Food and Beverage

People coming to Argentina usually think about barbecue, not any regular barbecue but the one with the most delicious beef cuts you will ever eat. In fact, I must warn you that this is true. Then, what about vegetarians? Are they going to starve in Buenos Aires? Regarding food, there are plenty of options in this city.
Since we are influenced by a huge variaty of cultures, you will find many different restaurants to go and eat many delicious dishes as you wish.
Which kind of restaurant can you find in Buenos Aires? There are thematic ones, free holding (this means that you pay a fee and you can eat as much as you wish, with no beverage included), pizza restaurants, delivery and take away, fast food, cafes and regular restaurants (remember that none of them include tips).
If you are a pizza and pasta lover you must go to La Bistecca where you will be able to try a delicious italian menu. You can also choose a pasta dish in almost every restaurant in the city (because they are really common in here). In case you feel like eating meat, do not miss the barbecues by going to a barbecue restaurant such as La Caballeriza or Siga la Vaca. Moreover if you have a friend who lives in here, he/she has to invite you to a home barbecue (achuras are great, eat them too!).You can also find many fish dishes in the menues, I recommend you eat fish in the restaurants near the coast (the fish is fresh and tasty). Besides, there are sushi restaurants like SushiClub(Expensive but excellent choice regarding service and food). If you are a vegetarian, you can eat salad not only in any restaurant but also by going to a vegetarian restaurant (with a huge variety of vegetable food).
On the other hand, maybe you just want to stay at the hotel because you are tired, so you can order something calling to a delivery or take away (most regular ones are pizza and empanadas experts). Maybe you are out of time so you go to a fast food restaurant, try to avoid Mc donalds and choose any of the thousand options you have in town. If you want to drink cafe and eat a cake choose a cafe like Havanna (I recommend you go there and try alfajores which are a delicious combination of chocolate and dulce de leche, trust me you will not regret it), Aroma is another great choice for either breakfast or picnic. Finally if you are looking for a tasty dessert, the most popular choice is Ice cream (There are thousands of Ice cream shops where you can sit and eat it), you should go to Perssico, Munchis and Freddo.
Regarding beverage, if you eat pizza you will probably drink beer (our popular beer is lager and is not as light as Corona). When eating pasta or fish you would rather choose a white wine such as Torrontes (a bit sweet, strong taste), Sauvignon Blanc (soft), Chablis. Red wine is an excellent choice to join meat, barbecues and empanadas, the most popular is Cabernet Sauvignon but you can also drink Malbec, Syrah, Merlot depending on your taste. Free alcohol beverage choices are water (Villavicencio is mineral water) and soda.
In the end, I hope you do not miss eating and drinking every single type as much as you can. Enjoy it!

Medical Tourism

Whenever we talk about Medical Tourism, we actually refer to Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Tourism. This is a new way of visiting a city and taking advantage of the low prices because of the dollar exchange. If you think about having a plastic surgery bare in mind that doing it in Buenos Aires will be good way of saving lots of money. Moreover you must think about the consequences of this procedure regarding your health.
My advice is that you check the best world recognised surgeans in Plastic and Aesthetic field. You can check that in some organisation pages such as http://www.sacper.org.ar/00-web/miembros/index-Buenosaires-00P.htm http://www.scpba.org.ar/
http://www.soarme.com/
Once you have decided for surgery and you have chosen the accurate doctor, you can either make an appointment with him directly or book an aesthetic tour so that the tour operator takes care of accomodattion, transportation and all the requirements needed so that you can relax and enjoy.
By reserving this kind of tour, you benefit from importan disscounts on surgery, accomodation and transportation, transfers and eating. Some of them also include a city tour or even a spa visit so that you can fully relax.
On the other hand if you have a relative you can stay at his/her home while you plan the surgery. Besides you will have enough time to get to know your doctor and answer all your doubts during the interviews.
As a conclusion, you must always think carefully about the risks a surgery implies but if you are determined to do it still, then asure the certifications and memebership of your surgeon.
You can check on this sites concerning Aesthetic Tourism in Buenos Aires:
http://www.tourmedico.com/english/index.htm
http://www.sculpia.com.ar/english/index.html
http://www.xetica.com

