[006] Buenos Aires
I'm travelling in South America. Here's what I'm up to, some photos and other bits
I've been in Buenos Aires a couple days and it's been amazing. The city is vibrant and it's sunny and high twenties.
It feels oddly European here. The pavement slabs and grid layout of the streets is much like Barcelona, Retiro's aristocratic palaces use faux-Parisian architecture, and the people speak with an Italian lilt. And there's Gelato too.
I've been mainly walking and bussing around the city to get a feel for it and joining Juan on a few guided walking tours. I went to the San Telmo Sunday antiques market (I usually hate markets but there was a lot of genuinely interesting crap e.g. 1978 Argentina football team photos), wandered Recoleta cemetery and the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve on the banks of the Rio de la Plata. The reserve was full of great bird life and a nice break from the concrete of the city.
That said, Buenos Aires is pretty leafy with most streets lined with huge tall trees. The Plane tree is here (of course, BA is an offspring of Europe), but the streets are mainly full of two beautiful acacia-like trees called Jacaranda (purple flowers) and La Tipa (yellow flowers). At the end of November the streets are lined with purple crowns which would have been incredible to see. The Botanical garden is also top draw.
I've been staying in Palermo which is my favourite neighbourhood. It reminds me of Williamsburg, atmospheric single storey streets peppered with great restaurants and bars and, and tons of young bonita people walking their dogs. Most of them have tattoos (the people).
The porteños (locals; people of the port) are fascinatingly diverse which points to the history of immigration in this city. Apparently 7 million people arrived between 1850 and 1950, the second most in the world after New York.
Oh, and I've been eating a lot of Choripan: chorizo in baguette with chimichurri! How can you argue with that?
Unfortunately my Spanish has been falling well short. Turns out a few weeks on Duolingo/Memrise doesn't cut it. But I've started a great podcast called LearnCraft Spanish which I'm really getting into, and my language confidence grows a little each day.
I've also settled into hostel dorm life which I haven't done since I was 21. It's been surprisingly not horrible, and filled with lots of friendly people.
Today I fly four hours to Ushuaia en el fin del mundo, where I will meet penguins, walk in the mountains and don some layers.
Hasta Luego!
George
