Day By Day in BA - Part 1

Buenos Aires is a very beautiful city and very cosmopolitan, but at times, a little dangerous if you're not careful and aware of your surroundings.

Since my father's an avid researcher, we had a good idea of what scams the taxi drivers run and how we should exchange our larger currency into smaller denominations quickly.

I'll write up a post about our Argentina tips next week when we return to Buenos Aires after our stays in Santiago and Mendoza, but for now, just wanted to share some of the places we went to the past few days - just in case anyone wanted to follow my baby footsteps.

Tuesday
We arrived mid Tuesday afternoon to our hotel, Own Palermo Hollywood (located on Jose Antonio Cabrera 5556). After checking in and unpacking a bit, we were starving (especially my father who avoided the cheap TAM Airlines in flight meals and bread to save space for Argentine steak).

It was around 4PM and we hadn't had a proper lunch yet so we asked the hotel about La Cabrera (the most popular parrilla in Buenos Aires) since it was about 5 blocks down Cabrera street from our hotel, but unfortunately, it was closed until dinner. So instead, they recommended we go to CampoBravo (Honduras 5600) a few blocks away on Honduras & Fitz Roy.

Unlike most Argentine parrillas, they had a broader menu that included more than just cuts of beef. They had a bunch of pasta dishes, fish, salads and more sides than I could count. But of course, our first meal in BA had to be a steak.

My father had the ojo de bife (ribeye) and my mother had asado de tira (ribs). Both were excellent and juicy, so well seasoned and marinated that you didn't need sauce, but of course, no Argentine steak would be complete without dousing it in chimichurri sauce and salsa criolla. Campobravo had by far our favorite salsa criolla out of all the places we ate at.

For 2 orders of steak, a side of palmitos or hearts of palm (steaks didn't come with sides) and a bottle of water, the bill came out to only 198 ARS or about $39 USD. FYI, they accepted Mastercard and Amex, but not Visa. They also had a special where if you paid with a Mastercard for dinners on Mondays or Tuesdays, you'd get 20% off your dinner. Unfortunately, our meal was too early (5PM) to be considered dinner (7PM-11PM). Oh well.

Also, tips all over BA couldn't be added to the credit card so we left 20 ARS (10%) on the table. Some people said Argentine locals tip closer to 15%, but 10% was acceptable.After the big meal, we were ready to catch up on some sleep we missed from the overnight flight the evening before.

Wednesday
We woke up late and had our free hotel breakfast downstairs at around 12PM. It was just toasts, fruits, yogurts and coffee/tea, but it was a nice start to our day and our first chance to try the famous Argentine medialunas.

We head out to visit the posh Palermo SoHo neighborhood of boutique stores and cafes across the train tracks that split SoHo from Hollywood. As one of our friends mentioned in an email, parts of Palermo Hollywood were quite "desolate" with abandoned buildings, empty beer bottles and homeless people along the streets, but nothing to get freaked out about. Like I said before, it was like being in the East Village/Alphabet City back in NYC.

We walked down Calle Gorriti and crossed the larger street Avenida Juan B. Justo and then came across the train tracks. Once you crossed the tracks, the neighborhood started to change. There were more trees along the streets and less graffiti. By the time you reached Calle Thames (3 blocks later), you were passing trendy boutiques and cool little restaurants.

My mother and I were thrilled to window shop, but my father wanted us to buy a little something to remember our visit to Buenos Aires. So, of course, my mother was happy to oblige!

We stopped in a shop called Scom where my mother picked up a nice new shirt while I didn't find anything that suited my tastes. I'm more of a Carter's girl truth be told.

After a few hours of walking aimlessly, we came across the "center of Palermo SoHo" also known as Plazoleta Julio Cortaza where they had a bunch of bars and restaurants all circling a little playground. My father was interested in which bar he could sit at having a cold beer, but my eyes were fixed on the playground. Guess who won?

We continued our meandering through the small streets and stopped in one of the little mercados (markets) in the neighborhood and picked up some milk and yogurt for me. But it was around 3:30PM when my parents started to feel pangs of hunger, which were only exacerbated as we stumbled across Don Julio's (Guatemala 4691), a parrilla that was highly recommended by one of my father's friends.

There we tried riñónes (kidneys) and provoleta (grilled cheese) for appetizers. Interesting tastes, but probably not something we'd try again. My mother wasn't all that hungry after the appetizers so my parents split an order of Colita De Cuadril (tail of rump steak), which was delicious. Don Julio's stopped serving at 4PM as they got ready for the evening dinner crowd so we finished our early dinner(which cost around 200 ARS total or $36 USD) and left at 4:30PM.

Thursday
After all that red meat, we were ready to try something a bit healthier to eat, so my father found a organic vegetarian restaurants called Buenos Aires Verde (Gorriti 5657) near our hotel for lunch. My father ordered the lasagna which came with a side salad and my mother ordered a vegetarian curry salad. Both were exceptionally tasty and very filling. However, including a fruit juice and water, the healthy lunch came out to 178 ARS (or about $34 USD) - almost the same price as our steak dinners.

We then head into the Centro (downtown area) via Subte (subway). Tickets were only 2.50 ARS (about $0.50 USD) per person one way.

We took the D train from Palermo station and in about 15 minutes were were at Catedral station right in the heart of downtown. On thing I noticed was that EVERYONE was clutching their purse or backpack like they had secret nuclear launch codes in them. Apparently BA is known for pickpockets so the locals didn't take chances.

My father tried to take a photo of the passengers holding their bags, but started to get dirty looks from the Argentinians so he could only sneak this photo of me in my zebra outfit (ugh, can't wait til I can dress myself).

We got out of the subway near Plaza de Mayo near their Casa Rosada (pink house) and Metropolitan Catedral (cathedral). From there we walked up the famous Calle Florida and passed all their commercial shops and restaurants. Despite being the popular downtown shopping/walking area, Calle Florida wasn't my parents' favorite place in BA, because it was overly crowded, touristy and reminded them of Times Square in NYC. But still, it was a nice walk on a sunny autumn day.

Friday/Saturday
To be continued...