Two BA lovers in BA barrios

Our stay in Buenos Aires was a hot one. We took the ferry across the channel from Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay, and landed in the middle of busy BA. The ferry was pretty big, and reminded Ivan of the ferries that cross to Vancouver island. We crossed the channel in a short hour.!

After stepping out of the harbor, just the short walk to the taxi had our clothes plastered to us. The taxi driver said it would be cooler today (only 35 degrees!), which was still stifling. We chose to stay in the Tango Hostel, which didn't have any Tango in it, but it had a fun enough vibe - if stifling hot at all hours of the day.

*so we don't have to repeat ourselves, just assume that if we are inside or outside, irregardless of time of day, we are sweating profusely and drinking 4 liters of water/hour. It was between 38 and 42 degrees on most days..!*

Our first day in the city we walked the street bazaar of barrio San Telmo, which was about 15-20 blocks of street vendors selling antiques, crafts, artwork, and all the things that gets Kristin very, very excited. After arriving at the hostel Kristin was jumping with excitement that we would have a couple hours to peruse the street fair (of course Ivan was equally overjoyed!!). During our time we discovered Ivan fancied shopping a bit more than Kristin because he ended up purchasing a very stylish leather cowboy hat and a new knife. Where Kristin only purchased a small Christmas gift to bring home. The street fair lead us to the Plaza de Mayo, which has centuries of history. We were very lucky to get a tour of the Casa Rosada and see the presidential offices and anterooms. The interior was beautiful, and still a very functional part of the government. Unfortunately we missed the mother's of the Disappeared, who march every Thursday around the Plaza de Mayo dressed in white with photo's of their missing loved ones. After the tour, Kristin dragged Ivan through some more street shopping, and by 9:00 we made it to our oven of a hostel for a small dinner and some fruit.

San Telmo's Famous Sunday Market

Giddy Up! This Cowboy is ready for BA!

Casa Rosada

By the end of the day Ivan (yet again!) had lobster feet!

The Presidential Office

Our second day in BA we walked to the famous barrio Recoleta, which has the Recoleta cemetary, or dead people shrines for the super-wealthy. We both decided it was a beautiful cemetery, but it wouldn't be our preferred style of resting place... The cemetery has blocks, much like a city, with many unique and often over-the-top shrines. Like most cemetery's, the epitaphs were very optimistic impressions of the people inside the marble boxes, but it was pretty cool seeing different presidential, aristocratic, and ecclesiastical shrines. The black marble radiated the sun, so we decided to catch a cab to a popular mall nearby to escape the heat. We ended up seeing a movie called Unthinkable, not the best film, but a great way to enjoy some AC and cheap popcorn! After the film we walked to the obelisk and the congressional building, both emblematic sites of the old city. Ivan loved the architecture of the massive congressional building, which he thought was much more impressive than our own white house (blasphemer??)... We noticed that many of the buildings had seen better days, but they were still majestic in their own way - even though they constantly dripped AC condensation on us.!

La Recoleta Cemetery

Peeking in

The Obelisk

The Famous Congressional Building

The next couple days we toured different barrios of the city. A memorable one was La Boca, which is the Harlem of BA. The poorer barrio has the richest culture of the city, and is the birthplace of the sensual and passionate Tango. It also has some of the goofiest buildings, which are all painted with the colors of the rainbow. It was over-fun with tourists, but still a fun place to cruz around. Supposedly it transforms at night and is very sketchy, but during the day it was very lively with Tango shows, live bands, and lots of artists selling their touristy wares. Of course, La Boca is also famous for its soccer stadium, where fans make crazed American Football fans look like tame puppies... The arena isn't very big, but it packs the people in, has cheap and bottomless kegs of Quilmes beer, and many of the fans bring their noisemakers, facepaint, flags, oh and the other noisemakers: guns.... We talked to some tourists that went to a futbal game, and they both said it was an unforgettable experience, because they were sure it was thier last experience... Just make sure you cheer at the right times.!!

La Boca, que lindo!

rebel.

We also splurged on a Tango show in a prestigious night club. The show had an option for dinner, but we decided to eat dinner at a cozy cafe beforehand and then enjoy the show with our own (included!!) bottle of wine and empanadas. The show was incredible!! The band was very talented, and the dancers were equally gifted. The show was 2 hours of Tango, singing, and even folkloric pieces. We had heard that Tango is "vertical lovemaking," which is a very apt description - with kicking and maybe even some clawing in between.. The dancers all had fantastic costumes which complemented their coordinated movements. Our favorite part of the show was during the flokloric section, where the muscians played a charango, zampona, cow-hide drum, and a guitar. On top of their wonderful music, a gaucho came out with boots, pampero pants, and a giant belt. The best part of his routine were two different strings with a ball attached to the end of each one. These he swung around in fast repetition and dizzying patterns, and then started to strike the floor while stomping his heels with the beat. The percussion that came out of these 2 swinging strings and his heels was jaw dropping. It reminded Kristin of her tap-dancing days, but on steroids. All in all, it was an unforgettable evening with great music, beautiful dancing, wine, singing, and clapping. Definitely a must-see when in BA!! After the show we were going to continue the night at a local Tango club, however big foot Ivan stubbed his foot earlier that day and claimed he wouldn't be able to dance...(good excuse, huh?!)

Surprise! We actually were the feature dancers of the show! Imagine that, two gringo's stealing the show!

After 4 nights of losing 5-10 pounds of body fluids to relentless sweating, we decided to celebrate the New Year in Nechochea, a city perched on 72km of beachfront. While it is hot here as well, the ocean is beautiful, and the air is fresh, and the waves are the best in all of Argentina (just no swell yet....). Feliz Ano Nuevo! And a Happy, Health, and Prosperous year to everyone!
We will be back to BA in March, once the heat settles down!