Raining in Buenos Aires

My first thought when I arrived in Buenos Aires was that I no longer stuck out quite so much as a foreigner because so many Argentines are of European descent.

Unfortunately, I pretty quickly realised that the women here in Buenos Aires are very well dressed. My hiking boots, quick drying t-shirt and kakhi trousers that are supposed to cleverly convert into shorts, make me as obviously a tourist as if I were in a small Bolivian village!

Buenos Aires is not really comparable to European cities like Paris, Rome or London in terms of the sites to see or the beauty of the architecture. There is a pretty area called San Telmo with cobbled streets and antique shops and a tree lined residential area with lots of parks called Palermo. However much of central Buenos Aires is made up of quite ordinary streets and boulevards laid out in a grid, with plenty of traffic and not too many squares or green spaces.

The most fun thing about Buenos Aires are all the cafes, bars, restaurants and shows. There is a cafe on every corner and some of the restaurants look pretty much like trendy places in Notting Hill Gate, Islington or Hoxton in London. The big difference is that you can have dinner with wine here for $10. Argentine wine is really good too!

Before getting to Argentina we had met lots of hungry backpackers in Bolivia raving about Argentine steak and how amazing it is. I dont eat meat, but Steve´s impression is that the steak here is very nice but not actually any different to a good steak in the UK or anywhere else. Maybe it all depends how into steak you are...

We have also been to see some tango. Both the dancing and the music were really good. The traditional cafe we were watching it in felt like it probably hadnt changed much since the 1930s. Surprisingly Steve, who usually hates this type of thing and wanted to leave the one ballet we have been to in the interval, enjoyed it as well. Tonight is our last night in Buenos Aires so I think that we will probably go again.

Our next move is a 20 hour bus ride (this country is huge!) down to Puerto Madryn in northern Patagonia to see some penguins.