San Telmo Loft has a website!

I've sung the praises of the apartment we stayed at in Buenos Aires before, but they've recently started up a website for their rentals so I thought I'd give them another shout out. They are now located at http://santelmoloft.com.

Staying at the loft was a different experience than any other vacation rental or hotel I've ever stayed at. I think there is always a concern when you stay at a rental on vacation that you might be sacrificing quality or the helpful advice of hotel staff. Not so with San Telmo Loft. Best concierge service ever! (Although it feels funny to call what they provided a "service," as I now think of Angela as a friend). While the plane fare makes it hard to get back down to South America, it will happen sometime soon enough, and when it does we will absolutely stay with them again!

Honeymoon Recap: San Telmo, BA

I'm not really sure what the best way to go about explaining our honeymoon is. We were gone for three weeks, so a lot happened and my memory of the trip is sort of blurry (due to the traumatic events that started it off and my subsequent fear of taking pictures in public).

So...I think I'll just pick places we went and do a quick write-up of each area.

First off--San Telmo. The loft we stayed in (the one I gushed about in my previous post) was located in San Telmo. We stayed there a week, so we spent a lot of time walking around the neighborhood.

San Telmo is one of the older neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. It's supposedly the home of tango, but there is a lot more going on there than just dancing. In fact, one of the things that we didn't due in Argentina was go tango dancing.

Have I mentioned that I was sort of paranoid about going out at night after being robbed our first night? I should point out that while San Telmo sort of gets a bad rap in terms of pickpocketing and other crime, I did not get robbed in San Telmo. I was robbed in Palermo SoHo--the fancy schmancy neighborhood! But walking around San Telmo at night actually felt relatively safe--on par with walking around San Francisco at night.

Our Picks in San Telmo

Food

Cafe San Juan- Cafe San Juan is a family-run, family-friendly restaurant that serves very high-quality food in a relaxed atmosphere. The restaurant is open to the kitchen so you can see the skate bumper stickers all over the fridge and the cooks wearing backwards baseball caps while they cook your amazingly delicious rabbit (or whatever you decide to order). They are cash only, which we didn't realize until we arrived, and since there isn't an ATM nearby we didn't go all out here and ended up sharing an entree to make sure we had enough money to pay for our meal. We had a momentary panic when our shared entree came out with two full portions of the rabbit (we spent a good five minutes freaking out, trying to decide whether something we said in our broken Spanish could have been interpreted as us both ordering the same thing). Turns out they just split their portions very, very generously!
Highly recommend!

Don Ernesto-A casual, but super high-energy, parrilla that seems to cater to both locals and tourists. For the quality of the food, the prices here are amazing. The steak, sausage, salad, and potatoes we ordered here totaled around $30 US, with wine. It's nothing fancy, but it's a steak house, so that's kind of refreshing.

The best $5 Steak I've ever had.

Los Loros-We had our first meal in Argentina at Los Loros--pre-robbery--so I had a wonderful time here. It's a nicer restaurant with prices that match (but will still seem insanely reasonable compared to US prices). The food is elegant and fresh. I'd imagine that if this were in the US they'd be selling it as a seasonal food sort of place. It's got a nice bistro feel and the atmosphere is upscale without seeming at all stuffy. You could show up in jeans and a tee-shirt and nobody would bat an eye.

Outside Origen on a beautiful night

Origen-This is my favorite lunch and light meal stop in San Telmo. The pizzas and salads are highly recommended. And the food is organic. Very casual with outdoor seating that's kind of wonderful on a spring night.

Pride Cafe-We ate breakfast at Pride Cafe several times while in San Telmo. People in Argentina don't seem to eat breakfast. And they don't take their coffee to go. So knowing about tiny little Pride Cafe was essential to us not having to cook or eat medialunas for breakfast every morning. The food is good, the coffee is excellent, and the staff is really nice. Also, if it's not obvious, they are a GLBT shop so if you are looking for local info on that scene, this is a great resource.

Drink

El Federal-This seems to be the go-to place for a beer and a snack in San Telmo. Every guidebook talks about it and it always seemed busy. While I liked the look of the place--it's old and funky--the food was boring and the service was terrible. People all around us were having trouble getting the waiter's attention after sitting for very very long periods of time. And while I don't assume that every waiter in Argentina should know English, this place caters to tourists and this guy seemed annoyed as get-out that we were struggling with the menu. I'd go with a group for a beer or something.

This is why people love El Federal.

Gibraltar-I love this place. Yes, after getting robbed I was seeking out people I could talk to--and loads of people here speak English (including the Englishman owner). But it's also just a nice, fun pub. Great selection of beer, fun atmosphere, and great pub food.

Other

Mercado De San Telmo-While the Sunday market is a big to-do, the permanent market in the center of San Telmo is also worth visiting. There are several antique stands up daily, lots of food stalls, and other odds & ends. I bought antique buttons here. Lots and lots of buttons.

Feria De San Telmo-The Sunday market is like a craft fair, an antique fair, a market, a series of parades and a music festival all combined into one event. It's amazing. Start early, go all day. I didn't want to leave. It seemed like every time we got tired a new drum group went past and lured us in. Or we found another street of stalls and music we hadn't walked down.

I wish I knew how to get the video I took of this guy off my camera and onto my computer (it's still on there). His marionette show was fabulous and hilarious.

Plaza Dorrego-If you want to see Tango just hang out near the Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo. People perform almost all day long and offer lessons. The woman we rented the apartment from also recommended Torquato Tasso for Tango in San Telmo.

The street art in San Telmo is amazing. One of our favorite things to do was to just walk around looking at it. Though I was mostly afraid to take pictures, as taking a picture of street art is how I got us robbed at gunpoint (did I mention that we were robbed?).

