Not long after we arrived in Buenos Aires we bumped into two old friends from Bolivia, who were able to give us plenty of tips on what to do in the city that never sleeps. That's my own name for it, regardless of what people say about New York, because Argentina takes things to another level and BA is at the centre of it. The normal time for eating dinner here is about 10-11 pm, and the normal time to hit a club is about 2 am, which means you're coming home from a night out anywhere from 6 to 8 in the morning. It's enough to kill you!

It was a Monday night, so we headed to a local culture centre called the Cuidad Cultural Konex for a weekly show called La Bomba del Tiempo, or Time Bomb. Its a large percussion band, mostly drums, performing in a semi-circle on stage, with different songs being conducted by different band members and everybody switching instruments. It was great, both the music and the energy in the crowd - we all decided it was exactly the kind of show that belonged at Electric Picnic.

The show lasted two hours, so when it finished at about 1030, it was then that we went for dinner. The restaurant, Desnivel, was packed with locals and we enjoyed yet more steak and red wine. From there it was back to the hostel for a pre-club drink, then onto a nightclub.

With the nights finishing so late, getting up for the free hostel breakfast before 1030 is hard. Sometimes you can just about manage to get up, but you have to go back to bed. Which is exactly what happened on Tuesday.

When we did get up though, we took a trip out to La Boca. We stopped for food along the way, in a place called Wafles Sur in the San Telmo area, for some delicious savoury and sweet crepes - and some Patagonian cider!

La Boca is the home to one of Argentinas most famous football clubs, Boca Juniors. Sean had been to a Boca game on his previous visit to BA, so acted as tour guide when we looped around Boca's stadium, La Bombonera or The Chocolate Box. It's the only place in the world where the Coca-Cola sponsorship signs are in black and white, because red is the colour of Boca Junior's rival team, River Plate.

La Boca is also one of BA's rougher neighbourhoods, as we had been warned by several BA natives, including the friendly owner of Wafles Sur. This was taken to the extreme by one proprietor on our walk. Caminito is a famous part of La Boca as all the houses are different colours. Its near the docks and when dock workers had leftover paint from painting the hulls of ships, they would use it to paint their houses. Unfortunately it's a lot smaller than the guidebooks let on, only two or three streets. As we passed one restaurant we got the typical South American hard sell with the menu being shoved in front of us and we gave the usual polite "No gracias" and kept walking. But this guy decided to walk with us, telling us how dangerous the area was and how this street, his street, was the only safe one. He eventually stopped walking with us, as we were ignoring him, but then decided it would be a good idea to shout after us. Until we turned the corner at the end of the street, he was repeatedly shouting "Be careful" at the top of his lungs!

That evening Maire and I went to a tango show - one of the must see things to do in BA. We went to Cafe Tortoni, one of BAs most famous places for tango, to a show that didn't involve a lesson - much to the delight of Maire's feet as I'm sure I would have trodden on them more than once. We then were roped in by Sean for another night out, in a different nightclub called Bahrein.

Again the following day was a slow start - breakfast was had at about 3pm! As it was our last night in BA we decided to head for one of BAs most famous steak places, one that wasn't in the guidebooks - La Cabrera. It being a Wednesday and only 9, so a bit before the standard time for dinner, we thought we had timed it well. Although the wait was an hour and twenty minutes on a chilly sidewalk, we were treated to free champagne, chorizo and olives for the duration - a nice touch that kept us from searching for somewhere else. The actual steak was delicious, the best I've had - it was so big that I couldn't finish it! All the side orders were all free - a particular favourite of mine was the mashed pumpkin. And la quenta (the bill) was reasonable too - about €110 for three including wine and coffee. Thankfully we are coming back to BA again, cause I know where I'm going.