Buenos Aires, the provacative city
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2007
1
23
81
Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Monday, December 31, 2007
We finally bought our bus tickets out of Buenos Aires and will be heading to Iguazu Falls on Jan 2nd. I´m really excited to get on the road again because BA is much more expensive than expected and I would like to see something other than cement. However, this doesn´t mean I´d never return.
Buenos Aires is quoted in our Marriot hotel book as being the "provocative city - like an unforgettable woman." I´m not so sure I agree with that, but I suppose any metaphor has it´s good and bad points. The city is massive and has at least 10 different areas of town all with very different faces. It´s much like NYC but instead of the upper east side, village or meat packing district, Buenos Aires has San Telmo, Recolleta, Palermo or Microcentre. Plus a dozen other areas. Right now we are staying in Retiro, but I´d have to say Palermo and Recolleta are my favorite. Both have streets lined with trees and house numerous posh restaurants and little boutique shops. Recolleta is more pricey and the condos look newer and more luxurious, but Palermo has a little more to offer in terms of nightlife.
Another area of town is Puerto Madero which is along the water front and lined with expensive restaurants and cafes. It´s a wonderful place to stroll hand in hand with your husband or lover of the week, but you might as well be in any American port city. Jana, Brittany, Marc, Rory and I all went out to dinner at Asia de Cuba in this area and had a blast. Touchy, slimy men everywhere. Got to love that South American culture.
Speaking of culture, Buenos Aires is known for it´s fabulous Tango shows so we weren´t about to miss out. Jana, Brittany, Nelson, Emily, Rory and I all went to see the show at Senor Tango, recommendation thanks to Tucker. The show includes dinner and all the wine you can drink, plus champagne at the end of the night. The dancing was flawless and incredibly sexy. However, the singing was not so impressive. This Argentinian man we coined Senor Tango sang song after song through his shapely little mustache which almost drove us all to walk out. Thank god we stayed though because the dancers came back out to perform a number to the song Roxanne from Moulan Rouge. I almost died, I love that song/movie/tango dance. Obviously, Rory and I picked out our favorite dancer as he fantasized about "1-2-3- hotel" - threesome for those who weren´t there. And of course I threw in words of encouragement and made some broken promises - all in a good nights work well done. Such a tease. After the show we all made our way back to our respective hotels and slept until about 1 in the afternoon.
Sleeping in has become a habit that is very hard to break. At this point, Rory and I can´t even fall asleep before 2a.m. We usually wake up around noon and finally leave the room at about 3p.m. It´s crazy, but what´s even more crazy is that this is how most of the people down here live. Hardly anyone goes out for dinner before 10 p.m. and if you´re at a club before 3 a.m. you´re obviously a tourist. One night we finished dinner at 1:30 in the morning and the restaurant was still packed! Another night we stopped in Burger King for some late night fries and saw at least 2 families sitting down with their small children who were wearing Burger King crowns and playing with their happy meal toys. And this was at around 2 a.m. in the morning! Crazy parents, put your child to bed! I´ve never experienced anything like it. Luckily, it works out perfectly for the type of schedule we´ve been on.
I´d have to say my favorite club here is Pacha. We made it to Crowbar the other night, but that´s a whole different story made extremely juicy and highly embarrassing for someone I will not mention. But Pacha, ah, Pacha. Our experience is best remembered by watching the sun rise over the ocean while dancing to filthy house music out on the back terrace. Rory compared it to the Space terrace. The club was packed and the music was thumping. Tranies were everywhere and a short little dude fucked out of his head kept Rory entertained by making crazy faces every time he turned around. We met these 3 dudes from Miami who joined us at the club and the 5 of us partied until they kicked us out. GTs.
One last thing and then I´m taking off. At this point in our travels, Rory and I could consider ourselves food experts, or at least international cuisine critics. We´ve been eating out for every meal and trying as many different types of cuisine as possible in every different city. As for Buenos Aires, besides the amazing steak places, it´s only so-so. I believe there is one Mexican restaurant in town, one Thai place, 2 Indian places, and no Chinese. All the restaurants in the center serve the exact same menu of beef, chicken, fish, and pasta and they all charge and arm and a leg because it´s very touristy. The only fast food available is Burger Kind and Mc Donalds and there´s no exciting street food to stare at while deciding if you want the fried ant or the guinea pig. Italian food is big here, but you can only eat pasta so much. If you like steak, fillet, chirizo, or any part of the cow on the grill, come to BA. Otherwise, you´ll be sorely disappointed.
