DAY 1 - Morning

After a freshen up in our room, we headed outside for breakfast. The streets of Buenos Aires are so quite of a morning. Nothing really opens until later in the day. We walked the streets and found a cute cafe to have our first proper coffee, man they like it strong here! Shane and I had an omelette with ham and sooo much cheese. We walked back to the hotel for another lay down so we’re nice and recharged to meet our group tonight!

DAY 1 - Lunch

While Kat and I caught up on some sleep.. Steve and Shane went for a walk to suss out the town. They walked out near the water and had some beers at a pub while watching the soccer; Belgian and England. Belgian won 2-0. Kat and I wanted to go and meet the boys but discovered that walking the streets on our own probably wasn’t the best idea so we headed back to the hotel. Not long after, Steve and Shane were back and wanted to take us out for some lunch. Steve did some research on the best mixed meat plates in Buenos Aires.. La Brigada was the top rated so we went on a bit of a walk to eat there and my goodness it did not disappoint. The meat was so tender and soft. Everything had so much flavour. The service was amazing and very welcoming, we had a lovely waiter. Feeling fruity after two bottles of red, we walked home and stopped along the way to take in the beautiful artwork on the streets.

DAY 1 - Evening

We finally met our first intrepid group. Our guide Fernandes is lovely and so full of life. She gave us all an insight to South America and we learnt things we weren’t aware of, like.. you don’t flush toilet paper (you have to put used paper in a bin next to the toilet because the plumbing is so old. We learnt that the minimum wage is about $170 USD a MONTH. Pretty crazy to believe. After our orientation, half of the group went out for dinner, the guide, Kat, Steve, Shane, Lyn (the lady from Melbourne) and myself. Next door to dinner there was a a big opera house that was turned into the 5th largest bookstore in the world. It is beautiful! For dinner we went to Buenos Aires Grill and yummm another great meal. Shane and I ordered a drink each. The waitress poured a shot of Shanes dark rum into his glass and a shot of white rum into another shot glass for me.. she then free poured till the glass was 3/4’s full! Every sip of that Bacardi felt like a straight shot it was so strong! We ended up having the recommended dessert from our guide. It was a cake that when cracked open, exploded out with warm fresh caramel, served with berries and ice cream. After dinner our guide suggested we head to the “Red Door” pub / bar, it’s pretty hypster / grundgy. There were so many people squeezed into such a small little place. It smelt amazing, like I was swimming in nachos! It was a hidden bar only the locals knew so we stood out in the crowd in our comfy travelling clothes but it was so nice to see how the locals kick back, have a few drinks and chill.

Fun Facts; The lights at the intersection to go are red, orange, green. Ready, set, GO!

Also, pedestrian crossings don’t mean anything. You have to wait for cars before you can cross, they won’t stop for you, sometimes they even speed up. Fernandes said drivers see pedestrians as frogs. You don’t want to be a frog and get hit so you have to have your wits about you.

Day 2 - Evening

Our first tango show, Fernandes our tour guide suggested her favorite place El Guerandi.

The building was lovely, a very fancy, classy place. The people were so nice and accommodating. We picked our food which came out vertically right away and had a few bottles of red with dinner before the show started. The live band was amazing. The sound just filled the room. The show started off at the beginning of tango, I think from 1917, then progressed through the era’s as the tango became more modernised. There were outfit changes for each change in time and there was a knife fight with three men fighting over a woman but in Dance. It was such a passionate bunch of dancers musicians.

DAY 2 - Morning

Today we had a later day tour that started at 10am. We were blessed with the best local tour guide, Ana, she was pregnant. \240We had the most comfortable mini bus. We walked the streets of Caminito which were beautiful bright coloured houses. I was conned by a gypsy like lady who wanted to take a photo with Shane as if they were tango dancing, she said $10USD, then a man approached me and I couldn’t say no but instantly regretted saying yes. They were so creepy, when posing for the photo, the man leant in and said to me ”kiss? It would make it look better for the photo” I felt so gross looking at the photos. After that experience we were welcomed into the home of two artists.. We had lunch at a local support centre which was created to get children off the streets. They cooked us little pizzas that tasted like pizza pockets. We had salad and these little pastry pockets full of mince, capsicum and olives. I tried them but I’m still not much of a fan of olives, they have a very distinctive taste. We had the traditional Argentinian tea called Mate, pronounced Ma-tee. We also had fresh Alfajorea, pronounced Alphaorea, which is an argentinian biscuit that just melts in your mouth. Returning back to the city square, we witnessed a protest against the submarine that went missing in November 2017. They were protesting for answers, there were 44 people lost on that submarine. I just love the passion Argentinians have for their people. It is such a selfless culture. We walked around the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral. It was so big and beautiful and so detailed. It was getting late in the afternoon so we decided to go to a cafe so the boys could get beers and we could get a coffee. I thought getting an apple pie would be a good idea to warm us up but it came out cold and with ice cream. It was still delicious. Argentinians take a lot of pride in their food and coffee. Everything has been sooo good and everyone has been so grateful for our tips.