Buenos Aires is the capital of the Argentine Republic and is located on the western bank of the Rio de la Plata. Besides, it is one of the most popular destinations worldwide. According to the Trip Advisor website, Buenos Aires is the eighth preferred destination in the world by tourists. The city is home to more than 2,8 million inhabitants, what turns it into the second most populated city in South America. It hosts around 4 million tourists a year. Discover with The Real Argentina –Bodega Argento’s blog– the places that you must not miss while visiting Buenos Aires. Those are the most exquisite restaurants and the most traditional taverns, the most welcoming cafés and bars, the places where you can eat the best meat Argentine cuts, the most interesting open-air fairs, the trendy conceptual shops or the best hotels to stay the night during your visit. You can also find out about the secrets of Buenos Aires’ gastronomy, with its red meat, fish, empanadas and pastas (there is a plain influence of Italian cuisine). Tour the streets of the cosmopolitan capital to visit its museums, theatres (Buenos Aires has one of the biggest concentrations of theatres in the world, with Colón Theatre as the most important one) and places where you can behold the elegance of tango –the classical Argentine dance that is labelled as Intangible Cultural Heritage. Buenos Aires also has a big number of libraries and is the publishing hub of the country. While visiting Buenos Aires, you must walk around the city centre –where you will find Montserrat and San Telmo neighbourhoods– and the stately area of Recoleta. You must also visit the country’s presidential headquarters located at the Casa Rosada, as well as the Mayo Avenue and the Manzana de las Luces, which hosts several buildings with high historical value. And, please, do not miss the opportunity to go to the modern neighbourhood of Puerto Madero. Buenos Aires is also a centre of attraction for football lovers. Football is the most popular sport in Argentina. Some of the most important and emblematic teams and stadiums –such as the Monumental Stadium where River Plate plays its home games– are found in the city. Our Argento blog collaborators will also reveal simple routes to discover the charming villages nearby the capital, such as Carlos Keen or San Antonio de Areco, as well as the local markets where you will be able to purchase the best Argentine products.
It is estimated that up to 25 million Argentines can trace their family roots back to Italy and so it is no surprise that, aside from the great asado, the country’s most popular cuisine takes its influence from this part of the world. One of the great things about Buenos Aires is the abundance of fresh pasta – in supermarkets, listed on the chalkboard at your local bodegón, or in your neighbourhood pasta store.
For an interesting change from Buenos Aires’ main museums and impressive art galleries, let’s get boho-pretentious in a city that is all about the arty parties.
What are minutas? Think of them as Argentinian fast food. Forget the US culture of queuing at a counter and taking away paper cups of French fries; these short-order dishes are served as a sit-down meal, with china plates and waiter service.
We love Buenos Aires: its frenetic lifestyle that oozes sex appeal, charm and culture. But living there for years, there’s a limit. And that’s when, through whispers, rumours and idle gossip, you find out that there are places to unwind. Some obvious, some a little bizarre and some hidden.
Don’t worry if you didn’t catch Argentina’s opening match against England in the Rugby World Cup on 10 September. It was as poor a game as you could ever hope to miss. England scraped through 13–9 in the end, but looked less like the world-class side they are and more like 15 blokes who had…
When porteños need to escape the city smog, they head to Cariló, Argentina’s ‘green sand dune’ (its meaning in the Mapuche language). Breezy and easy to get to, Cariló is a top Argentina travel destination and the country’s most exclusive summer resort, a green lung which is a small slice of paradise: a pine forest next to the beach.
Although the differences between natural, live and organic foods are not always clear due to people’s unfamiliarity with the concepts, rest assured that cafés, restaurants, markets and shops using these terms are trying to educate the pizza-and empanada-eating brigade to show that organic Argentine food exists, even if it isn’t stamped.
Unlike 1983 (the cathartic first free elections after seven years of military rule), 2003 (the return to some kind of normality after the economic emergencies of 2001/2) and 2007 (the swearing-in of Argentina’s first elected woman president), 2011 isn’t shaping up to be a “transformational” election. Rather, 23 October 2011 will be a day when voters wrestle with one of the oldest and most straightforward dilemmas in electoral politics: namely, do we want more of the same, or shall we give someone else a whirl?
When in Buenos Aires, open your eyes – and bellies – to the craze that keeps evolving: underground supper clubs. Last week I dined with an ousted cult from Alabama, a brain surgeon on sabbatical and an ex-prostitute from Amsterdam – complete with mini-me poodle (still a poodle). Welcome to the puerta cerrada (closed-door) dining…
Real travel, as opposed to taking a few weeks holiday from work, can be hard to justify unless you are retired or travelling is what you do for a living as a writer or film maker. For the rest of us, the idea of spending months on end in some far-flung continent just for the sheer adventure of it all sounds self-indulgent – especially in these tough times, and especially if you are a student.