Sport Fishing

This is your third visit to Buenos Aires and you are kind of boring at this time. You want to relax, and do some outdoor activity so that you can forget about work. I imagine you might not be on holidays this time, you just came again for work and you have one week left to relax and enjoy Buenos Aires. Have you packed your fishing rod?
You propably do not know that in the province you can also fish and you are really passionate about sport fishing, this is a great opportunity to have fun.
First of all, remember that the best part of the year to take advantage on this activity is winter time.
Where can you go? There are plenty of rivers and lakes where you can go fishing, the nearest places to downtown are the following:
Delta del Tigre
San Pedro
Delta del Paraná
Then you have lakes which are just a few miles away downtown such as Lobos (2 hours travelling).
Chascomús is also a great lake to do sport fishing but is not that close to Buenos Aires City.
On the other hand, if you are working near the Coast District, you should drive to Santa Clara del Mar, Mar de Cobo and Mar Chiquita (just about one hour away from Mar del Plata).
Regarding fish types, these are the most popular ones: pejerrey, vogue, croaker.

Taxi, Subway, Car?

As in many other places in the world, there are different kinds of transport in Buenos Aires. What are the best choices regarding travelling? Well, first of all, you have to know that here in Argentina we must drive on the right so if you are not use to doing it, it will be hard for you at first. Then, depending on your tour maybe renting a car will not be necessary since you can take the train, subway or bus. My advice is that you rent a car in case you are not staying downtown or maybe if you want to visit the suburbs. But if you are just staying downtown for a few days, the subway is certainly the best choice because you can go to every single neighbourhood within Buenos Aires in a fast way, and fortunatelly avoiding traffic jams (they are annoying).You can visit this page to check the maps http://www.subte.com.ar. The subway opens till 10 pm so the bus is the other choice you can make in case you want to go out at night, here you can click on this link http://www.xcolectivo.com.ar for further information regarding bus travelling. If you have any doubts do not hesitate to leave a question on the comments chart and I will help you. Moreover, you can also take a taxi if you like or sometimes a remis (this is a car like a taxi but with no taxi paintings. It is safer to call for a remis depending on where you are staying). A taxi will be more convinient when going out at night in dowontown because it is both cheaper and more available than a remis. On the other hand, if you are staying or visiting the suburbs a remis is much cheaper and safer than a taxi. You just call for a remis, the car will get to your place to pick you uo and will charge you a fee once the trip is over). Although I mentioned the train before, I only suggest that you take the Coast Train only since it is the safest train.
What about going to the coast side? Well, if you want to visit the coast district there are many cheap coaches (long distance buses) to buy the tickets you can go to Retiro Terminal http://www.tebasa.com.ar, you can also rent a car if you are use to driving in the route, to check maps click on this link http://www.ruta0.com/rutas_argentinas.aspx
Well, in order to make a summary the most important thing is that you have the properly information so that you can either take a taxi or rent a car. I let you a link where you can find accurate information about travelling in Buenos Aires http://www.comoviajo.com

Family Tour

This time you decided to take your children to Buenos Aires next holidays and obviously you want to make sure that you will be able to do some activities with them so that they do not get bored. Visiting regular museums and city-touring are not that interesting activities for children (especially if they are under 10 years old) so in order to provide you with some information about it, I will give you some advice regarding taking your kids out.

Firstly, they will be very tired because of the journey, so try to eat and rest in the hotel before going out. If you have not booked any room yet, you should better choose a hotel which is not located downtown but in the suburbs, if I were you I would stay in a hotel in Palermo city where there are most places to go out with your kids, such as the Zoo (located in Sarmiento and Las Heras Avenues)-opened Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 6 pm. This is a really excellent place not only for kids to enjoy and learn but also for your savings since kids under 12 years old have got FREE PASS to enter, the general passport is $25 and the saving passport (includes Boat, Aquarium and reptile) is $40. Secondly, You can also take them to the Japanese Garden (Figueroa Alcorta and Caseres Avenues in Palermo) which is also a cheap activity. Moreover there are many squares where you can go for free and your kids are going to enjoy that much, some of them are located in Libertador and Olleros Av., Costa Rica and Medrano, Las Heras and Coronel Diaz Av., most of these squares have got also a carousel (really cheap). Besides, there is a huge mall in Palermo -called Alto Palermo Shopping- to visit too.

