Oof, Buenos Aires. As gorgeous and electrifying as everyone promised. We chose to spend 8 days here, which initially felt like a lot, but in the end was just the right amount.

It’s easy to slip into life in this city, walking the streets, lounging in the beautiful parks with a book, winding through the stalls of Mercado de San Telmo, and enjoying the inexpensive and seemingly endless array of bars, cafes and restaurants. We broke up our time by staying in different neighbourhoods: San Telmo first, then Recoleta, then Palermo.

We arrived on a Sunday, meaning the street market at San Telmo was in full swing. This was a great way to kick off our trip as the energy is great here and we got an immediate sense of Buenos Aires’ activism scene. That particular Sunday, a group called Madres Victimas de Tratas were holding a demonstration, a group of mothers whose daughters were kidnapped and pushed into sex trafficking through the years.

We learnt pretty soon in that activism of this kind is a defining part of the culture in Buenos Aires, and the role of women and symbolism of handkerchiefs, in particular, is deeply rooted. For the last 40 years, another group of women, Mothers of Plaza del Mayo, have held weekly demonstations outside the Pink House to commemorate the thousands of Argentines who were abducted and disappeared during the military dictatorship of the 70s and 80s. They are known for wearing white handkerchiefs around their heads, a symbol deemed so powerful and important it is painted in a pattern on the tiles outside the Pink House.

In the last 15 years, green handkerchiefs have also been adapted for political demonstation, this time as a symbol for abortion rights in Argentina. These handkerchiefs can mostly be seen tied to backpacks and on people’s wrists, as Argentine women continue their fight for safe and legal abortion. When in Argentina, do as the progressive Argentines do!

Our time in Buenos Aires largely consisted of eating great steak and countless empanadas, drinking good, cheap wine and overindulging on dulche de leche.

We did a bike tour on our second day, which took a total of 7 hours but was completely worth it. We saw the entire city and our guide, Cristina, a young Spanish woman studying here, was able to fill us in on the political and social mood of the city and give us local insights we might otherwise have missed.

We also saw the various landmarks of the neighbourhoods of Palermo, Boca – Caminito, Recoleta and San Telmo on the tour, visited the cemetery where Eva Perón is buried, tried mate tea and had the history and ritual behind it explained to us, and ate a lunch of empanadas and bondiola.

On Wednesday night, Stephen gave a talk at a product event organised by a group he’s been part of for the last few years. This was followed by tapas and a blues gig at a bar called Lucille’s with one of the other organisers, Guido, and his girlfriend, Mariana.

On Saturday we went to see Independiente play against Racing in a fully packed 50,000 seat stadium. Electrifying atmosphere, passionate fans, endless singing and chanting, fireworks, t-shirt guns- about everything you’d expect at an Argentine football game!

Unfortunately we didn’t get around to tango lessons, but we did spend an evening at La Catedral and watched some pretty impressive dancing there over a bottle of wine.

We visited the Museo de Arte Moderno, where we saw, among other things, a beautiful exhibition on the dreamy, feminine, 60s inspired art of Argentine pop artist and fashion designer, Delia Cancela.

On our last night, we met Guido and Mariana again, who brought us to see La Bomba del Tiempa, an improvisational drum group, who play every week at a refurbished factory site. This event brings a young, trendy crowd together over beer, food, music and dancing. A fitting end to our time in this fabulous city!

Next stop is Ushuaia, the end of the world!

Ar aghaidh linn 🙂