The Paris of South America

This trip began with a leisurely mid morning start at the Calgary Airport. I visited the Westjet Elevation lounge for a late breakfast.

Curiously, the online food and beverage ordering portal now specifies a 5 drink limit per guest and apparently they’ll advise you when you’re on your last drink… haha (I only had one, so I didn’t get to test this)

It was a beautiful crisp day as we departed Calgary. See you in a few weeks!

I had this Chicken Parmigiana rendition on the flight over to Toronto. It really reminded me of Michelina’s and I didn’t finish it.

Unfortunately, I had a 4.5 hour layover in Toronto until my next flight. But, fortunately, I could spend that time back in the Signature Suite and enjoyed a great meal and several glasses of champagne, wine, and dessert wine.

This is the last time that I’ll be in here for the forseeable future. It’s been fun while it lasted!

I was a bit surprised that there was no Christmas themed meal offering in the lounge, but onboard there was. Given that I’d had dinner almost 4 hours ago by this point, I decided to try it.

Not bad at all.

We arrived in Sao Paulo Guarulhos airport for a stop for cleaning, refueling and crew change, so had to get off the plane for about an hour while all this took place. Then left again up and over this huge city.

Back on board the final segment to Buenos Aires Ezeiza I found myself wishing that I’d had the breakfast on the previous segment instead of this cold plate, but it was OK.

About 24 hours after leaving home, I’ve arrived in Buenos Aires – home for the next 48 hours.

The first thing I had to do after passing through simply border control formalities (although limited English) and collecting my bag, was to exchange some cash. Inflation is crazy in Argentina and this handful of bills is what was exchanged for 50 USD at the airport using the official exchange rate, which is significantly worse than the “Blue rate” which is what you can get unofficially on the street and not at banks. I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to use my credit card to pay for a taxi or if I could exchange money in the city today since it was now Christmas Day, so I had to change a small amount here.

The city was totally dead today. No traffic at all on the ride in from the airport to the city center. I spent some time wandering around the area of my hotel, which was right around the corner from Plaza de Mayo.

Plaza de Mayo is right in front of the Government House, which is the pinkish building in behind. I did not see the Chainsaw Guy on my trip.

Even the Open 25 Hrs Market is closed today.

This is normally one of the busiest pedestrian zones in Buenos Aires: Florida Street.

Thankfully one of the very few restaurants that was open was right next door to the hotel so I had this giant platter that had a 10 oz steak hiding under the bacon and fried egg. For that and a glass of wine was the equivalent of 20 USD.

On my only full day in Buenos Aires I took an all day bike tour which was about 35 km in total at a leisurely pace. There were so many bike lanes and bike paths in the city that it made it pretty relaxing rather than having to navigate the busy roads.

Our guide, Julian, brought us an Argentine staple – mate – a tealike drink – for a refreshment. You fill up this little cup half with leaves and half with hot water, and then drink it through this special straw which has a permanent filter on the end that sits in the bottom of the cup.

In Plaza de Las Naciones Unidas we saw this art installation replicating a giant flower that utilized the sun to tilt, follow, and open its petals just like a real flower. Unfortunately it had been damaged during a significant storm recently that also saw planes being blown around at the local airport, and many many large trees down all over the city. So It wasn’t functional and the whole area was gated off.

We stopped the main railway station – Retiro – mostly for a restroom stop.

So many of the historical buildings look just like in Europe.

It’s no wonder Buenos Aires is referred to as the Paris of South America.

Not only big public plazas but also small intimate ones, such as this one in the San Telmo district, which is the older part of Buenos Aires on the south side of the current city center.

We travelled through another park with some interesting statues. While I was taking a photo of the Don Pedro de Mendoza statue, a lady yelled at me in English that this guy was a bastard!

We headed further south into the Boca district, which had this beautiful park by the football stadium. There were some kids practicing their skills on the concrete pitch.

Next we stopped in Caminito – a very colorful and touristy district.

After wandering around a bit and checking out the colorful buildings and street scene, it was time for a snack.

Especially after walking by this restaurant that specialized in grilled meat – did I mention how much Argentines love their meat, especially beef and lamb?

Julian brought us to get beef empanadas from this literal hole in the wall.

It was very good!

After lunch we headed over to Puerto Madero which is a new district built on land reclaimed from the massive Rio de la Plata. It was populated by shiny, new, and tall apartment buildings which were mostly empty. Apparently a good place to launder money, as it’s customary to pay for property in cash in Argentina so massive cash transactions don’t bat an eye.

We stopped at a food truck for some Argentine fast food – I had this enormous sandwich that consisted of a sausage sliced in half lengthwise, topped with – yup – bacon and a fried egg. There was no way that I could finish it.

Heading back towards the center now we saw the canal that was formerly used for shipping, but not anymore as a new port was built further out.

We saw the change of the guard in Plaza de Mayo.

More decidedly European archictecture on these apartment buildings in the Recoleta district.

We stopped at La Recoleta Cemetery, which contains graves and crypts in all sorts of beautiful, elaborate above ground “houses”.

The most popular feature is Evita’s resting place, and there was a lineup to get up close.

After that excellent bike tour which saw us out for 8 hours, I hopped back on the Subte – the Buenos Aires subway system – to get back to my hotel. Payment is only by a smart card, which costs about the equivalent of a dollar up front and then preload value – each trip was the equivalent of 10 cents. It was quick, efficient (seemed to come every 2-3 minutes) and can’t beat the price!

I got off the train early to check out the area around Plaza 9 de Julio and the Buenos Aires Obelisk.

Then after exchanging some more money for this bundle (at the Blue rate – 100 USD = 95000 ARS – Argentina Pesos) at a convenience store “kiosco” across the street from my hotel, I walked around some more and settled on an Italian restaurant nearby for a delicious dinner of ravioli filled with shredded beef tenderloin.

In the morning before heading out to the airport for my next leg, I went for a short walk around the Plaza de Mayo area. It was a gorgeous morning.

Buenos Aires was great! Happy to have visited and hope to come back again.

Now, instead of making a separate post, I’m sharing a few more pics here from my last night in BA at the end of the trip, where I walked through the theatre district and met some new friends from the trip for dinner. Beautiful and lively !