Argentina

Colourful Houses of La Boca La Boca is considered to be one of the brightest and memorable districts in the city. That’s where de Mendoza created the first settlement in 1536. After the reconstruction of Buenos Aires, the area was built up with shacks where black slaves were kept. In the 19th century, deserted La Boca became the refuge for thousands of European immigrants (mainly Italians). New citizens turned the former shacks and warehouses into houses and painted the walls, roofs, and windows with different colours. By the way, the reason for choosing such a colour palette is prosy: poor migrants [...]

Puerto Madero There was another reason to hurry to get to Buenos Aires by January: Helen dreamt of celebrating her birthday in the capital of Argentina. We chose Puerto Madero, the old port district, for our celebrations. Today the area is considered one of the most prestigious and expensive in the city. Looking at its wide avenues and glass skyscrapers, you can hardly believe that several years ago Buenos Aires’ authorities thought about razing the entire district to the ground. The idea came up once a new port was built, and Puerto Madero got deserted and became one of the most [...]

Safety in Buenos Aires During our stay in Argentina, the boys still stuck to their usual schedule: they went to bed well after midnight, therefore, as a rule, we explored the capital in the evening. Buenos Aires is far from being the safest place for evening walks. The expats that we had a chance to communicate with warned us away from walking in the city in the dark and recommended us to be cautious, to leave expensive devices and jewellery at home, to dress casually, keep a low profile, divide money and cards into two wallets (to give the thieves the [...]

We chose January, the hottest month in Argentina, for our visit to the country. The region is famous for its natural wonders, and we certainly dreamt of going to Patagonia, wanted to walk around its national parks, admire the huge breathtaking waterfalls, and see glaciers. However, we realized it was quite impossible to try to accomplish that with two-year-olds, so we decided to stay in Buenos Aires during our first visit to Argentina to explore the country and its culture from the capital’s perspective. History of Buenos Aires Buenos Aires — one of the largest capitals in the world — is [...]