Birthday in Buenos Aires

When thinking of how I wanted to celebrate the beginning of my late 20s (better known as my 26th birthday), I thought back to my 2012 Bucket List and decided that there would be no better way to do so than dancing tango in Buenos Aires (see my post from January 10 - item #7). I found round-trip flights from Santiago to Buenos Aires for the low price of $250, booked a room at the Meliá on my American Express points (earned from business trips - thanks Deloitte!) and started to play "travel agent."

Recoleta cemetary

 My efforts searching for the most fun and interesting activities all last week were worth it. In just 3 days time, Eric and I had an extensive tour of "the Paris of South America." With all of the gelato and Italian food, I found the city to share more in common with Florence, but the fashionistas of the world have named it the former, so I must concede. We started our trip with a visit to the Recoleta Cemetary. It sounds strange to tour a cemetary, but after going there, I understand why it is on every list of things to do in Buenos Aires. After paying homage to the grave of Eva Perón, we were off to the Museo de Bellas Artes where we got to see some paintings by the likes of Renoir, Degás, Cézanne, Goya, Monet and Manet. We then strolled through the lovely parks in Recoleta over to the giant steel flower clock nearby for an afternoon nap. The flower is a "clock" in that it opens during the day and closes at night and emanates a red glow.

Steel flower

After resting in the park, we were off to Palermo Soho for an Argentine wine tasting. On the tasting menu were the following:

Hom 2009 - Sparkling wine (70% Chardonney, 30% Chenin Blanc) from Mendoza
paired with a pear, walnut & roquefort crostini

Carinae 2011 - Torrontés from Salta
paired with peach and strawberry sorbets

Mairena 2010 - Bonarda from Luján de Cuyo
paired with brie and longaniza (Argentine salami)

San Gimignano 2010 - Malbec from Maipu
paired with a steak empanada spiced with cumin and onions

Caluna 2009 - Blend (48% Malbec, 42% Cabernet Savignon, 10% Merlot) from Argelo
paired with chocolate from the Ivory Coast and Ecuador

Ready to wine taste!

If you haven't ever heard of Torrontés or Bonarda, you and I have that in common. I wasn't aware of how little knowledge I had of Argentinian wine! There is a good reason for that, however - only 20% of the production of Argentinian wine is exported outside the country. So, if you are looking for good, hard to find Argentinian wines, you might have to go to Argentina to get lucky!

Eric´s Bife de Chorizo

We retired to our hotel for a nice massage before dinner after the wine tasting. After our massages, we enjoyed dinner at Las Lilas in Puerto Madero. The food was fanstastic and the service presidential. They ended our meal with complementary grappa and lemoncello (another example of why I feel like the city is more Italian than French).

In front of Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo

Day 2 entailed a trip to Plaza de Mayo where we visited la Casa Rosada, Argentina's presidential palace. We moved on to La Boca to see what the city's original port was like. The buildings in La Boca are all painted different colors because the original inhabitants would request incoming ships for spare cans of paint, resulting in buildings in a rainbow of colors throughout the barrio. After parousing the touristy stands and watching the street performers, it was time to head back to the hotel to get ready for the evening.

Calle Caminito en La Boca

The Complejo Tango bus picked us up at 7 o´clock to take us to our tango lesson followed by an evening of Argentinian food and a fabulous tango show. The class was a lot of fun. I even think Eric enjoyed it! After the class, we were seated for the show. A little bird shared with our waiter that it was my birthday, which led to one of the handsome Argentinian dancers asking me to dance aside our table. When you dance with a guy who can really lead, it almost makes you feel like you know how to tango! We ventured to one of Buenos Aires' "secret bars" after the show with our new Canadian friends, Kate and Kristen, who we met in the class to enjoy a birthday night-cap before heading home.

We passed the tango class!

On Sunday morning we awoke to a phone call informing us that our tour of the Tigre River had been cancelled due to rain. We gladly took the opportunity to sleep in after two busy days. We then strolled down to Puerto Madero and had a fabulous pasta lunch before heading to the airport to return to Buenos Aires. I can't wait to cross more things off that Bucket List if they are all going to turn out this great!

Puente de la Mujer in Puerto Madero