If you want your children to have fun while they learn importan things, try going to The Science Musem ($5 situated in Gallardo Street 490-opened from 2pm-7pm), The "Forbbiden not touching" museum in Recoleta ($25 Junin 1930) or the Children Museum (located in Abasto Shopping Mall).

Finally in case you have rented a car, you have to go to the following places (they are amazing for both parents and children):

Escobar district. Temaiken is the biggest Biopark in Southamerica. http://www.temaiken.com.ar

Tigre distric. There is an amusement park called "Parque de la Costa". http://www.parquedelacosta.com.ar/

La plata district. There is an extraordinary museum with dinos, also a park "Children City" with plenty activities for kids and entertaining shows. http://www.fundacionvalorar.org.ar/republica2008/Actividades.asp

The Weather

You are holding the plane tickets and the moment to pack has come to an end, so here is when you wonder "Which clothes shoul I pack?" Do not panic! It is certain that many people do not bare this important item in mind until they are ready to leave. One thing you must know about Buenos Aires is that the weather is really wet and mild. We are use to wear many different clothes during teh whole year concerning huge variety of weather changes.

To begin properly, let´s make a difference between summer and winter time. As you may know summer time in this hemisphere starts in december when the sun shines and climate is really hot (temperature varies from 26 to 40 degrees). Sometimes people are warned because of the heatwave, so if you are planning to come during these months do not forget light fresh clothing such as Tshirts, shorts, and a swimsuit just in case you are invited to sunbathe near the river or the sea (In Mar del Plata or Pinamar- argentinian coast). In adittion, buy a repellent as soon as you can to avoid nasty mosquitos. It is also important that you put at least one sweater and a jacket -remember that, despite the heat, sometimes nights can be cool or even cold, especially in the coast area-.

On the other hand there is winter time which begins in June - I am sorry to dissapoint you but it never snows in Buenos Aires EVER!- so in spite of feeling really cold till your bones freeze at zero degrees, you will not be able to play with the such amazing snow. Then remember it is cold during winter time so that you pack gloves, extra sockets and a scarf.

As a conclusion I have to add that when spring and autumm come, the temperature changes a lot, the days are rainny (most of them), many times we suffer from hail (we hate it) and whenever you hear "hail alert" return the car you rented or make sure it is insured against all risks, hailstones are usually big and heavy to make several damages.

To sum up, remember packing all the accurate clothing so that you can avoid worring about our crazy weather.

Buenos Aires young

Whether you are a teenager or a young man/woman, you will be wondering what amusing activities you can do as soon as you get to Buenos Aires. To your surprise, there are plenty of entertaining things to have fun with while you visit the city. I am very pleased to help you decide which the best choices are.

First of all, let´s talk about day life, what sort of activities can you do in such a big city without going mad? Well, it depends on your interests and your willing to travel some not-that-long distances. If you like cycling or walking with friends, the best and cheapest choice is going to the Ecological reserve in Costanera which is a vast green area boarding the river. Maybe you are not that sporty but you still miss the trees and forests from your country, then you can visit Palermo Woods (also free) located between Libertador and Figueroa Alcorta Avenue, where you can sunbathe, walk or rent a small boat to row. There are also another interesting places in Palermo where you can have fun by paying a small amount of money for entrance, such as The Zoo (located in Sarmiento and Las Heras St.), the Botanical Garden - not only has got plants, flowers and trees but also has got millions of abandoned cats- placed in Santa Fe 3900 Avenue winter schedule (Mon to Fri 8am-6pm. Sat Sun 9.30am-6pm holidays 11am-6pm) summer (Mon to Fri 8am-7pm Sat Sun 9.30am-7pm holidays 9.30am-7pm), or the Japanese Garden (located in Figueroa Alcorta and Caseres Av. opened from 10 am-6pm $16 entrance).

Maybe it is rainny and you do not feel like walking that much, then you can go to The Pacific Gallery downtown and walk over Florida and Lavalle streets, where you can also shop if you want. Besides, if you are a shopping lover, try visiting Palermo Shopping Centre or Abasto, you are going to love those malls.

