Week 2 In Buenos Aires

Don’t Trust Photos

This past week wasn’t a whole lot of fun. Where I stayed last week wasn’t in the nicest neighbourhood and a ways out so I booked a place closer to the center of the city. It was another overpriced apartment on AirBnb but was closer to Palermo and all the action. I was getting tired of the long commutes into city to see things and meet up with people.

This new apartment wasn’t as nice as it looked in the pictures. The girl who I rented the room off was a photographer and let’s just say she did some things to make the place look bigger, brighter and newer than it actually was. It was marketing at it’s finest and similar to how fast food restaurants present their food.

But I only have myself to blame. I waited too long to book my next apartment so not much was available. The apartment owner did give me the option to look at the place before which I didn’t do. A couple of positives were that it was quiet and had a nice desk for me to work on as I got slammed with work. I’ve been able to get a lot more work done here as I have less of a social life down here so that’s great for business!

A Hermit Explores

In the end I wasn’t really able to enjoy much of the city but that is why I gave myself two months down here. With that much time I could work when I needed to and not feel rushed in having to see everything BA has to offer. However I was able to visit a few places.

First up was the Jardin Botanico Gardens in the center of the city late one evening. Talk about a wonderful place to unwind and get away from the busy city. I setup shop on a bench and chilled out as the sun started to make it’s decent which was really nice. This is a place I will visit a few more times to do the exact same thing.

Jardin Botanico Trees

Jardin Botanico Trees

Jardin Botanico

Jardin Botanico

The next day I went to exchange some US money for the cheaper blue dollar. I’ll write a post about the blue dollar later on. Anyways, it was pretty close to the north west of the city and was far away from where I was staying. On the way there I visited the El Ateneo bookstore which looks more like an opera house.

After exchanging my money I decided to walk through the northern part of the city along a wider main street to see what was up there. I stumbled across the Floralis Generica. Kind of cool to see but not all that exciting. Surprisingly no one was in the vicinity of the giant flower. For sure I thought I would see more tourists like me. Not the case.

Floria Generica

Floralis Generica

As I kept on walking I came the beautiful Recoleta neighborhood. It’s more upscale than Palermo and seems where a lot of the old money is located. Recoleta has some really cool french architecture and of course nice trees!

Recoleta Architecture

Recoleta Architecture

Down the road a few more Km’s was another nice park with beautiful trees to shield me from the sun. Walking around on pavement really takes its toll so a rest was needed and this area was very chill. After this I headed home and proceeded to drink cheap vino and work my ass off!

The last area I got to explore this week was the cool and quaint neighborhood of Belgrano. This is where Pablo, Gustavo’s friend who I’ve connect with, lives. This is a really cool area that is very quit and feels like you are so far out of the city. There are more homes and tree lined streets in Belgrano and seems like a great place to raise a family. I could see myself living in a neighborhood like Belgrano.

Belgrano Architecture

Belgrano Architecture

House in Belgrano

House in Belgrano

I did mention that I didn’t get to see much of the city. What I did see I enjoyed and will no doubt be spending more time in the places I saw this past week

No Clubs For Old Man Jordo

Friday and Saturday night were supposed to be nights I was going to see a couple of DJ’s spin. Both DJ’s sets started at 2 AM and went until 5 AM. Of course I was super pumped to experience the music that I love live on a huge sound system. It’s probably been 7 years since I’ve seen seen a DJ play and that was Nick Warren in Vancouver back in 2008.

Old man Jordo go too tired though. Both nights I was dead at 12:30 AM and the thought of trying to stay up until 5 AM was too daunting. So I crawled into bed early both nights.

There are plenty of other great DJ’s coming into town so I’m not sad.

Where To Go Next?

I also spent most of the week trying to figure out where I should go. Last week I mentioned I was going to head to Bariloche which looks beautiful and a mix between a British Columbia’s coast and Switzerland’s mountain range. But the more and more I looked into, the less it appealed to me for a few reasons.

First of all, getting down there isn’t easy. It’s either a 3 hour plane road which is very expensive for non Argentinian’s or it’s a 22 hour cheap bus ride. The 10 hour flight from Dallas was enough and despite how comfortable I hear the bus seats are, I’m not going to get a lot of sleep no matter how many melotonins I pop. That means I’m left to fill the time with reading or staring out the window and getting lost in my thoughts. Doesn’t appeal to me right now.

Another reason was the cost of the accommodations. In retrospect $55 CAD taxes in is pretty cheap but I’d need to make this long journey worthwhile and it seemed like staying under a week wouldn’t be worth it. So at $385 for a week, that’s just a bit outside my range to head down to Bariloche. I’ve already spent $450 for two weeks on accommodations here in BA and don’t want to be spending too much cash while I am away. I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for better rates over the next month as it still seems like the high season.

I looked into other areas I could go. I feel the need to get away from the big city of BA and relax in a quiet town for a week or two and just chill out. The beaches look really shitty here in Argentina but there are a couple of nice beach areas in Brazil. They’re too costly to get to and accommodation isn’t cheap. Plus I’d need to spend $200 on a Brazil Visa. Doesn’t seem worth it.

What has been interesting in my countless hours of researching where I want to go, I’ve stumbled across some great blogs of people who have travelled across South America. It’s fun reading about others adventures and what they thought about certain cities. However, it’s best to visit those cities yourself and get to get persuaded by the opinion of someone you don’t know.

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