Buenos Aires querida…

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Buenos Aires querida…

Buenos Aires, here we are … The land of our “hermanos”, as we Brazilians call our neighbors. We share the same passion for football, meat, dance and many other things, and in almost all of these there’s a rivalry 🙂

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But the fact is, whenever Argentinians come to Brazil or Brazilians go to Argentina, there’s mutual compassion and enjoyment.

That’s how I felt in Buenos Aires, as did Ruth and Noah. We’ve tried to enjoy the city and everything it has to offer to visitors as much as possible.

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Unfortunately, there was just a small setback. For the first 3 days of the trip Ruth was not feeling very well. She might have eaten something that did not agree with her, and to begin with this prevented her from enjoying the city. The problem is that we don’t even know what caused it … We ate nearly the same things every day prior to our arrival and sometimes shared dishes. Noah did too, and both of us were fine.

We took a little longer to go to the hospital than perhaps we should have, but this was because we thought she was feeling better on the second day. However, in the evening she was not so good again and the next morning we went to the hospital.

It was the second time we’d used the insurance we took out for this trip, and everything went smoothly. We called them, after a few minutes they called us back with the address of the hospital we should go to, and at the hospital everything was already arranged: they were waiting for Ruth and we did not have to pay for anything. We will talk about the importance of having full insurance for a long trip (or for any trip) in a different post, but in case you were wondering we used an insurance company called Iati Seguros, from Spain, that offers coverage for a year-long journey – even if you are not resident in Spain.

During those first 3 days we just visited bits of the city and the area surrounding the hotel: a neighborhood called San Telmo.

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Family Travel Secret
San Telmo is the place to be if you enjoy dancing. The national dance in Buenos Aires is called Tango, and there are plenty of places to see it in San Telmo. Normally this takes place in a restaurant which offers dinner before the show, so you will have a full evening to enjoy with friends, family or by yourself. Shame on us - we didn't go for an evening of Tango. This was for several reasons, but the night that we might have gone Noah was very tired, so we decided to stay at the hotel.

 

 

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Perhaps this was an ideal place for us to stay, as we were close to public transport, pharmacies, supermarkets, monuments, attractions, etc.

When we are in big cities like Buenos Aires, we really enjoy using buses or the metro to get from A to B rather than taking a taxi. It is cheaper and can allow us to get to places more quickly, depending on the time of day.

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Family Travel Secret
When using public transport in Buenos Aires you should purchase a card called Subte. This card can be purchased from kiosks and can be as cheap as 20 Pesos, the currency in Argentina. Then you just need to top up the card with some money, and every time you get on a bus or enter the train station you just use your card to pay for the ride.

 

On the first day we topped up the card with 50 Pesos, which was enough for the 3 of us to take a few rides on the metro over the first 3 days. Then we loaded some more money on just for the remaining days. We thought that public transport was very cheap and efficient in Buenos Aires.

However, like in other capitals around the world, the metro closes after a certain time in the evening. On those weekdays the metro closed at 11pm, so once (after dinner at Christian’s place) we had to take a bus to get back to the hotel. We could also have taken a taxi, but the bus dropped us very near the hotel.

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Boy, did we enjoy Buenos Aires …

The architecture is just beautiful, particularly in the Palermo area and the center. We felt like we were in a European city. Several decades ago, in what was the golden age of Buenos Aires, many buildings were constructed with the same architecture as in European cities due to the influence of immigrants. The result is a lovely city that is suffering with its economy and politics but attracts anyone coming to visit it.

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The “barrio” (neighborhood) of Recoleta is a place where wealthy families live, and you can see the results of that period when the economy was strong. Walking through the streets of Recoleta is great for that.

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Family Travel Secret
Don’t miss out on visiting one of the cafes in the city. Again, they mimic cafes in European cities like Paris, Vienna and London. We went to the Café La Biela for a cup of hot chocolate and a slice of cake, and apparently this is one of the most famous cafes in the city.

 

 

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Another place to visit is Puerto Madero, which is where the boats to Uruguay depart from and which is also known for its restaurants by the river.

Family Travel Secret
If you have the chance to stay more than 3 days in Buenos Aires, perhaps you might one to take a 1-day visit to the city of Colonia, in Uruguay. The travel time by boat is just 1 hour and this is an enchanting place to see, with medieval looks.

 

Unfortunately we did not go to Colonia. We should have purchased the ticket well in advance, and as Ruth was not feeling very well for the first 3 days we wouldn’t have had enough time to explore Buenos Aires and also go to Uruguay. This was a pity, as I was really looking forward to seeing Montevideo too, which is about 4 hours from Buenos Aires (by boat and bus). This will be kept for our next trip to South America.

One thing that we did do though was go to a typical restaurant serving meat. Just like in Brazil, in Argentina you can find a wide variety of cuts to suit all tastes and budgets, but if you are there you might want to try a Bife de Chorizo.

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As we left the restaurant we explored the Mercado de San Telmo a bit, which is a large street market where you can buy a variety of products, souvenirs, handcrafts, etc. And of course we did not miss the opportunity to take a picture with Mafalda, the clever child from the cartoons.

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It’s a pity we didn’t have more time in Buenos Aires and Argentina, but we spent some amazing days in the capital, and left with the feeling that it is a place to visit again in the future.

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Now we are ready to pack up and return to Brazil for a few days, where we will recharge our batteries, re-plan the trip and get ready for 11 more months, with no stop this time.

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Curitiba, here we go!

 

Important Facts
For the Subte we paid 20 Pesos at the airport, and we were able to share the same card between the 3 of us. Unfortunately we lost the card somewhere and had to buy a second one, which then cost us 30 Pesos. We even saw them for 40 Pesos in some places, so be careful and look around before purchasing so you get the cheapest one; One ride on the metro cost us 4.50 Pesos per person (Noah wasn't charged); San Telmo has many restaurants offering Tango evenings with dinner included. You can find them in other places in Buenos Aires too, but it seems there is a wider variety there. You can find just Tango for about US$ 50, and Tango with dinner included for as little as US$ 70; If you plan to go to Uruguay, there are 3 companies that provide a good service: Buque Bus, Colonia Express and Seacat. The first is the most expensive but also offers a direct boat to Montevideo, whereas the latter is the cheapest while still offering good services. Just try to book the trip well in advance via their websites.

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