Take Me Back to Buenos Aires!

After 6 weeks of traveling, I think I could spend twice that amount of time right here in BA. A huge city, seven barrios worth exploring and even more events, shows and markets happening on each day of the week. And with only five days to get our bearings straight, we had a very large to do list with even less time to get it done.

Since we arrived on a Sunday, and we know that there are two soccer - ahem! futbol! I mean - games that go on every Sunday, the first thing we did was sign up to see a local match. And of the top five things we did on our trip, a futbol match was easily top three. So we spent the morning (and half of the afternoon) exploring the San Telmo market until game time, eating steak sandwiches, and poking at odd antiques. I highly recommend seeing this market. It only happens on Sundays, expands for blocks and blocks and blocks and has everything from live puppet shows, classical guitarists, maté tea cups and plenty of souvenirs you'll probably never need, but fun to tinker with anyways.

All the maté tea cups you could ever hope for.

After checking in and setting our stuff down, we left for the game. The next four hours marked the experience that we had been waiting for the whole trip: a real, live, local futbol match. And not just any local team, but the "greatest team in Argentina" - the Boca Juniors. We sat with the locals, sang their songs (or tried at least...we were given a sheet with all the words but had a hard time keeping up) and cheered ONLY for Boca, as it was literally a matter of life and death. The visiting fans sat above us, occasionally throwing balloons filled with urine and fecal matter and two separate fences lined with barbed wire kept the fans off the field. It was wild and very much so out of control, but worth every minute. And in an effort to minimize the violence between fans, once the game ended the locals had to wait 30 minutes for the visitors to leave the stadium before they were let loose on the streets with their drums and horns, flags and banners. Like I said, just plain nuts.

The view from our local seats. Across the way were the die hard fans with a full band, flags and songs - bar far the craziest people BA has to offer.

Me trying my hand at climbing the fences like the locals did, but only after the game was over.

The second and third day we spent exploring more of the city. Caminito street in La Boca region is a must see. Italian immigrants made this part of the city very colorful, lining the buildings with everything from bright yellow shudders to deep red walls. This is also the birthplace of Tango. There were shows on the streets, people trying to take your picture with local tango dancers and, again, plenty of souvenirs.

Walking down the famous Caminito street.

We enjoyed the local bus that took us to the Melba Art Museum where we saw the Andy Warhol exhibit "Mr. America" and then went by subte or "subway" toward the Recoleta cemetery - one of the most famous in the world and it sits in the heart of the richest part of the city. Makes sense though, seeing as the best of the best are buried here (including past presidents) and all graves are above ground in individual and family sized structures (some literally small houses with basements with extended shelves for deceased family members). The coffins are left on display, just beyond the thin and often cracked glass front doors, and some have been resting there since the 1800s. Quite a sight to see, and I'm almost certain it was haunted.

One of the small houses where they "bury" their dead. The coffins are exposed just up the steps and behind the doors.

We stayed in the Palermo section of town, which I say was the best decision we made. There is plenty of nightlife, restaurants and boutiques (which Liora could have spent all day in, until I insist we move along). We saw tango classes in the main square and had plenty of opportunity to relax and people-watch. I think this was the first place on our trip where we didn't mind getting up late and staying out even later. It was easy with all the clubs and disco shows, and we had a grand time letting loose until 6:00am. It was dangerously easy to do, but part of the culture and a must try, I mean, if you think you can handle it.

We finished off our trip with a dinner and tango show at "La Ventana". The food was delicious, accompanied by a bottle of the house wine and a two hour show full of expert tango dancers, an accordion orchestra and traditional Argentinian folk music. It was all we could have hoped for on our last night, and a great way to end out trip, even though we both agreed we wanted to stay and thought long and hard about not returning...

Great views from the balcony.

All in all, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina cannot be seen in 6 weeks, not even in 6 months. But the south American continent is a great place to spend some time, meet some amazing people and eat some tasty food. It also has a lot of opportunity for living abroad or volunteering in local communities. I know I will find my way back there someday, as there is now plenty left for me to do and see.

Until then, please feel free to email me with questions about my trip. I would be happy to share more information about any leg of my journey. Cheers!

kevinkaufmankp@gmail.com