A couple of months earlier I received a message from a friend that I grew up with. "Dan, where are you going to be in May? I have some flight credits and I could use a little South American adventure right about now" I was a few months and several thousand miles away from Buenos Aires at the time but I knew that I would be wrapping up my journey there in May. Perfect, I hadn't hung out with anyone I've known in 7 months. After two and half weeks Couchsurfing at Deni's in Villa Urquiza I … [Read more...]

To the south of the city of Buenos Aires lies one of the most photographed neighborhoods in Argentina, La Boca. It’s brightly colored buildings are so well known that people assume all of Argentina looks that way. But in fact it’s quite unique. La Boca (the mouth) sits alongside the river and gets it’s name as its the opening of the river/harbor. La Boca’s paint scheme isn’t the only thing that makes this area so vibrant. It’s been home to artists and tango dancers for decades. The local … [Read more...]

Among all the other great things Buenos Aires has to offer there’s one that stood out from the rest. Across the city many neighborhoods have weekly festivals or ferias. Each one different than the rest but there was one that was like none other. Feria de Mataderos is held every Sunday from March to December in the the Mataderos neighborhood. Feria de Mataderos is known for having a long history of showcasing it’s gaucho or Argentine cowboy traditions. Blocks of neighborhood streets are … [Read more...]

Gran Premio Republica Argentina Wandering the streets of Palermo in Buenos Aires one Thursday afternoon I happened upon a horse race taking place at the Hipodromo Argentino de Palermo. After watching from outside the fence I decided to see if I could get in. To my surprise the event was free to the public. And it was not just any regular race. This was the biggest one of them all. Welcome to the races. As I entered, a man was hawking programs for the race. I picked up my copy and … [Read more...]

A grungy warehouse in the heart of Buenos Aires is the last place you'd expect to find a thousand people gathering on a Monday night. But that's what happens every monday night. At the Konex, an old industrial building turned into a hip cultural and events center, a group of 14 percussionists take the stage to perform to masses of enthusiastic fans. For the next two hours La Bomba del Tiempo put on a nonstop show as their beats drive the thousand people packed inside to move every part of their … [Read more...]

Three nights a week in different bars around popular neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, about 100 people gather to meet others from around the world and practice or learn new languages. The event is Mundo Lingo. Everyone gets a sticker of their country's flag and then stickers of the languages they know or want to practice. Then you look for other people who match one of your stickers. Some people have just two, like me, and others show off 6 or more. You see flags from all over the world. I … [Read more...]

On my first day in Buenos Aires my Couchsurfing host, Denise, had the stereo playing in the living room and I couldn't get enough of the band she was playing. It was a local band named Onda Vaga. I listened to their albums nonstop while I was at the apartment. They became the soundtrack while I wrote, edited photos, and cooked. Deni saw how much I was loving their music and mentioned they were playing a show nearby and invited me to go. I would have gone to the concert even if I had never heard … [Read more...]

The days of my motorcycle journey from California would soon be coming to close and now that I didn't have to worry about souvenirs taking up space or breaking, I was in search of something to remember this journey with. A fellow traveler and photographer mentioned that while I was in Buenos Aires, I should visit Studio Fotin, a photography studio in San Telmo using a really unique type of photography. I checked out their website and saw their ambrotype portraits. Instantly I knew I had to find … [Read more...]

My Last Ride into Buenos Aires The cool morning in San Antonio de Areco was a reminder of the changing seasons. Heavy fog and light rain greeted me as I packed up my bike. Winter will be here soon. I only had two hours of riding to reach Buenos Aires, the final city on my journey. How could I already be here? It doesn't seem like seven months have passed since beginning. The two lane road leaving the small rural town soon became a massive 10 lane highway leading me to the capital city. With the … [Read more...]

I wanted to get to Buenos Aires but knowing that would be the final stop of this adventure, I didn’t want to get there quite yet. I’ve regularly used the standard traveler’s guide Lonely Planet to look up ideas of places to go and that’s how I ended up here, in San Antonio de Areco. I rode into the town after a few hours of passing farm land and estancias. The cobblestone streets of the center of town were quiet as I rode down them towards the park and the tourism office. In small towns like … [Read more...]