Finally!!
After months of planning, booking, and sometimes just waiting around, our adventure has finally started! Jess made it over on Monday and Tuesday we were off!
It started with a simple flight from Chicago to Miami and after a brief layover, the longest flight of our entire journey, a 9 hour voyage from Miami to Buenos Aires. Our initial plan was to sleep as best we could on the flight so we'd be ready to hit the ground running in Buenos Aires, given we were landing at 8 AM. The only thing we didn't factor into this plan was the screaming child in the row behind us!! He had no problem cutting our sleep down to around 2 hours.
Immigration was a breeze until I was asked where I was staying. I told them a hotel in San Telmo. He asked for the name. I had no idea. Jess had planned the first two days as a surprise for me for my birthday. She had already cleared in a different lane so one of the guards had to motion her back to help get me into the country. She saved the day and we were off! After a slightly longer wait than we had hoped for, our luggage appeared and we were off to our taxi to get to the hotel, which we promptly both managed to fall asleep in.
Jess found a lovely place in San Telmo for us. A tiny boutique hotel with a nice sized room, rooftop pool and free welcome wine!
Mansion Vitraux, our home for the first two days
Luckily our room was available and we promptly celebrated the start of our trip like any good retiree would do: a nap. After our power nap, we were ready to take the town. San Telmo is one of the oldest barrios (neighborhoods) in Buenos Aires. The main street we were off of was cobblestone and the entire street hosts a market on Sundays. Most of the buildings are older with the euro inspired architecture you hear about. Some buildings were more run down than others and there was lots of graffiti around.
The streets of San Telmo
There was a small plaza, where tango has been rumored to spontaneously occur, only a block away from our hotel so we decided to grab some lunch before exploring. Unfortunately half the plaza was under construction so we didn't get to see it's full potential but we stopped back a couple of times during our stay and it was definitely an active place.
Our first meal out in Buenos Aires
After a brief lunch we wondered around the streets of San Telmo up towards the Plaza de Mayo which housed the president's house (Casa Rosada). It had plenty of monuments that you would expect in a national capital as well as plenty of protesters camping out for one reason or another. Our Spanish was not good enough to read any of their signs but we just assumed they were unhappy with something. Behind Casa Rosada was a small museum highlighting the history of Argentina as well as the remains of what used to be the fort and customs house that surrounded it. It was great because it was free but the English guide contained no actual English, just a British flag on the front. After that we headed back to the hotel via a different route to get ready for dinner. Along they way, Jess saw the most beautiful part of the country: The bus queues! All along the road, people were waiting in beautiful single file lines, with no one crowding the person in front of them. China could learn a thing or two from Argentina on queues.
After another nap (we're trying to fend off jetlag, they're power naps!!!), we set off for dinner just up the road. El Desnivel was billed a mixture of a locals and tourists coming together to celebrate meat. We managed to beat the crowds by getting there around 8:45. It's amazing how late people eat here. The place was packed by the time we left. Night time is when Argentina comes alive. We went for ice cream afterwards where there was another well organized queue waiting for great ice cream. As we sat outside, there were all sorts of people walking around. Families, couples, friends, old and young were out an about. It's a great people watching city and perhaps in a later post Jess will tell you all about platform sandals.
For a night cap, we hit the bar down from our hotel and it was jam packed. Craft beer has made it to Argentina but the best part was that happy hour specials were still going at 11:30! It was cheaper to get a pint than a half pint! After a long day, we called it a night as we have to pace ourselves. We have 5 months of this!!
Great beer, even better happy hour!
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