There are normal or black market money exchange houses in Argentina and of course an ATM can exchange your money as well, albeit for a fairly high fee. The official rate you get at an official exchange isn’t as good as you will likely get at the “unofficial” cambio’s along Calle Florida which was right by our AirBnb in the San Nicolás neighborhood in the heart of Downtown Buenos Aires. Our AirBnB host who had graciously agreed to help us find an exchange, moved deftly through the crowds with us following closely. Having never been in Argentina it was dizzying to have just arrived and then move so quickly through the streets to an unknown destination with no time to take anything in. The first black market cambio's price (yes we’re vagabonds like that) didn’t sit well with our host. They wouldn’t exchange at the “blue” rate or the black market rate so we moved quickly onto the next cambio, which he felt had a more acceptable rate. He seemed to enjoy the negotiation and we took note how fortunate we were to have him as a host. A man that appeared to guard the door to the illegal exchange allowed us to enter after the price was agreed upon. Our host waited outside. Inside sat two men at a table with stacks of money in front of them and while I was busy briefly wondering how hard it would be for our families to get our bodies back to the States, they asked how much we wanted to exchange. So, keeping my voice steady, I gave them my hardest tough guy look and said "For now,I’d like to exchange three hundred U.S.". The men preferred hundred dollar bills over twenties to get the best rate for some reason. We obliged. After we exchanged I thanked the men and quickly exited. Our AirBnb host smiled and asked in perfect English if that was all we needed. After expressing some gratitude for him helping us we simply asked him to point us in the direction of the Obelisco de Buenos Aires so we could get our bearings. I had studied the area on maps enough before leaving the States and knew if we could make it to there, we’d be in good shape. I was confident we’d find some food along the way or close to there. I offered out host somewhat of a tip for helping us but he kindly refused so we shook hands and separated as Angie and I headed off into the concrete jungle of Buenos Aires officially now on our own.
Angie, having spent so much time in New York City, was excited to explore such a large unique South American city with a strong European vibe. The Obelisco was somewhat easy to find using Google maps but I still tried to not be so obvious with the phone and therefore draw unneeded attention by looking too touristy. Angela would occasionally frown at me for walking through the streets using the phone. At that point, I wasn’t sure who was most danger to me, Angela's laser looks or a hypothetical thief.
For whatever reason I get drawn to obelisks when we travel. I find it interesting in a Knights Templar/ Freemason kind of way that many cities around the world have erected numerous Egyptian styled obelisks. Some cities, like New York and London over a hundred years ago, even went so far as to actually import genuine ancient Obelisks from Egypt. Cleopatra’s Needle is a magnificent example of a piece of Egyptian antiquity that’s thousands of years old and yet sits humbly just behind the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art in Central Park. You’d be surprised how many New Yorkers even don’t know it’s there. With all the conspiracy theories written about the obelisks, it's not unusual for me to seek them out. To me, they represent an ancient wisdom and if you've learned anything about me from any of my articles, you know I love and respect history and mystery.
Not far from the Plaza de la República where the Obelisco rose up above the busy late afternoon traffic, we wondered past several restaurant locations. Some even had some outdoor seating and music we found charming but the menus were not what we were looking for. After wondering around we settled on a place that caught our eye called Revire Brasas Bravas. Angela was kind enough to settle for a steakhouse although she’s mostly vegetarian. We were both famished at this point and just need to pick a place. She said there were enough things on the menu she could fill up on. The food was decent but the service was impeccable. Sitting down gave us a chance to breath and take it all in. We were finally able to simply enjoy our arrival to Buenos Aires. The rush from the Airport to get through the gates to find our driver who then rushed us to our AirBnb to meet our host who then rushed us to the cambio really didn’t give us time to feel like we had truly arrived. That feeling didn’t hit till we sat down to enjoy a calm, decent meal. That crazy initial introduction to the city was still perhaps the most honest. This was after all... Buenos Aires.
PHOTOS BY: Angela Erdmann and Thomas Lonero
The Melting Pot
One may think exploring Buenos Aires would give you that New York City vibe, but in truth, it’s nothing like New York. That flippant expectation comes from a naïve American booking the trip. Namely me.
