Whatever I like in this space, it's my profile.
While walking around in Buenos Aires, I encountered many tango street performances. It's always great to watch such great shows for a few pesos donation. I did not have too much time while there to take extensive tango lessons, but I did try it a couple of times in my hostels.. the basic steps and beat isn't too bad.. but I am sure combining them together to look gracious is a whole another story :)
Buenos Aires which means "Good Winds" in Spanish is the capital federal of Argentina. As with all other South American Capital City, Buenos Aires is a big metro with a few million inhabitants and several neighborhoods each with it's own flavor and style. While in Buenos Aires, I stayed in the Palermo neighborhood, which is more of an upscale neighborhood with lots of nice restaurants, bars and clubs and I also stayed in the San Telmo neighborhood which I loved much better. San Telmo is more of an older neighborhood which thrives on it's excellent Tango - many milongas (Tango schools) and tango clubs all around.
Many people told me that Buenos Aires is much like Europe and that Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America. I have never been to Europe. So can't know as such. but I definitely imagine that's what some parts of urban Europe might look like - with all the great architecture, the numerous chic restaurants and great public transportation.
While Buenos Aires thrives in culture and architecture, I think it lacks seriously in gastronomy. Food choices are pretty limited. Argentineans eat mostly Beef, Beef and Beef... They are very proud of their beef and eat it every day. Other than beef, the other options are Pasta, Pizza and Hot Dog.. these are the main food you can find in Buenos Aires in most places..but if you look hard, there is of course a few places you can get other style of food, but not too easy to find.
La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires is one of the most colorful areas of Buenos Aires and also the one with the most gypsy and European feel to it, with all it's outdoors coffee shops and restaurants set out on the street, and all the street performers. Most of my pictures are from the Caminito street, which is a pedestrian only street with all the colorful buildings, outdoor restaurants and tango street performers.
La Boca is also home to the Boca Junior team of Argentina which is one of the most famous teams in Argentinas. At the time, I visited though, it was not football season and hence could not watch a game, but it's one of the great football experiences that one should experience to know how passionate Argentineans are about their football.
For the Quarter Finals of the World Cup, the city of Buenos Aires had set up giant screens in an outdoor open space for people to come and watch the game against Germany. There was such a great influx of people to the park, metros were full, vuvuzelas roaring all over the place, everybody dressed in blue and white and proud of their country and their team. The joy was short lasted though. The whole crowd was enthusiastic and cheering for Argentina for about 2-3 minutes till that first goal by Germany. That goal quieted the crowds and made it a very tame crowd. For the rest of the match, the cheer did not pick up at all even when Argentina was attacking. It was a fun experience watching the game together with such a big crowd, but sad as well to see all the sad faces and sad people all round the city after the 4-0 outcome.
I was walking in Buenos Aires today and I stumbled upon the monthly Buenos Aires Critical mass event (Massa Critical Buenos Aires) - where many bicyclists gather together as a critical mass and cycle the city as a group. I used to that every month in San Francisco. I so wish I had a bicycle here to be able to join the Critical Mass. It would have been a perfect way to see the city.
