Big bad Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires has grabbed hold of my heart.
I arrived March 1st after weeks of tranquil camping, not knowing what to expect as I hailed a cab and wizzed through the crowded streets of BA passing historical monuments and colourful buskers.

My hostel´s neighbourhood is San Telmo and I couldn´t have been happier with the location and the people. But more about them later. Sunday in San Telmo is market day and I caught the tail end of it, stepping out the hostel door to witness a pack of drummers and salsa dancers taking over the cobblestone streets. I knew immediately that I had fallen in love with this special place.

Jon made the right decision choosing to fly to BA rather than pass his remaining time in rainy Patagonia. We met later in the evening and experienced our first night out in this city that never sleeps.

The night life here is incredible. People wake up when they please, eat small breakfasts followed by long leisurly lunches and even longer naps. Dinner doesn´t take place until at least 9pm and usually lasts until midnight. We spent our early evenings on the terrace of our hostel getting to know our new friends, drinking beer and sharing travel stories. At 2 or 3am when most peolple I know are snug in their beds, the Argentines go out. And go out we did. Every night! Dancing in clubs, dancing on the street, eating, tango, beer, wine, drum parties, wandering the streets in good company, finally sleeping at 6am and up again the next day at 9 to do it all over again.

What amazing friends we have made here! Gracie, an Australian from Perth who is travelling solo with her guitar has adopted me and i will follow her to Iguazu (where we are now) into Peru to attend Spanish school. I have chosen not to go to Uruguay as it is too expensive and the school is half price elsewhere. Some other time.... Juanito has been living in BA for 3 years and took us under his wing showing us the best bits of this big, crazy city. There were many more friendly faces who made our time in BA all the more exciting and comfortable. People I hope to keep in touch with for a long time.

We also met up with Antonio, our Peruvian friend from Ushuai. He took a big group of us out for Peruvian food on one of our first nights and fed us the famous cevice. This stuff is good. Raw fish marinaded in lime juice and hot peppers. We ate like royalty and had the greatest night. We also dined in a traditional parilla with Matias, our BA friend and had our fair share of meat to last us a while.

Liz, you would have appreciated the street dancing with professionals doing contemporary, tango, salsa and african infusion choreography. Gorgeous and all for free on the streets of San Telmo. This city is also famous for markets which take over the streets and tempt me to spend all of my life savings. The days were equally enjoyable and brought us to the different barrios. We saw Evita´s humble mausoleum in the posh Recoleta cemetary, watched street tango and rookie football stars in working class La Boca and ate spicy sausage choripan in Puerto Madero.

One of my favourite places was the pedestrian street Florida. All of Argentina exists on this streets through the people. Imagine Yonge street in Toronto from the lakeshore up until Bloor packed with buskers, street vendors, shoeless child beggers, rich white linen wearing shoppers, tourists, musicians, tango dancers, artists of many a variety and me! Always loud, always packed with people and full of energy.

Whatever you hear about Buenos Aires, whatever you´ve read about the dangers and poverty this city has to be explored to be appreciated. I fell in love with this place and left with only good memories. There were some stories of hostel dwellers being mugged and sad confessions from locals about the high crime rate and growing gap between the rich and the poor. This city is a place of many things both good and bad, but ultimately it is a place that needs to be seen.