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Buenos Aires . . . and that song plays continuously in our heads AAAAAAGH!!!!! This place is sprawling, hot, colourful, vibrant with a blend of new and old - especially in Palermo SOHO our home base for the last 10 days.

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Our First Home Away From Home

The apartment is great value for money and located at Paraguay and Jorge Luis Borges a few blocks between Plaza Italia and the nightlife corners of Palermo SOHO. Routine's established: Gym, Grocery and coffee! (more on that later)

The Neighbourhood

Palermo SOHO is described in travel blogs as "trendy, littered with cafes, restaurants, boutiques and home to lazy tree-lined cobblestone streets" and it delivers. By day we wandered and tried to see not just the trendy corners, but some of the outlying local spots. The street murals are a gallery of contemporary art. Amazing! and you can get lost in the maze of colour. Like many tourist centric neighbourhoods, there seems to be a bit of the love-hate relationship between visitors and locals. Seeing frustrated locals respond to tourists (us) hold up a queue not knowing how to buy fruit and veg (weigh it and tag it yourself before hitting the cashier) is a case in point. Lesson learned. We sampled the food scene with choripan from tourist-mecca Chori, take away empanadas from Cumen-Cumen and satisfied our home cravings with perfect avocado toast and egg at Cigalo Cafe. Our parilla (pa-ree-sha if you're a Porteno) experience happened our first night. A local two blocks away, a huge thunderstorm, a black out and a dodgy tummy from too much beef - pretty much sums it up. By night it turns into a village of street corners and rooftop terraces alive with food, beer and Malbec. We alternated between corners of Costa Rica/Armenia and Costa Rica/Gurruchaga and along Calle Thames. Beers at Temple Bar is a must for anyone wanting a prime seat at the show and enjoy a good "artisanal/craft" beer. It's also a block from the gay bars Peuteo and Work, but our crazy jet lag kept us from ever experiencing them. Dining on a budget was easy especially since a large "copa de Malbec" was about $4AUD. A favourite stop for the street show was Sans Armenia with decent food and better drinks and service. A quirky over-the-top serving size dinner was at a chain called El Club de la Milanesa. Imagine pizza with a schnitzel or paneed veal base. Our new business venture to rival Maggies! So for us, Palermo SOHO was the right choice for our first home away from home.

Being Traditional Tourists

Of course we took in a few of the tourist hot spots walking out of "our hood". Buenos Aires on first sight reminds us a bit of New York in the 80s - 90s, but cleaner. There's a blend of designer and low cost shops, some grunge - a sexy vibe. The layout is dominated by wide avenues, tree-lined streets and easy public transport called Subte. Easy to walk about, we checked out El Ateneo Grand Splendid Bookshop in an elaborate theatre, the renovated Retiro Station, the Casa Rosada, Museo Evita and Feria de San Telmo. The Sunday San Telmo Markets brought local politics to life with a conflict between shop owners and street vendors. During the week, on a friend's and a local's advice, we took the Tren de la Costa to see some of the suburbs and how Portenos take advantage of the Rio de la Plata. The train and the station need some care, but worth a day trip. On the art scene, one of our highlights was a chance wander into a Hip Hop and street art/dance festival at the Centro Cultural Recoleta. The energy was incredible. We also explored MALBA and a show by Latin American artist Pablo Suarez. He produced some really cool pieces and we wandered through great art in the general collection as well.

Tango

A trip to Argentina without Tango? Never! A local milonga called La Viruta Tango Club was just around the corner and made a much needed afternoon sleep easy to get to the 11.30pm opening. Jet lag at this point was still a killer, but useful. We thought this would be all gringo, but it was almost all local. The few tourists stuck out like, well tourists at a tango club. The rest were regulars and they intermixed constantly reminding us of any culture's dance hall gatherings. There were the star couples, the middle aged men on the make and many singles of all ages just wanting to dance. We sipped and swayed and smiled a lot. At 2am when we left, it was still going strong and they'd brought in Salsa, Jive and line dancing.