Buenos Aires (second time)

Coming back to Buenos Aires felt like meeting an old friend. When we left Buenos Aires we felt like we're going into the unknown. We were sure that we'll come back after two months of rice and bread diet in Peru and Bolivia after spending the tine in the worst hostels. Well, as you dedicated readers know, that wasn't exactly what happened. On our last stay in La Paz the food and the hostel were so good that we didn't even want to leave. However, we felt great when we landed, after a long and tiring night that we spent on the benches in Lima's airport and on the plane, that had to land and wait 3 hours in Cordoba, because of the fog over Buenos Aires.
But old friends forgive, and even the long bus (hour and a half through the inner city) from the airport to our hostel didn't ruin the fun of the reunion.
We went back to Lime house hostel where we stayed during our first visit. We didn't spend a lot of time in hostel and headed to the Sunday market in San Thelmo. On the way we passed a parade. The people of Buenos Aires like to march or celebrate, and this time it was child's day combined with the celebration of Bolivia's independence day that was the day before. The market was especially happy, this time, because there was yet another parade on the market's main street. This parade belonged to the clubs of the drummers and Samba dancers of the happy city. We thought we are going back to Argentina, and found ourselves in Brazil again! That was a real fun. On the second day we completed the “must-do's” of Buenos Aires. We walked through the trendy neighborhood Palermo, saw the Botanical garden, took a peek at the animals of the zoo from outside and were very happy to see at least one animal that we didn't see during our trip to South America, a giraffe.
We had a quick visit in the Japanese gardens before we crossed the city to get to the real attraction of the day: the weekly music concert of “La bomba del tiempo”. The stage was located in a large hangar, and on it were a group of 14 drummers with every possible percussion. From time to time they were accompanied by a trumpet player and a Brazilian singer and guitarist, that was the special guest of the evening. The first sounds removed any doubt that might have been about the strange collection of instruments. The next two hours were a wild party of music that switched between jazz, Samba and dance music. Time flew and we were so into the music that it seemed only few minutes passed before the show ended. If you are in Buenos Aires, plan it so you'll be there on Monday and don't miss the show.
Early next morning we met Anna, Lilya's friend, that came all the way from Santiago, Chile to see us (22 hours by bus!). We visited the Caminito, the famous coloured street in the notorious neighbourhood “ La Boca”. The Caminito area is very touristy and not that interesting, so we spent there only a short time and wanted to walk to Porto Madero where the trendy meat restaurants are located.
Soon after we started walking, no more than 5 minutes walking from the touristy area of El Caminito, the atmosphere changed completely. The street became abandoned and even though it was morning, it looked scary. An old woman, that left her home with her grandson told us to go back and take the bus. 5 minutes walk on the way back and the environment changed again. Don't be fooled by the large boulevards and the celebrations of Buenos Aires. This city has its dark side and it can be as close as 5 minutes walk.
We ate at “La Bistek”, an all-you-can-eat meat restaurant, that was really good. It took us more than an hour to walk from there to the shopping street Florida, because we left the restaurant almost twice as heavy as we entered.
We spent the rest of the day doing shopping. On the next morning we said goodbye to Anna and took the cab to the airport.
It was hard to say goodbye to this great continent that gave us such a great time, but after 4 hours of flight we already flew over the Pacific ocean on the way to Australia. We waved to the imperial penguin when we flew over the South Pole, on our way.
The next post will be from a new continent.

Tip 1: If you slept during the post and missed this tip, we'll write it again: don't miss the show of "La bomba del tiempo". It is every Monday on 3131 Sarmiento st. at 19:30.
Tip 2: The lunch deal at "la bistek" on the weekdays is really good. Be there around mid-day.