The best steak ever

Buenos Aires

We arrived in Buenos Aires under the cover of darkness, but woke to beautiful blue skies and luckily with this came our luggage which had been misplaced by the airline overnight. We were staying in Palermo which is a pretty trendy suburb with lots of nice restaurants close at hand. Our home in Buenos Aires was Casa Esmeralda a gorgeous place with a sunny courtyard which we would defintiely recommend.

On our first day in Buenos Aires we managed to work out the bus system and made our way to la Recoleta Cemetary where Eva Peron and the rest of Buenos Aires elite go to rest. Eva Peron´s tomb was definitely the star of the show but compared to many of the marble, granite and statue clad tombs her´s was rather unspectacular. Other residents of the cemetary include a large collection of cats, Buenos Aires is obviously a city that loves cats, we even saw one sleeping in a bed in a furniture shop. The rest of day we explored the wealthy park filled neighbourhood of Recoleta.

Recoleta Cemetary the site of Eva Peron´s grave

This cat was fast asleep on a bed for sale in a swanky furniture store

After a late afternoon siesta we made our way to la Dalitos on the corner of Costa Rica and Bupland where Phil devoured 300g of the best steak he had ever tasted and Anna had her first leche la dolce (Sweet caramel sauce Argentines like to smother on everything, even for breakfast).

The food here was amazing and not too badly priced with our four course meal with a nice bottle of syrrah-marbec blend costing about $50 for the two of us.

Day two in Buenos Aires, we took it easy exploring the beautiful cafe on boutique filled streets of Palermo a bit further. That night we managed to catch a tango show, which to our surpise was more of a musical show than a dance show. But the passion the locals had for the music was amazing with tears welling up in our neighbouring patrons eyes. The dancers managed to have six costume changes in our 2 hour show. After the show we headed back to our favourite restaurant la Dalitos and ate with the locals at around midnight (their normal dinner time). We took a break from steak and tried some homemade ravioli which was excellent.

Day three, we caught the bus into town as we were catching the ferry over to Urguay today. Managed to have a bit of excitment on the way. Nearly got caught in a scam where pretty much they squirt some thick smelly liquid on you, don´t ask us what it is. They then offer to help wipe it off you, telling you it is bird shit while they tell you smell. All the while they are rifling through your pockets and trying to get into you bags. We were lucky and managed to get out of there unscathed with the help of a friendly local. Pretty harmless but a good wakeup call.

Buenos Aires Tip

Coins are in short supply in Argentina, funny as it is the opposite back home. Apparently the bus companies hoard them so they are quite hard to come by and you need them for buses. So if you get given coins hang on to them!