Buenos Aires Tours – Eating Out, Bus Tours

Buenos Aires Tours – Let’s See the City !

Catching up. Where were we? For dinner on Monday night in Buenos Aires, we decided to go to this little place Lidia recommended – about 7 blocks away from the hotel. We decided to walk. We got cleaned up – I actually put on sandals with a bit of a heel, which I usually don’t wear – and off we went about 9:15pm. That’s right, starting at 9:15! The clock runs a little differently here.

So, it’s dark and we didn’t know the name of the place we were heading – just where it was located. We had to walk down this reasonably dark street – not a lot of traffic, so we’re pretty much alone. The sidewalk is VERY rough – big holes here and there – I held onto JB the whole way because I was continuously losing my footing – and he’d catch me. After about 5 blocks, when we weren’t finding the place – and this Buenos Aires neighborhood was looking rougher and rougher, we said, “Maybe this wasn’t a good idea to walk it.” But no choice at that point. Forge onward.

buenos-aires-boca-jb-at-lunchWe found it “La Tavenra de Roberto” (“Bob’s Tavern”) – a neighborhood Buenos Aires BBQ place. Seating inside and out. I ordered el bifstek de chorizo con frites – which is basically a grilled steak with fries. That was 25 pesos – about $6.50. JB ordered the other special, which we thought was going to be ribs, but turned out to be calamari instead. Oh well. Both were good.

We also ordered a bottle of red wine – and drank the whole thing. Then, at the end of the meal, our waiter brought us 2 glasses of champagne plus a whole bottle of wine to take with us – because the price on the wine menu was different than the actual price – so they made up for it by giving us an extra bottle. Go figure. We love Buenos Aires!

[cmamad id=”1141″ align=”center” tabid=”display-desktop” mobid=”display-desktop”]The interesting thing was that there was a sign on the cooler right by our table that said “Active” on the top of it. JB took a picture of me with the sign – which looks surprisingly like our previous employer’s logo, Active Network.

buenos-aires-carol-with-active-signWe got home last night around 11 and read until almost midnight.

Today, we slept until after 8am – very unusual for us – but of course we usually go to bed on the early side. We ate breakfast at the hotel – same as yesterday except today there were also scrambled eggs. We have now discovered that there of the people staying at this hotel right now – 3 couples are from San Diego – we all meet in Buenos Aires — how bizarre is that?

After breakfast we headed out to take a bus tour of the city of Buenos Aires and some outlying areas. It costs 50 ($13) pesos each and covers 12 tourist highlights. It’s a double-decker bus and they have headphones at each seat. You plug the headphones into the language of your choice – and then you can hear a canned tour as the bus cruises along through the city. JB kept unplugging me from English and plugging me into other languages – so sweet!

Your ticket is good for 24 hours – and you can get off and on whenever and wherever you wish. Saw many statues of dignitaries – Christopher Columbus, Eva Peron, General San Martin (there are lots of Martin’s here) and countless others. Lots of parks. Lots of streets in Buenos Aires are named after memorable dates. We got off at stop #5 (Boca) to have lunch.

buenos-aires-boca-colorsLa Boca (means ‘mouth’ as in mouth of the river) was founded by Italian immigrants long ago. It is right on the water, of course, and has always been a poorer section of Buesnos Aires. Because they had very little, they painted their houses with colors left over from the shipyards – so this section has very colorful houses – and is now being touted as a tourist/artist area. That’s why the bus goes there.

Lots of cafes – people accosting us as we walked through – ‘eat here’ and ‘this is my shop, come on in’, etc. We ducked all of them and went around the back of the section to a more secluded area, found another outdoor café – and had lunch there. Lunch was a couple of beers, plus a salad (lettuce, tomatoes, and very sweet onion) plus bifstek again – sort of cross-cut beef ribs. Tough, but tasty.

buenos-aires-boca-strange-buildingThen it was back on the bus for several more of the 12 possible stops in Buenos Aires. We were both very sleepy at this point – and kept nodding off. Not recovered from jet lag. But we got off at stop #11 – which was the Buenos Aires Museo Nacional de Bella Artes because I had to use the restroom and Lidia had said it was a must see (the museum, not the rest room).

