[8th - 21st January 2007]

Hello Buenos Aires blog fans. I still don’t have internet access in my new apartment, and probably won’t for a while, which explains my lack of posting at the moment. Hence, I missed last week’s blog roundup, and am combining it with this week’s instead.

So, here goes two weeks worth of Buenos Aires bloggy goodness…

Things To See & Do in Buenos Aires

• Robert drove south to show us some photos of the ‘real’ city of Buenos Aires, with photos and comments about the lesser-visited (by tourists) barrios of Barracas, Parque Patricios, Nueva Pompeya, and Villa Soldati
• Loads of great photos,as usual, from Karine recently in her Buenos Aires Weekly and Daily photo blogs, including ones of some coffins in a worse for wear Recoleta Cemetery mausoleum, the Palacio de Justica building in Plaza Lavalle, a rosy cloud view from the top of the English Tower in Retiro, the Japanese Gardens in Palermo, the stunning Palacio de Aguas Corrientes building on Av. Cordoba, and finally, some varied photos of Recoleta and it’s Basilica, Nuestra Señora del Pilar. Nice shots Karine!
• The fantastically named ArJewTino wrote an interesting alternative 12 step guide to having fun in Buenos Aires, which certainly raised a smile in places, and followed it up with a few more thoughts on BA
• At opposing ends of the Buenos Aires activities spectrum, the Buenos Aires Zoo and the Art Scene in Buenos Aires are both given the review treatment by the Argentina travel blog writers
• Dan has pictures and comments on the ‘changing of the guard’ ceremony at the Malvinas War Memorial in Plaza San Martin. Having seen this myself a few times, I can recommend you take the time to view it… although if you are British like me, probably best to keep a low profile when you do
• Robert Wright comes up with the (blogging) goods once again, this time with another of his excellent Buenos Aires, then and now posts, comparing past photos of BA buildings to what is seen in the present day. Not to be missed! He follows up with some pictures and info about the other famous cemetery in Buenos Aires, Chacarita, after his unplanned trip there (and he’s not the first to make an unplanned trip to the cemetery, I’m sure!)
• Diva would be happy to give you a tour of Chacarita cemetery, but only if you’re cool enough (I’m not!)
• Dalila puts up a slide show showcasing the many different types of doors in Palermo Viejo – no sign of Jim Morrison though She widens her scope a bit with her next slide show, which is of some of the beautiful houses in Palermo Viejo [no, can't think of a decent joke here Anyone else?]
• Buenos Aires Spotting (please note the new name AND URL folks, for what used to be Buenos Aires Trendhunter) spots (what else?) that Resfest 2007, a hip digital arts festival, will take place in the equally hip Malba art museum, on the last weekend of March
• Jude takes a trip to the Abasto shopping center for some AbFab-type shenanigans… WARNING, please do not click her link if you do not want to see some, ahem, ‘Camel Toe’! If you want more info on this shopping center and its architecture, check out my earlier post on the Abasto Mall
• My new friend Ken has a post about our weekend trip to the races at Palermo Hipodromo, and it seems he already knows more about horse racing in Argentina than I do! All the same, feel free to check out my past blog post on Palermo Hipodromo too!

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[18th - 24th December 2006 - Christmas edition!]

Oh dear. I have been a very bad boy this week…not one blog post

I think I got burnt out after all those posts last week. Or I’m just reverting to my usual laziness…although in my defence, I have been visiting family most of this week and internet access was not as easy to come by as usual.

At least a few other bloggers in Buenos Aires have been a little more active ….

Buenos Aires Sightseeing

• Dan has some photos of a wonderful, decrepit old mansion on the equally wonderful, upmarket Avenida Alvear, in the heart of Recoleta. I used to talk about this great old mansion back when I was a tour guide, but can’t for the life of me remember it’s supposed history – and my tour notes are back in Argentina so I can’t check them for another week…
• Not strictly ‘sightseeing’, but there are certainly some interesting ‘sights’ to be seen at Club 69, as pointed out by ‘Trendhunter Buenos Aires’. The night is held every Thursday in Club Niceto, Palermo Hollywood
• Goyoworld posted a few nice photos of varying scenes around Buenos Aires, all taken on the same day
• Robert Wright has yet more amazing photos of Recoleta cemetery. Not once, but twice! I can’t wait for his guide book / map of the cemetery to come out…
• And he followed those up with some interesting photos all along a new theme he is working on: Buenos Aires is a beautiful, yet gritty, city
• Karine has been Caminando por Caminito, in La Boca. For (a lot) more information on this small, colorful street, you could also check out my recent Caminito post.
• Trendy Palermo Viejo notes that notable Argentine entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky posted up a nice video of Palermo Viejo here on his blog

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Imagine it is your last day ever in Buenos Aires, and you have just 24 hours to see and do all of the things you love in Buenos Aires for the very last time. Makes you think, no?

24 Hours in Buenos Aires

This thought inspired the following blog post, an itinerary for which I would definitely need all 24 hours of the day to pack everything in. I hope at least some of my fellow bloggers in Buenos Aires will read this and be able to weigh in with their own post about their perfect day in BA.

Please read on for mine…

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Reconquista 920 (between Paraguay & Marcelo T de Alvear), Buenos Aires City Center

(Also has a Recoleta location, at Ayacucho 1204)

Pool Near The River

Deep Blue is a fairly expensive pool bar in the ‘bajo’ (‘low’) area of Buenos Aires City Center, which basically means the part where the land starts to slope down towards the river. It is an area with a high concentration of bars, and due to this also being the banking/business district, you will generally see a lot of the ‘after office’ crowd about. In any other major city this would probably be a sign of a drunken mess waiting to happen, but in Argentina they are generally not very big drinkers, which is one of the more accurate stereotypes you will hear about the city. Although of course, things can get a bit crazy on Friday and Saturday nights, when these bars become rammed with twenty-something portenos.

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Armenia 1784, (between El Salvador and Costa Rica), Palermo Soho / Viejo

[May 2007 edit - this review refers to the bar as Terreo throughout, but the name has since been changed to the Soho Vain Bar, I guess given its prime location in Palermo Soho]

Terreo is the most unique bar I have visited so far in Buenos Aires, because, well, it is more like a big (chilled) house party than a real bar. It is located in ‘trendy’ Palermo Viejo, right next to the ingeniously named Plaza Palermo Viejo, a few blocks from Palermo Soho and the more famous Plaza Serrano.

The barrio of Palermo has a reputation of being willfully ‘different’, and in that area, Terreo certainly doesn’t disappoint. First off, it is a little difficult to find if you are looking for it by name. It has no Terreo sign, and is just a door with a today’s special’s blackboard outside. So look out for the Armenia 1784 street number (above right) on a yellow background to help you find it. Also, it is next door to a store called ‘Viva La Pepa’, which does have a sign, much to the amusement of my Argentine friends (ask an Argentine what ‘Viva La Pepa’ means).

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