We left the dry-climate wine region of Mendoza and took a flight to Buenos Aires, where we will spend the next four weeks exploring.

As opposed to the typical format, we’re going to start with our lowlights from the past week.

Lowlights

Drip Drying Dropped

While soaking up the last bit of sun in our backyard pool in Lujan de Cuyo, my iPhone 11 Pro slipped out of my hands and plunged to the bottom of the shallow pool. It was retrieved immediately and laid out to dry. I wasn’t worried – this model is waterproof. Right?! Right?!! Ummm… not exactly.

After some drip dry time, my phone seemed fine, until it didn’t. I was holding the phone in my hands while different apps were popping open. At one point the phone attempted to introduce the Mean Girls theme to a Facebook messenger chat. I didn’t even know that was possible. I felt like calling a young priest and an old priest, but I don’t know any priests in Argentina. So I called out for Corey instead. He quickly walked me through some processes to try and shut the phone down. The side buttons and screen were unresponsive. Unsurprisingly, Siri was not helpful either. Eventually we got the phone “off” and placed it in a bag with silica packets. The phone sat for the night and we travelled to BA with only one functioning phone. Corey was in charge of navigation and the like since he was the only one with a small computer in his pocket. He did mostly well until he directed our cabbie to the wrong address. Thankfully we only had to walk 50 yards down the street, but it was embarrassing to stand in the lobby of the first building and try to convince a security guard that someone had left us keys to an apartment in his building.

The next morning I turned my phone back on and it seemed okay but it would not charge. Red flag!! So I immediately turned it back off and placed it back in the bag. At this point we decided to take it to a professional. We found a fantastic place using reviews from Google Maps. He opened up the phone while we were there and there were droplets of water still inside the phone! We never would have fixed it on our own. It took him another full day to dry it and to replace a part on the charging port. Facial recognition does not work now, but I’m pleased to have this baby back in my hand, and we were only out around $50 USD. As we travel the world, it is interesting to see “repair culture” in action: having accessible repair shops and available parts for things like appliances or electronics. It’s just not something we see as much of in the US.

While living life without a working phone, I totally experienced screen withdrawal syndrome. Which is probably why this post starts with a long list of negatives.

The Apartment

We booked our rental through Airbnb and though it is spacious, there are several annoying items that I noticed immediately.

The bathroom door is wide and opens inward. Big deal? Well, to use the toilet I have to open the door all the way and shimmy between the end of the door and the shower door. I have to watch my toes, because one of the greatest pains I ever experienced was losing a toenail to a door on vacation (Harrahs, Lake Tahoe sometime in the 80s). And then I have to close the door nearly all the way to use the toilet.

It doesn’t make sense! I’d rather have no door! Or make an accordion door or a sliding door or hang hippie beads. Anything would be better than this. It’s so narrow the counter has been cut/formed to not interfere with the door. But if the cupboard doors are not closed fully, the handle blocks the path of the door. And as you can see, the doors need to be rehung.

Like I said, the apartment is spacious, so Corey has his own bathroom. Guess what? Same problem. A design so terrible, they did it twice.

The bedroom is also spacious but there’s only a full size bed. So disappointing to see all that extra space not being used by a bigger bed. Oh, and the bed is harder than any bed I’ve slept on in Asia. I’ve slept on floors more comfortable than this full sized rock! I won’t even go on about the lack of kitchen utensils. But we do have great air conditioning, a nice pool, and we’re in a strategic location in the city (Palermo neighborhood).

There is more to Buenos Aires than our apartment…

City First Impressions

I do not love Buenos Aires. It smells like steaming dog poo around every corner. Big city life means many pet owners just let their dogs do their business on the sidewalk. It seems to be cleaned up half the time but we’ve spent the last week dodging piles and smears left behind by furry foes. And the piss is another thing. We have been doing a puddle jumping aversion. We leap from place to place avoiding puddles created by either air conditioning condensation or urine. Don’t want to splash in it to find out which one it is! Yeah, it’s gross. Sorry for taking you on that journey with me. But that’s why you read this blog, right?

So, getting past the pee pee and poo poo problems. We have been exploring the city and have enjoyed a few places. So let’s get to the highlights!

Highlights

Buenos Aires is a large city with a ton of stuff for tourists to see. The great thing is that many museums are free or quite affordable, so I think we will be visiting a lot of museums while we’re here.

Rooftop Views

One of the first places we visited was the rooftop bar at the Alvear Palace Hotel. I love a good sunset – especially from a higher floor.

We had nice views of the river and city, which is exactly what we were paying for. Drinks were similarly priced to the United States but the ambience and service were top notch.

Parks

This city is well known for its green spaces, which has been apparent every time we take a long stroll or taxi ride. It is said that there are more than 250 parks within the city limits. How many do you think we can get to in 28 days?

There are many large parks and plazas scattered around the city but a number of them abut each other near the main roads on the coastal side of the city.

Floralis Genérica

This impressive sculpture of a flower usually opens during the day and closes at night, but was damaged in a December 2023 windstorm. It is surrounded by a large park providing different angles of the piece.

