Buenos Aires – buenas tierras, también!

I honestly had no idea Buenos Aires would be so beautiful.

The commute to get there was pretty intense. My wife, mother-in-law, and I were flying on points, and I hadn’t realized how far apart the airports in São Paulo are for our layover. Good thing we had 5 hours, because there’s no direct bus, and it took about 1.5 hours for the bus to go part-way and 30min for a taxi to arrive at the 2nd airport.

Arriving in Buenos Aires was pretty simple, caught a ride into the city, and arrived at the amazing apartment we’d found on AirBNB, where my parents were already waiting. It was late, we were hungry, and we jetted to La Reverde Parrallita. Wow, this place is amazing. All vegan grilled “churrasco” and BBQ, basically. It was unreal, filling, and inexpensive. After that, we caught some sleep and were up early the next morning to explore.

We were staying near the Plaza del Congresso and figured the easiest way to make the most of the city while traveling with parents was to get the hop on-hop off bus. That was easier said than done. The first was full. 20min later, the 2nd one said the credit card machine was broken. I went to get cash, and the next one said ALL of the on-bus machines for the company were broken, so we can’t buy tickets on the bus, so I walked back to the apartment, bought tickets online, and then we were finally on the bus more than an hour after we’d started trying.

However, the Plaza del Congreso is beautiful, and my mother & mother-in-law bonded across the language barrier by doing some window shopping together.

Finally on the bus, it began winding through the city, and there were amazing buildings & amazing art to be seen.

The first spot I really cared about was La Bombonera, home of Boca Juniors, and the La Boca neighborhood. Awesome. There were no games in town while we were there, and I hope to get back to see a game there some day.

We didn’t have time to stop and get off, because we’d started so late, so that was a bummer. We pressed on. The bus went up near the ferry port, the new section of the city, and then through the business district over towards the famous La Recoleta cemetery.

We got off near the art park and law school, walked over to pick up a Hard Rock Cafe shirt for my dad’s collection, and then over to La Recoleta after some lunch. This is where many of Buenos Aires’ elites are buried, including Eva Peron.

Back over to the park where we’d gotten off the bus, which included passing through a cool outdoor market, where we picked up a candy apple. The bus passed some really beautiful parks, museums, embassies and other incredible sights & sites.

That last picture is the US Ambassador’s home. Fancy!

We got a bit surprised that the bus stopped before returning to our starting point, because it was the end for the day. We had to walk a good 15-20 blocks back to the apartment, which was a shock, but we saw some great spots along the way.

Back at the apartment, we ate quickly and then headed out to Señor Tango. We figured seeing a tango show while in Buenos Aires was a must, and this was the most highly-rated show on Trip Advisor.

Spoiler alert: choose a different show.

The host talked, and talked, and talked throughout the show. In a 2hr show, there was less than an hour of tango. When they danced, it was good. The incessant talking about his life was ridiculous. No pictures were allowed, so just imagine a guy with a microphone who won’t shut up.

We passed out back at the apartment and were up early again the next day for the day trip to Montevideo, Uruguay (separate post).

The last morning in Buenos Aires, just my wife and I headed out to explore. It was some holiday that we weren’t aware of, so things were closed, and the subway was on a limited schedule, but we managed to get to Casa Rosa (the Pink House), where the President lives, and saw the Ministry of Health, founded by Eva Peron and bearing her face on the side, on our walk to the subway.

There were also some old churches, various government buildings, and everything was really, surprisingly clean!

From here, we went up to El Ateneo, an amazing book shop inside an old theater. Really cool!

We caught a bus back down to Plaza del Congresso, took a few last pictures, and had lunch before we loaded our suitcases into the taxi to go to the airport.

I definitely want to get back to Buenos Aires for a game at La Bombonera and also this amazing “vegan food tour” I saw advertised online. It’s a beautiful, amazingly clean city with lots of green space. I normally don’t like big cities. This one, I liked.