Mi Buenos Aires Querido

After a wonderful time at Iguazu, Ali, her family, and I arrived in Buenos Aires just in time for New Years. Since every restaurant in the city was either closed or totally booked, we cooked a delicious dinner at our rented apartment, toasted with champagne, and then headed out to celebrate. Ali, Steve and I met up with a few other friends who happened to be in BA, and rang in 2013 together with drinks and dancing.

Sarah, me, and Ali at the random street party we encountered on our way to the club

After the excitement of New Years, we enjoyed a laid-back week exploring Buenos Aires. The week was definitely full of amazing food. After seven months in Peru with zero steak and scarce bottles of good wine, I may have enjoyed the Argentine staples of delicious grilled beef and Malbec a little too much, but I'm not complaining! And with our almost-daily breakfasts of medialunas (mini-croissants) and afternoon snacks of dulce-de-leche ice cream, I was a very happy camper.

Starting the day right with fresh-baked medialunas

Too much dulce de leche? Imposible.

Ali and I getting a kick out of the 800+ varietal wine menu, so big it only fit on an iPad

Having been to Buenos Aires before, we were able to have a more relaxed-paced week, and pick and choose what places we wanted to visit. I got to check off a couple sites that I missed during my first trip, such as the colorful waterside neighborhood of La Boca, where the houses are made out of recycled boat material and painted in cheerful bright colors.

Ali and I are big fans of bikerides, so we made sure to spend an afternoon on a bike tour around the whole south side of the city. Buenos Aires' flat geography makes it a great city to ride in, aside from the slightly crazy traffic :)

Another day, Ali, Terri and I decided to escape the city and spend the afternoon at an estancia (ranch) about two hours out in the countryside. We had lunch on the lawn of the old estate, rode through the property's sweeping fields on horseback, and saw traditional Argentine gauchos perform typical guitar music and do tricks with their horses.

Our horses seemed to be quite fond of each other :)

You can't visit Buenos Aires without seeing some tango, so on our last night we had dinner at a tango club, and witnessed some beautiful dancing.

Luckily, leaving Argentina didn't really mean saying goodbye to Ali, because she's coming to Peru in less than two weeks! So our South American adventure will continue with some fun in Lima and a trip to see the Nazca lines.