Buenos Aires, Argentina | Travel Diary

Happy Humpday! I hope everyone’s week is going well, we’re halfway through!

I’m totally kicking myself for falling out of the momentum I had going with my South America posts, it takes so much longer to remember the little details and memories when too much time has passed. Luckily, this is the last post of Buenos Aires and soon we will be exploring Brazil! We added Buenos Aires to our intinerary at the last minute because it’s just so close! It’d be a shame to travel that far and not pay a visit. As I mentioned previously in my Iguazú Falls post: we landed on the Brazilian side but decided to cross the border into Argentina immediately to explore the falls before flying out for Buenos Aires.. it saved us an international flight! I noticed that flights within Argentina and within Brazil were much cheaper than from one country to the other even though everything is relatively close.

We spent two nights and two days in Buenos Aires at the gorgeous Four Seasons Hotel! We didn’t get a chance to do much research before arriving in Buenos Aires (since we added it on so last minute!) so we kind of winged it. Not mad about it at all because I absolutely loved the city, it really is Paris of South America. However, I definitely want to make a trip back with more time and having done a little more research, there’s so much to see and we only grazed the surface. I’ll chat as we go..

First up, our gorgeous suite at the Four Seasons! I have a huge post dedicated to our stay here so be sure to check that out in case you missed it.

One of the best things about the hotel was the concierge and staff. Everyone was so kind and helpful, and every recommendation they made for our nights out were fantastic. Since we didn’t do much research ahead of time, we put most of our trust in them. We landed in Buenos Aires in the evening, checked in to our hotel, rested a little and freshened up for the night. Luckily, the people of Argentina have dinner much later than than we do in America; during the week they have dinner around 9 or 9:30pm and on the weekend it can be even as late as 11pm! The concierge recommended a restaurant nearby called BASA, they told our cab driver where we were headed and we were on our way. I highly recommend using the GPS on your phone when in these cabs, I swear they purposely take scenic routes or pretend to be confused just to hike your fare up. Load it up while you still have your hotel’s wifi and then get in the car if you don’t have international service. I consider myself to know enough Spanish to get by but Argentine Spanish was so difficult for me to understand as its heavily influenced by Italian. As beautiful as it sounded, the accent was so difficult for me to decipher lol.

We were so excited to have steak since Argentina is so famous for it but to be honest it wasn’t that great this night. Everything else was fantastic like my lamb shank above and nutella mousse below! Yummmm! Coffee and cappuccino everywhere in Argentina and Brazil were amazing.

Hidden beneath a beautiful flower and wine shop on a quiet street in one of Buenos Aires’ most exclusive neighborhoods you’ll find one of the world’s top 50 bars. Another recommendation from the lovely concierge at our hotel: Floreria Atlantico is a whimsical speakeasy-bar that feels much like a secret. The door to the flower shop was locked so we knocked for the receptionist to open for us, as soon as the doors opened we could smell the sweet flowers. A giant refrigerator door leads to the cave-like basement, as soon as those doors open the sounds of music and chatter spill into the quiet flower-shop. Very cool! The place was packed and the crowd was very mixed. Argentina is a country of immigrants, much like the US, and the cocktail menu is inspired by those that came to the country over the past few centuries. The menu is divided into: Italia, España, Francia, Inglaterra, & Polonia.

We woke up to our first morning in Buenos Aires with no idea what to do, we started with a delicious breakfast at the hotel and headed out for the day. Buenos Aires has a ton of museums so we decided to check out the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires aka the MALBA.

After the MALBA, we hopped in a cab and headed over the Recoleta Cometary, which you saw in my last Buenos Aires post. This was probably the highlight of my entire trip and one of my favorite places I’ve ever visted. I have a very lengthy post on this place with a ton of photos so be sure to check that out. It’s one of my faves. Here’s a few photos from there:

We had dinner that night at Elena, one of Latin America’s top 50 Restaurants of 2014, conveniently located right in our hotel! The food was incredible and I feel like we finally got a taste of Argentina’s famous beef – the steak was the best I’ve ever had. You can see more about Elena in my previous Four Seasons Hotel post!

On our last day in Buenos Aires we decided to book a half-day guided tour of the city via Viator. I had very mixed opinions about this tour, our guide was informative and entertaining but very rushy and at times a little too politically-opinionated. At some stops she literally gave us 1 minute to look around and take pictures (literally!) and some places she wouldn’t even stop because she didn’t agree with that person’s politics or just “hates the guy” -_- She sped us through Recoleta Cemetery at the end of our tour and it made me so glad that I was able to visit the day before at my own pace. The positive is that with such a small window of time, this is the only way we would have been able to see this much of Buenos Aires and I’m glad that we did.

Our first stop was Plaza de Mayo, the hub of political life in Argentina, where we only had 2 minutes to explore LOL.

Above is the Pirámide de Mayo, the oldest national monument of Buenos Aires. It was built in 1811 to celebrate the first anniversary of the May Revolution.

La Casa Rosada “The Pink House” is the office of the President of Argentina.

The center building is where Pope Francis lived while he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires. The building to the far left is the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Madres de Plaza de Mayo “The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo” is an association of mothers desperately looking to learn what happened to their children that disappeared during the war between 1976 and 1983; they march every Thursday.

After piling back into the bus we were on our way to La Boca, probably Buenos Aires’ most recognized neighborhood. Colorful shacks built by immigrants with what ever leftover materials and paint they could find. I wish we had more time to spend here as I would have loved to explore properly and check out a Tango show. Sigh.. but with limited time what can ya do? I just have to come back!

On our drive to La Boca we caught a peek at Iglesia Ortodoxa Rusa, the Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church, from the bus. It was inaugurated in 1904.

Driving into the neighborhood we were approaching La Bombonera, home of Boca Juniors and also a concert venue. The tour guide made it a point to tell us that the Backstreet Boys preformed there haha.

Finally in La Boca and we were allowed 20 minutes to use the bathroom, try some empanadas and explore. I didn’t get to explore though, after eating for a few minutes and taking video/photos for other people – time was up! -_- sigh, def need to come back.

Even though i was upset about not having any time for myself to explore.. the silver lining was that empanadas are delicious!

What our guide called their Holy Trinity lol: Juan Peron, Eva Peron, & footballer, Diego Maradona.

We headed back to our hotel after the half-day tour and had a little time to kill before heading to the airport. I just couldn’t leave Argentina without having dulce de leche ice cream so the concierge recommended Arkakao, an awesome little gelato place a few blocks from the Four Seasons.

Dulce de Leche & Nutella gelato, so creamy and yummy. The perfect way to close out our quick visit to Buenos Aires. Next up I’ll be taking you guys through our time in Brazil!

¡Chau!