Ah Buenos Aires, even though I got my camera stolen and saw countless other robberies I still love this city. It is a very modern European style city. There is tango in the streets and either a bakery, meat grill, or pizza joint on every corner. Like I said I love this city. We were staying in the San Telmo neighborhood. This part of town is famous for its antique stores and every weekend its streets become overrun with antique vendors and transforms into a huge outdoor antique market. We spent hours walking through all the stalls.
We visited quite a few of the other neighborhoods as well. We went to Puerto Madera, the old port area of town that is now the hot new area to live. It has become the most expensive part of the city apart from the famous Recoleta neighborhood. There is a huge park in Puerto Madera that the locals bike and run in. We rented bikes and went for a long ride in the park. I was surprised with how active the park was with runners, bike riders, birders, and just people strolling about. It was nice to see the people so active in their city. Just outside of the park is a stand selling Choripan. It is exactly what it sounds like, a piece of bread stuffed with freshly grilled chorizo. Delicious!
In the Recoleta neighborhood we walked around all the shops that were too expensive to even entertain the idea of entering. The window displays were pretty and we did some good window shopping. We went into the famous Recoleta graveyard and took a free tour. It is fascinating all the people that are buried there and the vast array of tombs from simpler ones to ultra-modern ones and then the really old ones and then the over the top ones belonging to the city’s ultra-wealthy. We stopped by Eva Peron’s grave and were rather unimpressed by her simple tomb compared to all the other tombs we had already seen. We also visited the art museum in Recoleta which had a very impressive collection of classic art and modern art and was completely free. I couldn’t believe that such a nice museum was free. We spent hours walking through looking at all the art.
As far as the food goes, there was an endless supply of things to try. We tried a pizza in the Cuartito called a fugazetta. It is a thick crust slice covered in a very creamy soft cheese then covered with onions then covered with mozzarella. Oh my God! Some of the best pizza I have ever had. It is an Argentinian creation. I’ll be back for another slice someday. Then the meat, Oh what can I say about the meat. We ate at La Brigada and when the waiter brought our steaks out he cut them with a spoon and served it to us. With a spoon! Then there are all the empanadas, steak sandwiches, and sweet treats, but I could talk endlessly about the food we ate.
On our last day in Buenos Aires we decided to go to La Boca and see a contemporary art museum that I really wanted to see. We went against our better judgment since La Boca is one of the worst areas in Buenos Aires. We went to the museum then after walked around the colorful buildings nearby. The buildings are all painted bright colors and have these funny figures in the windows. We walked to the end of one of the streets and I took my camera out to take one last photo before we turned back to the main strip to eat at a restaurant and watch a tango show. I was framing the photo when all the sudden my camera was ripped out of my hand. I had no idea what just happened. I looked up to see a man running down the street with my camera. We took up running after him but he already had a pretty good lead. We chased him for about four city blocks but couldn’t catch him. The whole time I was yelling in Spanish, please help me he stole my camera please someone stop him. No one did anything. They just watched him go by. He even ran into a man that was much bigger than him and he just stepped aside. I was so mad. We found a policeman and he took us around in his car trying to spot him but I knew there was nothing we could do at this point. So we went to the station and filed a report and headed back to our hostel. The only comically ironic thing about it is that he stole a broken camera. I had cracked the screen that morning while on our bike ride. Also a lot of the functions weren’t working anymore. That makes me laugh but the fact that I lost all of my photos sucks. So this is why the last few post and the next few won’t have any photos.
Christina
Be safe both of you!!!
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