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Why Buenos Aires?
Summer in Florida is hot and humid. I wanted to go somewhere cooler to celebrate my birthday. One day I suddenly had this idea...Why not go to Argentina since it's winter there? And since I've never been to Argentina, Buenos Aires was the only city I was planning on visiting. I texted my friend Lisa and she replied instantly with "Yes"!
Researching what to do and where to go began soon and I found many helpful ideas on solsalute.com. I didn't have expectations except I wanted to eat some steaks, do some shopping, go to a tango show and perhaps a milonga.
Day 1 - Leaving Florida
We were excited to begin our journey on this very first day. However, we didn't get very far due to the weather in Atlanta, GA.
We didn't make the connection flight to Buenos Aires, so we found a hotel near the airport quickly and spent a night in Atlanta.
After waiting 30 minutes at the airport hotel shuttle area, a shuttle bus driver offered to take us to our hotel for tip only. A gentleman was very nice to give him a generous tip and asked to take us to our hotel while he was going to a different hotel. We didn't get his name, only knew that he traveled from Montreal to Buenos Aires that day. What a long day for him and we appreciate his generosity!
Day 2 - A Day in Atlanta
Since the flight to Buenos Aires was at 10:40p.m. the next day, we requested a late checkout and took our time to enjoy the breakfast at the hotel, then headed to the airport.
After checking our luggage, we went to the American Express Centurion Lounge, which is beside Gate E11, to relax until boarding time. The Centurion Lounge was very beautiful!
Day 3 - Buenos Aires
Three movies and 10 hours of flying from Atlanta, we arrived in Buenos Aires. Yaaaay!!! Going through customs was uneventful, we were picked up by Cesar Zelaya, whom we booked through his website. Cesar took us to the beautiful boutique hotel, 1828 Smart Hotel in Palermo, that I booked on Expedia.com. 1828 Smart Hotel is a MICHELIN Guide Hotel.
Aside from taking us to the hotel, Cesar brought Argentine Pesos for us to exchange USD. That was very kind of him and he saved us a lot of hassle to find places to exchange money.
The hotel was small but elegant and I loved the art deco designs since I once owned a beautiful art deco house designed and built by an architect as his own residence.
We rested up a bit after checking in, then ventured out walking around the Palermo neighborhood and enjoyed checking out the street arts on Pasaje Santa Rosa.
We said a lot of "Wows!" since we did not expect seeing all these colorful street arts!
To our surprise, there was an open air market in Plaza Serrano. We happily joined the crowd, checked out the arts and crafts and enjoyed the street music.
After spending a few hours in the neighborhood, we decided to have diner before heading back to the hotel.
We ordered two ham and cheese empanadas, one fried and one baked, and shared a BBQ pork sandwich at one of the restaurants in the Plaza.
The ham and (gooey) cheese empanadas were delicious and they were my first empanadas ever!!!
Day 4 - La Boca and San Telmo
After a delightful breakfast at the hotel, we took a cab to La Boca.
The taxi driver didn't speak English, but he used his phone to translate to English to tell us places to go as he drove by those places.
Arriving La Boca, we took a stroll on the few blocks that made up the Caminito. This was a colorful neighborhood that I had never imagined to see!
We checked out more arts and crafts at the open air market. The weather was perfect to spend a day out!
Old doors had their charm!
We decided to walk to San Telmo for its well-known Sunday market!
It was time to take a break from walking and had late lunch/early dinner. Since we were right by El Desnivel, we decided to go in.
I ordered Chorizo, Chicken Garlic with Potatoes and Spinach Noodles with Steak Sauce. Chorizo was delicious! Chicken was very tender and the homemade spinach pasta was outstanding! I shared them with my friend since the portions were huge.
And for dessert, even though we were full but we had to have the famous Dulce de Leche. We shared a Flan with Cream and Dulce de Leche. Again the dessert did not disappoint!
After the satisfying meal, we continued checking out the arts and crafts at the open air market and saw a couple dancing tango.
We arrived at Plaza de Mayo and Casa Rosada. Casa Rosada is the Argentine Government House, also known as the Pink House. We spent some time in the plaza and enjoyed the nice sunny day!
Since Cafe Tortoni is the oldest café in Buenos Aires, we had to visit and it was within walking distance. We decided to walk over there even though our feet were tired. Well, we were doing all the touristy things which involved lots of walking!
When we arrived at Cafe Tortoni, there was a long line outside. We didn't want to wait so we took a Uber back to the hotel and enjoyed the evening in our room! All in all, we walked 4.2 miles and walked off the calories we ate today.
Day 5 - Palermo and San Telmo Market
Since I made reservation to have lunch at El Preferido de Palermo before the trip and it was only eight minutes walk from the hotel, we took our time and a detour to Pasaje Rusell to see more beautiful and colorful street arts!
El Preferido de Palermo
We arrived at El Preferido de Palermo right before our reservation time at 11:30 a.m. They were busy already. They seated us very promptly!
I liked the old world charm of the interior of El Preferido de Palermo.
My order included Roasted Chicken Thigh and Sautéed Spinach. The chicken was tasty, juicy and very tender. The portion was enough for two, so I gave my friend a piece of the chicken.
After lunch we walked back to the hotel for a rest since we still had activities on our agenda!
San Telmo Market
Yesterday we were in San Telmo busy checking out the impressive open air market, we didn't go into the San Telmo Market so we decided to visit.
This historic market is a large indoor market with stalls offering everything from antiques, coffee to fresh fruit and spices. The pastries looked delicious!
Since we had a large lunch, we weren't very hungry but we decided to eat something before going to the tango show. We stopped at El Hornero and ordered two fried beef empanadas.
I don't speak Spanish. My friend speaks a little bit. We had a hard time communicating with the girl who was attending the eatery. The guy sat next to us helped us ordered and we chatted with him for a little bit. He was from Australia traveling in South America for a month and spoke fluent Spanish. He told us the eatery had good empanadas and they sold empanadas with different fillings. We didn't get his name, but whoever you are, we appreciate your help and wish you the best!
Tango Show
After having the satisfying empanada, we walked to Aljibe Tango. Most tango shows started at 10:30 p.m., we knew we couldn't stay up late so we booked an earlier show started at 8:30 p.m.
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