Seven days in the city of Tango and good airs, Buenos Aires.

After Barcelona we went to Buenos Aires and landed on January 4th after a partly bumpy 14 hour flight with the Iberia spinoff carrier Level. Although the crew was friendly, everything except water and the entertainment system was not included in the ticket price. If you ever consider to fly with them remember to bring your own food and drinks, otherwise you’ll pay extra extra.

Our Airbnb house was located in the San Telmo district. It is an older part of BA with cobblestone streets, walls painted with graffiti and a lot of antique thrift stores.

The thrift stores are filled with clothes, kitsch and some used film camera bodies. Lenses not so much. Among popular brands like Olympus or Canon you can find some Russian and other seldom models. The prices are often higher or comparable to the 2nd market in the US and Europe. I’ve found a couple of interesting ones but their conditions were questionable at best.

Joannas health was also not the best during our stay and she had to make siestas regularly. Luckily the room had a big old celling ventilator. It provided the much needed airflow in the hot and humid 30+ degree Celsius summer weather. In the well equipped pharmacy I’ve noticed alternative healing methods on display.

Renting and riding bicycles turned out to be a good choice to explore BA without collapsing in the heat of the summer days. First we visited the natural reservat zone park by the city coast. It seemed to be partly created from piled up building material waste. People come there to cool down, watch plants and several bird species.

Further south is the popular, touristy and criminally infamous district of La Boca where a community of people is living in shack like houses. Some of them look very much like they could collapse anytime. The houses are colorfully painted outside. However this does not disguise the overall poor living conditions. A football stadium marks the unofficial center of La Boca where a young Maradonna begun his long goooool career.

Next to Boca we trespassed the very busy, modern and tightly build city center. Dedicated bikelanes are available but rather sparsely implemented. We cycled mostly on boardwalks to omit crashing into the many fast driving busses.

Where light, people and places were interesting I got into the mood and did some streetphotography.

Last but not least music and food are essential elements in BA. We enjoyed watching some street tango dancing and dined in various restaurants.

The week in Aires passed by quite quickly. It is a modern buzzing City with a great dining and music culture. Many thanks to my friend Lucia who invited us for delicious burgers! We left BA on January 11th and took a flight to the almost “end of the world” Ushuaia where hiking adventures awaits.