As soon as we arrived in Buenos Aires we had the feeling again of being somewhere entirely different, a big city which felt more familiar to home with parts resembling London, Birmingham and Madrid. We checked into Milhouse hostel, a place that Brendan (an Irish friend we met horse riding in Mendoza) had recommended to us as 'the' party hostel of Buenos Aires. We could see why when we got there, it was full of young travellers and the hostel itself was covered in posters advertising activities, clubs, nights out and so on.
The same evening we went to a tango show which is one of the things BA is famous for. Before the show itself we had an introductory tango lesson which was fun and made us appreciate the skill of the dancers! This was followed by a 3 course meal, free wine and then the show itself. The performance told a story so the dancers were really actors as well- the 'tango face' being a very stern, serious look. At one point one of the guys pretended to be drunk, stumbling about and slurring his words with a glass of wine in had which was hilarious to watch. Overall it was really impressive, not only the dancers but the musicians, lighting and the whole atmosphere itself. After making the most of the free wine we had a couple more drinks back at the hostel, which turns into a bar/club at night.
The following day we took part in a walking tour of La Boca area, where the Boca Juniors football stadium is located and also El Caminito- a very small street packed with brightly coloured houses, street art, statues and restaurants offering free tango shows (nowhere near as impressive as the show the night before, but still entertaining).
Friday 31st august- Despite being on a fairly tight budget by this stage we decided to have a polo lesson after reading reviews on trip advisor that it's the number 1 thing to do in Buenos Aires. We were taken by a guy called Fernando who was very knowledgable and passionate about the sport despite only having played 5 years. He took us to a very nice farm (the horses were much better cared for than the others we had ridden on the treks) and after explaining to us the rules and some basic techniques we had a small match. In a normal scenario each team has 4 players and the game is extremely fast and quite rough - as beginners to the sport it was very chilled and at a slow pace! It was incredible hard to hit the ball accurately and it was painful for the wrists but we got there eventually and both scored goals during the match. Kat was playing for the Norwegian team and Nathan was with Fernando playing for team GB, who scored the winning goal to make the final score 5-4. It was good fun and we enjoyed learning about polo, but agreed that it was quite expensive for the time we had playing and maybe needed one more match to get more of a feel for it.
To reward ourselves in the evening we had a Ugi's pizza (a local speciality in BA/ our favourite cheap and tasty dinner) and then explored a couple of bars near the hostel.
The following day we went to Palermo in the South-East part of the city. It was quieter and had more character than the centre, with smaller streets and a lot of street art. We took part in a graffiti tour which showed us some of the most impressive and significant artwork. Each piece has a story and a meaning, even the graffiti which is considered vandalism back home. In Argentina they see street art as a form of self expression which became popular during dictatorship. Due to the huge popularity it became legal and BA has become one of the most influential cities in the world for street art and due to the artists freedom the city attracts a lot of international artists.
After the tour we had a walk around the central part of Palermo which was full of life with a buzzing night market and outdoor restaurants full of people. The shops were intriguing in themselves as they would combine clothes shops with bars, book shops with restaurants and so on which we found quite bizarre! The exteriors were also coloured, patterned and shaped in interesting ways.
On the afternoon of Sunday 2nd we took an 18 bus to Iguazú, arriving at 9am the following morning.