Getting to our airbnb apartment in recolettta was easy from the airport. Passport control was quick and they didnt even check if Priscilla had paid her $160 visa fee (they definitely make sure Americans are overcharged - free for Norwegians :-)
We jumped in a taxi (USD 42) after reading that the taxi stalls outside of the arrival hall was the safest and fastest way to get into town. Priscilla asked the taxi driver what's the current exchange rate between ARP and USD, since we heard there is a Fx arbitrage one can make. He told us at the bank it's around USD 6.50, but in the black market you can get USD 9. After some thinking, Priscilla forced Anders to ask him where can we get the USD 9, and he said he can give us a USD 100 exchange. So we went for it.
The ride was around 40 mins from the airport to the apartment. The apartment in 2514 Austria (road) in Recoleta was super modern, clean and nice! At USD 62 a night, it was definitely a bargain. We got there at 10:25am, and check in was 2pm. The landlord was nice enough to let us check in early as the cleaning lady was getting the apartment ready for us. We quickly got changed and rushed out to the 11am Free BA tour (www.bafreetour.com) via taxi. Not understanding how far the distances were, we arrived 15 min late but the crowd hadn't moved away from the rendezvous place by the Plaza de Cogresco. Lucky us! FYI - each block is 100m, so the map is deceiving on how "walkable" places are.
Our guide name was Maggie. She seemed to be a cross between Italians, Israeli, and Argentinian, which in hindsight makes sense after hearing the history. She was animated and used a lot of hand movements. She told lots of jokes and was entertaining. Our tour was informative and included a lot of history and little "secrets." For instance, according to Argentinians, 9 de Julio Avenue is still regarded as the widest avenue in the world even though Brazil has the claim to fame. The Argentinians regard the road in Brazil as actually a highway and not a road. Go figure.
Argentina only gained their democracy 30 years ago. One interesting history fact is the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo). Thirty years ago, the Argentinean army staged a coup d'etat that resulted in seven years of terror with thousands of tortures, murders and unsolved disappearances. As part of this, many babies were kidnapped with their parents, some after their parents were killed, and others were born in clandestine detention centers where their mothers were taken after having been sequestered at different states of their pregnancies. There were c. 500 children who disappeared between 1976 and 1983. The grandmothers has hope that they will be able to find their grandchildren still, thus they protest around Plaza de Mayo. To date, they have found c. 100 of the missing children. All Argentinians that are bored between 1976 and 1983, with questions about their backgrounds are encouraged to take a DNA test by the government.
During the educating tour, we met a Aussie named Marty. He was taking a 3 months break from work (aka quiting to travel). He lived in London for 8 years, and doing a faux backpacking trip. He had traveled brazil already, and now staying in BA for a few weeks We had a good conversation with him, so we invited him to have lunch with us. Maggie recommenced an Empanada place nearby. We went searching for it, and had to semi back track before finding it. This was the start of us getting lost for the rest of the day...
The Empanada was good. I had it grilled and fried. Fried was better, but grilled is obviously healthier. Anders had the pizza, which was pretty thick and full of cheese. It was aiite. Afterwards, we went with Marty to exchange money. We needed cash for our dinner and the rest of the weeks. Since the exchange rate is far better in the black market, we had to go black. Marty's hostel told him there's a guy on the corner of Lavelle and Florida street that would give us 10 ARP to 1 USD. That's a big difference from 6.5 ARP! So off we went.
The walk should of been fairly close, since we went pass it on our tour. The three geniuses us managed to get confused and picked the wrong road to walk, which ran diagonal, so we got pretty far from our destination. Eventually, after a long while, we managed to find the area. At first we thought it was a stand or one man, and we were searching for the sound Cambio (exchange). To our surprise, that sound popped up every where as we walked down Florida street (a pedestrian street). It was a bit sketchy, especially since it gathered around a sex shop. Anders made it clear, that's definitely not where we will exchange money. We finally approach one of those "cambio" guys, and he gave us a rate of 9.30 ARP for 1 USD. Instead of haggling to get a better rate, we decided to take it. He directed us to his office...aka the sex shop...the one place Anders would not exchange his money. Yeah right, he did it anyway. It was a bit nerve wrecking to do this, but we tried to act professional and checked for the watermarks and stripe.
After all the risky business, it was time for a coffee. We thought it would be cool to check out Cafe Tortoni, the oldest coffeehouse in Buenos Aires, the coffeehouse that is visited by many renowned people including Albert Einstein and Hilary Clinton. I read it's just a neat place to check out, but the food was sub-par, so it was a good decision to just go for coffee. Marty and Anders had some caffine, while I've decided to go for the submarino (BA's verision of a hot chocolate). The submarino comes in a hot cup of milk and a submarine shape chocolate to melt it. It was really cute, and rather tasty. After a nice chat, Marty remembered he had to go pick up his laundry at Palermo. We called it a nice meeting, and headed to the subway back to our respective stays.
We were both surprised how we were still standing awake after all that traveling and hustling and bustling. We are champions for sure! By the time we got back, it was only 1 hour before we had to head out to our dinner at Aramburu, a closed door restaurant that serves 12-courses. Priscilla had booked this a month ago, and that was the meal she was waiting to eat the most. It was definitely not a disappointment and much more than we both expected.
The meal was the most amazing molecular gastronomy. Every course was perfectly presented and matched with the perfect glass of wine. It literally aroused all our senses, from visual, to smell, to taste. Everything was perfect. Even our seats were perfect! We got to sit on the chef's table (Priscilla requested it). This was as if we were watching a silent cooking show in front of us through a glass window. Perfect. All that was only ARP 680, and with our exchange rate that was only USD 73 per person. What a deal for one of the best meals we've ever tasted! A fantastic start to the honeymoon!
After the lovely dinner, we were both full and tired, so we went back to our apartment and called it a night. What a fantastic beginning to it all.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment