TNT Travels

Otherwise known as the Paris of South America. We could see why it was called that looking at some of the buildings and avenues.

We had been in the taxi for less that 20mins before we encountered maradona’s giant mural on the side of a high rise building. Messi got the most attention in the areas we visited.

We were staying in the old docks area which has been transformed and is now home to lots of modern skyscrapers. It’s known as Puerto Madero.

Only slight downside was that the air con would occasionally leak in the night. Unfortunately for ET it was above the bed on his side. He reckons he got ‘soaked’ 3 times a night. Probably a good insight into later life!

San Telmo

On our 1st day evening we wandered in to the San Telmo area of the city. It’s the oldest barrio (neighbourhood) in BA. It’s now very bohemian and has a fantastic old Market and as you may have read in some of the other posts, we LOVE a market. This one was great it sold lots of fresh produce and had some great restaurant/cafe stalls. It’s hot in there but worth it!

Just outside the market there are a few bars. On the Thursday night it was rocking. There was a DJ and a clown on stilts! Not sure if it was a special function because it was quiet on Friday or if we just found it at the right time.

We ate in La Brigada which is full of football memorabilia and known for being a very popular old traditional restaurant. The steak selection was vast and they were very clear on which steaks you could have depending upon how you liked them cooked. Unfortunately the quality of steak was poor as it was very chewy.

La Recoleta Cemetery

On the following day I dragged El Tel around the cemetery. I love a graveyard but this was the next level. It stands on 5 hectares and is the lasting residence of many famous Argentinian characters in their various pantheons and mausoleums. Eva Peron rests here.

It almost felt like a small residential quarter of town.

Apparently there was a plan at one point to turn it into a catholic cemetery but there are loads of free masons entombed here and they are mainly Protestant so it stayed a mix of religions. Officially there is only one Jewish person here (I got this last bit by earwigging a tour group).

What amazed me was that on many of the mausoleum’s the roof had collapsed or the gates have come off. In some they have smashed into the coffin so it gives you an weird sense of something about to happen like in Michael Jackson’s Thriller video.

We then strolled to the Palermo district via the Japanese Gardens so ET could get his steps in 😀. He didn’t complain once!! On the way there, we passed a tree that was over 2,000 years old and there is a statue underneath supporting one of the branches. He is based on Atlas. Very impressive!

Japanese Gardens

You can stroll around them in about 30mins unless you are with El Tel. In which case, you speed walk around them in 10mins because he’s hot and fed up of walking. His emotions not quite reflecting the feelings of serenity and calm that the gardens are meant to evoke.

Palermo

Palermo is the area that most resembles Paris. The best part of it stretches from Plaza Armenia to Plaza Serrano . There are loads of bars and restaurants and it really comes alive at night. We ate at a lovely restaurant called ‘Minga’ which was slightly deceptively named. Best ravioli we have had in ages and cheap as chips.

During our mooch about, we passed Don Julio, the place we had booked for dinner. It was heaving which we took as a good sign. The only fly in the ointment was I thought our table was booked for 9 not 7pm, so we missed it. I’d totally forgotten they had changed the time I’d originally booked. Fortunately I realised before we got there

In the evening we went to Chinchina (allegedly one of the top 50 bars in the world). It had a DJ playing house music, a very high staff to customer ratio so the service was excellent and as you would expect from the name, it had an oriental feel. It was good but not sure about the ranking. We then went to a Moroccan bar called Rey de Copas. The atmosphere was chilled and relaxed.

ET kept up his new found love of cocktail consumption and opted for a cocktail with a Welsh theme.

On the following morning I booked us on an open top bus tour to get the lay of the land.

Normally a good thing to do on day 1 to get your bearings but we were giddy on say 1 at being in a new place and ET had a list of neighbourhoods to visit.

There are 2 bus tour companies in BA. We opted for the yellow one because I thought the route was better.

One sculpture we really liked was the one of the flower that opens its petals each morning and closed them at night. It lights up too.

We hopped off when we were back in San Telmo. As well as the old market it has a nice plaza where there is a lot of live entertainment. Basically I said it would be great to go to a tango show. ET won’t watch Strictly Come Dancing so I had 2 hopes of success. His compromise was we could watch the Argentinian tango performers in the plaza. Obviously they are performing for money and come around collecting after their performance. Slightly awkward given we have no Argentina Pesos, not for the want of trying. We have tried to withdraw various amounts of money from ATMs ranging from £200 down to £40. We have used different bank cards but keep getting the message that we have exceeded the amount allowed in one withdrawal. The majority of taxis take cash so we have relied on Uber and all restaurants/bars take card so being able to tip performers in the square was our 1st stumbling block. I was watching them surreptitiously and ET had his back to them. I think we were the only people in the plaza not watching the entertainment looking like a pair of anti social eejits.

However, our seating arrangement nicely set up the following incident. A 30something female walks past our table and just as she is passing, she collapses. El Tel and the nearby waitress catch her before she hits the stone floor. He puts her in the recovery position whilst she comes round and holds her hand telling the non English speaking local that she will be ok. The staff there seem a bit dismissive but called for an ambulance. A couple of Spanish speakers on the local table take over reassuring the girl whilst ET keeps holding her hand. We think she was diabetic as a woman gave her something sweet and she came to. With the help of a stall holder, she got up and went and sat in the shade. Next thing you know 3 policeman turn up and she starts ranting at them for about 15mins, then she starts crying, then she’s laughing and then they light a fag for her. She came over later and shook our hands and said thank you. I was convinced it was some kind of scam gone wrong. ET is convinced he saved a damsel in distress. The way he was going on you’d think he was expecting some kind of statue to be erected in the plaza in his honour.

The highlight for me was shortly after Sir El Tel had performed his heroics a winged messenger came down and sh@t on his leg 🤣🤣🤣. The pigeon didn’t hang about but it amused the hell out of me for a long time after. It definitely wasn’t the kind of recognition he was hoping for.

After 3 nights in BA we headed to the airport for an under 2hr flight to Mendoza, the home of Malbec. Some advice if you fly with Aerolineas. They don’t let you check in online so the queue is massive and they have a 15kg limit. If you go over, you have to pay at another desk which also has a big queue! Our flight was 1.5hrs late but that’s the 1st time we have had any real delays.

Buenos Aires was definitely muy bueno!