While financially, Argentina may struggle with higher than wanted unemployment numbers and a constantly fluctuating and unstable Argentinean Peso, it maintains a rich and inclusive heritage. At the turn of the 20th century almost half of the population in Buenos Aires were recent European immigrants who were attracted to the New World and what was then a stable and promising economy. More recently many immigrants or their descendants have returned to Europe in search of a better economy but what they leave behind is a country still rich in its heritage of art, architecture and ideas. In more recent years the United States has attempted to move to more Nationalistic America (i.e. Americans) first philosophy. We seem to have forgotten our immigration past and what made our country so rich in ideas, industry and art in the first place. That American melting pot produced a juggernaut of a Nation and yet today it’s dropped out of fashion. Argentina, and more specifically Buenos Aires, seems to have never forgotten that heritage. Instead they embrace it. I’m sure they have their own problems with bigotry and racism. I’m not sure any country is immune to that. Argentineans still seem to keep in mind they are a Nation of immigrants, like it happened only yesterday and not over a hundred years ago when immigration was at its peak. The United States has a shorter attention span it seems these days. The attacks of 9/11 caused a lot of that discourse, especially toward Arab communities, while conversely South American countries like Paraguay have embraced new Arab immigrants.
Culturally Buenos Aires just feels richer and more artistic than most cities I’ve been to in the US. Maybe it was just the newness of our experience. New York feels more purposeful and financially driven with much of the artistic expression of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and the early 90’s leaving when Giuliani and more recent politicians concentrated on reforms that sanitized the city. Sure bits of each city are still reflected in each other and in all cities, but while New York was a melting pot of immigrants and new ideas many decades in the past, Buenos Aires feels like that melting pot never stopped.
As we explored parts of the San Nicolás and Recoleta barrios we were struck by the architecture and the importance placed on art and space. You seemed to come across a park every couple blocks with ornate statues or monuments. Throughways, that probably were once streets, are now blocked off with posts and instead only allow foot traffic and maybe scooters or bikes. Outdoor umbrella tables dot the landscape of most throughways with restaurant patrons enjoying meals, a few beers and often some form of live music, usually of the Spanish variety.
Beautiful buildings like the Palace of Justice of the Argentine Nation built between 1905-1910, which houses the Argentinean Supreme Court, is an impressive example of the neoclassical style architecture brought over from Italy and France during its immigration boom years.
Across from the Supreme Court you’ll find a beautiful Jewish Synagogue called the Templo Libertad. Construction began in 1897 and wasn’t deemed complete until 1932. It is again a perfect example of the cities immigration boom. It’s an example of German styled synagogues that were commonly found throughout Germany prior to WWII. Unfortunately, the Nazi party destroyed many examples in Germany during the war so this example in particular, is an even more incredibly important survivor of a by gone era.
Another of our amazing finds, besides the numerous cafes serving endless cups of coffee, was the Al Antaneo Grand Splendid in Recoleta. My friend Sebastiaan, who was living in Chile at the time (Now lives in Spain) had suggested we needed to hunt it down. Not only is it one of the world’s largest bookstores but it was also named the world’s most beautiful bookstore by National Geographic. It’s real easy to understand why it would hold that distinction. Previously, for over a hundred years, the building was a magnificent theater that housed over a thousand seats. When it was converted in to bookstore the essence of the historic theater was maintained. Frescoes, painted a hundred years or so ago by the Argentinean-Italian artist Nazareno Orlandi, draw your eyes to the already ornate domed ceiling. The woodwork and the multi levels insure you can discover something new around every corner and nook and cranny. Angela and I love bookstores but unfortunately, and not surprising, the English section was very small… as it should be. We still loved exploring the volume of corridors of books. On the old stage you can find an expected café where one can enjoy a coffee and a pastry. Angela fell prey, as she often does, to the medical section while I simply took in the reason part of the name of the bookstore is “Splendid” because - it is indeed exactly that.
On the walk back to our AirBnb from Recoleta we stopped for a small bite to eat and upon reaching the Obelisco we decided to once again take a range of pictures of the structure. At night the Obelisk takes on a different look with the lighting and the traffic moving around it. I think it made our exploration of the city and our overall experience that night seem even more surreal... or maybe we were just tired.
The next day we packed up and headed a little further out of Buenos Aires into what is a more country setting. A new driver picked us up to take us to the next part of our adventure where we planned to meet up with some new friends.
Along the way our driver showed us a few interesting sites like the Torre de los Inglesses, A.K.A. the Tower of the English, which sits in the Retiro neighborhood. Again, more melting pot architecture, this time with mid 19th century English influence. It was gifted to the English population of Buenos Aires by the English government in 1910 in remembrance of the 1810 revolution (although it didn't finish construction and open until 1916). 1910 was the year Argentina started its journey toward independent nation status. The 1910 centennial celebration, which the Tower was built for, was said to be one hell of a party. When you get a feel for the city and its people its easy to understand why any party they throw would be a great one.