On the other hand, there are some teenagers that like a different sort of fun: the amusement park lovers! If you feel you are one of them, do not hesitate to go to Parque de la Costa located in Tigre district. The entrance is between 70-150 pesos and it is opened friday to sunday from 11am to 7 pm. My advice if you do not want to spend much money is that you choose the accurate passport before entering the park. To get there you can take the Coast train and once you get to Tigre Station you walk about 9 blocks. In addition you can go to the Fruit Port which is next to the Amusement park. There you can buy beautiful crafts as souvenir (they are also very cheap)

Although you like going out during day, I know you young people love night life, right? So, regarding going out at night I must warn you that Buenos Aires never sleeps. If you go dancing, you will notice discos open till 6 am and party time starts around 2 or 3am. So, you should better go to a bar before, and once you have drunk some beers you are ready to go to the disco! (REMEMBER THAT IF YOU DRINK YOU MUST NOT DRIVE AND TRY TO STAY WITH YOUR FRIENDS ALL THE TIME. It is risky even being far away from home).

If you are looking for an Irish bar then go to The Kilkenny (M.T Alvear st 399) or DownTown Matias (located in Reconquista y Viamonte). The entrance is free and music is really good, also great well-prepared beverages). Another interesting bar is La Cigale (25 de Mayo st 527) where you will enjoy a friendly atmosphere, great modern ambience, good music, but if you love 80s music and videos and you want to visit an original bar, you can not miss Living (placed in Recoleta M.T.de Alvear st). In this bar you will also be able to dance, listen and watch videos of your favourite 80s bands (here you have to pay to enter).

What if you feel like dancing? Ok, here there is a huge amount of places on the list to choose. I will give you my advice according to my experience and recommendation:

Many teenagers like dancing latin music, for them there is a great disco called Maluco (sarmiento 1728). For 21 years old people I shall recommend Azucar (corrientes 3300), the best place to take your boyfriend or girlfriend dancing Salsa!

Best discos for electronic music lovers are Bareihn (lavalle 300) and Caix (entrance $60 salguero y costanera norte). This one is a bit far away from downtown, you may have to take a taxi to get there, sometimes some DJs play live.

You must also remember that Buenos Aires is gay friendly too. My advice is that you go either to Amerika disco (entrance $80, gascon 1000 palermo) or to Glam (cabrera 3046) because they are the most popular ones.

In order to have fun in downtown, dancing current and a great vary of music then go to GOA (sarmiento 1662 $40 entrada), it is not that expensive and people are great! But if your idea of having fun is related to 80s music go to Museum (peru y venezuela) where you will find peopleo between 25-31 age.

For a glamorous night, visit Rumi (Figueroa Alcorta and La pampa), Djs live, great music, high society class people, expensive entrance. This is a disco where you have be stylishly dressed to get into.

Being gotic or geek, you will feel great in Requiem disco which is cheap and under ( mayo av 900)

Finally I must recommend my favourite place to go out at night which is Plaza Serrano, a Square surrounded by many bars and discos with a great music and atmosphere, located in jorge luis borges and honduras streets. These bars have also a secret, during day they become into cloth shops, can you believe it?

I hope you can really use all this information. See you soon!

A few legends

Besides their history, some places also have got stories heard, lived or told by any cityzen from the past in Buenos Aires. Some of them are really scary, other are not so, but you have to know them, they are interesting and give you another view of the city.

Whenever you travel by subway, remember watching through the windows if you take line A. This is the light blue colour subway line that runs from Plaza de Mayo to Carabobo ($2,50). In the middle fo this journey there are two platforms called Pasco and Alberti:

The ghost station

It is said that in the subway (line A), once the train gets in between Pasco and Alberti platforms, the lights go off and you can see a ghost station and two man sitting on it with their legs hanging over the rail. Scary, isn´t it?

Maybe you visit St Felicitas Chappel in Barracas district where there is also another popular legend, Felicias Guerrero legend.

