Breakfast In Buenos Aires, Dinner in Machu Picchu

I changed hostels for the weekend, moving out of the centre and into Palermo to be close to the happening stuff at night.  Unfortunately the hostel I moved to, while a fine hostel, was not a good one for meeting people at.  That partially ruined moving over there, also places are being closed and stuff canceled due to swine flu. :insertangerhere:  Places that would normally be very busy (or so I was told) were almost empty.
I made the most of it by going to parillas and the local casa de empanadas, my favourites there being the dulce carne and the verduras con salsa blanca.  Found a bar with lots of Argentinean micro brewed beers, and all the ones I tried were good! I also spent a lot of time figuring out where I want to go the next couple weeks and beyond.  I was going to take the ferry to Colonia, Uruguay on Monday but I woke up to a thunderstorm so I postponed that a day and did some more planning.  Found a great Argentinean restaurant (non parilla for a change) for dinner, with various local specialties.  The stew, wine and flan con dulce de leche were are excellent and great value.  When I ordered the latter I expected a piece of flan with a drizzle of dulce or something, what I got, was a piece of flan, and a lump of dulce almost as big as the flan, but hey, my mother always told me to eat all the food on the plate…

Tuesday the weather had improved so I caught the ferry to Uruguay.  Cut it a bit close on departure since the bus took longer than expected (at 30c fares though it shouldn’t be that surprising), had to run the last bit up to the terminal and rush through immigration and check in.  The ferry left exactly on time, was very nice, complete with a restaurant and duty free shop.  Even though the trip was only 1 hour.

I slept well after my excellent steak, just making sure to get up before 11 to get the free breakfast.  Left the hostel around noon for the barrio of Recoleta, an upper class neighborhood that is home to the famous cemetery where Eva Peron and many other famous Argentineans are buried.

On my way there I had lunch, and stumbled into a microbrewery, tried their beer (average) and walked around a bit, slightly disappointed at the buildings there, much newer overall and much of it just looked like a well off area of any Western city.  A few old gems still exist there though.

The cemetery is another story entirely.  The massive tombs/shrine, some of which have glass windows so you can look inside at the coffins are a range of different architectural styles, some are very impressive.  Walking around there is morbid and cool at the same time, strange feeling.  Went back to my hostel after that and had some good pizza for dinner from the building next door, but cemented my opinion that the centre is not good for nightlife.  I booked a hostel in Palermo, home to much more, for the weekend.

On Friday, I walked to San Telmo, during the day this time and found it much busier with all sorts of restaurants and shops that were long closed when I’d been there at night.  I walked into a pizza place on a side street that advertised “empanadas llevar”, which were delicious but when I saw the pizzas they were bringing out to people I made a mental note to go back there for one at night one day.

From San Telmo I walked to the barrio of La Boca, where the first European settlement here was.  This area is not the most affluent area, and you aren’t recommended to walk around on much more than the few touristed streets.  I walked through Barracas on the way, the streets around here aren’t as modern and “polished” as the other parts of the city I’ve been in.

The part of La Boca I saw, near the Boca Jr football stadium, is full of colourful houses and cobbled streets.  Lots of street art as well, corner cafes and lots of tourist shops.  Nice to look at but annoying to deal with all the people trying to sell you things, they even had a Diego Maradona look alike you could pose with.  On the longish walk back to my hostel I found some helado de dulce de leche, muy delicioso.  Then stopped at the bar I previously mentioned and like in San Telmo and tried another one of their great beers.  A good day out, about 10km of walking all together.

At night, I went out with a group from the hostel to the best renowned parilla in BA.  La Cabrera Norte.  This place costs more than most, my steak, the highest priced on the menu was about $15.  I paid about $25 in total for melt in your mouth good steak, wine, water, service and sides.  The cuts of meat were huge, everyone was sampling everybody else’s steaks as well, none were less than great.  The size of the single portion of rump steak, was around 1kg, probably the largest piece of meat I’ve seen served ever.  A couple people split one and still couldn’t finish it.  Mine was large but the right amount.  This was probably the latest meal I’ve ever eaten in my life, since the reservation we had for 10:00 was forgotten and we had to wait an hour and a half to get in.  Started eating at 12:30, left the restaurant at 2:00.  This is slightly after the peak dining hour here but certainly not uncommon as there were many people in the restaurant and the queue to get in was going until 1:00.

I got to my hostel in BA around midday, this is the building it’s in.  Really nice hostel.

Then after a long awaited shower I went straight out to find some lunch.  I got 3 “meals” on the plane, but they aren’t very big and I was on it for 16 hours, I was famished.  A small cafe serving empanadas was the solution.  I managed to order and pay etc without using any English or pointing at anything, very happy with that.

I walked around the immediate area near my hostel, which is on the main road in the centre, Av de Mayo.  Lots of wonderful buildings with cool architecture.  I didn’t have the energy to do anything in the form of sightseeing, so after relaxing at the hostel for while I went out looking for some steaks with the guy I met on the flight over.  We got a recommendation for a Parilla (barbecue restaurant), but when we got there, around 6:30, we discovered it wasn’t open for another hour.  It seems most restaurants open around 8pm, but locals don’t really show up until closer to 10.  While waiting for it to open we walked around the area, full of shops that had closed for the day, and restaurants and bars that either hadn’t opened yet or were very dead.  We did find one really nice cafe/bar, that actually had a few people in it.  I ordered what appeared to be the house beer, and received a quite good pale ale.  I didn’t expect good beer in Argentina, so this was a nice surprise.  Walking around this San Telmo district reminded me a lot of Italy.

After that, we headed back to the restaurant which was now open and had a few customers inside.  However the experience was not as good as I was expecting.  The names of steaks on the menu were mostly different than the ones I had heard were good, most of the people in the place were tourists, and the menu had English translations on it.  The steak was pretty good beef, but was almost well done and were not asked how we wanted it cooked!  The wine was very good, and went perfectly with the meat.  Argentinean Malbec.  The best thing was the price, a steak at a nice place with side, 2 glasses of wine and the service charge included cost me about $9usd.  More to come.  After that, I went back to my hostel and slept, something I hadn’t done much of the last 3 nights.

My second day in BA, (it’s July already??) I ventured farther out of the city, into palermo, one of the barrios outside of the centro district.  Walked through the botanical gardens and Japanese gardens first…

Then I just wandered through the area, on a few of the main avenues and looked for lunch.  Tried the Italian aspect this time, a pizza and pasta place with nice tablecloths and fancy decor, the sort of place I would never walk into in most countries due to the cost.  I had a large portion of delicious handmade fresh pasta, with an equally good assortment of freshly baked bread, a drink and the price came to just under $8usd!  After that I continued walking around the large barrio of Palermo, past loads of cafes and an assortment of shops.  The odd square lined with both too.

After taking the metro back to the centre, I walked around Plaza Mayo, at the start of Av de Mayo this is the main square in the city.  Then back down Av de Mayo to my hostel, crossing one of the widest roads in the world, 9 lanes in total going in each direction, divided into 4 roads.  All along Av de Mayo are lovely old buildings, and indeed all over the city.  Me gusta estar aqui.

That night, we went out again searching for another steakhouse. (after 9pm this time)  After wandering around for a while, we found one that looked better than the night before.  It was.  No other tourists around, excellent service, similar prices and we were asked how we wanted the steaks cooked.  This steak lived up to the reputation.  Bife de chorizo es muy delicioso.

After dinner, we went to the same bar as the previous night, had a couple drinks as the place slowly emptied out and and at 1:30 we were handed the bill as they were closing.  This in the “city that never sleeps”!