So that's about that. There is a ton of shopping to be done in San Telmo (both at the markets and in shops), but I imagine that you know your own style better than me, so I'm not going to name names. Lots of antique shops, artsy housewares type places, and all sorts of clothing stores. Oh, and stores that sell baby deer chairs.

I kind of love them because I'm a bad, bad person.

The Honeymoon Returns

While I normally consider myself somewhat of a homebody, I've been having major wanderlust lately. Actually, I kind of blame the start of my wanderlust on the last day of our honeymoon. While we were waiting for our plane back to the states, we hung out with a newfound friend in Buenos Aires--watched a polo game from her roof, ate good food, and mingled with lots of expats and another young couple who spend half their year traveling.

While the reality of me living internationally is that after a few months I'd be crying on a daily basis needing to see my family, I have to admit I'm a little jealous of the expats and the perpetually traveling couple. It hasn't helped that I became Facebook friends with several of the people involved and have spent the las four months watching them explore Argentina. I want to go somewhere. Dang house and dog.

So, as a way to put to good use the moping and dreaming that I've been doing about wanting to go somewhere (but not being able to), I figured I'd post a bit more about our honeymoon.

So to start with, I already posted a bit about our stay in Buenos Aires and Iguazu. I'll write more, but that's a place to start if you haven't already read those posts.
One thing I've had several questions about is the loft we rented in Buenos Aires. I don't blame you guys--it was amazing. The building is beautiful. It's in a great location. The loft itself is funky and comfortable. It's a great deal. And the people who rent it will quickly become your friends (if you want that). Who do you think we hung out with the last day we were in Argentina?

So here you all go.

I feel strangely territorial about it. Which I think is testament to the fact that as soon as you walk in the door it feels like home. That explains why the traveling couple I wrote about spent the last four months living there (they moved in right after we left), although I think they planned on staying about half that much time.

If the loft is booked, they also have a new pad in the same building. It looks wonderful and is slightly larger than the loft.

Both are $400 US/week (I think), a great deal when you price out how much a nice hotel would cost.

So scram! Go! Book the loft!

(me making a sad face)


And tell Angela that Paul and Katie said Hi!

Igauzu Falls

After our first week in Buenos Aires we spent two nights (and essentially three full days) in Igauzu. Due to its far northern location on the border with Brasil and Paraguay we flew up there. Since we were flying, and the flights weren't cheap, we stayed longer than we should have. For those of you considering going, save money on food & lodging and just go for one night. I promise that you can do everything that you'll want to do in no more than a day and a half. Also, the town is about twice as expensive as everything else in Argentina.

We did love the place we stayed. John, at Secret Garden Igauzu, is an amazing host. The breakfast (toast and homemade jams) was awesome, the coffee was great, and the nightly (required) chats over drinks and apps were lively.


The falls were also beautiful, though crowded and had bad food. Go early in the day, pack a lunch, and do the boat ride under the falls. It's short, but fun. And you do get soaking wet. Wear a swimsuit!


One of my favorite things about the falls was the amazing variety of butterflies. Also, they were very tame and willing to hop on for a photo op...
One thing that we didn't do in the area is to see the falls from the Brasilian side. Americans need a visa to go, and you have to get it in advance. We actually tried to sneak over with a driver we trusted but were denied and our poor driver got questioned at the border! Apparently going renegade style usually works, but not so much for us.

Buenos Aires

I was asked if, despite all that went wrong, I'd still recommend Argentina as a honeymoon destination. And the answer is yes. In fact, I'd love to go back. I read somewhere that Buenos Aires isn't like New York or Paris where the reasons to fall in love are obvious and being spoon fed to you. That was true for me. As I became more comfortable with the city, got my bearings and such, I really started to warm up to it.

In the nine days we were there were did some amazing things. And ate a whole lot of amazing food. For the first week we were there we rented a loft that I could not recommend more highly. It was in San Telmo, which we found to be full of things to do and some amazing food--we loved Los Loros and Cafe San Juan in particular.

If you are in town on a Sunday, both the San Telmo Antique Fair and the Feria de Mataderos are worth checking out.

Day trips to Tigre (up the delta) and San Antonio de Areco were also fun, though it should be noted somewhere, before you make the two hour bus trip, that nothing in San Antonio is open on Tuesdays (not in the guidebooks or on their tourist website). It was still pretty to walk around though. And Tigre was one of our favorite parts of the whole trip.

The last two days we spent in BA at Home Hotel in Palermo. It was great. Great food, great dj on Friday nights, great garden/pool area (they were showing Totero on the wall behind the pool when the dj was playing!). We loved it and would highly recommend it as a place to stay or brunch.

Lots more pictures on flickr, for those of you interested.

Go vote while I'm on a plane!

We leave for Argentina tomorrow (don't worry--we absentee voted a few weeks ago--Go Obama!). I am crazy scared of flying, and this is not a short flight (4 hours to Houston and then 10.5 to Buenos Aires). But, I've got drugs and my very supportive husband, so hopefully everything will go swimmingly.

I'm very, very excited to spend a few weeks exploring. We are going a few different places...9 nights total in Buenos Aires (staying here and here), 2 days in Igauzu (staying here), and 4 nights in Mendoza (here, plus two nights on the overnight bus which is fancy and totally unlike American buses).

The people who own the loft we are staying at our first week in Buenos Aires have been extremely helpful in suggesting things to do and are going to meet us on Wednesday to give us a tour of the neighborhood with a personalized list of stuff they think we might like to do.

I'm taking my camera and an extra memory card so I'll post tons of pictures when I get back (and I'll resume my wedding recap).

Have a lovely few weeks!