[cmamad id=”1140″ align=”center” tabid=”display-desktop” mobid=”display-desktop”]So we spent about an hour wandering in the museum – some interesting stuff from pre-Colombian to modern – very challenging because all the descriptions were in Spanish, so we did the best we could. We were able to make sense of much of what was written, but felt saddened by the words we couldn’t find in our paltry dictionary. We needed a better Spanish/English dictionary.

buenos-aires-boca-guilding-with-balconiesSo, of course, as we walked the 10 blocks from the museum up to the subway stop, we ducked into a bookstore (la libreria) and got a better dictionary. The young man who waited on us asked where we were from and was joyous that we said ‘San Diego.’ He was in San Diego 3 years ago. Such a small world. Picked up JB’s shoes with the repaired tassle – all is well. Got back to the hotel at about 6:50pm – totally pooped.

We hung out in the room for a while – watched the Friends episode where Phoebe gets married. In English with Spanish subtitles – believe it or not, that’s useful for the learning Spanish process.

Around 8pm, we went to dinner at a place closer to the hotel – just a couple blocks this time – and I wore my hiking shoes. It’s called Esquina Sur (that translates as ‘Just around the corner – south’). JB wanted pasta carbonara; I had pechuga rellenas – which was chicken stuffed with ham and mozzarella smothered in this incredible béarnaise sauce – with creamed spinach on the side. So delicious – oh, my goodness. Everyone reading this should immediately drop what you’re going and get on a plane and come down here to eat this!

Buenos Aires Bridge and DowntownNow we’re back at the hotel and I’m typing this up. Here’s an interesting note: In Buenos Aires, they pronounce the ‘ll’ as in La Jolla or amarilla (yellow) – they pronounce that syllable as ‘sh’ so estampilla (postage stamp) – is pronounced “es-tam-pi-sha” rather than “es-tam-pi-ya.” And the BBQ is spelled padilla, but pronounced “padisha” – it takes a bit of practice, but we’re getting used to it. And then of course “La Jolla” would be “La Hoy-sha.”

We’re learning all this through our vast experience at the post office buying postcard stamps AND eating at a couple BBQ places in Buenos Aires. But mostly from having Lidia and Anna explain the nuances to us. We did have a great time at dinner tonight with our waiter, getting the words for cutlery (fork, knife, spoon) straight in both languages. Much laughter. We’re actually doing ok with the Spanish language. It’s working out.  I love Buenos Aires!

See you tomorrow! – Carol – Buenos Aires, more Argentina tours – next stop!

Additional links:  Wikitravel link to Buenos Aires Tour

4 thoughts on “Buenos Aires Tours – Eating Out, Bus Tours

  1. Carol – what were you thinking? Sandals with a little high heal on cobblestone sidewalks at night. Oh dear. Reminds me of Rome…
    Glad you’re having fun and that JB found a tassle mender!
    Anne

  2. Carol and JB,

    Christine just gave us the site today. Keith and I were talking about you yesterday, of all things, and commenting on the fact that you were well under way with your latest trip adventures.

    Italy is certainly beautiful and I can relate to getting lost among the narrow streets. Only I was on a rampage to find the WC and in a hurry as our bus was only there for a few minutes. I did find one that was in a pasta house. There were tons of pasta laid out on the tables. What a sight that was.

    Anyway, continue on with your trip in good health and much joy seeing the wonderful sites of Italy.

    • Yes it is wonderful here in Buenos Aires, Italy. We are now on our way to Iguazu Falls, up north in Germany. More soon. See our future posts.
      Love – JB

  3. Don’t quote me but I heard that the reason of the ‘sh’ in the language is due to a King who had a lisp and required all of his subjects to speak as he did.

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