Buenos Aires Querido III

Palermo

So let’s move forward to the North of the Capita Federal, leaving the very wide Rio de la Plata on the right and following the impressive Avda del Libertador. It starts in Retiro, the central train station East of microcentro, and it goes all the way to “provincia”. Who is the “Libertador” by the way? A mythic historic character, called José de San Martín, famous for been able to kick us, Spanish people, out of a few places in this continent. No hard feelings, I read about the guy and he was quite an impressive guy who spent his youthness in Spain fighting against the french in the napoleonic wars and then, after some time in England, went back to South America to fight for the independence in a few different countries such as Argentina, Peru and Chile. Quite a big deal…

So, in every argentinian city, there is a square, a street or a neibourghood called San martin. In fact, there isnt a big variety when it comes to naming this stuff in this country. If it is not called San Martin then it will be Belgrano (after Manuel Belgrano, creator of the flag), Maipú (after an important battle) or it will be named after any of the 55 presidents of the Republic of Argentina. You change the city but the street names are the same. The most important place will be called 9th of Julia or Independence, you see, all related to that historic moment they managed to get rid of the Spanish.

Heading North through Libertador you leave microcentro and Recoleta to get into one of the most popular neibourhgoods of the Capital Federal: Palermo. Palermo has been the trendy place for the last years. There you can find any sort of restaurant, places to go out, shopping areas. It is quite a huge place subdivided in a few areas, been Palermo Chico, Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood (funny names eh?), the most important ones.

The first remarkable place in this area is called Palermo woods, in between Libertador and Rio de la Plata. The main, almost unique, green area of Buenos Aires. A few nice lakes surrounded by green grass and trees where people hang around cycling, running or boating. You know, all these healthy weekend activities that I never do cause I am too hangovered. We, even been in that state, it is nice to walk around there and eat a good “choripan” (big piece of chorizo in bread with chimichurri sauce). Cheap and contundent.

The Palermo woods are also funny during the night when they are full of tranvestistes oferring their services. A sort of Casa de Campo in Madrid but here they are all men apparently. And, like in Madrid, people go there for the show even if they are not gonna buy, to the point that trafic jumps in the area are not unusual. Quite a weird way to have fun but anyway…

So, as I was saying, this is definitely the greenest part of the city. In contrast with the extreme urbanization of the rest of the rest of Buenos Aires here you can find open spaces, wide avenues, big statues and, in general, more oxygen. Both sides of Avenida del Libertador there are a few interesting things to do that, of course, I didnt do so far: the golf course, the zoo, the planetarium and the hippodrome. The third one is probably the most famous since horses are a big thing here in Argentina. There is even a channel on tv dedicated to that.

Not far from Palermo woods, there is a neibourghood called Cañitas, famous for the high number of restaurants located there. They are, however, a bit expensive since the place is really trendy now and is, along with San Telmo, one of the favourites areas for gringos to live n Buenos Aires. In spite of this you can still find quite a few decent places to eat there, including my favourite parrilla, Las Cholas and some nice places for having cocktails afterwards.

West of Libertador there is another important avenue, Santa Fé, which will become Cabildo further to the North and Santa Fe again when it reaches provincia (again, the argentinians are not too creative when it comes to name streets). Before that it gets to a big square, called Plaza Italia, an important spot in Palermo. There you can find the zoo, the botanic garden and the expositions center.

Further to the west of Santa Fé there is the real center of Palermo: Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood. Here is where the action happens. All sorts of restaurants and places to go out. Many of them situated around the nice Plaza Serrano, very crowded on the weekends nights. Quite a few famous clubs are located here, like Liquid, Madagasgar, Hummer and a thousand others.

Looks like a good moment to tell how the nightlife works around here even though, I have to tell you, my experience on this has not been too extensive. I have followed in Buenos Aires my traditional way of partying, consisting basically on having the action at home rather than outside so I didnt really get too involved in the Buenos Aires nightlife. As it used to happen in Madrid, most of the times I have at home all I need to have fun and there is normally no need to leave the huge house where I live. Besides, I am supposed to be saving.

Anyway, I can still say a few things about it. First the argentinians, like us the Spanish, get drunk at home before heading to the bars. They call it “la previa” and it normally involves a considerable ammount of Fernet and sometimes a good home-made asado. The main difference I find is that they end up leaving the house even later than us, actually a bit too late for my taste. If you show up at a club at 1, it will very likely be quite empty. It is only after 2 whe the people start to show up.

The problem is that this means everybody will be trying to get into the bars at the same time and the queues are fucking long. Yeah, unfortunately Buenos Aires is one of these cities that make you wait a lot outside too often. Big bouncers controlling the access to the clubs, guests lists, expensive cover fees and all that shit I personally dislike. Having to wait around an hour to get into a place when is already 2 in the morning ruins a bit the night for me. Sometimes we even had to go back home cause the queue was too endless.

However, once you make it inside is quite funny to party here. Music tends to be decent and drinks not too expensive, normally around 20 pesos each which converting to euros is not too bad. Well, if you are earning in euros which is not my case. At least the argentinian girls are quite hot and normally very friendly. Not that getting laid is so easy, they also have this reputation of been difficult, but at least you are going to get some nice chatting

Tags: Buenos Aires