A TOURIST IN MY HOMETOWN

Gaby and I made a deal a few weeks ago--we will do at least one cultural thing every week. We both decided that we didn't want to get to December and realize that we've accomplished very littler her in Buenos Aires. So far we've completed our task of doing at least one cultural thing a week, but this past weekend with my friend Ali in town I was inspired to exceed my weekly minimum. Ali and I explored my old neighborhood Palermo SoHo on foot (and by "explore" I really mean "shop"), we went to the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano Buenos Aires (MALBA), we walked down Recoleta's Avendia Alvear, we strolled down Nueve de Julio, and we had coffee at Cafe Tortoni, Buenos Aires' oldest cafe. I really enjoyed getting to share all I've learned about Buenos Aires with Ali, and her trip also gave me a great excuse to complete many of the touristy tasks that I can't possibly leave BA without doing.

Brightly colored perfume bottles from an exhibit at MALBA.

A bench at MALBA. The vine-like edge of the bench creeps over the wall and connects to a bench on another floor.

We walked down the beautiful mansion-lined Alvear Street. This is a former mansion that was recently converted into the Ralph Lauren store.

There was one thing that about Buenos Aires that we clearly couldn't leave out if we wanted to give Ali a proper tour of BA--the night life. Jenny, Gaby, Robyn and I did our best to show Ali a good time, so we took her to dinner in one of our favorite neighborhoods, Puerto Madero.

Don't know why, but for some reason we were inspired to have a dance party IN THE MIDDLE of the street. We sang the classic "Tell Me What Ya Want" by the Spice Girls. More than one car honked at us.

Second Dance Party of the Night: We didn't really want to go to a boliche (Argentine dance club) at first, so we started our own dance party at the our argentine friend's appartment. Always a solid idea.

Every year right at the very end of winter these crazy winds come to Buenos Aires signaling that spring is coming. You have to suffer though. There's no way around it. We tried to go clubbing, but after 30 minutes of waiting in the wind we gave up. The wind was exceedingly painful, but I can't say we didn't find ways to entertain ourselves.