The first and second day in Buenos Aires.

We arrived to Buenos Aires on a saturday night, we stayed at “Hostel Fiesta” with an unbearable noise and little girls in high heels shouting that they wanted to dance cumbia. After a nine hour early flight the only thing my sister and I wanted was to sleep, so we went directly to the bed listening to music and drunk kids till it was 8am. When we woke up, we had breakfast at the hostel (free, of course); bread with “dulce de leche” (typical argentinian sweet). After it we left the backpackers at the hostel and went for a long walk. We had till four pm, we were going to meet our parents at that hour. So, we had all the morning to see something and get to know about Argentina. 

We walked over the Florida street, a very touristic and open street where the black market is in every corner. Men and women shouting “Cambio, cambio” (Change, change) while you walk near them. They changed you dollars to argentinian pesos in a better price than in a legal change office. After the Florida street we passed through the Obelisk. 

It used to be a church but it had to be demolish when they did the 9 de Julio Avenue; the widest in the world (you need more than two red lights to be able to cross it). We also went to Plaza de Mayo, a very known square but nowadays the people has ruined it because the monuments are covered in graffiti, there are canvas of protests and a big hurdle in front of Casa Rosada, and all of this make the Square to loose his glow. 

After this walk, we arrived to the hostel to pick our stuff and walk some more to meet our folks. They arrived five minutes after us. The hotel we stayed in Buenos Aires was pretty cool, it had a swimming pool and gym at the very top of the building with a fantastic view of the city. My sister and I went for a swim and after it we all went to have some dinner at the Florida street. What a mistake! the restaurants there are expensive and very touristic without food quality. Needless to say, we regretted our restaurant decision. 

Next day we woke up late and went -again- to Florida street, we walked all of it. We stopped when we didn’t know where to go next or if there was something that caught our attention in a store, or even when we hear the best dollar rate. We arrived to a big park near Recoleta and we took the Free walking tours and it was really good. It was in english so the other tourists doing it were from Germany and USA. While we were walking Victoria, our guide, was telling us stories and facts about Buenos Aires and the place we were standing. Stories from the old rich families and the buildings. She told us about the conflict of the Falklands islands while we were in front of the memorial of the soldiers that died in the battle. 

 

 

We also saw the “Big Ben” (nothing like the real one) and we walked through a little park that remember the deaths in an terrorist attack at the Israel embassy. There are rumors that the president at the time had something to do with it because the case was never solved and the attempts to find the guilty were weak. After it we went to the 9 de Julio Avenue and we arrived to a little park with a fountain in it, it was a gift from Spain and they said that if you drink water from it you would return to Buenos Aires, so I -of course- drink the water and filled my bottle. After it, we walked by the France embassy that it is a beautiful old building, it is next to the avenue. The government wanted to demolished it in order to expand the Avenue but the family that lived there went to talk with the French people and offered them the house to be their embassy and that way they could saved the house. It was a really clever move. We walked a little more and we arrived to the Recoleta cemetery, it was closed by then but we went into the Church next to it. 

 

Victoria told us the story about Evita Peron’s body that nowadays you can find it in that cemetery, but when she died it was stolen and there are rumors that the people that stole it beat it and some necrophilia issue… after it, it was buried in Milan with another name but fourteen years after the robbery the people started to reclaimed it and Evita’s body returned to Buenos Aires. 

The tour finished, we paid a tip and we went walking to our hotel. In our way there we stopped at a restaurant and had some dinner. The restaurant was pretty cool, the food was delicious and cheap and it was a more “local” restaurant, not touristic at all so we got to eat like a real argentinian.