Felicitas Guerrero

She was murdered in 30 January 1872 by her lover Enrique Ocampo once he found out Felicitas was dating another man after they broke up. Her parents built a chapel in her honor. The legend tells that if you leave a tissue inthe chapel, it will be wet next morning because of Felicitas´tears. Besides, every night the 30 January you can see her crying inside the chapel. So try to avoid going to Barracas that night.

Finally, this is the most popular legend ever: the lady in white. Have you ever heard the story?

The lady in white

You will hear this story if you go to Recoleta Graveyard. She was a girl who died at her 19s after a party held in her house. She was buried the following day in the Recoleta Graveyard. Then her mother received a message saying that the grave had been scratched from the inside and she blamed herself thinking her dauther might had suffered from catalepsya and when she woke up she had a heart attack. Years later a legend says that near the cementery a young met a young beautiful girl wearing a white dress crying who seduced him that night. Suddenly she got lost in ther graveyard but her lover kept her jacket. When he tried to return it he found out it had belonged to a dead young lady. Now you are aware, don´t fall in love with a girl who walks near the Recoleta Graveyard, she might be a ghost!

Only history lovers

No matter how old you are, if you are a history fan, you will love visiting these particular buildings !

These are located downtown. You can use the subway ($2,50), bus ($1,20) or just walk.

• Government House. It is located in Balcarce Street 50 built in 1580. By the ending of 19th century it was painted pink because red and white (politic colours for unitarios and federales) were mixed. This is the reason why it is called Pink House.
• Cabildo. It is a museum of Mayo Revolution history situated in Bolivar street. It was originally built in 1580. It is opened tuesday to friday from 12.30 am to 7 pm and sundays from 3 to 7 pm. In the original Cabildo, the independence and political meetings were held before the Revolution in 1810.

• The Obelisco. You can find it in the middle of Corrientes and 9 de Julio avenues. This 67 metres high monument was built by A. Prebisch (Argentinian architect) in 1936. Its importance lies in historical events (You can learn them by reading the engraving on it).
• Dorrego Square. This was the place were people met to reasure Independence, officially declared in 9 July 1816 Tucuman.
• San Telmo Market. Situated in Defensa 961. It has been opened since 1897. It was a comunitary market in the past. Nowadays it sells antiques and regional objects.
• Manzana de Las Luces. You should walk to Peru street 272. Its importance lies in the jesuita´s history. They built an important school and the church mentioned before (San Ignacio). They also caved misterious tunnels underground Monserrat district in 18th Century.
• El Viejo Almacén. This means "the old shop". It was built in 1798 but it was not until 1969 that it became popular because of its Tango Shows. It is located in Independencia Av.
• San Telmo district. This is a famous place you cannot miss because you will notice many old big houses turned into craft workshops. This large houses full of rooms and with a patio in the middle, had belonged to arystocratic families who left or died from yellow fever disease and had been immediatelly usurped by immigrants in 19th century.
• Palermo Racetrack. It was built in 1876. There is a turf museum and a small casino inside it. in the 1880´s people met here to bet and watch the races. In order to differ medium social class from high society, they were dressed using labels on their clothes so that they show they were new and had not be used before. This made the slang phrases to come up such as "label dressing" and anothers. Make sure you ask these particular things when you visit it.

Galileo Galilei Planetarium. It was Built in 1966 for the 150th Independence aniversary.

St Ignacio de Loyola Church. This is the oldest church in Buenos Aires, located in Bolivar Street 225. It was built in 1710.

Recoleta Graveyard. An amazing graveyard founded by recoletos monks in 1822. It has got famous argentinian families´mausuleums and beautiful sculptures.

Basilica Nuestra Señora del Pilar. Another Jesuitic building (1732)

English Tower. It is located in Brittannia Square, built in 1916 by English people because of Mayo Revolution in Argentina.

Cafe Tortoni. It was founded in 1858 and it is situated in Mayo Av. 829. It is a very important café where artists used to meet to write, talk and listen to tango and jazz. You should have a coffe here! It is not expensive and you can take a lot of beautiful pictures regarding tango history.

Mayo Pyramid. This is the first monumment in Buenos Aires built in 1811.

Metropolitan Cathedral. This is a neoclasical building (18th century) which keeps General San Martin´s remains.

