Argentina
Okay, like every tourist you've already visited Calle Florida. After all, despite everything, there is always something interesting to do there - shopping at Falabella, a coffee at Florida Garden. There are also good bookshops like Ateneo and Cúspide Libros, which have pleasant cafés away from the hubbub of the street - you do not even remember that you are in Florida. And I cannot fail to mention the Galerias Pacifico, with good shops and ceilings worthy of an art gallery.
What you might not know is that the top floor of the Galerias Pacifico is the Centro Cultural Borges where you can find concerts, exhibitions, films, educational programs and workshops. This centre is a great place to see tango shows - not tourist traps, but authentic ones. The prices are quite fair: for the tango show "Bien de Tango" I paid $100 (aprox. US$25). Certainly off the beaten track.
www.ccborges.org.ar
Centro Cultural Borges, Viamonte esq. San Martín C1053ABK, Buenos Aires
+54 (11) 5555-5359
Google map: bit.ly/Ncl3LR
Its a photography treasure hunt/experience and a really cool way to see the city. We went along one Saturday and ended up going back twice, as they do it in a different barrio each time so you get to experience the city and learn about taking original photographs.
A great way to explore parts of the city tourists don't normally see. A really fun tour, in the form of a photography based treasure hunt around the streets of Buenos Aires.
www.foto-ruta.com
+54 11 6030 8881
This unmissable show is nothing like I have ever experienced before and had never heard of, until our hostel told us we would be mad to miss it.
La Bomba takes place every Monday night (who cares if there’s work the next day) and is a popular, often sold out, percussion frenzy at Ciudad Cultural Konex, an old open air converted oil factory, and costs the equivalent of about £5.
It is essentially two hours of madness where a group of 17 quick handed musicians take to the stage, and over the course of the two hours their drumming gets louder and faster. As you would imagine, this consequently affects the audience who are taken along for the ride in the form of hypnotic drum beats. It is all improvised, yet conducted through different hand signals, and you cannot help but be mesmerised by the sheer talent and co ordination.
Let me stress, La Bomba is not for the feint hearted. As the drumming gets louder and faster, the crowd reacts a little crazier. If there was ever a more poignant moment for the expression “if you can’t beat them, join them”, this was it. We found ourselves caught up in the excitement, jumping around, all inhibitions lost. By the time it was over, flip flops had been lost, and bodies were sweat drenched; all in the name of drumming! At 10pm the crowds started to disperse and it was off to work the next day. Only in Buenos Aires!
Ciudad Cultural Konex, Sarmiento 3131, Abasto
+54 4864- 3200
labombadetiempo.blogspot.com/
Don't miss the exhibition of The Louvre of Paris in La Boca.
www.buenosaires.gov.ar/agenda/contenido.php?menu_id=18250&id=21839
Everything you always wanted to know about Eva Peron's personal life is in this museum, so you can have a better understanding of this fascinating and controversial figure. There is also a very good restaurant on the premises.
Lafinur 2988 - Buenos Aires
www.evitaperon.org
Google map: tinyurl.com/yl2ocvt
The Nose, Buenos Aires’ free English language city paper, gives recommendations to travellers. Each issue blends alternative and mainstream reporting with feature articles on local themes, quick travel tips and day-by-day event listings, including film, music, and the fine arts.
Check your hostel front desk, or www.thenose.com.ar for pick-up spots
We are a group of people who practice English every Friday at a coffee shop in Buenos Aires. It's an easy going and informal meeting, free, just for fun.
We have been meeting every Friday for over 6 years to practice our English. All are at a level that enables us to speak English fluently, which is a requirement to participate.
We like to chat about ordinary things but travelling is our favourite subject. Every Friday, foreign travellers who are on holiday in Buenos Aires and are interested in meeting "porteños" visit us. This kind of exchange and sharing of cultures and points of view means learning and developing for all of us. Tourists, backpackers, expats are all welcomed. If you are in Buenos Aires learning or practicing your Spanish, you can join us for dinner afterwards. At dinnertime we are free to use any language we choose. If you are interested in participating e-mail us for further details.
Why, you may ask? Well, the reason is simple.
When Boca clash with River at La Bombonera, the usual fireworks associated with Argentinian football quickly turn to explosions, both metaphorically and non-metaphorically speaking.
Someone once said, "To understand the passion, art and culture of this beautiful city, visit La Bombonera." That person couldn't have been closer to the truth.
The cemetery at Recoleta rightly draws the crowds, but the far larger necropolis at Chacarita is fascinating. It was created as a result of the city's yellow fever epidemic in 1871. Although it is officially for "ordinary people", you can see the vaults of such former icons as tango great Carlos Gardel and former president Juan Domingo Peron (his wife Evita, paradoxically, is over at Recoleta).
Two minutes' walk from Federico Lacroze underground station or "subte".
A place to go and dance tango or just to look at people dancing 'for real'. Unlike most of other tango places, that do shows 'for export', it is rough and ready (in a barely-converted warehouse) and full of young people. Lessons also available, including some for same sex couples.
Sarmiento 4006. Tel 15 5325-1630. Buses: 168-92-151-160-36 Subte A estación Castro Barros y Subte B estación Medrano.
Google map: tinyurl.com/n89zo5
Preserves the memory of Argentina's champion of the poor, Eva Perón, both in her early role as film actress and her later status as political and social idol.
Lafinur, 2988; Tel: 4807 0306; Tues-Sun, 2-7.30pm; www.evitaperon.org/museum/
Google map: tinyurl.com/oxbfjz
The final resting ground for generations of Argentina's elite. An eerily peaceful mini-city of the dead, featuring marble and stone mausoleums coronated with angels blowing stone trumpets and life-size likenesses of the illustrious departed. Ironically, this is where Evita Perón, who fought the country's oligarchy so fiercely, rests, in the Duarte family vault, under three layers of thick steel to guard her coffin from would-be desecrators.
Junín, 1760; Tel: 4803 1594
Every weekday evening from about six o'clock, there are cheap lessons for all abilities, you can just turn up and try your hand/feet.There will always be people more rubbish than you. If you stick it out for a few lessons, ladies, you will eventually be allowed to do the kick which, when done well, is a very sexy move that makes you feel like a proper dancer. If done badly, it leaves your partner with limited chances of fathering a child.
Avenida de Mayo - near Cafe Tortoni
Search Been there