Having spent a week in beautiful Buenos Aires, I thought I would try to provide some recommendations on things that I enjoyed and heard about (condensed into a small 48 hour itinerary for the sake of creating a theme). The best advice I can give anyone visiting Buenos Aires is to go on an empty stomach and be prepared to wine & dine like royalty. Food and wine are cheap, plentiful and absolutely fantastic. Argetinians are also extremely warm, friendly and expressive people – not dissimilar to their Italian counterparts. In fact there is a saying that an Argentine is an Italian who speaks Spanish.

It is also advisable to visit the city around October-November as it’s spring in the southern hemisphere and temperatures in Bs.As usually hover around 75 degrees F. Also, the city’s countless jacaranda trees are in full bloom during this time highlighting the streets with a shade of purple thats very photogenic.

Day 1

10AM: San Telmo Street Fair

On Saturdays, San Telmo is bustling with local artisans, bands and tourists. All along Defensa street, you will find tons of arts and crafts stalls selling everything from paintings, to flip flops to leather jackets to souvenirs. On practically every street corner you will also find bands playing live music from all over the continent. This is a great place to spend your saturday afternoon taking in the local culture. A much recommended stop for coffee and a quick bite is El Balcon which is a dingy cafe that sits above San Telmo plaza and provides a nice view overlooking the fair as well as free tango shows (very touristy and nothing fantastic about the food but its a nice experience).

3PM: Cemetery and Recoleta

The rich and famous rest in peace in this beautiful and immense cemetery located in Recoleta; the “Beverly Hills of Buenos Aires” as described by one affable cab driver. One can get lost walking the streets and alleys of this cemetery that are lined with large intricate forts containing coffins of past presidents, icons, blue blooded families and other movers and shakers of this country. This is also where Eva Peron‘s body has been buried along with Sarmiento.

After getting your morbid fill of coffins, walk outside the cemetery down Avenide Alveara and walk past the hotel. Keep walking down this road (very reminiscent of the Upper East Side in NYC) and you will see some beautiful apartment buildings and architecture as well as some high end clothing stores. If you see an ice cream parlor or heladeria, stop by and grab one, they are all over the city and excellent – similar to the gelatos in Italy.

9PM: Dinner at La Cabrera

What good is a trip to Bs.As without tasting some of the local beef. Venture into Palermo Viejo (the trendy part of town reminscient of SoHo) and stop by La Cabrera. This is one of the most popular steak houses in the city – so much so that they had to open up a sister restaurant right down the street from the original one. Walk in to the restaurant and it is like a carnivores heaven – pictures of cows on the wall detailing every cut of beef, with cow skins as carpets. I recommend ordering the bife de lomo (tenderloin) cooked a punto (medium rare). It is large enough to be shared by two and worthy of being a meat-eaters last meal. But you also can’t go wrong with anything else on their menu. Be sure to ask the knowledgable wait staff for a good a malbec recommendation. A dinner like this will put you back a mere $30!

Also recommended: the street fair in recoleta & the metal tulip sculpture Floralis Genierica (the petals of which open and close with sunrise and sunset)

See Day 2.

While the superbowl was exciting, it paled in comparison to the amazing Australian open final that played out earlier in the day.
Granted being a Giants fan is probably part of the reason didn’t have much of an interest in the superbowl matchup, but even if I did, the  Australian open final between Nadal and Federer was definitely the best final I’ve seen since last years Wimbledon finaland took the  honors for the sports event of the day.

Nadal and Federer have become the most exciting rivalry in tennis. More so than Agassi/Sampras and maybe even Borg/McEnroe. Any grand slam matchup between  these two is pretty much guaranteed to be an epic. And this one surpassed expectations. Nadal came in as the underdog given this was his first appearance at a hard court final and he had just played a grueling 5-setter against countryman Fernando Verdasco. Federer on the other hand had had 2 days of rest and was playing… well like Federer.

At a completely packed Rod Laver arena, Nadal managed to reveal all his gears, coming up with unbelievable shots time and again. His ability to constantly improve his game, pull out winners under the most difficult circumstances and run after every ball like his life
depended on it led him to finally pull away in the 5th and completely demoralize Federer. This may be a sign that Nadal will be the #1 for a while as it seems like he’s gotten into Federer’s head. Federer just doesn’t play like himself when he’s facing Nadal, partly because Nadal forces him to change his game and partly because he seems at a loss for finding a winning strategy against him. I have never seen a player play the game like Nadal. While everyone was writing him off early in the match, he was able to become more energetic and focused and mentally crush Federer (not an easy thing to do). He’s now won on clay, grass and hard court and hes only 22!

What a great way to start off the 2009 tennis season. I look forward to seeing if Federer can bounce back this year from two crushing defeats and win a grand slam.

Update: Found a couple of quotes from both the tennis players that I thought were worth sharing. Nadal on asked what makes him run after ever point said ““I love the competition in all aspects of life. When I compete, I love to be there and fight for the win…. maybe I like more fighting to win than win.” And maybe this is why he still has so much respect for Federer. When presented the trophy, he wrapped his arms around a crying Federer and offered him to finish his speech before he took the stage. Federer, when asked about his emotional break down during the tropy presentation responded by saying, “In the first moment you’re disappointed, you’re shocked, you’re sad, then all of a sudden it overwhelms you. I love this game. It means the world to me, so it hurts when you lose.”