Man’s furry friend joins in the fight against jet lag in Argentina…

When I read this story last week, I couldn’t help but laugh. The whole thing just seems a little surreal to me.

In short, scientists at the Quilmes National University in Buenos Aires found that small doses of sildenafil (i.e. Viagra) helped hamsters adapt to a simulated 6 hour time zone change 50% faster than usual. The idea is that Viagra could have the same helpful side-effect for jet-lagged humans, in addition to its other more obvious side-effect.

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Buenos Aires Private Tours - Enhance Your Vacation in Argentina

I would like to officially welcome our first sponsor to the blog: Buenos Aires Private Tours, whose banner you can see at the top of the screen just under our logo.

Buenos Aires Private Tours offer day-long private guide services for your vacation in Buenos Aires, and you can book them for either just a day, or for as many days (or weeks) as you like. They will show you any part of the city you wish to see, and if you like, use comfortable private transportation to take you there. (A very different service to the 3 hour city walking tours that I offer.)

Esteban, one half of the two-man tour guide team that runs Buenos Aires Private Tours (the other is called German), also happens to be a good friend of mine. He is a great guy, very funny, well educated, knowledgeable (especially in terms of Argentine culture and history) and basically just a pleasure to be around.

Most of all, Esteban and German are both Buenos Aires born and bred… meaning that if you sign up for their tour services, you will undoubtedly be getting a real local view of Buenos Aires, and one that stays out of the usual tourist traps at that. They want to show you the reasons why porteños (citizens of Buenos Aires) are so proud of Buenos Aires, and give you a feel for the many wonderful neighborhoods that make up this great city.

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Rodriguez Pena 1149 (between Arenales & Santa Fe), Recoleta

In search of the perfect empanada in Buenos Aires…

It’s a tough job trying to find the ‘best’ empanadas in Buenos Aires (just ask Saltshaker). Primarily because there are so many different places to try them at, and of course many different types of empanada from across the different regions of Argentina, and even the rest of Latin America. Still, I came to Buenos Aires with the idea of finding the perfect empanada, and still have this spurious notion in my head, and so on I trudge on with this difficult, yet enjoyable, eating project of mine.

For the record, I have still to taste those hallowed ‘perfect’ empanadas here. There is always something not quite perfect about each one, and I often wish that I could combine the best features of empanadas at different places to produce a super-empanada of sorts. Yes, it’s this kind of silly stuff that keeps me awake at night.

One thing I can say is that my favorite empanadas so far in Buenos Aires cannot be purchased in any restaurant. They are lovingly made by mi suegra (my mother-in-law to be), and are so good I can literally eat twenty in one sitting (I’m a growing lad - perhaps not in the right direction, but growing all the same). At Cumana in Recoleta, the empanadas are pretty good, and excellent value, but for one reason or another, are not quite up there with my suegra’s homemade efforts. And still, I continue in search of empanada perfection…

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Buenos Aires in the blogosphere…

Being the internet geek that I am, I was messing around with Technorati and happened across the following interesting statistic - the number of mentions of the words “Buenos Aires” per day throughout the blogosphere, and how this internet trend has changed over the past year or so.

Around 1000 mentions of Buenos Aires per day is pretty impressive by itself, but when you look at the chart below you can see that the increase on a year ago is simply massive, and even in the last 6 months the number of times Buenos Aires is mentioned in blogs per day has approximately doubled!

Here’s the chart:

[Posts that contain Buenos Aires per day, over the last 360 days]

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…and how to experience them anyway, on the cheap!

I guess I’ve always been something of a hostel person. Not out of choice mind you - if my economic situation had been rosier over the years, I’m sure I would have been living it up in the odd luxury, design, or boutique hotel now and again.

These days, my financial situation is little different, and still I wouldn’t be able afford to stay in such hotels. However, my current job as an independent tour guide here in Buenos Aires presents me with a glimpse over the other side of the fence, giving me a taste for the good stuff - so close, and yet so far.

However, as a tour guide, I also have to be quite resourceful on occasion. And so I have been able to come up with a few ways to enjoy the most wonderful, expensive Buenos Aires Hotels, but on a budget. Read on for my top five suggestions.

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