Buenos Aires

The first time I visited Buenos Aires, I remember standing in front of a Monet painting in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and thinking how nice and odd this was. I was in exotic Latin America but at that precise moment it was like being in Paris. Buenos Aires is a city of opposites and this is one of it's attractions. It can be grand when walking along the Avenida 9 de Julio - one of the widest avenues in the world - and intimate when walking around the streets of Recoleta. Borges, the foremost Argentinian writer, in one of his poems thinks of the city as being as "...eternal as the water and the air".

The sense of insecurity in Buenos Aires changes from time to time. The normal precautions you would take in any city you don't know, also apply to Buenos Aires. Walking around most of Buenos Aires during the day is usually safe, though it is not recommended in Boca outside of Caminito. If you want to take a taxi, get your hotel to call for one. If you have to stop one in the street make sure it's a "radio taxi". Radio Taxi Blue and Radio Taxi Premium are long established companies.

There is a wide choice of hotels in the city. I have stayed at the small and traditional Meliá Recoleta Plaza in Recoleta and at Hotel Madero in Puerto Madero which is a larger "design" hotel. I enjoyed my stay in both.

Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo

Climbing in Puerto Madero