We were rushing through the streets to get to the Congress Building for the 11am walking tour with BA Free Tours. It was a reasonably long walk through the city and we shouldn’t have been rushing, but having such a comfy bed we’d got up late and were then faced with a huge array of food at breakfast, we stayed and ate for way too long. Fortunately the ‘tours for tips’ never leave on time, they always expect people to get lost on the way or just to be late – they of course want as big a group as possible to maximise their tips. Our guide for the tour, Victoria, was waiting with a big group already who were mostly Australians.

It wasn’t long before Victoria gave up any stragglers and started the tour. Normally the introductions would be done where you met, but today there was a protest taking place in front of Congress so we moved a little way down the street. After introductions, Victoria explained that having a city of 13 million people who liked to complain, it was understandable that there were demonstrations in the city every single day and most of them were in front of the Congress Building.

On the Congress Building, the cupola resembles the one from Washington DC and the doors at the front are only opened once or twice a year when the President comes out to give a speech or explanation to the people (and that doesn't happen often, Victoria had never seen the doors open in her entire life). Senators and others who work in the building use side doors. Inside the building, one room has been painted in pink in memory of Evita, because she got “Evita’s Law” passed in Congress which gave women the right to vote, the right to run as candidates in elections and labour rights.

Across the street from Congress is a now abandoned building which has been occupied by the homeless. It is a very ornate building and used to be the meeting place of politicians when the Congress building was closed during the dictatorship. A squatter’s law has protected those living in it for the last decade and will do for the next 20 years, only then is the government able to step in and do something with the building.

We walked through Plaza Congreso and passed a statue in middle of the park when someone asked why everything like that in the city was fenced off. The answer, quite simply, was that disaffected people would cover monuments in graffiti or wash themselves in the fountains etc.

Crossing over Avenida Rivadavia into Plaza Mariano Moreno we stopped at the stone marking Km0, the point in Argentina where all the roads in the country start from/counted from. And it’s a big country too, it’s over 1,000km north to Brazil and west to Chile and over 2,000km south to the ‘end of the world’. Avenida Rivadavia divides the city down the middle, streets crossing over the Avenue have different names on either side and the building numbers start from 1 and count up. Buenos Aires was built in blocks of 100 metres and each block has 100 building or house numbers – it makes it very easy to find an address and also to know how far away it is.

There was a pedal bike rental station in the other corner of the park. The bikes are supplied free by the city and tourists can take one for the day by showing their passport. You don’t even need to bring it back to the same station, there are lots dotted round the city and they can be dropped at anyone of them. The traffic is a bit chaotic though although there are special bike lanes. Maybe we will try it before we leave.

We left the park to walk down the busy Avenida Mayo where all the buildings were of different architectural styles. When the European immigrants arrived in the city's golden era, they wanted to invest their money in property and to build in the style of their homeland. The buildings are now mostly offices instead of massive homes for the wealthy.

Palacio Barolo, or Dante's building, was designed by Italian architects with reference to Dante's Divine Comedy (3 distinct levels representing the three canticas for Hell, Purgatory & Heaven and 33 floors for the number of ‘cantos’ in the poem). When it was built it was the highest building in the city and was intended to hold the body of Dante in safety while the war raged on in Europe. The body was never actually brought to the city.

Next door is the Gran Hotel Vedra which has a lighthouse on top of it. We didn’t have time on the tour, but it’s possible to pay to visit the top for a great view of the city, day or night.

We came to Avenida 9 de Julio which is the really wide street we had crossed a few times already. Including the two streets running parallel to it, it used to be the widest street in the world at 140m and 18 lanes (the widest is now in Brazil although it is mostly central reservation as opposed to traffic lanes).

From the central reservation of the avenue, we looked towards the southern end where one of the two buildings exempted from demolition during the widening of the road stood. The large, white, quite ugly building is the TV and radio station where Evita used to make broadcasts from. A large image, on the outside of the building, of Evita talking into a microphone has been confused by some as being a man eating a sandwich (it’s possible to see it that way).

We walked down Avenida de Mayo to Cafe Tortoni, one of the oldest cafes in Buenos Aires. It has been open since 1858 although it was moved from the site of the ‘Scottish Temple’ to its current location in 1880. It is considered to be one of the ten most beautiful cafes in the world and always has a queue of tourists at the door waiting for a table. They also have tango shows in the evening in their basement. We’ll keep it in mind for another day.

Victoria spoke about the coffee culture in Buenos Aires and told us that locals don't walk around with takeaway coffee, only tourists do. Locals might run around the streets all day, but if they want coffee they will go in to a café and sit down to drink it. They might still be in rush though and we were shown hand signs for ordering coffee at a distance. We were also told the names of the different types of drinks which was handy – ‘café’ is an espresso, ‘cortado’ is with little bit of milk, ‘jarrito’ is with a 3rd of milk. If the locals are not in a rush, they can spend hours over their coffee and in the afternoon they will also have medialunas, small pastries, with their drink.

We made our way further down the Avenue to Plaza de Mayo, a plaza surrounded by loads of historical and important buildings. At the eastern end is the Cabildo, a nice, old colonial building which is now a museum although we were advised it’s not actually worth visiting. On the northern side is Cathedral Metropolitana where the current Pope used to work at (he even had a house next door and was known to be a huge football fan). There is a mausoleum inside the cathedral and an eternal flame burns outside for General José de San Martín, the man who gained independence for Argentina in 1812.