PHOTOS BY: Angela Erdmann and Thomas Lonero
PHOTOS BY: Angela Erdmann and Thomas Lonero
PHOTOS BY: Angela Erdmann
Love and Friendship
We had an opportunity to visit an area over an hour outside the city and spend a few days among some new friends. We were so happy we took this detour.
One of the things I dislike about traveling is any missed opportunity to connect with people. So far I’d say we’ve been able to connect with people at about 75% of the locations we’ve visited. By connect, this means we still, to this day stay in contact. These are people that made an impact in our lives.
The area we visited was northeast of Argentina between the towns of Campana and Zárate. Getting outside the city gave us a different perspective. Both cities, although an hour away from the “Autonomous City of Buenos Aires” still sits within the “Province of Buenos Aires”. How the province itself is divided up is a bit complicated and a quick Google search on your own will explain it better than I ever could so I’m not going to attempt it. What I will tell you is that both Campana and Zárate have a total population just under 200,000 so it’s not exactly a rural part of Argentina. Since they are both port towns on the mighty Parana River they play a important vital rule in Argentinean industry. That’s doesn’t mean when compared to the Downtown area of Argentina that it absolutely doesn’t feel like you’re deep out in the farmlands of nowhere. The contrast is striking. In truth, you only have to go a short way from Campana or Zárate to reach ranches and farmland if you want to see plenty of cows or horses.
Yet another of the surprising things Argentina probably does better in today’s world than America does in today’s world (keeping the past out of this conversation) are cowboys or gauchos. While the gaucho’s prime may have been during the 1800’s and into the mid 1900’s they are still, to this very day, very visible throughout Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Southern Brazil. Argentinean cattle and meat production is top notch. That’s also where the legendary gaucho’s still play a vital role. The pride Argentineans have in their meat production shows up on menus from the tip of Patagonia to the northern reaches of Iguazu Falls.
While visiting our friends they decided to take us to an authentic parrilla, which is basically what we’d call a Bar-B-Q here in the States. If you look for a parrilla in a Google search in Argentina, numerous options pop up to show just how popular they are culturally to that country. The Parrilla they took us to was called Los Leños Asador Criollo just outside of Zárate. The options seemed to be meat or you could have some kind of meat. After some non-discussion, we all decided to get both. I felt a little bad for Angela who had to dig out something vegetarian from the meaty menu but she managed and didn’t complain at all. It was easy for both of us to understand the cultural significance of the parrilla once we were there and could take it all in. We were very happy to spend time and get to know some of the people we now call friends.
The parrilla served most items family style. All the meats were brought out on a hot plate and everyone got to choose what they wanted and in what portions. It was basically keto heaven if I had been doing keto, which I wasn’t. My philosophy on this trip was to just eat and enjoy. What I was not aware of was that our friends were willing to take advantage of my philosophy by ordering blood sausage, which they secretly suspected I wouldn’t like. They were willing to prank me just to see the look on my face. Of course they told Angela of their intentions which she promptly did not mention to me – until I was writing about the experience in this blog! Well, I tried to brave my first blood sausage experience but my face couldn’t keep secret what my taste buds were telling me. I managed to swallow whatever it was I put in my mouth and had to figure out how to cleanse my pallet after. All of which Angela managed to of course catch on film.
One of the greatest parts of the parrilla experience and in truth, the entire trip, was when we crammed seven people into a small compact car and no one complained even when our friends Andie and Sol had to share the hatchback area.. Instead they played Spanish pop music and all our hosts sang beautifully for our entire trip to and from the parrilla. I’m not sure I’ll ever forget that. It may be that one thing more than any other that will stay etched into my mind. It makes me yearn to go back to Argentina to spend more time with the amazing people we met and still remember fondly.
Eventually we met up with a completely different group on another day thanks to another friend we met named Martín. He picked out a very different restaurant in Zarate called Las Farolas de la Rivera. The place had a very hip authentic Spanish vibe. Although still considered a “bar-b-q” the menu included many other side dish options and some excellent fish options that I opted for. Again, the privilege of the company is what made the dinner amazing but I will say, the food and the service was excelente!
