Week 4 ~ Hola Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Mary Kate gKing
- Apr 14
- 6 min read
4 weeks of ~vagabonding~ completed. I had to check my math to make sure I was correct with my weeks, because time has been flying!
The Recap
Flew into Punta Arenas from Santiago. Adjusted to the camper van life while creating some funny memories. Amazing boat tour with glaciers & very active whales.
Punta Arenas -> Puerto Natales -> Torres Del Paine National Park (completed W Trek), crossed from Chile into Argentina: El Calafate -> El Chalten (cutest little mountain towns).
El Chalten (Mt Fitz Roy) -> Long drives along the famous Carretera Austral -> Chile Chico (Marble Caves) -> Chaiten (to catch ferry) -> Puerto Montt -> Puerto Varas (adios van) -> Santiago (via plane)
Week 4 Recap:
Santiago, Chile -> Buenos Aires, Argentina. Tengo, Fútbol, Cafés & Clases.
We spent our entire week in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the “Paris of South America.” I definitely understand why it has earned that title; however, I think many characteristics make Buenos Aires its own unique city. Some of my favorite things about Buenos Aires were:
The Cafe Culture
There are endless amounts of adorable cafes in Buenos Aires, which had us sometimes visiting multiple in one day. The cafes in Buenos Aires aren’t usually the type of elaborately themed cafes you’d find in places like Japan or South Korea, although I’m sure some exist. The cafes here are subtle, often with outdoor seating, and many are in beautiful historic buildings. In fact, they even have a prestigious “Lista Notable”, recognizing cafes for their cultural, architectural, and historical significance.
Dinner is usually not until 9:30 pm, so cafes are popular throughout the day and evening. There may or may not have been a few evenings when Nick and I were walking to get dinner while every other local were still hanging out at their local cafe.
They love their tea here just as much as they love their coffee. Their tés de fruitas rojas was personally my favorite. I enjoyed many loose-leaf teas while in Buenos Aires, usually during my afternoon Spanish lessons (yes, I stepped out from my Duolingo with the hopes of improving my conversational skills en espanol). Each day, my Spanish professora would pick out one of her favorite cafes in the city, some she coined as ‘Gabriella’s secrets’, where we’d meet for one to two hours, practicing conversational Spanish in real time.
I learned much more from Gabriella than just how to properly speak in the past tense. She had a wealth of information on the culture and history of the city and gave many great food, drink, and activity recommendations. Thanks to Gabriella, I can now say more at a restaurant than “Mas vino tinto por favor’.
Cafes ranged from casual neighborhood spots to extremely elegant. Some cafes even had a dress code requirement, which leads to our FSOTW … or honestly maybe or LLOTW?
Lesson Learned of the Week: Some cafes have dress code requirements… even at 9am. On the day of my final Spanish lesson, Nick decided to join and work from whatever cafe I was meeting Gabriella at. Every cafe we had been to was stunning, so I imagined that when we were meeting at Croque Madam, it was going to be equally ‘fenomenal’. This was true. However, Nick was declined at the door. After multiple days of rain and cold weather, Nick was enjoying the sunshine by wearing his shorts and tie-dye t-shirt. The dress code was explained, and we found ourselves in another awkward interaction, standing at a doorstep in South America. This interaction also ended with Nick taking his pants off. (Don’t worry, family, this is staying PG). Gabriella had some Spanish conversations with the staff. A surprised Nick had offered to go to another cafe. The resolution?…. Nick borrowing a pair of pants. They asked his size, 40? Nick quickly responded with 32 por favor. They said 40 is all they had. Nick went into the bathroom to change. When he opened the door, we laughed, having expected the pants to be extremely baggy; instead, we found him in skinny jeans.
Finally, we were granted access to the beautiful cafe located in a museum that was once the grand home of the owner of the Argentine newspaper. While it was absolutely stunning, you’ll have to ask Nick his opinion of if it was worth it after sitting in his rented form fitting pantalones for 2 hours.
Enough about cafes ... more about my favorite things we experienced in Buenos Aires.
The Food
While I can go on and on about the cuisine in Argentina, I believe the international chef should be the one to discuss all of the amazing foods from our trip so far. Unfortunately you all will have to wait one more week for his guest post. Get excited!!
Instead I leave you with the photos and videos from our EXCELLENT cooking class in Buenos Aires.
One of my favorite activities this past week was walking by myself through the city, no headphones or other distractions, just enjoying all the delights of Buenos Aires. This was another one of my favorite things about la ciudad.
Las Calles y Parques
In Buenos Aires, you’ll find a variety of architecture. The streets were beautiful with fresh flower shops every couple of blocks. Each section of the city had a totally different vibe. Whether we were walking around Palermo Soho or along the canal in Puerto Madero, we were guaranteed to smell beautiful flowers, have endless access to cafes, restaurants, and tiendas. Oh and of course, we can't forget about the parks. The parks to explore were endless, with free exercise equipment and playgrounds for the public. Both Nick and I were very impressed with the parks in Buenos Aires and enjoyed people watching with all the locals enjoying their cities’ amenities.
La Cultura de Arte
So many different arts to enjoy in Buenos Aires, but we wouldn’t have been able to leave the city without attending a tango show… and boy did we enjoy THE tango show of B.A.. Our first night we enjoyed the classical music and dance of the tango with a surprise performance of Hugo Marcel (83), who was famously known to sing alongside Diego Maradona. Speaking of famous futbol players, that leads me to another cultural experience we enjoyed in Argentina…
La Cultura de Futbol:
In Argentina, futbol is considered another religion. With multiple competing teams within Buenos Aires, we were able to enjoy the fun rivalry game of River Plate vs Belgrano. The tailgating, chants, and overall passion for their soccer teams would rival that of the crazed fan base of the Philadelphia Eagles. We’re still not sure what was in the pregame drink of choice and why everyone was drinking them out of cut off two liter bottles?
Singing, hugging, dancing and chanting with every goal. A wholesome experience some might say. Then why did we have lined security holding ropes and standing up every time the chants get loud? The extra police presence outside the game was just for show? Thankfully we witnessed a peaceful win of 3-0 River Plate, but it seems like you may need to stay on your toes at any given Argentine match. Nothing that an Eagles fan wouldn’t understand. #GoBirds
Finally wrapping up our weekly blog post with week 4’s high, low, unexpected & learned:
Nick:
High: Surprise Tengo Show
Low: The unexpected long walk around the stadium after following the crowds to the wrong gate & almost being late.
Unexpected: Inadvertently being a part of the restaurant's ‘family’ dinners because we were so early for dinner (6-7pm).
Learned: Boca was founded by the Genovese, and both Boca Juniors and River Plate came out of the town.
MK:
High: Tie between the Tengo show & cooking class.
Low: Being a little under the weather this week :(
Unexpected: How intensely popular the easter Sunday futbol match was. I knew they were big soccer fans, but wow!
Learned: The design of the empanada is indicative of what contents are inside.
That’s it for now, thank you all for following us through Chile and Argentina this last month. Stay tuned for the highly requested ghost writer in next week’s blog post.
Love,
MK & Nick
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