cemetery also had many interesting stories such as Liliana Crociati, who died during her honeymoon and for whom her parents built a vault where they reproduced her bedroom and placed her sculpture at the entrance, wearing her wedding dress with which she was buried and accompanied by his inseparable dog . In amongst the vaults, our walking tour guide also showed us a green and gold grave of Mayo- born Admiral William Brown, founder of the Argentine navy, who died in 1857. After the tour, we enjoyed the best steak at La Cabrera (6:30pm happy hour 40 percent off full menu) and enjoyed some drinks at Pain et Vin.

The next day we continued with a few more hours of Spanish lessons at vamos academy followed by pizza at the establishment El Cuartito before visiting Ecopark, formerly a historic Buenos Aires Zoo from 1888 to 2016. The Ecopark is now the center for the conservation of native species in danger of extinction and aims to promote environmental education. It was interesting to see the old zoo buildings which housed different animals and how the victorian architecture reflected the animal's country of origin. For dinner, we had more Argentinian pizza 'Fugazza' at Pizzería Güerrín.

The following morning we walked through Museo Sitio de Memoria ESMA, a sombering and emotional visit. The ESMA navy building, once a navy training school was turned into a torture camp during the last civil-military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983) known as the Dirty War. Here we learnt the all too recent and scary history of the dictatorship when the military took control from the government and any suspected activists were abducted, tortured and killed. Approximately 5,000 people who were detained here are still missing. Most of them were dropped alive into the sea on the so called "death flights". Today the building is material evidence about State terrorism in ongoing trials. 

In the afternoon, we went to a cooking class in San Telmo run by bsasmio that we found on air bnb. We met some french students here on erasmas and enjoyed making traditional empanadas, alfajores and drinking mate. Afterwards we explored the area, stopping for a drink at the Federal Bar before wandering through the food stalls in mercado San telmo. That night was relaxed at Plaza Dorrego and watched some tango dancing before finding the best choripan at La Parri.

On our last day in Buenos Aires, we enjoyed some more facturas at Confitería Luis XV before heading back to San Telmo to visit the sunday street fair, one of the biggest markets we have ever been at! We enjoyed an afternoon wandering through the stalls before meeting up with our hiking friend Elena from Patagonia and enjoying some last minute food at Mercado San Telmo before running to catch our night bus back to Mendoza. In our rush, we accidentally made a wrong turn beside retiro bus station and unwittingly entered Villa 31, a notorious slum before we were quickly shouted at to turn around and safely found the actual bus station entrance.

Overall, there is so much more we could have done in Buenos Aires so hopefully we can get back here one day! Never the less, we enjoyed eating our way through Buenos Aires..!

Accomodation: Two nights at Selina Hostel Palermo, recommended by Sheila, great location and nice comfortable bunk beds.
Three nights Voyage Hostel, Recoleta- central location close to our Spanish school, dorms a bit old and dated but accepts cash so we could use blue rate which made it super cheap!

Recommendations: Allll the food spots we included above!

Other Recommendations we didn't make it to: Don Julio for steak
Burger Joint Palermo
La Bomba De Tiempo (Centro Cultural Konex on Monday nights)Read more