The first weekend in December Courtney and I hopped planes from two far away places and met in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We were supposed to go over Thanksgiving weekend but, as you read in my last post, I had an important Yanksgiving feast to prepare for my new South African friends.... yep, that’s how I remember it unfolding. Luckily, Courtney was able to make last minute arrangements to fly the other direction across the world and check out Tokyo. Whew, glad that all worked out!
Why on Earth did we choose Buenos Aires, you ask?? Naturally, we laid out a map of the world and looked at the halfway point between New York and Johannesburg: Dakar, Senegal!! To my surprise, that didn’t quite excite Courtney. So, we extrapolated from there and looked at all the cities with direct flights equidistant from the two of us. See map below.
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| Destination Decision Map |
Barcelona, Rome, Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt, and Stockholm were all on the line, but with Europe having the snowiest November on record, we looked south. A visa is required for Brazil, so Buenos Aires it was!
Seven days after our originally scheduled flights we jumped overnight planes to Argentina. With the time difference, Courtney was to arrive a few hours earlier than I, so we planned to meet at the hotel. Without any Spanish and a forty minute drive from the rural airport, I was relieved to arrive with Courtney already checked-in (proud of you CP!). We stayed at the beautiful Park Towers Hotel and got an upgraded room with a nice view of the city, thank you Starwood! Park Towers is in a great location and an incredibly fancy hotel, but maybe a bit misleading as it is attached to the Sheraton and Convention Center.
Visiting Buenos Aires in the early summer made for perfect weather to explore the many neighborhoods, eat outside, shop the markets, and attend sporting events.
The first day we walked from the hotel through some shopping districts to the old capital area and saw the Casa Rosada (Pink House) where the president lives, visited the cathedral, witnessed a protest, and ate lunch at Cafe Tortoni (the oldest cafe in Argentina).
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| Casa Rosada |
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| Protest |
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| Cafe Tortoni |
After lunch we made the long walk across town to Recoleta. The Recoleta neighborhood has many restaurants, high end shops, and parks, yet is probably most famous for its cemetery. We were wary of visiting a cemetery for recreation, but after being recommended by many, we took our chances. It turned out to be incredible! ...albeit a bit eerie. There were hundreds of grand mausoleums housing the remains of wealthy families, public figures, generals, and presidents (including Eva Peron).
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| Recoleta Cemetery |
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| Recoleta Cemetery |
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| Recoleta Cemetery |
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| Recoleta Cemetery |
That evening I took Courtney out for her birthday dinner. I had done my research and we had a reservation at the best steakhouse in BA, Cabana Las Lilas. We were able to walk from the hotel along to the new and bustling Puerto Madero district until we found the restaurant. I let the hostess know we had a reservation and without hesitation nor consulting her book she ushered us to our table (a bit odd). We sat in the empty restaurant speculating Argentina was a late dining culture. The steaks were juicy, wait staff nice, and we even got the largest chocolate desert I have ever seen... yet, still few other patrons. Courtney asked me what the name of the restaurant we were supposed to eat at was, “Cabana Las Lilas,” I said and she replied, “the menu says this place is La Cabana.”
Damn.
I held my ground and said that they must be the same place, “the reviews had a couple different spellings” I explained. That was until we walked two doors down and found “Cabana Las Lilas” filled to the brim with locals and tourists.
Two restaurants with the same word, argh. That hostess knew what she was doing the moment we walked in. After my frustration waned, we had quite the laugh... and had to eat at the other Cabana the following evening. It.was.exquisite.
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| The wrong Cabana |
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| Puerto Madero at night |
Post steak night part dos, Courtney and I went to a tango show and watched the locals in action. Yes, we bought the photo posing with the tango dancers.
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| Tango Show |
On our last full day in Argentina we went to the polo grounds and witnessed the national semi-finals. CP and I didn’t have our white denim, sweaters, and big glasses to fit in but we enjoyed the afternoon with the locals nonetheless. A terrace dinner in the Palermo neighborhood ended a great day.
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| Polo Match |
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| Tango Street Dancers |
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| Tango Street Dancers |
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| Tango Street Dancers |
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| La Feria |
The trip was incredible yet quick and probably only whetted our appetites for all the other things to do in South America. As if we needed another reason for an adventure!
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