Buenos Aires, Argentina

Alright, right off the bat, we got robbed in Buenos Aires.....¯\_(ツ)_/¯.......  Beyond that we really enjoyed our time there because it had all the things a great city needs: historic and modern architecture, great parks and museums, reliable public transportation, and delicious food. Among the items stolen from us were my wallet, Marcela's camera (including all our Buenos Aires photos), my iPod, and two tickets to see Boca Juniors play at their home stadium. But lets start from the beginning, and I´ll will do our best to find pictures of the places we went (*these aren't my photos, but I went to some effort to pick ones that look like the ones we did take, or at least they are taken of places we actually visited*):

http://www.mappery.com/maps/Buenos-Aires-Tourist-Map.jpg

We landed at Ezeiza International Airport around 10pm March 13, after a short flight south from Sao Paulo. Collecting our bags and navigating customs was a breeze, and in no time we were on the curb looking for the cheapest transportation downtown. The airport is a 30-minute taxi ride from the center, and after evaluating our options and deciding it was too late to safely take the public bus, we opted for a $30 taxi ride straight to the area with the cheapest hostels we could find on Hostelword. This led us to San Telmo, a popular and fairly safe feeling area about 10 blocks south of Plaza de Mayo, the true center of the city. After arriving, we walked around the block surveying prices and availability but ultimately returned to our first stop, Mantengase Hostel, and checked in. 

Our first day in town we walked from the hostel through San Telmo and found ourselves by dique 3 (see map) along Av. Alicia Moreau de Justo. San Telmo is full of interesting old buildings, cobbled streets, walls covered in graffiti and art, and a ton of restaurants. One of our favorite discoveries was a market that was filled with antique shops, fruit stands, and butcher shops. We poked around taking pictures and exploring the shops filled with interesting old items for about an hour, and then continued down to the diques to walk along the water. 

down by Diques 1-4

After an early breakfast the next morning we walked to Plaza de Mayo. Many streets and the entire subway system have one end sourced from this plaza, and it is home to the governors mansion, a number of other impressive buildings, and a large park with many statues and gardens. Upon arriving, we noticed a stage being set up and made a mental note to return later that night to see what it would be for. We took a few minutes to walk around and snap pictures of the buildings and statues, and then continued to wander toward whatever sparked our interest. We noticed some people selling post cards and jewelry, stopped to look, and eventually exchanged some dollars on the street for a much better rate than the one offered by the bank. In Argentina, there is demand for dollars, and while the official exchange rate is currently 1 : 7.85 (USD:Arg Peso), an exchange on the street commonly yielded about 1 : 10.50. If you happen to be traveling to Argentina, make sure you bring a healthy supply of cash in USD to take advantage of this. (Google "Blue Dollar Argentina")

Before we arrived in Buenos Aires, Marcela's cousin told us about an old theater that had been converted into a bookstore, and we continued through the neighborhood in the direction of the Obolisk looking for it. We had forgotten the name (El Ateneo), and there were a lot of theaters on the street (Corrientes Ave), so we eventually gave up and wandered into a bakery for some cafe con leche and a palmier. Then we caught the subway to Palermo to explore the many parks we noticed on the tourist map. 

We got off the subway at Estacion Palermo and walked down Av. Bullrich toward the park, which turned out to be about half the size of Golden Gate Park. There was a beautiful rose garden we wandered through with a lake and many tame geese where we stopped to take pictures. Then we continued to wander and eventually ended up at the Jardin Botanico along Av. Santa Fe. There were a lot of cats wandering around and sleeping in the bushes there, and we saw a few greenhouses and statues among the apparently rare plants and trees.

From the Jardin Botanico, we headed toward Recoleta and the plazas to the west of there (the green area below Recoleta on the map). On the way we grabbed a sandwich and rested our feet, and then stopped at the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo. This museum's collection is housed inside of what seemed to be the mansion of a very wealthy someone from centuries ago, and was exceptionally striking both inside and out. The art was also interesting to see, but the building itself was the most impressive part for me.