These places are a bit far away from downtown. It is better if you visit these places being on a guided tour or with argentinian friends because you might get lost or may be robbed.

• Feria de Mataderos. It is situated in Mataderos (de La Torre and De los Corrales Av.)This was built in 1986 as a fair to eat and drink regional food and beverage, besides some traditional shows are held. It opens ONLY sundays from 11 am to 8 pm

• Plaza Miserere.This square situated in Pueyrredon Av and Rivadavia Av. reminds the argentinian victory over the English Invasion in 1806. It is also in front of the train station where the recent crush tragedy happened. Besides, the disco where many young people died burnt in 30 December 2004(Cromañon tragedy) is just near the train station.You must be very careful because Plaza Miserere is a dangerous place, do not go there alone or at night.

• Constitucion. This is a train station founded in 1864 in front of the old fruit market but I am just giving you some information about this historical place, please do not visit it because nowadays is dangerous and dirty.PLEASE DO NOT GO THERE!!
• Retiro Station. This is the most importabt train station in Buenos Aires since was built by an English architect Louriston Conder in 1915 and has got over 30 lines of transportation to different places and an internal conection to the subway.

The places I suggested before are the ones I consider you should visit, to know a bit more about Argentinian History. On the other hand there are a lot of different museums and theaters too but I think they will be suggested in a more artistic tour. My recommendation is that you ask as many questions as you can so that you can make a complete summary of our history. If you are also interested in urban and myths of Buenos Aires City,do not hesitate in reading the next entrance.

What to expect from Buenos Aires?

Many people might have thought in Buenos Aires as a great destination to spend holidays but, do they have all the necessary information to go on this trip? What are they supposed to get once they get in this city?

As soon as your plane lands off, you realise that Buenos Aires is welcoming you with a marvellous river view and - if you come at night- a million lights colouring the city. There are plenty of things to do, you are tired and annoyed because of the check-in, not a single human being seems to undersdtand your language and you are worried about someone might rob you. Relax! Take it easy and keep on reading to find the answers you need.

First of all, people here have got a strong accent, so do not judge them for being rude, it is just a different culture which you are not used to interact with, but soon you will notice we are friendly and gentle. In the hotel (I recommend staying in downtown near the Obelisco if you want to be near the best monuments and theatres to visit) they will offer a turist guide and they will give you recommendation. They will probably warn you about smugglers, but- trust me- it is not as terrible as they say. Seccondly, always remember that you are visiting a city. Specially if you stay downtown, it will not be quiet at all. You can go out during day and night, try to avoid traffic jams in the afternoon, you should better walk or use the subway ($2,50). Then, that is why my advice is to choose a Hotel downtown so that you can walk (because everything is nearby). If we use Obelisco (a monument in the middle of 9 de Julio Avenue) as a reference point, you can walk just a few blocks and you will be in the theater´s area. If you walk same blocks opposite instead, you will go to Puerto Madero and a great bar area (in a bar you can drink and listen to bands or disco music too). Another few blocks on your left you go to Abasto (a big mall to visit- if you want to shop different things you should go to another place not this one, so try to avoid shopping things such as clothes and other staff, it is expensive if shopping is the main purpose of your trip). Taking the subway (E) you can go to San Telmo (an old and antique place you can not miss if you like historic turism). Finally, whenever you find out where do you want to go, now it is easier than having no clue.

Buenos Aires is really beautiful, as I told you before, you have many different choices to make and enjoy when touring. Besides, remember that Buenos Aires is a whole state, so there are much more interesting points to travel such as the coast (Mar del Plata), the south (Bahia Blanca), the fields, the hills (Tandil) and a long list of places to visit.

Introduction

Hello everybody! I hope you really enjoy reading this blog. The main purpose is to give all the information you need whenever you come to visit Buenos Aires. I will give you advice regarding places, restaurants, and any other marvellous places you can not miss if you come here. I promise my information will be accurate so that you can relax and enjoy your tour in Argentina with the necessary previous back up. Also, all the things you will be able to read are based on personal experiences and some knowledge not only as a cityzen but also as a turism student.

Again, welcome to my blog! Hope you enjoy it!