Buenos Aires, Argentina

On the way to the amazing continent of Antarctica I made a stop in Buenos Aires. I had spent a week or two in the city last year, so I gave my friend and travel buddy, Traci, a quick highlight tour.

One of the most unique places in Buenos Aires is La Recoleta Cemetery. I love seeing all of the large ornate tombs. It's cool thinking of the legacy that those tombs leave on the people buried in them. I would love to go visit my loved ones in such a beautiful place after they have passed away.

I could spend hours admiring all of the details on the cemetery's vaults, because the vaults had such limited space to work with, they made every detail count.

 

Two more aspects of Buenos Aires that make it unique are its meat and its salsa dancing. We decided to go to a salsa show, where we could eat a nice steak dinner, and we were not disappointed. 

I don't eat a lot of red meat but I felt obligated to order a steak at the show. I love eating local food and a steak is really what Argentina is known for. I don't know if I appreciated eating the steak afterwords, but during it was delicious. Last year I went to Argentina right before my wedding, and I'm pretty sure I gained 10lbs for my wedding.

The details of the room at the show were perfect. I even loved the curtain.

I can't say I know a lot about any type of dance, but I love salsa. It is beautiful, seductive, graceful, and it's impossible to take your eyes off of the dancers. You really can't go to Buenos Aires without seeing a show.

This photo is one of my favorite photos.

I was in heaven taking pictures. The dancers did an amazing job. It made me want to sign my husband and I up for salsa lessons. The problem is that we would need a thousand lessons to even be able to do a little of what they can do.

The show also had some beautiful music and a few other types of dance performed, but nothing could compete with the salsa performances.

Obviously this is just a small portion of what the city has to offer. You need a lot longer than two days to really appreciate the beauty and culture of the city.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

One of my favorite places in Buenos Aires was "La Recoleta Cemetery". It was absolutely amazing. It is a city with large elaborate tombs. It is supposedly one of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world and has the graves of many important people.  

It was a short walk from our hotel to the cemetery so we were able to walk by it many times. If your ever in Buenos Aires its a must see.

Another important part of Argentina's culture is silversmiths. We were able to visit the oldest neighborhood in in Buenos Aires, San Telmo. We visited both the famous Antiques Sunday Market with over 200 venders selling all sorts of goods, mostly antiques. We also visited one of the creators of many of these antiques, the Pallarols family, one of the oldest silversmith families out there. They have had silversmiths in their family since the 1700's in Barcelona. Many of their clients have been very influential people including the current president of Argentina. 

It was super cool seeing the amount of work that they put into each piece. It's amazing how many man hours it takes to create such small pieces of art. 

The part I loved the most was how organized the shop was. The tools and everything were lined up perfectly. I love well organized things, and this extremely old building and business really inspired me. It would be pretty hard to stay so organized after hundreds of years of being in business. I hope that I have a shop one day that is as well organized as this silversmiths home.

For some weird reason, I love tools. I love crafts, ribbons, wrapping paper, paper, boxes, screw drivers, drills, saws, etc. Anything that can help you create something new, I love, and sort of collect. I would love to have a room one day that is for creating new things, where I could have everything super well organized and nicely designed. Its funny the places that you find inspiration for design.

We were also given a chance to try our hand at the work they do. It takes some major talent to design something from hammering into silver, one hammer to hard and it is ruined. It was fun learning more about a trade that I had never put much thought into.

Traditional Argentina

Argentina in known for a lot of things, and going with Virtuoso I was able to experience a lot of what Argentina is known for. 

One of the main things that Argentina is known for, and rightly so, is meat. Almost every meal I had for two weeks in Argentina was meat, bread, and cheese. It was all so heavy and filling, but so delicious. The meats really were amazing.

One of the first nights we were given a HUGE delicious meal of meats. They brought out a little salad, bread, chicken, and sausage. Everyone ate up and was stuffed, and then they brought out the entree, a huge plate of assorted meats. Apparently, the first plate of meats was an appetizer. It was unreal.

We were able to watch the meat slowly cook throughout the night and watch them baste it over and over again. It was cool to watch, and inspired me on how to really cook meat. I'm usually not that patient.

While we waited for the food to cook they entertained us with a horse show and some traditional tango.

If your ever able to afford real luxury travel. Use Virtuoso, because they no how to do things. Everything at the Virtuoso symposium was perfectly done, really giving us a taste of Argentina. 

Argentina is also known for tango, while we were there we were able to see a number of dances and tangos.

We were also able to see horse races in Buenos Aires. Luck was not with me because my horse never was even close to winning, but it was fun experiencing it.

They also had the horses give us a little dance before they started, which was pretty cool to watch. It's pretty cool to see horses doing tricks and standing different way. I'm pretty sure I saw a horse do a handstand.

Argentina has a lot more to offer than just meat, tango, and horse racing, but those were some of my favorite things we experienced while I was in Buenos Aires. I feel like they are must sees while visiting there, and I would suggest them for anyone who has a few days to waste.