I ♥ Buenos Aires, Argentina (even when it’s covered in garbage!)

Disclaimer: some of the following photos contain large piles of garbage; yet, despite the ongoing garbage strike that occurred the week that we visited Buenos Aires, it still managed to be beautiful (albeit a little stinky at times).

Casa Rosada Plaza de Mayo where Eva Perón often used the balcony to address the people.
Casa Rosada Plaza de Mayo where Eva Perón often used the balcony to address the people.

The overnight bus from Mendoza to Buenos Aires cost ARS255/$51 and took about 13 hours.

The streets of BA
The streets of BA
We did not book our hostel ahead of time, choosing instead to take a chance that there were enough hostels to go around. We were sort of wrong. Our first choice hostel, Hostel SOL, only had a private double room available for one night (ARS53/$10.60 per person per night). It was a nice hostel in a traditional building, but it wasn’t really for us; we weren’t too cut up about not being able to stay longer. Augur Hostel was our home for the next three nights (ARS50/$10 per person per night). Augur Hostel is bright, clean, and modern and we would have stayed there longer; unfortunately, they were booked up so we had to move on. Our final hostel in BA was Telmo Tango Hostel. We booked a double, but when we got there they only had a twin room available. We assumed the room was being given to us at the same rate as the one we booked, as it was their fault they double booked us. When we checked out, we found out that this wasn’t the case.

In the end, we were glad that we didn’t settle into one hostel because moving around gave us the chance to be centered in a couple of different neighbourhoods. There are so many hostels in beautiful old buildings throughout the city that staying in a few gives you the opportunity to see the interior of these buildings which is a treat in itself.

El Hipopotamo with garbage strike in full bloom
El Hipopotamo with garbage strike in full bloom

Don Ernesto steak!
Don Ernesto steak!
The best thing to do in Buenos Aires is to walk around and visit the different neighbourhoods. Prepare yourself for a lot of walking and dropping in to the famous Buenos Aires’ cafes, trying their delicious coffee and food. Of course, you can’t leave BA without treating yourself to a steak dinner at least one night. It may be a little pricier than your average meal, but it’s worth it. We shopped around and did a little research to find the best option. We found Don Ernesto Restaurant who served us up a killer steak and a reasonably priced bottle of wine.

Other neat things to do in Buenos Aires include: San Telmo’s Sunday Antiques Market, Recoleta Cemetery — the final resting place for the famous and infamous of Argentina, eat dulce de leche on everything, shopping on pedestrianized Florida Street, Tango, visit Casa Rosada and relive the famous moment when Madonna sang to her people, and if that’s not enough to keep you busy go to Jesus’ theme park where you can watch the Resurrection of an 18-metre Jesus every 45 minutes — seriously.

Recoleta Cemetery
Recoleta Cemetery
Florida Street
Florida Street
Avenido de Mayo
Avenido de Mayo
All good things must come to an end, and so it is that our two months in South America ends with our week in Buenos Aires. We found a cheap flight from Lima, Peru to Toronto, Canada; and now, almost as a celebration of the route we took, we dare to take overnight and 24-hour bus rides from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Lima, Peru via Santiago, Chile. Over the next 48 hours, we will spend about 40 of them on buses: a task we do not take lightly and which strikes us both with a fear that only people over 5’10” can relate to. The only thing we can do is book our tickets as early as possible and hope that we get the front seat.