Monday, June 7, 2010

Buenos Aires, Argentina!

Continuing on our journey through South America. . . after those spectacular days at Iguassu Falls, we hopped on another plane to Buenos Aires! We were both excited to see this city, since we had heard it described as the most European-influenced city in South America. And it really did remind me of Europe! Tons of architecture almost made me think I was in Paris. (Okay, not quite. I still think Paris is the most incredible city in the world. But the architecture was quite a bit better than what we saw in Rio!)

It was great to be in Argentina, where they speak Spanish and Stephen could communicate with everybody. We only had a couple of days there. On our first day, we took a long bus tour of the city. And on that bus tour we discovered our favorite area of Buenos Aires, called La Boca. It was the cutest little Bohemian part of the city that the Italians originally settled in, and just FULL of artsy boutiques, souvenir shops, cool buildings and statues, and fun restaurants with Tango dancers in front of them. We ended up going back the next day, because it was such a fun area and we wanted to spend more time there!

Of course. . . we had to shell out a couple bucks for the tacky tourist photo. And really, I think this photo turned out pretty awesome!!!


That night we went to an AMAZING tango show and dinner. Wow, those dancers were incredible! I guess they better be, living in the birthplace of tango. Their steps and movements were so intricate and it looked so difficult. I love how you can't tell if tango dancers are in love or want to kill each other. :)


A lot of people have asked me if I saw any crime or scary stuff in Rio de Janeiro, since it's kind of known for that. We didn't see any crime in Rio. . . but we DID see someone get mugged in Buenos Aires. It was insane! We were walking along a normal city street and it was late afternoon, still light outside. Out of nowhere, a man ran up, jumped on top of the guy standing directly behind us, and then leaped onto the back of a motorcycle speeding past us. It happened so fast we weren't even sure what happened, and we couldn't see what he took (although I'm assuming it was the guy's wallet). Isn't that crazy? It was definitely a well-orchestrated thing. Those thieves really know what they're doing! I was a little more wary in that city after that!

The city's main cemetery is actually a really popular place to go see, and we heard it was beautiful, so we walked around for awhile there the next day and took some really nice pictures. A whole ton of cats lived in the cemetery too, and it was a really peaceful place.

Evita's tomb. . . (one of the less impressive tombs there, believe it or not!)



The weather was really great in Buenos Aires. . . cool, breezy, but sunny too!

When we went back to La Boca, we got some more pictures of the colorful buildings. It was just such a fun place to walk around!

The tango dancers outside the restaurants weren't nearly as skilled as the ones we saw in our tango dinner show, but all the music and the dancing made it such an awesome atmosphere.

The food in Argentina was GOOD. Delicious steaks and juicy empenadas were our two favorite things there. YUMMMMMY!

Next. . . . off to Peru!!!

6 comments:

  1. Don't cry for me Argentina... Fun, love the "tourist" photo of you guys tangoing!

    Your mom said Kirsten is getting the hang of things - YEAH!!

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  2. Love that you got to see real Argentine dancers doing the Argentine tango! So excited to see it on SYTYCD this year!

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  3. How fun! My brother is there right now on his mission and when he called on Mother's Day he admitted to "having to run" a few times, but wouldn't give us any more details! (probably better that way) From what he says it sounds like most of the theives are young kids! Kinda crazy.

    I love your pictures, you make me want to go to South America more and more with every post!

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  4. It does remind me a lot of Italy.

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  5. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the pic of your heads through the scene, SO cute and funny! And those empananananana thingies look amazing!!!

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  6. When I was in BA, I also thought I was in Paris. The architecture is very similar, and my rent apartments Buenos Aires was really beautiful!

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