We’ve been in Buenos Aires for a week now, and our time has been packed. This second largest city on the continent makes Lima and Santiago look really dull in comparison. It also feels more European than South American. We’ve been watching movies, tango shows, soccer games, planetarium shows, acrobatics, going out to drink with expats, eating really well and loving it.
We started the first night in a hostal in the center that was entirely Israelis besides us. We’d heard about all the Israeli’s traveling around, but this was the first time we’ve been REALLY exposed to it. I think Israelis are vampires, because they do NOT seem to sleep at night. We had to move from that hostal after the first night because we like to sleep at night. However, all the noise they made until 5 in the morning didn’t bother me since I had had too much to drink at an all you can drink gathering at the South American Explorers club house.
The next place we found in San Telmo (a neighborhood south of the center) was awesomely cheap and big. It was like having our own apartment for only 50 pesos (about $16). We stayed there the entire rest of the time.
From there we spent most everyday exploring various parts of this gigantic city. This included street fairs, junk markets, parks, the subway system, cemetaries, and lots of great vegetarian restaurants. We even found a place that was all raw food. It was nice to find that counter balance after having to listen to people go on and on about how good their dead cow carcass was every night. Even if I ate meat like I used to, the amount of steak people eat here would make me sick.
Going to a soccer game of River Plate (one of the major local teams) was one of my highlights. The general admission cheap seats are moving, chanting, singing, shouting the entire game, and are more fun to watch than the actual game. We didn’t sit there though, which I think was good so we could admire the action both on and off the field from afar. The game even turned out to be great. Both teams were tied 1-1 until close to the very end. With about 2 mintues left to go in the game there was a fight and one of the River Plate players got a red card, so they were ejected and River Plate was a man down. Almost immediately aftewards they took the ball down the field and scored a goal with maybe 30 seconds left to win the game. Awesome.
The one thing I wish we had done and didn’t was go to a live show in Spanish, which there were a TON of. It’s basically like Broadway, New York, but everything’s in Spanish. We did see a tango show which was fun, and we really like the music. Part of the show though was folkloric dances, which I think was fascinating since they guy does most of the flair stuff and is very active with lots of stomping and props. We also saw a bit of tango in the plazas.
This is the only city in South America we’ve spent more than a week in without doing volunteer work there, and I think I could easily enjoy more time there. If you’re looking for a cheap place to vacation but still have a ton of fun, get here quick before Argentina’s economy fully recovers and becomes one of the most expensive on the continent again.