After a short walk into the park from the Museo Nacional de Arte Decorativo, we noticed the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and decided to cross the street to see what it was. It turned out to be free to enter so we strolled through the showrooms, and were surprised to find a number of works from artists even we had heard of: Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Picasso, Monet, and Renoir all had work present. I only recognized one of Monet´s paintings, but it was still pretty cool to have all that great art in one place for free! At this point we had been walking all day, and it was starting to get too dark to take pictures, so we decided to head toward the subway. As we walked through the park in Recoleta (it was Saturday night), there were many booths set up selling leather and metal goods, mate cups, and candied nuts.

On the subway back we remembered the stage we had seen earlier in Plaza de Mayo, and decided to get off and check it out. What we discovered was some type of human rights event with booths from ~70 countries from around the world that were each selling plates of their most famous national cuisine. The booths were set up on either side of the street, and as we walked between them, we took mental notes on which country's food we should have for dinner. At the end of the street (Av de Mayo) was Plaza de Mayo, and the stage we had seen that morning was facing toward the booths. A fashion show was in progress where beautiful women in their mid-20's from around the world displayed the traditional national costumes of their respective countries. After surveying the food and narrowing down our options, we finally settled on Spain's paella, and bought a beer to go along with it. We enjoyed the food, watched the fashion show until it ended, and then walked the 10 or so blocks back to the hostel. That night we read for a few hours, had some wine, and then around 1am went out to a club we passed on our walk back. We knew we couldn't leave Buenos Aires without partying late at least one night, and made it back to the hostel around 3am.  We felt like we left early.

this is the closest picture I can find to show what the street
festival with the food from numerous countries was like

The next day we woke up late, had bread and butter for breakfast at the hostel, and walked through an awesome Sunday street market on the way to Boca. I saw a beautiful kitchen knife I really wanted to buy that was handmade with a handle made from bone, but we didn't have enough money to buy the knife and the tickets to the soccer game that afternoon, so we continued on to the stadium. We bought tickets from a  scalper because there weren't any for sale at the ticket office, and as we were about to get lunch near the touristy part of Boca, a guy ran by and snatched Marcela's bag right off her shoulder! We always keep our valuables in her bag, which has a zipper and a button for extra security, but didn't anticipate the theft of the entire bag. We ran after the guy, but he turned down a sketchy street, and a woman sitting on the corner told us we shouldn't go after him or we would probably get beat up. We spent the rest of the afternoon filing a police report in hopes that we could recover some of the lost value through insurance. Then we went back to the hostel to cancel my debit card and look into my travel insurance which ended up covering nothing. We spent the evening inside the safety of the hostel, reading and drinking wine, grateful nothing worse had happened. 

We saw this same Tango band and took a picture! Was excited to find this one.

I hope Boca Juniors lose ALL their matches for a year!

After taking it easy the night before, we were ready to get back out and see more of the city. We wanted to return to the park near Recoleta where we had previously left off, and stopped along the way at the El Ateneo theater-turned-bookstore before heading to the Recoleta Cemetary. The cemetary covers an impressive amount of land, and must be filled with the rich and famous from the past 400 years because there were exclusively cripts, many of which were decked out with broad-winged angels with swords. Each one seemed custom designed to outshine its neighbors, though many had fallen into serious states of disrepair. Some had coffins easily visible through chained and padlocked gates, and flowers dead for years were also a norm. The whole experience wasn't nearly as creepy as you might expect because the elaborate design of tombs was so engaging, and any ghosts left over would have already grown old and died again.

From the cemetary, we walked around the park and eventually found an inexpensive food truck serving chorizopan (delicious sausage sliced down the middle and served on a baguette with various toppings). Then we walked toward downtown, explored Plaza San Martin, and hopped the subway back to our hostel. That night we had plans to meet up with a friend from high school, Meg Seward. She suggusted a bar in Palermo called "Jobs", which turned out to be a quasi-American style bar with plenty of billiards and picnic tables to set up at. She brought along her girlfriend Sarah, and we had a good time catching up over a few beers, recounting the story of our robbery, and discussing our plans for hostels and wine tasting in Mendoza, among other topics. It was good to see a familiar face.

