Buenos Aires

Lots of beer. That’s how it started.

Arriving in BA on a Friday gave me little option but to immediately start partying. I met some awesome peeps on the roof terrace of the hostel and one cold litro of beer lead to many others. SuperMike the Canadian and Tilly the Aussie made sure I knew exactly what BA is all about: the party! The nightlife is a blur of plazas, bars, clubs and restaurants. Going out before 2:00am is pointless and no one gets home earlier than 6:00am. The partying carried on in a similar vein for the entire week with only one night of being sensible. Even then I stayed at the hostel drinking and talking ‘til 3:00am. The highlight of the parties was definitely La Bomba de Tiempo. It’s a Monday night institution in BA. Fifteen percussionists on stage building the crowd into a frenzy in an amazing open-air warehouse with funky murals and graf everywhere. Absolutely essential for anyone visiting BA.

It’s a tricky balancing act between living the party life and seeing what else the city has to offer but I managed to walk around a fair bit. BA has a very European feel with dramatic architecture, generous plazas and statues on every other corner. People are beautiful and always smiling and happy to meet foreigners visiting their city. The area I stayed in, Palermo, is a larney, spacious neighbourhood with a laid back attitude and plenty of great places to eat, drink and pretend you’re a local. The highlight of the sightseeing for me was the Recoletta Cemetary. It’s a maze of marble and ostentation with a slightly creepy feel. I always like seeing things in a city that are unique and this is certainly one of a kind. It’s not so much a cemetery as a neighbourhood of mausoleums, each more incredible than the last. Other than that, just walking around the streets in the centre is fascinating and there are awesome monuments dotted around the city centre, flanked by amazing buildings and huge churches. The market streets are a constant hive of action with hawkers peddling the tacky to the bizarre to the beautiful; and tango dances luring people into their shows with brief, passionate displays. You could walk the streets for days and never get bored!

Most of the people I’ve spoken to who’ve been travelling around South America say that BA is very atypical for a city in Latin America. I’m really looking forward to getting a bit more rugged. Next stop is Salta in the North of Argentina and then on to the salt flats in Bolivia which are apparently surreally beautiful.

I’m thinking of you all plenty and I know everyone of you would love this crazy place.


Check out the photos here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.489484771889.267859.514871889&l=941c4f244b