Hanging out in Buenos Aires
We flew into Buenos Aires on the eve of the Oscars and — unusually for us — the next day found us crowded around the TV to watch it live, as Oppenheimer swept the main awards — in Spanish! Because, who wants to hear the English original?
We had decided to spend a month in an apartment in Palermo Soho, a chic neighborhood outside city center, that proved very lucky because of the great density of cafes, restaurants and shops near us (read all about it here).
Kids activities
But in contrast to the remarkable flow of Russian couples here in various stages of pregnancy/motherhood, local adults in Buenos Aires seem to prefer to get dogs over kids (as we were told), so there are not as many kids activities here as you might expect from a big city — particularly in Palermo.
The main one we enjoyed several times was the Eco Park. A large park between the airport and Palermo, it is essentially a large free zoo, with animal enclosures spread throughout and a large playground
Not pictured are the giraffes, camels, and reportedly even a lion that also populate the zoo. There were also these funny creatures all over the place, I suppose their local squirrels?
And also flamingos, one of which channeled Richard Simmons (RiP) the whole time
Outside of the Ecopark though, there wasn’t much for non-Spanish speaking kids. The planetarium, for example, only had shows in Spanish. So we resorted to making our own entertainment and activities.
For science class, Alya repeated the Myth Busters experiment that tested whether you get less wet running or walking in the rain. The claim is that when running, while you spend less time under the rain, you are subject to horizontal as well as vertical spray. It wasn’t our first Myth Busters experiment duplication, but definitely the wettest.
Since we didn’t have Jaime’s set up of controlled sprinklers in a warehouse, we had to wait until the next consistently strong rain. Then we got several towels and had Alya walk and then run the same distance under the rain. Finally, we weighed each towel using our trusty hand luggage scale to see which towel absorbed more water. (This hand luggage scale was a lifesaver for packing check-ins.)
We replicated Myth Busters’ surprising results — running gets you more wet! At least in certain rain situations
Jumping on Masha’s Amazing Race bandwagon, Alya also decided to make us compete in a race of her creation. Each stage was meticulously planned
We had various challenges like finding and documenting sandwich shops and collecting stray refuse
We loved the experience more than we could have imagined! I think we are growing a serious entertainments organizer - can’t wait to see what she invents next!
Staying Buenos Aires, we also had plenty of time to indulge our new obsession with Kombio, a deceptively simple card game of memory, fast reflexes, and cheekiness. When I say obsessed… we played this for months non-stop!
And of course we found some game cafes, though the required reservation system was a bit annoying and we only went once
Early on, we were proud of ourselves for going to a Russian-language quiz night (there is a very large Russian-language expat community in Buenos Aires). But then Masha discovered a local Sports Mafia group, which totally eclipsed all other organized activities in her mind…
Everyone voting to kill me, egged on by my dearest wife
Before long, she was running away for whole evenings to elite “sport mafia” games, where things got so serious that players are required to wear custom masks, use mafia sign language, and sit out games periodically to cool down feelings
Alya meanwhile, petted mice, cavorted with undead monsters and found her happy place — yet another escape room! Oh, and she also took an “Urban Dance” class for a month and loved getting back into the groove.
Some highlights from our relaxed BA touristing
Check out our itinerary post for more touristy things we did in BA.
Buenos Aires is known for widespread street art. Murals large and small are sprinkled across many neighborhoods, which means both that you are likely to encounter them in your daily life, and that it’s hard to see a lot of it in just a few days. Luckily, having a whole month in the city, we stayed long enough to spot a bunch
It is also known as the Paris of South America for its boulevards and European architecture (due to the heavy and rapid influx of Europeans in early 20th century, which we learned was due to their roaring economy at the time). Thus, one of the best things to do in BA is just walking around town and enjoying the architecture
— and the parks, which are everywhere, housing some absolute monsters trees like this one
Walking around the center, we twice happened upon demonstrations. The first time it was for military veterans
The second time the demonstrations were more somber, commemorating the 1976 coup, led by mothers of the 30000 disappeared and still unaccounted for during Pinochet’s era
You can learn more about Argentina’s history (though mostly pre-WWII) in the National Art Gallery. It houses excellent depictions of various key moments in Argentina’s history, as well as a painting or two from most of the well-known European masters
And its free!
Our favorite tourist attraction, though, was probably Teatro Colon Opera House. This place is claimed to have one of the best acoustics in the world, which we unfortunately couldn’t experience (shows book up months in advance). Even after visiting the likes of Louvre, its opulent luxury is stunning
We also had time to visit one of the folkloric Gaucho experiences in BA. In our case, instead of a full on visit to a Gaucho town and farm (a bit touristy for our one month stay), we chose something more low key. We visited a race horse/stud farm in the Pampas surrounding Buenos Aires, and got to see some beautiful horses and baby foals — as well as lots and lots of birds.
Sideways
Some things didn’t go according to plan. Probably the worst was that we had the terrible luck of landing in the worst mosquito season in Argentina in decades. Dengue rates were a hundred times normal, and before flying in we saw terrifying photo posts of literal clouds of mosquitos invading apartments. By the time we flew in (start of autumn) it abated somewhat, but on some days they peaked again. They were constantly attacking outside, to which Alya was very sensitive and kept swatting at them continuously like an inflatable tube man at a gas station
Aside from mosquitos and repellant shortages though, some things in Argentina are just unnecessarily difficult, notoriously so. As a short term visitor, one is less exposed to it (unlike for example if you try to buy property here), but you may still get some glimpses — such as in the process of buying a sim card.
I went to a Telco store in the local mall and bought a sim with 25G of data. I was told I could add minutes to the card in a pharmacy to enable calling, as the store couldn’t sell minutes (???). I did add credit at a nearby pharmacy, but was still unable to make or receive calls. So I asked what to do on a Facebook group. Nobody was surprised. One commentator wrote “We bought Claro chip in a kiosco, then went to Claro store to register it with a passport. After, filled up $ in pharmacy and choose a package. It was easy.” (!!!) Another wrote, “Mike Polyakov welcome to Argentina.”
Another example. Forgot your key in your apt? Good luck getting out of your building, as apartment and commercial building entrances tend to need a key to open even from the inside. One time, Masha and Alya entered a building for Alya’s dance class — someone had let her in the door. But, it turned out the dance class was cancelled. They couldn’t get out of the building. They had to knock on one door after another on the several floors until someone eventually let them out. It was lucky they found someone!
Or — and this is more of just an inconvenience — grocery shopping here is time consuming. Even the biggest store will only have half of your shopping list. You’ll need to hit at least 4 stores to get everything you need.
Other aspects of life are just odd to American visitors. For example, BA is the land of late hours. Breakfast cafes open after 10 or close on Sundays. Fancy touristy cafes with a view open at 5pm. At 9:30 on a Monday, the city is still just waking up, with just a couple bleary eyed pedestrians here and there, mostly mothers with infants and city workers. Restaurants open at 8pm and at 10pm people gather for dinner. And at 2am they yell outside your windows while walking to the next place to get a drink!
But even with all these inconveniences, Argentina was one of our favorite stops. A most livable city, so much so that Masha may even want to buy property there! That’s another hornet’s nest, but to come for a stay — absolutely!
