Buenos Aires, Argentina

Our Argentinian adventures began a little differently to normal: having arrived at our hotel and left our luggage, we simply couldn’t muster the energy to explore this large, unknown city in the dark at 6:30am… so instead we opted for getting several hours sleep in a nearby hotel. We checked ourselves in, threw ourselves in the beds, and woke up 5 hours later feeling a lot better.

We stopped by a local cafe for some food and drinks, and then continued our slow wander back to our pre booked hotel, where we are staying for the next three nights.

Sometimes all you need is a bit more sleep

Once we’d checked in and unpacked a bit, we decided to make the most of our first night in Buenos Aires by booking tickets to a dinner and dance show – an absolute must here.

We were picked up from our hotel around 8pm and taken to the theatre. The whole event was amazing; delicious food and incredible performances and storytelling.

We were served our food and (unlimited) drinks first, and then the show started around 10:15pm. We had the best time! Here are a few snippets:

Buenos Aires definitely comes alive at night! Our show didn’t finish until 12:30am and then we still needed to get back to our hotel, but the city was buzzing! We were completely pooped though, so that was it for the nightlife here for us!

On Saturday, none of us woke up before 11am! It was the sleep we obviously needed. Once we were up and ready, we headed out to see the sights of the city – starting with an ATM to get cash. We hadn’t been able to get cash the day before despite trying 3 different machines, none of them had any cash to withdraw. Martin had done some research and had to “send himself” some money, which was then confirmed via email – he would then need to go in to the bank, show email and proof of ID and hopefully receive the cash! We’ve never had to do that before. Annoyingly we still didn’t manage it as the Western Union bank closed at 2pm and we didn’t realise, oops! An early Monday morning trip it would be then!

Our first stop after the unsuccessful bank attempt, was a cafe/pub for some food – we definitely found a local as it was full of old men on their own or in groups, watching the football.

We then tried to make our way to “Casa Rosada” – the Argentinian presidential office, located in the centre of Plaza de Mayo. It’s also known as the pink house, for obvious reasons. It is also famous because it is where Eva (‘Evita’) Peron addressed the masses back in the 40s and 50s (a fact Kate was very excited about!).

We didn’t quite make it though, as we unexpectedly came across part of a rally of 10,000 Argentinians in support of Palestinians, protesting the genocide in Gaza. Important to witness we thought.

We continued our meandering through the streets until we came to the waterfront area – this reminded us of Bristol Harbourside – a bustling, lively area full of restaurants and bars. We grabbed some ice creams (they were massive!) and carried on walking around enjoying the vibe.