Spring in South America — The Towering Travelers

Jason and I picked Buenos Aires to visit for a few reasons: it was in the southern hemisphere, which made the weather favorable in our chosen travel time of late November; Jason’s sister Emilie had lived there for a few weeks after college and liked it; and it had an interesting reputation as a European-feeling city in South America, which just sounded cool. Having already decided to save Patagonia for a separate trip to Chile, we decided to focus our time on the city of Buenos Aires, with a couple of days in Mendoza for good measure (and good wine).

Our first Airbnb apartment was in San Telmo, one of the oldest areas of the city. It’s known for great food and great tango, as well as more classic architecture. Our apartment was historic and quirky and adorable. It was also right on the Plaza Dorrego, where there was always something going on - outdoor dining, tango lessons, a street fair. During the day at our apartment in San Telmo, we were constantly serenaded by our neighbor’s slow, classic music, which was occasionally punctuated by the tango playing in the square outside, a bird on the roof, or a child crying next door.

The under construction, cobblestone streets of San Telmo (not entirely practical for vehicles but essential for maintaining charm) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The beautiful blooming trees (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A random paint party in a park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A line to take pictures with the blooming BA sign (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Police near the Casa Rosada (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we landed in the city and got checked in to our apartment, we started walking. We visited Puerto Madero, which is full of chain restaurants and new modern housing developments; we found a marijuana legalization rally in one of the plazas; we went to a classic Argentinian restaurant for dinner. On the first full day, we started our 15-mile walk by visiting the incredibly European-feeling Cafe Tortoni, which has been around since 1858, where we got some coffee and medialunas (sort of like softer, sweeter croissants). We saw the Recoleta Cemetery, where I could not stop marveling about how much all of the marble must have cost; visited the El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore, which is definitely the grandest bookstore I’ve ever set foot in; we marveled at the giant Floralis Generica, which apparently closes and opens with the sun. After a visit to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, which has a great collection, we visited a local brewery. It was a good day.

The ceiling in Cafe Tortoni (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our breakfast at Cafe Tortoni (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Beautiful murals were everywhere (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A delicious apple pancake thing (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Reflections at the Recoleta Cemetery (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A cemetery cat (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The sky from the cemetery (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Through the window of the Teatro Colón (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The amazing El Ateneo Grand Splendid (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Floralis Generica (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A painted outdoor staircase at the national library (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A brewery with a surprise skate park in the back (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Saturday, we started walking to the La Boca neighborhood, where we quickly understood that the Boca Juniors were playing a futbol game that evening. It was an ill-fated futbol game, but we didn’t learn that until later. As we walked through the neighborhood, the energy was high. There were block parties, but there were also just people walking around the neighborhood waving flags and singing, punctuated by the supportive honks of the city’s drivers. Later we learned that the match had to be postponed because fans of River, the other team, threw rocks at a La Boca bus and hurt some of the players. It was a huge disappointment to everyone who had traveled for the game, and the rematch was removed from Buenos Aires as punishment. Everyone we talked to about the incident was adamant that it was really unusual for things to get that out of hand.

Game excitement (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Street party (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A mural next to the Boca Juniors stadium (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Street mechanics (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eventually, we got to the iconic painted streets of Barrio La Boca. Buenos Aires has an incredible number of murals and colorful buildings, but La Boca in a league of its own. The buildings in a small cluster of streets near the river are all painted bright colors, and many of the restaurants and bars have life-sized dolls hanging out of the upper windows and leering at the people below. It’s all quite surreal, but incredibly picturesque. We found a restaurant with a great outdoor courtyard and ate some choripan, which I would definitely recommend to anyone.

Paint extending to the river (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dolls hanging from the balconies (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Classic colors (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Painted buildings in La Boca (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The courtyard at lunch (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A classic grill (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A very, very large door (Photo/Jason Rafal)

During our time in the city, I began to understand why it is so special. It is definitely very European feeling - a large percentage of the population is actually from Italian decent - but with some local flair. This was my first time in South America, so I didn’t have much to compare it to, but Buenos Aires had a unique feel that was both sophisticated and friendly. The language was Spanish with some Italian influences, which made it even more difficult for us to understand, with our limited amount of Spanish and almost no knowledge of Italian. Everyone was very nice to us and accommodating, though, and the language barrier never felt like a real problem.

On Sunday, we hung out in San Telmo before flying out to Mendoza. We started the morning walking through the San Telmo street fair, which had a mile of craft stalls, then spent some time in the San Telmo market, where we ate some really delicious choripan at La Choripaneria. It was a lovely goodbye to the area.