Adios, Buenos Aires: My Guide to a Great City

After living and hanging around in Buenos Aires the past month, the city has really grown on me.  If we could find jobs here that paid decently, we'd stay.  Here's my guide to the cool stuff to do in Buenos Aires.  A lot of it we've gotten through tips from friends that have been here way longer than us and had explored the city to death.  My list:

NEIGHBORHOODS
The neighborhoods of Buenos Aires are often tree-lined, brick streets with family owned produce stores and colorful paint or graffiti.  Here are the main tourist areas:

San Telmo - Fun to walk the streets admiring colorful old buildings.  Stop by Plaza Dorrego for a drink and some tango watching. 

Recoletta - Known for the mind-boggling cemetary with the same name, the area is a great place to spend loads of money shopping or eating.

Palermo - divided into a few different areas, Soho, Hollywood & Viejo, Palermo is a trendy, welcoming residential area with great restaurants and charming shops.

Puerto Madero - Super fancy condos are being built all through here.  Take a relaxing stroll along the Diques or visit the Ecological Reserve to escape the city feeling on bike or foot.

Belgrano - A more down to earth version of Palermo, also has an area with Embassies.  Chinatown (the two blocks of it) is also here.  See Tango section for a cool park here.

TANGO
The smooth, romantic dance style dominates the tourist scene here.  You can find pricey tango shows, but here are the low-budget options:

Plaza Dorrego (in San Telmo) - Great spot to relax, watch tango and enjoy a drink.

Caminito (in La Boca) - Another touristy spot worth checking out.  Cafes feature tango dancers and you can pose with dancers or as them.

Barrancas de Belgrano (in Belgrano) - This spot is a park, with a gazebo where locals dance tango - it's not pretentious at all.  It's great for people watching & trying out your tango steps.  The cross streets are 11 de Septiembre & Echeverria, it's 6 blocks northeast from the Juramento subte stop, right near the Estacion Belgrano C train stop.  Dancers seem to be there every weekend evening at dusk.  Thanks to our friend Sarah for letting us in on this special spot.  Here's her blog from living in Buenos Aires the last 7 months.

Here's a video with tango from Plaza Dorrego & Barrancas de Belgrano:


DELICIOUS FOOD & ICE CREAM
La Cabrera (in Palermo at Cabrera & Thames) - Argentina is known for it's beef, and this place puts it on a pedestal to shine.  They have a long menu of meat cuts to share family-style with included side dishes of delicious mashed potatoes, apples, pears, olive puree, cream, etc that all bring the flavors out in the meat.  It's delicious!  Our meat dish & sides were 50 pesos, about $14.  It's worth the wait for a table, especially because they bring you champaign & meat samples as you wait outside.

1810 Cocina Regional (in Centro, Palermo & Belgrano) - This place has awesome empanadas!  They're pastries filled with fresh tomato & basil, spicy beef, magical flavored chicken, blue cheese, ohhh, the options go on and on - go try some!

Volta (in Recoletta 1826 Sante Fe w/Callao ) - Volta is a downright indulgant ice cream shop & coffee spot.  They have delicious flavors like chocolate with almond and raspberry, and be sure to try one of the many Dulce de Leche flavors, which is way more popular and chocolate could ever be in Latin America.  While you're here, go a few store fronts away from Callao to the old theatre gone bookstore, El Ateneo.  You can even have a coffee on stage.

CONSIDER A VACATION RENTAL
There are loads of hotels and hostels, but skip that.  Vacation rental is very popular & a great deal in Buenos Aires.  An expat that has been here for decades told me "people don't trust the banks, so they save and buy an apartment to rent to foreigners," and I believe that because there are loads of great furnished apartments that are tourist-ready and a great deal.  We stayed at a nice hostel in Palermo for $35/night (AC, private bath, breakfast), but our month long rental cost us $30/night and we got cable tv, full kitchen, and 3 rooms with loads more comfort & space.  I highly recommend the place we rented - the apartment, neighborhood & owner are all great.  (blog about our apartment)

Rental Process: you contact the company to tell them you want it, set a meeting time at the apartment, pay in cash & sign the lease, then set the check-out time.  Pretty Painless.

BIKES ARE GREAT!
La Bicicleta Naranja (San Telmo & Palermo) - A fun way to see the city is on bikes.  Avoid the major streets, but it's easy because there are loads of one-way streets that are very bike friendly.  I recommend this company that gives you a map with a bike tour to follow, and you can also have a guide, which I've heard are fun.  They have two locations and you can even pick up at one site and drop off at the other.


SPEAKING PORTEÑO SPANISH
Sadly, my many years of studying spanish seem of little help here.  People in the city speak really fast, use a lot of slang, and always use vos.  People understand me when I use tu or usted form, but I've been playfully laughed at for using Ud. - they never use it here.  So, if you want to fit in a bit more, practice some vos conjugations & get used to Que tal for hello & Chao for goodbye.

Quick vos overview: sort of like tu form but you always stress the last syllable so "vos baiLAS" "vos leES" and you never stem change so "vos poDES" & "vos querES".  It hurts my head sometimes!  They also don't use vosotros here, just the Uds style conjugation.

A NOTE ON WORKING...
For foreigners looking for work here, it's much easier to follow a job to Buenos Aires than find one here.  There are loads of expats competing for English teaching jobs and the like that makes picking up work difficult, but certainly not impossible.  Although the plus to all the expats here, we met lots of cool people that we wish we had more time with.