Buenos Aires: Part 2 (the nightlife!)

Having arrived back in BA from Uruguay a bit late (11pm is early to the local Portenos!) we decided that we needed to take the nightlife scene a little more seriously. As soon as we could ditch the bags at the hostel, we headed straight to Plaza Dorrego and the nearest bar playing live music we could see. It only became brutally apparent after having ordered a very large pitcher of beer between the two of us, that we had picked the bar with possibly the worst cover
band ever to perform on stage. As soon as the lead singer took the stage, announced that he was dedicating his first song to the gringo wearing the Lionel Ritchie t-shirt (also known as Tim) we knew it was going to be bad. Many hours of half sung/half hummed songs later (and possibly another drink or two to ease the pain) we decided it was definitely time to call it a night on our first foray out into what was supposed to be BA´s crazy fun bar scene... New Year´s was only 2 days away, it could only get better.

We had made plans to meet Keith, a friend we´d picked up in Santiago, at a hostel in San Telmo. The rest of the day, the 3 of us spent wandering through the city centre, including the famous pedestrain shopping street of Avenue Florida, seeing the Recoleta Cemtary again, and leisurely strolling down by the waterfront.

I had made an early dinner reservation for the 3 of us (9pm, I know, they´re crazy) at one of BA´s finest steakhouses, La Cabrera, in the Palermo neighborhood. As soon as we arrived, we were told that the restaurant we were supposed to be eating at was a block away... and pretty much only for the tourists. This did not hinder the fact that it was quite possibly the best steak any of the 3 of us had ever eaten. It tooks us a good few hours, and a few bottles of red, to plough through 3 massive pieces of meat as well as several little side dishes. We had made plans to meet our Dutch friend´s Frank and Maria that night, so rolled ourselves out the door and along to a nearby cafe bar for a few drinks, before then deciding to hit our first BA nightclub. Hours of dancing on several different levels of the club, struggling to find each other amongst the massive number of Portenos bopping away, we finally got ourselves into a cab and back to the hostel around the same time most people were leaving for work. Not exactly the best way to spend the night before New Year´s!

Needless to say, the next day was a little less active and even less productive... making out for a long walk down to the bus station to find when we got there that all the bus companies were closed in preparation for the New Year´s festivities. After a much shorter journey back in a cab, we started to get ourselves ready for night out number 2. We spent the night watching fireworks from our roofdeck (or at least trying to see them through all the trees!) followed by dinner and some tango dancing at a nearby restarant before deciding that we were all simply to old to make the journey down to the ultimate club for it´s 3am opening! A very happy New Year´s!

New Year´s Day could not have been any less active than the day before, only making it down to the Boca neighborhood so Tim could grab a quick glimpse of the Boca football stadium (I believe he may be planning a boys weekend here in the near future), and stopping for an ice-cream for dinner.

We did manage to pull ourselves together for our last day in Buenos Aires and had a lovely time walking around Palermo (a different place during the daylight!) popping into the different boutiques, and stopping for a lazy lunch before heading back to the hostel & grabbing our bags to head out on a night bus for Iguassu...