Tango, Steak and Wine!

Omg. We heart BA! and here's why...

Our final destination in S.America was Buenos Aires, arriving 2 weeks before our departure flight. We loved this city so much we decided to stay, skipping trips to Iguazu Falls (I know, we're crazy but we couldn't bear 2 more 17 hour bus rides!) and Uruguay. We stayed in the historic, antiquey San Telmo neighborhood which offered great wine and a wonderful leafy plaza for people watching and if you know us at all, you know that people watching is quite possibly our favorite activity. San Telmo's cobblestone streets are lined with antique shops, markets, restaurants and cafes serving fresh hot medialunas, oh and boutiques organized by color, where P spent a great amount of time having fun with outfits. Sunday's antique fair in San Telmo's Plaza Dorrego dislpays live music and dancing amidst rows and rows of antique stalls selling everything from clothing to jewelry to old colorful gramophones. 

While in BA, we caught a few tango shows and plenty bottles of wine. Though P shied away from the $5 grass fed steaks, M claims they're the best she's ever had. We were ecstatic to watch Obama's inauguration live online, which gave us even more reason to pop the corks on a few more tasty bottles and celebrate with some Irish friends we met, who of course make great party partners.

Buenos Aires boasts plenty to do to keep you busy for 2 weeks. Plenty of window shopping to be done at various boutiques throughout many of the BA neighborhoods, gigantic, fancy airconditioned malls for browsing to escape the summer heat, enough pedestrian ways with restaurants, shops and crafts, your choice of museums, European architecture, plazas, monuments and parks to kill time at...and the list goes on.

One of our highlights was the Evita museum, in the beautiful Recoleta neighborhood, which boasts a mansion full of artifacts detailing Evita's rise to fame in Argentina. It's well worth the 5 bucks or so, very informative and touching. Love 'em or hate 'em, the Perons where one of Argentina's most influential families and this museum should not be missed. From there we visited Recoleta cemetary, where many of Argentina's rich and famous lie beneath massive, elaborate headstones- of course Evita Peron's is a must see. We ended our Evita day by visiting Plaza de Mayo, where she gave her famous speeches off the balconies of the Pink House.

As much as we love BA, there is one downfall- their "monedas," they simply do not exist. So to ride the buses around BA, you need exact change for the fares which vary between 1.10 pesos up to 4 pesos, the problem is, NOBODY in BA will give you coins. If something costs 2.60 pesos and you don't have the change, you simply can't have it! This can really piss a girl off when it's 90 degrees out and all she wants is a bottle of water, which conveniently costs between 2.20 pesos and 2.50 pesos. If you ask a store owner for monedas, you'll get a response convincing you that you are indeed insane and your request is absurd, with animation of arms flailing and all. Your best bet is the bank, you'll wait in line at the bank to learn that you are only allowed 3 peso coins at a time per person, no exceptions. WHAT?! After asking many Portenos what the deal is with the coins, we learned that the bus companies basically own all the coins in the city and they sell them for profit on the blackmarket. So, unless you know where to go to buy these precious monedas, you're outta luck and save yourself the embarassment, don't ask anyone for coins.

That being said, if you can avoid the need of monedas, Buenos Aires is definitely a place worthy of your time, so go!