Smaller Parks

We have already walked through several smaller parks and they are highly-utilized spaces. Though tennis courts are not found, we have seen ping pong tables, playgrounds, small soccer pitches, and exercise equipment. Lots of people work out even during the heat wave (some folks in their bikinis!). Something we think is cool is that many parks have a running track around the outside of the park boundaries. We discovered this the hard way when Corey walked out of a park and accidentally stepped in front of a man sprinting, who subsequently spat in our general direction. Unfortunately, the people in the city have not been as friendly as those we have met in the rest of Argentina.

Italian Food

This section should actually be titled “pizza” and if we eat any more of it, “pizza” may be found in the lowlight section next time. Not because it’s not good, it’s too plentiful! Just around every corner is a pizza restaurant. It feels like Rome! We have been preparing quite a bit for our Roman trip in June but no one should eat this much pizza.

Our first night we walked into a pizza by the slice joint. The owner was super friendly and the pizza did take us back to Italy within the first bite.

A few days later we found ourselves at an Italian restaurant with an awesome lunch special. $8 USD each for a starter, pizza, dessert, and a beverage.

New Friends

We met up with some folks from the Go With Less Facebook group. We braved the high temperatures and cooled down with cold cocktails at Invernadero.

Año Nuevo Chino

To celebrate Lunar New Year, we headed out to Chinatown with low expectations for celebrations.

We took the bus and we were very pleased to see it was half the price of bus fares in Mendoza (each ride is 8-10 cents USD, although we hear that this price will soon be tripling).

We exited a few steps from the arch and start of the cute tree-lined avenue. The area was packed and as we walked we dodged all the folks taking selfies and photos of the bright red lanterns.

It took us a few minutes to reach the end of the main avenue on foot. We didn’t see any stores or restaurants that interested us, so we took a right and headed north toward the actual event. It has grown over the years so the show now takes place in the Plaza Parques Nacionales park which is about a 15-minute walk.

We arrived easily and enjoyed the stage performances of tai chi and kung fu. It was quite hot but a fresh strawberry-banana smoothie hit the spot. We perused the other vendors but opted to not buy anything. The lines were chaotic, prices just okay, and a lot of the food did not look as fresh as we would have liked.

After awhile we saw a bright red light behind the stage beckoning us like moths. What we thought was a display of red lights for Chinese New Year, was actually a two-story wall of Campari at a restaurant called Negroni. This place was right up Corey’s alley and I found a drink I wanted as well. They make excellent craft cocktails at a decent price, around $4 USD per drink.

San Telmo Sunday Market

This was our first really touristy experience of Buenos Aires. Every Sunday, the Feria de San Telmo (San Telmo Fair) takes up block after block of the oldest neighborhood of Buenos Aires.

We started at Plaza del Mayo, the oldest public square of the city. It is the northern terminus of Calle Defensa, the main street of the Feria. This northern side is the less-crowded side of the Feria, and it was easier to browse the booths manned by local artists.

Shoppers can buy just about any souvenir they want here: leather goods, paintings, magnets, purses, jewelry, incense, linen clothes, etc. There’s not much food but we did stop for an authentic choripán, a split-and-grilled chorizo sausage on a bun, served with chimichurri and salsa criolla (similar to pico de gallo).

I was wearing a white dress so I took only small nibbles of Corey’s sandwich. The choripán was delicious and the fresh flavors of onions and chimichurri really stood out.

Barolo Palace

A tour of the Palacio Barolo was on our list, so when our new friends invited us, we happily signed up to attend.

The “palace” is a 101-year-old highrise office building and event center. The developer and architect were Italian immigrants who chose to build with Dante’s Divine Comedy as a theme.

For our tour, thankfully the weather had cooled, with highs were only in the mid 80s, with wind that felt strong at the higher elevations of the building.

True to the book, the bottom levels represent the circles of hell. Intricate details are woven into the design and structure, from the colors of the tiles and the amount of arches visible from the ground floor.

We took the elevators up through the levels of hell, reaching purgatory. Overall, the vintage, lore, and style reminded me a fair bit of the Smith Tower in Seattle. But there are also a lot of differences. For example, you cannot take an elevator all the way to the top of Barolo Palace. To reach the heights of heaven, you have to climb the steep narrow staircase! As it goes higher into the spire of the building, the staircase gets narrower and steeper.

At the top you reach a beautiful round area with windows and small balconies overlooking all over Buenos Aires. But wait, there’s more!

Barolo Palace is capped by a large lighthouse that is currently lit every evening around 10 PM. There is a sister building across the river in Montevideo, Uruguay that does the same thing, and together they were intended to welcome ships sailing into the Rio de la Plata.

To visit the lighthouse, you ascend the final two floors to reach the top. The staircase narrows to about 18 inches across and you must crouch down and basically crawl into the space.

Seats were provided but it was so scary! We were sitting on cushions on the glass. I could hear the wind whooshing outside and occasionally the glass would rattle. I saw that one window was already a little broken, and I had little confidence that the building could handle strong winds or my weight. I gingerly sat on the edge of my “seat” ready to fall forward into the light at any given moment. We got to see how the light rotates and operates, and then we descended the stairs to finish the tour.

What’s Next

Buenos Aires has so many museums, many of which are free to enter. We will be sorting through our choices of museums, parks, restaurants, and bars, and put together some itineraries to best take advantage of our days here in the heat!

Even though I can already tell that BA is simply “not my vibe,” I will make the most out of my time here, and there are lots of parks and places I am exited to see!