Buenos Aires

It was very strange departing Auckland at 20:00 and arriving in Buenos Aires at 16:30 on the same day so it took a while for our bodies to readjust to the time difference again. Buenos Aires is a large city and consists of forty eight neighborhoods. Therefore we decided to do the bus tour to explore as many neighborhoods as we could. Honestly the bus tour wasn't the most interesting as there was a lot of facts to certain famous buildings or monuments but they didn't really tell us many stories to the facts. Although I did learn that Buenos Aires sits on the river bank of the widest river in the world, the Rio de la Plata and it also has the widest street in the world, 9 de Julio Avenue.

We also did a walking tour of La Boca. La Boca is a famous district of Buenos Aires. It was where the first port of Buenos Aires was located and in turn became the area where immigrants lived. However it is now famous for the La Boca Junior football team. This tour was really interesting we learned about how tango was formed in La Boca from a variety of dances and was first dismissed by the elite of Argentina until the French heard about the dance. We also learned that an Irish man, William Brown, set up the Argentina Navy in 1810 and his grave now is painted green.

We went to a percussion concert by La Bomba de Tiempo while in Buenos Aires. It involved sixteen musicians who used tamborines, drums and shakers to create songs. The conductor was amazing as he was able to show part of the group a new rhythm to play during the song and then they would change what they were playing without a pause. It was fascinating to watch and the music sounded beautiful. It's definitely a highlight of the trip.

The following evening we got picked up and brought to a tango show in Cafe de los Angelitos. This is one of the main things to do while in Buenos Aires and it didn't disappoint. We got served a three course dinner followed by a tango show which involved tango dance, music and singing. I really enjoyed this show it was a brilliant evening as there was a lovely athmosphere as everyone ate their meal and then everyone went silent as we were all enthralled by the show.

Buenos Aires was an interesting city. There is a lot of international influence here and it seems very multicultural. There is some nice districts and I enjoyed learning more about La Boca. However it was the music that was the best part of visiting Beunos Aires. I would highly recommend seeing the La Bomba de Tiempo preform and a tango show as both were amazing to watch in their own ways. Now we are heading to Uruguay for a few days however we will return to Argentina when we go to the Iguazu waterfalls.Read more