Good food week
Trip Start
Nov 13, 2005
1
39
72
Trip End
Jul 13, 2006
Buenos aires,
Argentina
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
well the love affair began in some out of town bus station that for some reason we got dropped off at (the normal terminal is in the centre of town, we were a 40 min bus ride away), after figuring out our bearings (at 6am in the morning) we managed to ring around and find a place to stay, and figure out the BsAs bus network.
we spent our first day in recolleta which houses a pretty nice market, a pretty impressive art museum and a cemetary that houses argentinas rich and famous. The cemetary itself is really grand, and the vaults themselves are impressive. They are built to hold entire families and honetly, some are as big and grand as a NYC apartment. One of the most famous graves in the cemetary houses Eva Peron (Evita), where all the argentinians flock to take photos. We also discovered great icecream (yay for italian immigrants), great food (yay for italian immigrants) and great wine (yay for italian immigrants).
another day was spent in the historical surburb of san telmo, a cobblestone street surburb filled to the brim gorgeous antique stores, selling absolutely everything. The sunday market was interesting, and samson and I came across a market full of young local fashion designers selling their handiwork. We also discovered the best parrilla in argentina that we have come across so far for the bargain price of $4.50US for 2. So much food that we struggled to come close to finishing it! The chimichurri (chilli sauce) here was the best! YUM
Unfortunetly it wasnt until our third day in Bs As that we discovered its brillant shopping. I know Ive been in backpacker land for a while, but i can honestly compare the shopping of that to Hong kong. things were on sale which made it super cheap, but even at full price things are affordable. Samson had to check his vision when he saw he could buy a christian dior belt at full price from the boutique for 60US. CRAZY:
Needless to say both samson and I spent about 3 weeks budget on clothes replacing our whole entire wardrobes and more. Thankfully shipping is cheaper here and we have sent back 10kg of souvineers to make room for the new purchases.
Food in BsAs could nearly rival any big city around the world. Flash Flash restuarants costing us around $30-40US for two including drinks (3 courses) were welcomed with open arms, with the creativity of the dishes amazing. We were even spoilt with a choice, from first class french, delicate japanese, traditional korean!
Coupled with excellent argentinian wine, we were in absolute BLISS.
We also found time to see a tango show in buenos aires (we had a tango lesson, but after two hours sweating away we decided it wasnt for us!). The dance itself is amazing and extreamly sexy. We saw some of the coolest live music we have expereiced on this trip (better than cuba). BsAs is amazing.
Futbol. Unfortunetly for us the official soccer season hasnt started, but we were lucky to see a pre-season match. Neither of the clubs we saw were boca jr or river but the independencia match that we saw was as colourful and wild as anything. At first we were a little hesitant to go, since we have heard that it can get rough, however a bus later we made it to the stadium and for $6us ($4 for me coz im a girl!) we were in the stadium jumping up and down amongst the crazies. Of course we sat with the home crowd all donned in red (we dressed appropriately) and yelled as the teams chanted all their songs and danced the club dances. Our crowd was so wild and loud you could hear them 5 blocks away. Incredible expereince. Im not sure what how crazy a futbol match can get, but im sure that what we saw was pretty close to extream craziness (except a boca vs river game i suspect)
we really didnt want to part from BsAs, but we needed to rush on to brasil to make it to salvador carnivale on the 23rd and the free Roilling Stones concert that is apparently on cochacababa (is that how u spell it) beach in rio on the 18th. wild i tell u.
luckily we will be back in a few months, as our last stop before flying onto europe...
Comments
Buenos Aires
Not surprised you love Argy Amber, knowing how much you love food!.... its areal shame they cant manage the economy!!
How good is the meat there? and pastas? did you try the pastas in BA? In London food is shocking, i buy imported Argentinian meat! jejeje
Anyways, have a great time in Brasil, its crazy, you will love it, i am actually thinking of going again for seconds, maybe Carnival 2007 in Recife or Olinda!