A Trip to the Metropolitan City of Buenos Aires
My second year working with the expedition company Lindblad Expeditions, my first trip brought me to the southern continent of Antarctica. Before my actually trip though I decided to visit the metropolitan city of Buenos Aires since I would be flying there to get to my finally destination, Ushuaia to board the National Geographic Explorer. One of the main challenges for me was the language barrier. I’ve been studying Spanish on and off for the past few years but after staying in this city for ten days my Spanish improved quite a bit. The lady I was staying with spoke very little English so I was pretty much forced to speak Spanish along with everyone else I encountered in the city. Overall everyone was really nice and appreciated my attempts to speak Spanish.
During my ten day visit I did a lot of walking through the various barrios of the city. My main mode of transportation was the metro and bus system which was easy to figure out and navigate. One of the highlights for me were the many historical cafes located near the place I was staying. As a writer I could only wish we had places like this in the U.S. to write. I guess I’ll have to keep on wishing and just enjoy the cafe latte’s at the Starbucks I congregate to back at home. A trip to Argentina wouldn’t be complete without experiencing the Tango Culture. On the weekends one can watch the tango dancers on the streets in the historical barrio of San Telmo performing to the throngs of tourist that congregate there. And one last thing if you ever decide to visit Argentina please order a steak or as they call it in spanish…Bife de Lomo. This was the best steak I ever had!
If you thought Barnes and Noble had a lot of books you haven’t been to El Ateneo. This building used to be an old theater house that was transformed into a bookstore.
Walking through Puerto Madero, I found myself bumping on to a set of a movie that was being shot.
To help me out with my Spanish I decided to take some classes at the Elebaires Spanish School in BA.
February 17, 2014