Buenos Aires' La Boca Neighborhood

La Boca is a neat place to walk around in Buenos Aires. Definately a stop on all the tourist tours, but there is a lot to see there and small things to buy so it's an interesting stop. The neighborhood is along the water with docks, piers, and boats. The history of the colorful homes in the neighborhood is that the people who owned the boats who lived there would just use their left over paint on the homes, so every home is a different color. Here is a website with more on the history of La Boca.

Because it is a place frequented by tourists, there are Tango performers that bring their own music (stereo) and lay out a hat for donations for small performances. We saw a family of Tango dancers that drew a crowd of a hundred people or so, and for over a half hour they hyped up the show, introduced their kids, not so subtly begged for money... We lost patience and gave up on it without seeing a thing, bit of a let down for sure, all hype no Tango! They must work the crowd for 45 minutes and dance for 5-10 minutes, pretty annoying, especially for people on a schedule or part of a tour group (which many of the tourists in this area are part of). In several of the tourist filled areas where there are pedestrian only streets you have the possibility of Tango shows in the middle of the street, much like this photo here.

La Boca is also famous for its football (soccer) club, Boca Juniors, one of the most popular clubs in Argentina and around the world. Diego Maradona, the Michael Jordan of Argentine soccer, who scored a world cup goal to let Argentina win it all in 1986, played for Boca Juniors as his club team in Argentina.

New York Times Article: Going to Buenos Aires

If you are a reader of the New York Times you are probably familiar with the Going to series of travel articles. They are usually pretty reliable and full of a bunch of information on a particular city that each article features. Reading them online is easier too since they are full of links you can follow for more information on places they recommend.

On April 2, 2006 the Times published Ian Mount's Going to Buenos Aires article which is worth linking to on this blog. It covers the following topics regarding a trip to BA;

1. Where to stay
2. Where to eat
3. What to do during the day
4. What to do at night
5. Where to shop
6. Your first time or the 10th
7. How to get there
8. How to get around

The Times has several other good articles on Argentina travel and Argentinean culture, click here to view the search results which returns dozens of good articles.

Taxi Transfers from Buenos Aires' Ezeiza International Airport (EZE) to BA Hotels

The airport in Buenos Aires where all International flignts land & depart from is the Ministro Pistarini Ezeiza International Airport (airport code EZE). Here is a neat view of the airport. When you land you can easily get a taxi from the airport to your Buenos Aires hotel which will be about a 20 mintute drive to Recoleta and the other City Center hotels. Vans or shuttles that in other cities are much cheaper than taxis are not necessary here unless you are traveling alone. With 2 or 3 people a taxi is so cheap you wouldnt want to hassle with the multiple stops and other delays you face with a shuttle. Taxis in Argentina are safe, but Buenos Aires is a place where you only want to use official or Radio Taxis like the one in this picture. You can get them at the official taxi stand at the airport, have a hotel or restaurant call one for you, or get one outside of the big hotels who only let safe ones park in their taxi line.

When you exit the airport beware of the guys walking around asking you if you need a taxi, these guys will be reaching for your luggage, acting like they are helping you, when they are really just trying to get you into a cab that is not an official one. Some of these guys will take you to the official taxi line but they will then expect a tip for carrying your bag 50 feet. The taxi stand is just outside the door where you exit customs, you will get a ticket like this as a receipt that identifies the taxi you take (which would help if something happens to you or if you leave something behind in the car). This ride to Recoleta cost us $55 pesos for three people, about US$18 which included highway tolls, but not tip -- for a twenty minute ride.

Tips for visiting a Mendoza Vineyard

The Vines of Mendoza offers a great publication called the Insiders Guide to Mendoza which you can pick up around town, in hotels, and tourist pamphlet type racks. It lists great vineyards (Bodegas in Spanish) to tour and also has a handy list of tips which are very important to follow. In bold are their tips from their small article called General Bodega Tips, following that are my comments.

1. Reservations are required at most bodegas. Most places we visited would not even let you through the gate unless you were on the list, part of this is security, and I think part of it is capacity. They cant have people standing around, or worse doing their own self guided walks through their wineries, if they dont have the staff to chaperone the visitors.

2. Tours generally last between 45 minutes and 1 hour. This held true on all of our stops.

3. Most wine tours are free and include a tasting. All were free we visited, and all included tastings, some right out of the barrel! In the larger places you dont feel too bad not buying something, but in smaller operations you feel like you shouldn't leave without buying at least a bottle.

4. Many wineries only accept cash (Argentine Pesos) for wine purchases. From my experience, the big bodegas are all set up for credit cards, and the smaller ones are cash only.

5. Most bodegas are closed Sundays.

6. If you are driving on your own, bring a good map & a sense of adventure. We used a driver to take us around for an all day excursion to 4 bodegas and a great place for lunch. The afternoon before our excursion he helped us plan a route and that gave me time to call ahead for reservations. The next day it went off without a hitch. I am a good map reader but I would say its nearly impossible to do that kind of back country road driving on your own. You certainly will get lost & not be able to keep your schedule which could limit what you are able to see. The driver was cheap enough too that is was a hassle free way to enjoy the day, plus there was no drinking and driving issues to worry about for those who choose to sample the wares!

Kick Off Post...

Welcome to my Argentina Travel blog, I am looking forward to posting what I know about Argentina here and even more interested in learning more from readers out there like you. Please, post comments with questions, comments, and even articles (blog posts)! The best travel blogs are the ones that get input from as many sources as possible -- hopefully we can pull that off here.

Next posts will include photos and travel tips on Buenos Aires, Mendoza, and Iguazu. Check back often, I should get a few posts up a week that will get the discussion going on Argentina Travel...