Buenos Aires: A Brilliant City

Two weeks into our trip, we weren't sure exactly what our routine would look like. We thought it might be rough and tumble, or involve serious stomach trouble, maybe while living in dodgy neighborhoods without simple comforts. Turns out, life is pretty darn wonderful, given three massive perks of life in Buenos Aires:

1. Buenos Aires is built with the standards and amenities of any major city
2. You can drink the water (almost all of it!)
3. We live in the penthouse of a mansion populated by wonderful people

This may sound a little too good to be true (especially the last part). Here’s what we’ve been doing so far:

• DAY 1: Take Bus #8 from airport to city, passing pastures and horses shading into the bustling streets of Buenos Aires, before collapsing into bed at hostel at 4PM
• DAY 1.5 - Wake up at 6PM, order vegan pizza (for Kateri + Andrew), find chorizo (for Andrew), return to hostel via a newly blacked out alley (brownout), fail to locate pizza as a result, eventually find pizza in the dark, sleep
• DAY 2 - Wake up, get lost looking for the library of congress, eventually find it, using free wifi accidentally delete first blog post draft, eat tortas and empenadas, retrieve ukulele from library of congress (whoops), bedtime

After that we moved to a super-sweet hostel called Portal del Sur. We were hoping to start our Workaway on day 3, but it turns out the house where we’re working was being used for a photoshoot (whimsical twist! excitement builds) all weekend, so we settled in for a no-responsibility first weekend.

Sketching and strumming ukulele on the main avenue in the sun over a long weekend

We hung out with a sort of millennial UN (as most hostels are) and made some friends while checking out a Tango class, eating at a rooftop barbecue, and going on a few walking tours of the city. We also attempted to go to 5 different museums but only made it into 1 (new country, still learning the schedule).

Having fun at the Museo del Belles Artes

At this point we’re both super-jazzed that everyone we meet is wonderfully friendly and engaging, especially while flexing the ever-improving spanish skills.

The gateway to fun times

After a nice easy weekend of picking some parks and learning about some of the quirks to Argentine housing, infrastructure and trade (more to come on those), we walked south to the neighborhood of San Telmo, where we planned to spend the next two weeks. We arrived at the doors of Casa Caseros, our home away from home.

Casa Caseros is a 5-story, many bedroom building, with some fun-to-live-with quirks. A former members-only club, it lost all its permits and is being slowly renovated into a tourist attraction and music venue. We were welcomed by an entrepreneur and chef named Ben, who is running the place on behalf of a mostly absent benefactor (more on them and our fellow residents in another post). Our project is to inventory, organize and catalog the library. Fun facts about the house:

• It contains a professional kitchen, courtyard, movie theater, antique shop and elevator. The owner dubiously believes it can house 25 at a time.
• Getting the hot water to work is like playing Wheel of Fortune with lava for prizes.
• We live in the servants' quarters on the top floor, up the elevator and through the back stairs.
• A previous Workawayer tumbled through a pane of glass in the sunroom while doing a handstand, so you’re no longer allowed to do yoga by the windows

View from the window and just inside the window in our room

We’re off to a great start! More to come on the parks, the digs and the work.