The B-side of Buenos Aires
I have a theory regarding trips and I want to share it: if you want to know a place in depth you should visit it twice, the first time following all the tourist recommendations that appear in travelers’ guides or blogs, and the second, making alternative circuits, more adjusted to personal tastes, which are usually less promoted.
Not until I moved to Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, did I notice the different perspectives connected with getting to know a city. I had lived in the Buenos Aires suburbs, forty kilometers away, until I was thirty. I usually came to the capital to take an excursion during the weekend, and I would choose the classic walks: the Palermo rose garden, the Japanese garden, Corrientes street and its pizzerias, the zoo, a commercial theater. All the unmissable tours that make the soul of Buenos Aires. But when I finally moved to the city, I began to explore it in a personal way, I would take long walks and find places or routes that made me really connect with the city.
As a porteña by adoption, I want to share with you my favorite experiences for when you come to visit Buenos Aires (for the second time) based on three concepts that challenge me personally: walking, art and literature. All of them include a gastronomic experience to crown the walk.
Walks
Buenos Aires is ideal for walking: it is flat, it has surprising and diverse architecture, and many green spaces to stop for a rest. One of my favorite tours is walking, while listening to a podcast, along Avenida Los Incas, which divides the Belgrano and Chacarita neighborhoods. Also in the Retiro neighborhood, which is where I work, there are stately parks and avenues, with cafes and bakeries on all blocks; here you can walk long distances and enjoy the architecture while trying some classic facturas, such as the medialuna or the sweet scones, my favorite.
For those who prefer to walk in nature instead of the city, the Ecological Reserve is the perfect place where you can also do bird watching or ride a rented bicycle, and close the walk with a picnic on the riverbank.
Art
Artistic and cultural proposals are endless but my favorite area to connect with Buenos Aires art is the south of the city, where you will find from the Museum of Modern Art, the fileteado porteño in San Telmo, the galleries and independent artistic spaces in La Boca and, what I like the most in Barracas: the combination of the tour of the Lanin Passage, two blocks of murals created by a local resident –great for taking a souvenir photo of the vibrant spirit of the city; then a visit to the Santa Felicitas Museum, built in homage to Felicitas Guerrero, and, to crown the walk, lunch in one of the iconic restaurants on Avenida Caseros (you can find gastronomic spaces distinguished by the Michelin Guide).
Literature
The writer Jorge Luis Borges spent his childhood in the neighborhood of Palermo, which was not the cradle of fashion, design and specialty coffee shops that it is today, it was rather threatening back then. Until 1914 he lived with his family at 2100 Serrano Street (today 2135 Borges Street), which is now a museum exhibiting objects, photos and books of the writer. Palermo neighborhood appears in his literature, and today it has become a very dynamic place, full of restaurants, bookstores, bakeries and ice cream parlors, which receive tourists from all over the world. Reading Borges is also a recommended experience that exceeds the tourist proposal but allows you to delve into the culture of Buenos Aires and also of Argentina in a deeper way. Recommended: Fervor de Buenos Aires, the first book of poems by the writer, last year it was one hundred years since its publication, the book is an intimate declaration of love to the city rediscovered when he returned from Europe.