On our final morning in Buenos Aires, we didn't do much. After packing and vacating our room, we had breakfast, worked on the blog, read, and Marcela went up the block to purchase a used camera to get us through the rest of the trip. We now have a crappy little Nikon Coolpix 7-megapixel camera which is really beat up, and probably stolen. But what really matters is that we now have the ability to take pictures again, and we were able to barter the battery and charger from Marcela's old camera to bring down the price.

Sao Paulo, Brazil

We arrived to Sao Paulo around 930pm on March 11, grabbed our bags and asked the information desk the best way to get to our Airbnb hosts location in the Pompeia neighborhood. Thankfully the lady at the desk spoke English well and was able to find us a less expensive and complicated route than we were able to figure out using google maps. An airport transfer to the subway, and then a short taxi ride replaced a number of local busses and trainsT, and the subway turned out to feel very safe considering the time of night.

After roughly an hour, our cab from the end of the subway line dropped us off next to a very nice apartment complex. We phoned our host Ariane, and she came down to let us in. Her place was one of the nicest and well decorated Airbnb places we have experienced yet (had a girl´s touch…plus her sister is an interior decorator and helped her out), which made Marcela feel right at home. We settled in, and with Ariane´s help, created a plan of attack for our next and only day in Sao Paulo.

View from Ariane's patio

We woke up a little behind schedule, and headed out to explore after drinking some cold-brewed coffee. Our first stop on Ariane`s "you just can´t miss this" tour was Avenida Paulista, a New York style street with wide lanes, tall buildings, a bunch of stores, and a park right in the middle. We went to a well designed and stocked bookstore called Livraria Cultura that was in a mall-like space called Espaço Cultural Conjunto Nacional. From there we headed to Parque Ten Siqueira Campos, which is a large  city block of rainforest that was preserved as the remainder of the forest was clear-cut to make way for a newer breed of jungle.

Livraria Cultura - google

We took a little break from walking and decided it was time to put some food in our bellies. Across the street from the park we found a by-the-kilo buffet, which was much more expensive than we expected once we weighed our plates.  The food was pretty good looking, and its not like we could really put it back anyway. I guess we can splurge once in a while. 

After eating, we walked to the Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo, which is across the street from the park. Tickets were 15 reales/person and granted us access to three floors full of great art. One floor I liked in particular was an exhibit from three periods of printing / press art, but there were also plenty of rich people from back in the day hanging around too... and a whole floor of religious art. 

google.

Once we were done with the museum we wanted to go to Parque do Ibirapuera, but it started raining hard so we decided to head downtown to visit the tallest building in the city instead. This building, the Altino Arantes Building, has a viewing deck you can visit for free, and gives you a 360 degree view of the city .We arrived in the pouring rain and discovered that it had closed at 3pm… meaning we missed it by about 15 minutes. We then walked to a café nearby which was recommended to us by Ariane, called Cafe Girondino. We had a delicious hot chocolate and slice of pie, and then ran across the street through the rain to the Mosterio de San Bento. We did a quick walk through the monestary, and then took the metro back to Ariane´s apartment.

From reading previous blog posts, you may have noticed a trend: we like to make dinner for our hosts. So, because our day was cut short due to rain, we decided to stop by a nearby grocery store on the way home and buy some ingredients. They had a terrible selection, and I was on the verge of giving up until Marcela suggusted seafood cakes, roasted potatoes, stuffed cucumbers, and wine. We got back to the apartment, prepared dinner, and waited for Ariane to get home. Ariane is a law student so she studies daily from 9am to 8pm. We enjoyed the food and the opportunity to cook, then cleaned up and decided to make some capirinias.  After, we headed out to a local bar, where we got to know Ariane better over a few beers before heading back to the apartment. 

deleted all the pictures of the actual dinner my mistake... 

The next day we tried to wake up early but ended up getting up closer to 10am. We semi-packed for our flight that evening, and went back downtown to the Altino Arantes Building. The ride to the viewing deck involved two elevators and a few flights of stairs, but after about 10 minutes, we made it to the top!

With only a few hours left in Brazil, and almost no money, we decided to avoid the absurd ATM fees from a bank and began looking for a cash exchange. We searched for half an hour, finally found a "Check-into-cash" type place, and accepted the terrible exchange rate out of desperation. After returning to the apartment on the subway, we rushed to finish packing and Ariane kindly drove us to the Barra Funda metro stop so we didn’t have to take a cab. We jumped on the metro and transferred quickly onto the airport link. It all turned out to be much more convienient than we expected. 

