Buenos Aires

We spent about a week chilling out and exploring Buenos Aires. BA is an awesome place to wander, and a good place to sample some Argentinian cuisine.

We had some enormous lomos and milanesas, and one night we grabbed the parrilla (grill). The parrilla is all you can eat (for around $9 per person) and came with everything from sweetbreads, heart and kidney, through to lomo, asado and bife de chorizo (all different kinds of steak), chorizo and blood sausage, as well as chicken and pork. It arrived at our table on a grill over a flame (should have got a photo but never mind, the memory lives on in our waistlines) and was a really impressive sight. Needless to say we didn't need a second round.

We went out to Tigre with Nate and Annie. Tigre is a wealthy barrio on the outskirts of BA, located on a river delta. We jumped on a boat and cruised around the delta. There are heaps of holiday homes, bars and shops which are only accessible by boat and we caught a glimpse back to BA which was pretty cool. I'm sure there is lots of wildlife out there (no tigres anymore, although that is how the area got its name) but we didn't see any.

Kickin' back:

 The delta also is a bit of a graveyard for old boats. We must have seen around a dozen.

 Our guess is the delta is pretty flood prone as all of the houses are raised.

 A glimpse of Buenos Aires in the distance:

We spent some time wandering the markets in Tigre, which were pretty cool. There were some pretty interesting mate cups, including some made from cows' hooves. I haven't seen any locals drinking from a hoof - you'd have to be pretty gaucho to do so I reckon.

Another day we wandered the San Telmo markets with Nate and Annie and their friend, Chris, who has been living in BA for a few months. The markets seem never ending, extending for about 15 blocks.

We also went down to El Caminito in La Boca barrio. The area is a classic tourist trap but at the same time the brightly painted buildings were a really cool sight and the area had quite a buzz to it.

Cat was seduced into some tango dancing with a local hombre.

Another highlight was the Recoleta cemetery, which is like no other cemetery we have ever been to. It was somewhat surreal wandering between the mausoleums, where a lot of the coffins remain visible just behind the doors. The cost of a plot here must be immense and it is definitely the cemetery for the super wealthy (we saw a lot of engineers' mausoleums, so the future looks bright/morbid). Of course we also visited that of Eva Peron, as all of the locals do, to shed a tear for the much loved former first lady.

Some of the other highlights included watching some of the Copa America football games featuring Argentina amongst the locals in bars, eating choripan (chorizo in bread), and visiting MALBA (the modern art museum).

We also found an awesome burger joint in Palermo, which reminded us of something you might find in the Lower East Side. The burgers were delicious, they sold good beer and sangria, and they were playing Seinfeld on the telly in the corner. We'd definitely go back if we're in BA again.

The lowlights were that we both got a bit sick (classic travellers' cold), and I got a stomach upset from a shitty curry from a pub where we watched the football. Should have stuck to the parrillas. On the plus side I got to really test my Spanish out buying medicines from the pharmacy.