BA Tourist Sites

[Hafrbo]

Disclaimer:

This is a list of places I have visited so far. This list is not comprehensive. These are only the opinions of a fellow traveler and are not meant to offend anyone.

RECOLETA CEMETARY(Junin and Vicente Lopez)
- Known best for the grave site of Eva Peron. I passed by and decided it was'nt worth my time. Sorry, I do not have any personal interest in visiting a cemetary while on vacations. Besides, I had more important matters to take care of: Mahados was across the street.

PUERTO MADERO
-Originally an old warehouse district, this area was redeveloped in 1991 into restaurants and offices. This is definitely a date place with nice restaurants having great views of the the river across the way.
-Has a Calatrava (a famous engineer / architect) Bridge which can open up in less than 3 minutes to let boats pass by.
-Has a frigate ship which you can board and play Captain Stabbin on.
-Has both a casino and a disco called Asia de Cuba.
-Not recommended for cheap dates like me.

BOTANICAL GARDENS (ave. Santa Fe and Malabia)
-Decent Gardens but not much to write home about.
-Watch out for all the fucking cats and cat shit. They're all over the place and don't seem to have any owners. It's definitely a cat lady's paradise.

BA ZOO(Ave Sarmiento and Av. Las Heras)
- Are you fucking kidding me? You came this far to go to the fucking zoo?

OBELISCO (Ave. 9 de Julio and Corrientes)
-What can I say? It's a fucking obelisk.
-You can take your picture with it and one minute later visit an escort club just down the road.

HIPPODROMO PALERMO (Ave Dorego and Ave. Del Libertador)
-Works as both a casino and horse race track.
-Definitely has slot machines and not much else as far as gambling goes. I don't remember seeing any card tables, dice, or even fucking bingo.
-Has two affordable cafes downstairs in slot machine area. With a buffet restaurant upstairs for about $35 pesos. Outside in the racetrack area they have hot dog (panchos) and hamburger (hambuerguesa) stands for about $2 peso each.
-I was told that races definitely run on mondays and sometimes on fridays (call and confirm for fridays) Races started at 3:30 p. M. And run every 30 minutes until around late night.
-You can bet on the races.

JAPANESE GARDENS (Av. Del Libertador and Ugarteche)
-Decent (my BA girlfriend made me take her)
-Has large ponds with koi fish. You can buy food for the Koi and feed them on site. And by the looks of it, the koi fish expect it. The fuckers I saw were at least 12 inches long each.
-Definitely a nice place to relax and makeout. $3 peso entrance for adults.
-While I was there some of the ponds had been emptied out for repair (Jan. 2006)

SAN TELMO
-Once you've seen one Tango, you've seen them all?
-Quaint neghborhood with cobblestone streets. I'd be hard pressed to walk alone at night on some of the streets there as some areas are run down.
-Good local boliche scene on Defensa St.

KING FAHD MOSQUE (on Ave. Bullrich between Cervino and Ave. Del Libertador)
-Mosque built by King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
-If you have ever wondered what you would do if you had all the money in the world, this is it. As far as I know, Argentina is mainly a catholic country.
-Built on a whole city block, the grounds and mosque are immpecably clean.

SUMMARY.

Don't kid yourself. Buenos Aires is really not a tourist destination. The best part about coming here are the people, the nightlife (bars, discos, boliches), the food, and of course the women. So, do yourself a favor and learn some Spanish before you get here.

Hafrbo

[Artisttyp]

Has anyone been to any of these two attractions? I'm into photography and was wondering if these two trips would get me some good photos of Argentinian culture? They both can be pretty expensive and I could get laid twice and eat all day for the same price. Good photos would make it worth it.

Thanks

[Hlover]

www.economist/cities

Please note the steak house wher U2's Bono ate.

[Flexible Horn]

www.economist/cities

Please note the steak house wher U2's Bono ate.The link does not work, try

http://www.economist.com/cities/citiesmain.cfm?city_id=BEA

[Timba8]

Wikitravel.org also has an excellent BA writeup.

There are also many excellent blogs in english by expats, who give you a local perspective.

[Tequila Tim]

A fellow monger and I visited the Mataderos Fair yesterday and it was quite nice. It's held every Sunday on the outskirts of town along Independencia from 11-8 PM (Av. Lisandro de la Torre and Corrales) It's a combination of vendors selling local stuff (clothes, food, leather goods, etc. Along with live music, gaucho dancing and demonstrations, and outdoor grilling. It was a nice change to the overcrowded Recoleta and San Telmo fairs. We hired Ana Luna to take us and she said she always enjoyed going there. Try to go sometime if you have a free Sunday.

[Facundo]

A fellow monger and I visited the Mataderos Fair yesterday and it was quite nice. It's held every Sunday on the outskirts of town along Independencia from 11-8 PM (Av. Lisandro de la Torre and Corrales) It's a combination of vendors selling local stuff (clothes, food, leather goods, etc. Along with live music, gaucho dancing and demonstrations, and outdoor grilling. It was a nice change to the overcrowded Recoleta and San Telmo fairs. We hired Ana Luna to take us and she said she always enjoyed going there. Try to go sometime if you have a free Sunday.It's an interesting site to visit once or twice, more interesting to see there is the great number of cows brought and slaughtered to feed the Argentine hunger for red meat. Very easy to meet locals in Mataderos, just have to be a little careful because Mataderos has neighboring villas like Villa Lugano and Villa Soldati.

By the way, I believe it's best to go without a tour guide due to the expense of getting there and the payment to the guide. To get there just take bus N° 80 and it will let you off right in front of the Mataderos Fair for only 80 centavos. The ride is only 40 minutes and the opportunity to meet locals on the bus is high. Bus N° 80 can be gotten at the Barancas train station in Belgrano.