There are strange white markings painted on the ground in the plaza which represent the headscarves of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. These women were protesting when their sons ‘disappeared’ during the ‘Dirty War’ under the Argentine military dictatorship (during the whole ‘war’ over 30,000 went missing). At the time gatherings of more than 3 people were not allowed, and the first time the women met to protest a policeman didn't throw them directly to jail, but advised they would need to leave right away. Instead, they split their group into 3s and started walking around the plaza. They have done it ever since and whilst they received huge support in the beginning, they don’t anymore because they are viewed more like a political party and even ask for money to take a photo of them.

Another story was told about a group of grandmothers who were searching for their missing grandchildren. During the dictatorship, whole families were often arrested and the mothers and fathers tortured and killed. The children were then adopted or sold to other families. Free DNA testing is being given by the group to try to reunite the families.

On the western side of the plaza is Casa de Gobierno (Government House) or as it’s more popularly known, The Pink Palace. It is an unsymmetrical building because it was joined on to next doors larger and more significant Post Office in 1898. Theories for the pink colour range, but one was that they wanted water resistant paint and this was done by mixing cows blood and fat and painting it in the exterior. The President lives at the Quinta de Olivos, the official residence of the President of Argentina, which is located about 30 minutes drive away, but the current President uses a helicopter to get to work which seems a bit extravagant for a country in financial crisis. Once she is at work, two flags are raised on the building to indicate she is there.

There is a permanent fence in front of the palace that runs across the street and the plaza with sections moved open and controlled by the police. It was put in place following the 2001 riots, when there was a big financial crisis and the government blocked the people from taking their own money out of the banks. The people came to the Plaza to protest, things turned ugly, five people were killed and the President resigned but was besieged. He eventually had to get a helicopter to take him to safety. Following that, there were many presidents in a short period of time because the government was assigning them to the position and people refused to vote (it is now law to vote). The open sections of the fence are manned by the police who are ready to close them if there is any hint of trouble, especially when there are demonstrations every day.

One demonstration on the plaza had been underway for over 6 years. People were camping to demand to be recognised as veterans of the Falkland's war. It seems that those who didn't actually get to the Island, but were stationed, ready, in Ushuaia, were not considered to be part of the war. They are demanding to be acknowledged as war veterans to receive a pension.

We left the plaza and headed across the road into Avenida Roque Sáenz Peña (or Diagonal Norte), one of only two streets running diagonally through the city’s checkerboard plan of streets. A short distance up the street was the start of Florida, a pedestrian street crammed full with shops and cambio guys (money changers), and we were warned that it was expensive to shop there but also a very good people watching area.

Continuing up Diagonal Norte we came to Plaza de la República on the intersection with the huge Avenida 9 de Julio (the same big, wide street again). At the very centre of this plaza is the Obelisk, the symbol of the city. It was built very fast in 1936 to commemorate the forth centenary of the first foundation of the city. People from all provinces in Argentina want to come to the capital and see the obelisk at least once in their life.

A little known secret was then pointed out to us, one that many Porteños (locals from Buenos Aires) don’t even know. Palaces aside, it is thought that all accommodation in city centre is apartments and that houses are in the suburbs, but there is in fact a house right in the centre of the city. There is an old factory near the Obelisk that has a house built on the roof top. The factory owner liked to go home for his lunch, but the travel became too much for him, so he moved his house to the roof of the factory and moved his family in.

The tour had come to the end but before we left, Victoria gave us a quick lesson in “speaking with your hands”, a common practise that was no doubt taken from the Italian immigrants.

We left her a tip of 100 pesos and headed off in search of some lunch. We had read about Sipan, a Peruvian/Japanese fusion restaurant and found it on the corner of Florida and Paraguay (the streets!). It was about 3pm but being Argentina it was still lunchtime and we were able to eat off the much cheaper lunch menu. We could have a starter, a main course and non alcoholic drink for 190 pesos (about $15). We shared salmon dumplings with a tamarind sauce and a macho sushi roll for starters, while for mains David went for the Aji de Gallina a spicy Peruvian chicken dish, and Maria opted for the fish dish that had two different kinds of fish on it.

After lunch we walked back on Calle Florida to our hotel to get refreshed. We were soon out again and headed down through Calle Reconquista, a street that was packed with bars and outside seating, towards Puerto Madero, the port area.

Earlier, we had thought about having a day trip to Uruguay on the ferry, but after checking the prices with Buquebus we decided against it. It was way too expensive to go for just a few hours.

We continued walking round Puerto Madero, the area has been revitalised with glass buildings, offices, some expensive looking restaurants and bars. It was very busy though with walkers, cyclists and even roller skaters. Some of the original cranes had been left on the dockside to look a bit arty. A new bridge, Puente de la Mujer, was pretty fancy and was supposed to resemble a couple dancing tango.

After circling the port, we made our way back and checked out Downtown Matias Irish Pub but it didn’t really look that Irish and their prices were a bit expensive even at happy hour, so we gave it a miss and just went back to our hotel instead.