Buenos Aires

Wow this place has blown me away!
I have fallen in love with this city already.

Peter has been here before and took me on a small tour of the neighbourhoods he has visited in the past before we just wandered the streets with our heads constantly skyward looking at all the lovely buildings here.

Buenos Aires is the largest city in Argentina and for a country of 40.5 million, 13 million live here.
so there is a constant buzz here that you pick up on straight away.
The Art Deco and Art Nouveau buildings here are just amazing, i really fell in love with the architecture in every direction we looked.



The roads here are crazy, with some 7 lanes going in each direction...with the cars taking no notice of the lines on the road and coming to the lights in as many as can push in at the front..then race off as the lights turn green.
Crossing the road is a tough task in itself and seems to be best to follow the locals.


We are staying in the neighbourhood of San Telmo - the historic area of town, with a wonderful street Defensa leading us to the downtown business district.
Defensa is lined with antique shops selling everything from walking canes to jewellery to furniture and clothing.
It is a street you could get lost in for hours discovering all its treasures.
Sundays hold one of the biggest antique markets here - where the streets are lined with stalls - sounds like a must to come back to.



Many of the buildings are very run down, but it cant hide the beauty that they must have once been, a little sad they are in such bad disrepair.

Around each corner there is another small square with outdoor cafes or statues, people selling small handcraft goods and lots of great grafitti.



Beautiful images of old ladies sitting outside cafes puffing on cigars, men cooking up asado on the side of the street for the road workers (no such thing as OH&S here!!), walkers out with handfuls of big beautiful dogs, men cooking sugar coated almonds on each corner and the general buzz of the city centre workers.




Tonight off to feast on our first Argentine Asado (big steak bbq) and enjoying a Mendoza red, and then to a small bar and band to finish off what has been a wicked first day in Argentina.

this sure has got me excited to see more of Argentina...but i dont want time to go too fast...