Upon leaving the restaurant we found a few small venders selling goods in the adjacent courtyard. One of the things we became intrigued with, being the caffeine addicts we both were, was the yerba maté that appeared to be the national drink of South America if there was such a thing. At least it seemed that way in the circles we were traveling in. Martín was kind enough to help Angela pick out a traditional cup. which is sometimes made from a dried Calabash gourd. They also picked out the accompanying bombilla, which is basically a metal straw. The maté caffeine game in Argentina put our significant coffee game to shame. The maté is actually a bit higher in caffeine. You'll even see people carrying a thermos around with them so they can guarantee they always have plenty of maté. Latin Americans in general, all the way from Mexico to Argentina and Chile, really like their maté.
Our trip into the heartland of Argentina was an honor and privilege. Getting to know and spend time with authentic new friends gave us a greater sense of family one may not normally get with the locals when traveling. It showed the importance the people of Argentina place on that ideal. Sure, we were maybe missing out a little on some of your 'normal' touristy attractions but what we gained was far more valuable - love and friendships. These are friends that if they ever made it to our neck of the woods, we’d try and drop everything to make sure they are as comfortable in our country as they made us feel in theirs.
PHOTOS BY: Angela Erdmann and Thomas Lonero
A mad dash
It was finally time to head back to the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The plan was to spend more time in Recoleta before we departed for a time, but we’d be back. Our friend Juan, who I still chat with almost daily, promised to be our chauffeur. During the drive Juan played plenty of AC/DC. He doesn’t speak much English but he can sing the hell out of it if it’s AC/DC!
We had a short wish list for the day. Angie wanted to get a little shopping done and we were craving empanadas. Food came first.
Juan took us to a great little place that was super inexpensive with perfect empanadas called El Sanjuanino. The waiters were great and we were able to enjoy some quality time with our friend. The place wasn’t very big but it was packed. We were lucky to get the last table. You could tell that locals and tourists alike flocked to this place. You could detect a myriad of languages at the surrounding tables. Juan mentioned he often took his family there. We recommend this place if you’re traveling, need an empanada and want to watch your money. Something about the atmosphere makes one feel more connected to the local culture.
After lunch, Juan took us to the true heart of Recoleta… Plaza Francia. Smaller plazas like Plaza San Martin de Tours spread out adjacent from the dominating Plaza Francia. Around that whole area you’ll find amazing trees like Australian Moreton Bay Fig trees and giant rubber trees. Some of the trees are hundreds of years old and the city takes great care to maintain and preserve them. The area also boasts a cultural center, restaurants, stores and a peaceful atmosphere.
On the weekends the Plaza hosts a large flea market with tons of vendors selling numerous wares like jewelry, carvings, paintings and leather works. Music surrounds you. Juan and I spend some time following Angela as she hunted; I mean "shopped" the market looking for some souvenirs or other items that might have caught her eye. The plaza was beautiful and the market was vast but we didn’t have a lot of time to explore. We’d have some time at a later point to revisit the Feria de Recoleta.
Before we came to our final destination, Juan gave a quick stop to show us the Palace de Glace, which has been a National Monument since 2004 and an important part of Argentina’s cultural heritage. Over the last hundred years it’s been a lot of things from an ice skating rink to a dance hall. Today it’s run by the National Office of Fine Arts and holds numerous exhibitions. When we were there it was undergoing renovations.
Our mad dash for the day ended once we pulled into the ferry terminal to board the Buquebus. Juan helped us with minimal luggage and we shook hands and hugged before we set off to our next destination but not before we made arrangements to meet up with Juan at another point in time.
Making our way through the terminal and boarding our Ferry was fairly painless. We did have to stand in line for a short while to get our boarding pass but once the boarding started we simply herded like cattle onto the ferry and were set. Argentineans are very adept at herding cattle.
The ferry was incredibly large and travels at over 50 knots. It’s among the fastest in the world. We had splurged and purchased 1st class seating for this leg of the journey, which was a cool and unique experience. The few extra perks made a difference and gave us time to relax and take a breather. The extra cost was nominal. I think I paid maybe 40 or 50 bucks more a ticket. There were excellent food options and they served perfect coffee. For us this was a luxury on a trip where we typically watched what we spent. Once the ferry departs you find yourself floating across the massive Río de la Plata, which is the worlds largest river estuary. Upon first glance you might think you’re on the Atlantic Ocean except the water under you is mostly freshwater with a saltwater mix. Across the massive river is the country of Uruguay, our next stop. We would arrive in Montevideo in about two and half hours.
Thomas Lonero, Author
Date of Trip - November 2019
