Defensa 695 (on corner of Chile), San Telmo

If you want to have an extremely authentic Buenos Aires experience, try whiling away an afternoon or evening having coffee, drinks, or a meal in one of the city’s famous “notable cafes and bars”. A few years ago, a city government commission drew up a fairly comprehensive list of 53 notable bars and cafes and awarded them this special status due to either their historical, cultural or architectural importance to the city of Buenos Aires. Many of these establishments have been in operation since the nineteenth century, and upon entering one of them you are quickly transported back to the city’s aristocratic roots.

One picturesque member of this exclusive club of bars and cafes is Bar Seddon, a San Telmo hang-out spot that was converted into a bar from a nineteenth-century pharmacy.

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Cochabamba 444 (between Defensa & Bolivar), San Telmo

Note from Alan: Taking inspiration from the fantastic team blogging efforts over at both Argentina’s Travel Guide and Expat Argentina, I recently decided to get some fresh blood on board to help with the creation of the Buenos Aires Argentina Guide. There are so many great places in Buenos Aires to review, and only one of me to do so… it would take years if I continued solo! If you think you have what it takes to be a contributer here, even if only for one ‘guest post’, please email me or leave a comment. Right now, I’d now like to cordially welcome our first new member of the team, Rachel Signer, whose bio you can find at the end of this article, and whose first post, about the Cochabamba 444 milonga in San Telmo, I hope you will now read with enjoyment…

An authentic milonga in San Telmo

For an authentic tango experience in Buenos Aires, don’t go to one of those expensive places that offer shows aimed at tourists, with bloated prices. Instead, head to Cochabamba 444, the San Telmo milonga where the city’s best tango dancers come to strut across the dance floor with people of all ages, walks of life, and nationalities. The bar is dimly lit by chandeliers with yellow bulbs, giving an aura of antiquity that takes you back to Buenos Aires in its Golden Age of high-society and sizzling tango bars. It’s located on a quiet street just three blocks from Plaza Dorrego, where the Sunday antiques fair is held.

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[12th - 18th February 2007]

This roundup post is late, as usual, so no messing around this week folks… let’s just get straight into the Buenos Aires, Argentina linky goodness from last week…

Buenos Aires Argentina Blog Posts of the Week

• Matt Bites, who appears to be thoroughly enjoying a holiday in Buenos Aires and the general Rio de la Plata area, penned a mouthwatering review of the La Cabrera parrilla in Palermo Viejo, one of the best places to eat meat in BA. Although… drinking Torrontes instead of Malbec wine as an accompaniment to steak… don’t they kill for such crimes against Argentine sensibilities round these parts?
• Matt Chesterton, editor of the Time Out guides to Buenos Aires, has been writing a fantastic series about hotels in Buenos Aires… my runaway favorite has to be his post on classic hotels in BA, mainly for his wedding night anecdote from the Hotel Castelar.. seriously, a must read!
• I couldn’t find a third Matthew to make this a ‘Mattrick’ of top blog posts (were there any other Matts writing about BA this week?)… so we’ll have to make do with the closest I could find…a Marc. He recently announced on Asado Argentina that he has launched a new photo blog of southern Argentina. OK, so it’s not Buenos Aires… but from time to time we city dwellers need to be reminded that real life does exist outside of the metropolis, and his first few pictures provide some beautiful examples of that fact

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[5th - 11th February 2007]

Well, amazingly, I made it to ten weeks of this Buenos Aires blog roundup. Quite an achievement for me, because each one involves a hell of a lot of reading, selecting, writing and linking each week. But I enjoy doing it, and it keeps me up to date with a lot of what is going on in Buenos Aires, plus I get to read so many interesting opinions about the city, and often see some absolutely stunning photos of BA.

So, onwards I go, with Buenos Aires blog roundup number 10…

Buenos Aires Blog Posts of the Week

• This week, my favorite posts are all about cool, hip things in Buenos Aires. And they don’t get much cooler than this: look at the new Adidas “I Love Buenos Aires” line - I really want the blue sneakers in the second picture! Thanks to Buenos Aires Spotting for noticing that, and for generally just being far to trendy for their own good…
• I am a big ‘indie’ music fan. Until this week, I thought there was no indie music in Buenos Aires… until Disco Shawn came to the rescue, and pointed out that a (possibly regular) indie night is starting this Friday at Club Niceto. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get to it, if any of my resident stalkers want to know where to find me this week
• Now, what could be cooler than some tips on how to pick up girls in Buenos Aires, I ask? Well, how about some crazy & funny tips from one of the girls herself? OK then, just don’t blame me or Diva when you get slapped five times in one night for trying her advice!

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[22nd - 28th January 2007]

Well, it’s been quite a busy week here in Buenos Aires blogland. Firstly, my blog now has a new name, with the word ‘Argentina’ replacing the redundant ‘Travel’. This has already seen a marked increase in people finding the site by searching “Buenos Aires, Argentina”, so it wasn’t such a bad decision after all
Secondly, quite a few of us Buenos Aires bloggers only went and got mentioned in Clarin, the main daily newspaper here in BA. But more of that to come in the roundup, so on with the show…

Things to See and Do in Buenos Aires

• As I seem to keep saying every week, Karine has once again posted some excellent photos of Buenos Aires landmarks, including Plaza Congreso, with a view of the lovely twin red domes of the La Inmobiliaria building & the exquisite Palacio Barolo beyond them, a quaint little antiques shop in San Telmo, some of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo doing their thing in the plaza, the spooky old University of Engineering building in Recoleta (just round the corner from my new apartment!), and in Buenos Aires Province, some crazy pictures of the packed beaches at Mar del Plata - so that’s where all the people in the city disappeared to this month!
• Argentina’s Travel Blog sends one of it’s legion of writers to investigate the many Lakes and Parks of Palermo
• Ken goes shopping in Once, which is recommended if, like me (and I guess Ken too!), your clothing purchase decisions are based more on necessity and price than style or fashion!
• I got off my arse and wrote a little something about the beautiful San Pedro Gonzalez Telmo Church in, you guessed it, the barrio of San Telmo

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