Strictly Buenos Aires

With the New Year antics over and plenty of time to explore BA (maybe to much time if were honest due to flight booking) we undertook the sights and sounds of the city including the following:

Recoleta neighbourhood for the day to see the sights incl a very strange elaborate cemetery and unexpectedly the start of the recently moved Dakar Rally!

Palermo area for a morning run and an evening failing to find the mystical 'Argentinian Steak' and watching live music and dancing instead

San Telmo's famous antique market and live street tango

Self guided bike tour through various parts of BA including the Boca Juniors Stadium

The famous BA Bar Crawl which was messy to say the least. Which led us to really live like the locals and stay up till 6am and wake up at 3, which is still classed in BA as 'the morning'!

However, the two best things we did by far were to finally find the elusive steak, in a small but famous steakhouse in San Telmo called 'El Desnivel'. The sort of place where you just order steak, no veg, nothing, just steak! We risked it and when for a two person portion of the specials menu which was T-Bone with Spanish Potatoes which was incredible! It defined the term 'melt in your mouth' and was by far the best steak we have ever eaten. And to get a bottle of wine and two desserts as well for the grand sum of 10 pounds each, we certainly didn't leave disappointed.

The other best thing we did was a combined Tango lesson and show. Now, as you well know, we are not dancers nor Tango enthusiasts but everyone who comes to BA seems to do it and so we gave it a go and it was great fun. The guy giving the lesson to about 40 of us was a combination of Chris Rock and Borat and with limited English but unlimited energy he taught us a few steps and we went from there! Watch out for us on this years Strictly Come Dancing. We then had a break before watching the hour long tango show which also including singing, music and much more and exceeded both our expectations. Every act had some new and was finished with a Spanish rendition of 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina'. All in all, it was a fantastic night and certainly worth a visit.

Tonight we fly to Rio Gallegos in South Argentina to start our 10 day Patagonian adventure. Unfortunately this means an end to the weeks of shorts and flip flops weather but for some of the best hiking in the world, I can deal with that.