J&J Go South 2023 - Day 7 - Death & History
We woke up this morning at 7:30, a perfect time to wake up on vacation if you ask me. We only had one thing on the agenda for today, a 4-hour tour of the city. We like to book these half-day tours to get a sense of the city without having to spend an entire day touring. We were ready on time (a shock) and went downstairs to meet our guide. Unfortunately, there was a mix-up with the start time and we were starting an hour later. We decided to go grab a coffee at Starbucks nearby while we waited. Unfortunately, none of the Starbucks here understand what Jenn is ordering when she asks for a "chocolate caliente” so today she got a chai latte. She was a good sport and let me enjoy my cappuccino while we waited for our tour guide.
A little after 9 AM our guide for today, Emiliano picked us up outside of the Starbucks and we were off. Emiliano brought a lot of great energy right from the start and was giving us a strong history lesson throughout the four hours. He was one of the most entertaining guides we’ve ever had. We started at the Buenos Aires University and then went to a beautiful rose garden. One thing that we loved about this tour is that we had a lot of alone time. Emiliano would drop us off at spots and let us explore and that’s exactly what we did at the gardens.
From there we drove through the heart of the city, stopping at a few embassies and consulates that used to be palaces. Our next big stop of the tour was Plaza de Mayo, we parked his car, got a brief history lesson of the area, snapped some photos of us, and gave us 20 minutes to explore. We took some pictures in front of Casa Rosada, their federal government building, and then walked to Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires the former home of current Pope Francis. This is a beautiful square and there were a ton of field trips happening around us while we were there.
Shockingly we were already halfway through the tour by now and so we jumped back in his car and were off. We made a brief stop at a food market called Mercado San Telmo. He told us they have some of the best empanadas if we wanted to try some so we made a beeline straight for it and ordered three (beef, chicken, and ham and cheese) and a bottle of water. We took our empanadas back to his car after touring the rest of the beautiful market and were off to the last big stop of the tour, Caminito, one of the most popular tourist spots in the area. There we were given a brief tour of the area, tried some dolce de leche and other desserts, and then were given time on our own. The buildings here are brightly painted and beautiful, easily one of the most picturesque parts of the day. We did find a bench to enjoy the delicious empanadas and then walked around more before meeting up with Emiliano.
The last thirty minutes of the tour we drove to the newer section of Buenos Aires that looked like a cross between LA and Miami. It was beautiful, new, and bursting with construction and development. From there we went back to our hotel where we hugged and parted ways with our new Buenos Aires friend, Emiliano. We hadn’t got enough touring done yet so after making a bathroom stop we left the hotel again and walked twenty minutes to what is considered one of the most beautiful bookstores in all of the world, El Ateneo Grand Splendid. A renovated theater is now home to a massive library that takes over the entire place. The former stage is now a cafe. It is such a cool concept and I can see why everyone raves about it. Had there been a single book in English I would have bought it.
On our walk back to our hotel we decided to stop at La Recoleta Cemetery which contains shrines for some of the most notable Argentinians of all time. I’ll be honest I got a little creeped out and had a moment of life flashing before my eyes when we entered. You can see into a lot of these buildings which house 1, 2, or more coffins in plain view. I got over it relatively quickly and we spent twenty minutes walking around the cemetery.
We got our fix after a half hour at the cemetery and made our way back to our hotel. Similar to yesterday we went to the patio, this time going lighter with our order. Jenn had a rose tea and I had a cappuccino. As good as the drinks were sitting on the patio and enjoying the perfect fall day was magical. I love sitting here and wouldn’t mind doing it 100 more times. We wrapped up our drinks and went back to our room. Jenn took a nap and I caught up on all my recaps of the trip.
A few hours later we left to attempt to get a walk-in table at the most popular restaurant in Buenos Aires, Don Julio. I had tried to get reservations before our trip but they went within seconds of opening up. We arrived fifteen minutes before opening but by the time we arrived via Uber, the line was at least thirty people deep. We jumped back in an Uber and back to our hotel and enjoyed a quiet dinner at the hotel. We started with a small shrimp and avocado appetizer before going to the main course of the evening a plate of Argentinian steaks. There were five different cuts of steak with three sauces (mustard, aioli, and chimichurri), salad, and fries. We also had their house Malbec wine which was fantastic. The meal was fine, it didn’t hit the highs of the prior night but it was the quick meal we were looking for. With an early flight to the Iguazu Falls tomorrow we wrapped up dinner a little after 8:30 PM and called it a night. It was a busy day today, but a great busy.
