Sunday 2nd August 2026 – Buenos Aires
Long journey from the UK via Madrid (8 hour wait in the airport there). We have an Airbnb in Buenos Aires, a friendly Venezuelan Uber driver Roberto brought us here and pointed out the sights on the way (Eva Peron’s face on the side of a building etc!).
Went to the Carrefour supermarket and prices are quite high here. Inflation is around 33% too.
Visited the San Telmo street market. One mile of stalls selling Pottery, Leather goods, furs, musical instruments, woollen goods etc. Including the gourd and metal straw for Mate (a popular South American tea-like drink). The weather is cloudy so photos aren’t the best. We had Churros around 11am with sweet fruit centres.
Also visited the covered market in San Telmo. There is an area of cafés at the back where we had different kinds of Empanadas – Steak with onions, Chorizo and a blood one! (The latter traditional and “interesting” and not for the faint hearted!)
Tango is everywhere:
Interesting architecture around the city (earliest from only around 1900): Central Bank/Banco de Boston building/Casa Rosada (Pink house, the Presidents Office)/Obelisk (67.5 metres tall)
Bizarrely there was a long queue to take photos with the figures (characters from the famous Argentine comic strip Mafalda):
There is a guard at the tomb of General José de San Martín, located inside the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral:
Today the guard had a little helper who came in his uniform:
Monday 3rd August 2026 – Buenos Aires
Visited El Ateneo Grand Splendid, the famous bookstore originally opened in 1919 as the Teatro Grand Splendid. A stunning bookshop in an old theatre with the stage converted into a cafe. It knocks Heffers in Cambridge into a cocked hat.It sells vinyl records, CDs and even Harry Potter wands! There is a big section of books in English.
Wandered around the city (10 kilometres) visiting the parliament building:
There was a demonstration going on with riot police, black Mariahs and water cannons. It seemed peaceful but was causing traffic chaos.
Visited Santos Manjares, a traditional Argentinian steak house (parrillas) for lunch. Had 12 ounce Bife de Chorizo (Sirloin) and an Argentinian Vacío (Flank/Flap Steak) (12 ounce). Came with a Salsa and chimichurri and papas fritas. Really delicious and good value. Hugely popular restaurant with good reason.
Walked past the only foreign branch of Harrods, now looking forlorn having closed in 1998 after 84 years.
Visited Galerías Pacífico, one of the most famous and opulent shopping malls in Buenos Aires with magnificent vaulted ceiling and central dome featuring famous murals painted in 1946 by a collective of prominent Argentine artists and masters:
Buenos Aires has a unique major 7 kilometre arterial road corridor called the Paseo del Bajo made with trenches and viaducts above the city. It has a central section for commercial traffic and buses. It transformed chaos into a fluid traffic corridor. It cost $700 million US.
Money is an issue here. ATM withdrawl limits are low and charges are high so not a viable option. We sent money by Western Union to ourselves, feels ridiculous but works well. Cards can be problematic too. We often use Chase to get a good exchange rate but many of the card machines here reject it. We also have Revolut which is more widely accepted it seems. We also have Currensea as another option. We will probably use cash quite a lot outside cities I suspect. Digital wallets (mostly Mercado Pago) are now common here with the fintech revolution but we probably won’t use them. Some shops actually offer discounts for cash payments because card fees are so high! Bizarrely exchange rates at Western Union are so much better than card rates (11% better!). I detest Western Union but needs must.
Tuesday 4th August 2026 – Buenos Aires
Visited the Recoleta Cemetery (Cementerio de la Recoleta). This “city of the dead” laid out in grid-like “streets” lined with over 6,400 grandiose, elaborate mausoleums. Many are built in Gothic, Greek Revival, Baroque, and Art Nouveau styles. Eva Perón is buried here.
A selection of the extraordinary mausoleums:
If a family defaults on their municipal maintenance taxes or fails to renew a timed concession, the City Government can legally declare the concession forfeited. Once the rights are revoked due to abandonment or chronic non-payment, the government removes the remains from the vault or niche and transfers them to a communal ossuary (osario general). They can then auction the concession and the new owners pay for restoration of the monument.
Visited the Floralis Genérica, a massive, monumental sculpture made of stainless steel and aluminum located in the Plaza de las Naciones Unidas in Buenos Aires (near the Recoleta neighborhood). Created by Argentine architect Eduardo Catalano and donated to the city in 2002, it stands 23 meters (75 feet) tall and weighs 18 tons. It was designed with a hydraulic system and photoelectric sensors so its massive petals would open in the morning and close at night, symbolizing a flower that is reborn every day.However the mechanism has faced a long history of mechanical failures, storm damage, and maintenance issues and was out of action for 5 years.
Oddly Maersk shipping keep changing the arrival date in Montevideo of the ship the Maersk Labrea, sometimes it is the 5th and sometimes the 6th. So we will see. We have been in contact with Eduardo the agent in Montevideo and the German couple who have the other vehicle in the container. We have to get a Certificado de Llegada at Customs before visiting the agents offices. Tomorrow morning we will get the ferry and bus to Montevideo. We have another apartment booked there while we do the formalities and are reunited with George.
Next country: Uruguay