Spending New Year's Eve in the airplane

While browsing for cheap flights I found a cheap flight from Bogota to Buenos Aires, for almost 250 €. Normally, this would cost 6 hours three times as much, because international flights within South America are expensive. Understandably, few people want to spend the turn of the year in a plane.  I don't like New Year's Eve anyway, so it was just fine for me and I bought the ticket.

At midnight the Avianca crew handed out a sparkling wine to each airplane passenger and a few hours later I reached Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. It was just summer there. So the temperatures ranged around 35+°C.

I took the bus to the city first and then walked to my hostel in the Palermo district. At the same time I passed all the young party-goers, who were just walking home from the New Year's celebrations. It was about 7 o'clock in the morning. I had hardly slept on the plane and I lay down on the sofa in my hostel, because I couldn't check into my room yet.

La Bombonera, the stadium of Boca Juniors

I couldn't do much on New Year's Day, because everything was closed. The first attraction I visited the next day was the Bombonera, the famous football stadium of the Boca Juniors, for which Diego Maradona also played. Matches between this club and CA River Plate, the local rival, are always sold out immediately and the fans cheer frenetically on their respective teams. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to watch one of the team's games, but of course I took the opportunity to visit the stadium and the museum. The stadium is rather small, but that's probably what makes the stadium so exciting, because the fans are very close to the action. When they all jump together, the walls in the neighbouring houses shake.

The neighbourhood where the stadium is located, La Boca, is also known for its many colourful houses.

A very European city

I walked further through the city and noticed a great similarity to European cities. Buenos Aires looks like a Spanish city in South America. The city is cleaner than other Latin American cities I had seen before. The streets are wide, so for a long time the widest street in the world was here. On this very street, the Avenida 9 de Julio, there is the Argentine national monument, a big obelisk.

And the people also look very European. The Argentinean women are for me also the best looking women of the continent. They don't have the wide hips and big butts so typical for Latin American women, but are mostly super slim and often have a narrow face, like the Spanish women.

Also the Spanish that the Argentineans speak is completely different from that of the other Latin Americans further north. I also visited a Language Exchange where I met many people from different nations and quite a lot of local people who wanted to learn German. Here I also tried Fernet, a bitter Italian herb spirit that I could stand while drinking with Coke. Argentinians love their Fernet.

I moved on to the San Telmo district, the oldest part of the city, which is characterized by its cafés, antique shops or tango performances.

The biggest attracion of Buenos Aires - a cemetery

The most famous sight of Buenos Aires is probably the cemetery La Recoleta. It serves as the resting place of many famous people, including Eva Peron the former First Lady. The graves are therefore rather luxurious tombs or mausoleums than simple gravestones.

Another common feature with European cities is the large number of parks. The largest of these is the Bosques de Palermo, which covers almost 400 hectares. Especially the rose garden there was very beautiful. In addition, Buenos Aires has a famous harbour district, Puerto Madero, which is bordered by a large ecological reserve. I visited this with a Mexican woman whose hair was so blue that even her hands were tinted blue.

A deficient hostel

I left Buenos Aires for 1 week to explore Uruguay. I was in a hurry when I wanted to leave the hostel because my ferry to Uruguay left early at 7am, but the receptionist was not there to open the door for me via button. I just opened the door for myself and used her buttons. Just at that moment she came in and angrily shouted at me that I couldn't do that. I don't care.

The hostel I stayed in Buenos Aires had one of the worst integrated kitchens I have ever seen. There were no plates or pans. There was a pot, but it didn't even have a handle. Actually, in Buenos Aires as a budget traveller you have to cook for yourself, because the prices for eating out are high. Still, I never saw anyone cook but me. Well, my hostel was full of Israelis, they are used to even higher prices from home and apparently can afford it.

Argentina in economic crisis

After a week in Uruguay I returned and took a guided tour of the city the next day. The guide explained to us that his country is practically moving from one economic crisis to the next. And that we as tourists were in the country at an inopportune time, because the inflation just reached new heights. Likewise unfavorable was the fact that I was in Buenos Aires in the middle of summer. A lot of local people were on holiday and as a result many shops had closed. For example, it was difficult or impossible for me to find a hairdresser, vegetarian restaurants or a tailor who wasn't closed or was asking too much money.

After the tour I visited the MALBA, a modern art museum where one of the most famous works of the Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral is exhibited.

Booming night life that starts late

The nightlife of Buenos Aires is also notorious. Argentineans know how to party. Usually the party starts very late. Argentineans already eat late dinner. Usually there is meat on the plate, because they are the Latin Americans who eat the most meat. Before the party they often rest a bit, because usually the party does not start before 12 o'clock and rarely ends before 6 o'clock in the morning. I visited a great bar with a large group of Brazilians, some of whom I had met in Uruguay.

The next morning I took the bus to Rosario, the 3rd biggest city of the country.