We arrived at the airport with 13 reales left over, and planned to have a snack in the terminal. We tried to check in for our 6:30pm flight to Buenos Aires, and the airline representative let us know we had to pay the $160USD Argentina entrance fee before we could even check in, and it can only be paid online. We rushed to the internet café in the airport, registered ourselves, paid the fee, all under 15 minutes. Our internet and printing fee came to R$13.50, so we were short by change. Just as I was beginning to attempt to ask if R$13 would do, a very nice man appeared out of nowhere and covered the difference. We checked in without furhter hassle, and were glad when we realized the flight came with a meal! We loved Brazil, but were ready for the next adventure: Buenos Aires!

Maceio and Recife, Brazil

Part 1:

After departing from Salvador, we took a bus 9 hours north to Maceio. Our Airbnb host, Juan, graciously picked us up at the bus terminal at 5am and brought us back to his cozy apartment. After we set down our bags, he offered to make us all a round of Capirinias, a Brazilian drink made from Cachasa, lime slices, and sugar. We showered and went back to sleep until 9am. Juan had plans to go to the beach (Praia Barra De Sao Miguel)  with his girlfriend and her family and invited us to tag along, so we quickly got ready and headed out the door. Juan, his girlfriend Daiana, and her son Diego were awesome hosts.

Maceio, we stayed about 3 blocks from the point. (google pic)

Praia Barra De Sao Miguel -- avoiding the sun as usual.

google pic

We stayed at the beach for a couple hours and then transitioned to a party at a house rented by Daiana´s extended family. They shared amazing home cooked food  like lamb and lobster, and then we chilled by the pool, had some beers, and then headed back to the apartment. That night we wanted to make dinner for Juan, so we went to the grocery store and bought our ingredients. Dinner took longer to make then expected, and we ended up stuffing outselves at almost midnight and then immediately passing out.

The following day we rested the whole day, and didn´t leave the apartment until 8pm to take a short stroll by the beach. The next afternoon we took the bus to Recife. (5hrs)

Part II:

We arrived in Recife around 8pm and hitched a ride to Eli´s house with our busdirver for about half the price of a cab. (We met Eli at the Airbnb in Salvador.) Eli´s  family had prepared a dinner for us once we arrived, and we ate quickly after settling in. We were grateful that his daughter offered her room to us, and we stayed three nights.

No we didnt fly in a plane and take this.... google.

We woke up to a lovely breakfast, and shortly after we went to a small store to buy food so we could make a meal to thank our hosts. After returning to the apartment, Marcela went to the complex pool with Eli and his two kids, Alysson and Alice, while I stayed back to prep lunch. We ate scalloped potatoes, steak fillets and salad after Eli´s wife returned from work around 1pm.

After lunch, Marcela took off with the female members of Eli´s family for a birthday party. Eli and I stayed back,  had some beers, and watched a movie. After the girls returned, we all went out to explore the downtown areas of Olinda and Recife. It was dark, but we managed to get some pictures.

We went here and took an awesome picture, but somehow it got lost. Google.

The next day was Alysson´s 6th birthday so we had a small celebratory breakfast with cake and singing, and eventually headed toward the beach for lunch. The beach we went to was not as nice as others we had visited in Maceio, but we were on the beach in Brazil so we weren´t complaining. Eli´s family left us after lunch to go birthday shopping, and we took the bus back to the apartment a few hours later.

After we returned, and the family returned from the shopping trip, Alysson was the proud owner of a battery powered mini-ATV, which was promply assembled in the parking lot downstairs. Once the project was completed, the question of where this mini-atv would be stored became the topic of conversation, and when we attempted to bring it up the elevator, it didn´t quite fit. We took the hand bars off, and made it up to the apartment, but storage will still be an issue! :-/

Badass 6 year old Alysson

The next moring we packed our bags and met up with the family to get our final lunch together. It was a nice "by the kilo" type buffet, and afterward we said our thank-yous and goodbyes.  Then we braved the unknown public transportation system, transferred a few times, and ended up at the bus station. Couldn´t have made it without google maps.