Argentina - Buenos Aires

For the last stop of this 380 days journey, we picked a city we knew we both would love, Buenos Aires. We spent nine days in the capital of Argentina, visiting little by little every day and organizing a few thing as well for our return in Europe.

Luckily the weather was splendid, very warm and sunny, with some stormy passages. At the same moment Europe was recovered by a cold wave coming from Siberia. We fear the climatic shock a lot! ;)

 Plaza Lavalle

Buenos Aires suits perfectly our European mood and our taste for big cities. It is not really beautiful per say - the nice colonial buildings are often surrounded by not so nice buildings – but the city combines the advantages of big metropolis (public transportation, a lot of shopping and nightlife options, etc.), a familiar grandeur of European cities with a clearly Latin-American atmosphere.
 

 Plaza de Mayo

 Plaza del Congresso

 Plaza Cortázar

 Galerías Pacífico

Part of the charm of Buenos Aires is in the elegant old-world cafes, restaurants and bookstores. And of course we caught a night tango show (in the Centro Cultural Borges)!

 

El Gato Negro 

 Brasserie Pétanque (with the Ricard chairs!!)

 Bookstore Ateneo Grand Splendid

The district we liked the most was San Telmo, with its numerous bars and restaurants, an indoor market mixing antique stores and fruit counters, which livens up every Sunday with a crowded and kind of crazy outdoor fair.

Calle Defensa

San Telmo antique market

San Telmo fair, Plaza Dorrego

San Telmo market

We attended a great introduction to the History of Buenos Aires in a totally private museum called El Zanjón de Granados. The landlord bought a dilapidated 1830 mantion twenty-seven years ago in order to turn it into a restaurant. But the workers found below earth a Daedalus of wide vaulted brick tunnels (a former riverbed), water wells and citerns. The whole had been wonderfully restored with tasteful architectural and design features.

Explanations by the owner himself!!

A historical wind also blows every Thursday at 3:30 pm in the Plaza de Mayo: the  Mothers of Plaza de Mayo have been demonstrating for thirty-five years in memory of their children who disappeared during the military dictatorship in Argentina. Very poignant!