Buenos Aires
I’m in Buenos Aires for the week on a family vacation.
The Gotham Gal and I came down here a decade ago while I was doing a lot of latin american internet investing (Starmedia, Patagon, MercadoLibre, and a bunch more). We loved this city and promised ourselves we’d be back with our whole family.
And so we are. We’ll be relaxing, walking around, eating, drinking, and enjoying ourselves.
I’ll post a bit on the trip as well as tech stuff and year end music. I plan on having something here every day.
But if you want a good travelblog of this trip, make sure to visit http://gothamgal.com . She’s the best travelblogger in the family by far.
Comments (Archived):
It’s cool that you are in the South!If for some reason you decide to come to Uruguay, I would be glad to help.
Wow! I am assuming that vacation != work.Anyway it’s a pleasure to have you here and will give you some of my links from the local technology scene:- Core Security Technologies (founded in Argentina and one of the top security firms in the world)- Three Melons (think Lego games online!)- Sabarasa- NGD Studios- Popego- Cocos2D for iPhone (top used framework for building 2d games on iPhone)- Flaptor (search engines, think BitTorrent and WordPress)And, well, our company Nektra Advanced Computing who sells advanced components and research to build add-ons for companies like Symantec, Trend Micro and others.
it’s great to hear that there is such a lively tech startup scene in BA
Ok Fred, just let me share some of my Buenos Aires custom recommendations:- Restaurants- Sarkis (Armenian, excelent and large menu):http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/…- Ask for Tomatitos Willy, Mante, Falafel, Kafta al Fierrito.- La Cabrera (think Meat): http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/…- Guerrin (Pizza, pittoresque place)- Many others at: http://www.guiaoleo.com.ar/…- Art- Xul Xolar museum: http://www.xulsolar.org.ar/…- Fundacion Proa: http://www.proa.org/eng/ind…- Obviously Malba: http://www.malba.org.ar/web…- Museo Sivori: http://www.museosivori.org.ar/- Art Gallery: http://www.zavaletalab.com/- Konex foundation: http://www.fundacionkonex.c…- Ice cream- Persicco: http://www.persicco.com/- Volta: http://www.unaltravolta.com…- Freddo: http://www.freddo.com.ar/- Munchis: http://www.munchis.com.ar/- Coffee:- Las Violetas: http://www.lasvioletas.com/…- Cafe Tortoni: http://www.cafetortoni.com.ar/More information on http://www.bue.gov.ar/home/…Have a great vacation!
Thanks so much for these tips. This comment got flagged for moderation because of so many links but I just approved it. I’ll try to check all of this out. The art suggestions, in particular, are fantastic
was there Oct 2008 … recommend steak at Cabana Las Lilas (of course one of many places but was quite legendary – others in this Bloomberg review http://bit.ly/7d5orm ). Also those Freddo ice cream shops. And hope you get a chance to see Iguazu. Live music scene reminiscent of of NY in the 70s … talented kids who can stay up all night playing for little money and still afford to live there. Street crime also a little reminiscent of those days.
Absolutely, the scene here is very lively, not only from a local perspective but also expat-driven. There was a dev meetup in BA recently, 100% organized via Hacker News (http://news.ycombinator.com…. The turnout was in the 30-40 person range!Enjoy BA, the weather is very stuffy and humid for this time of year but enjoyable nonetheless!
(Attendees included your boys from @hypem)
as a seattleite in BA for the past 1.5 years, i’ve met many expat bootstrappers and local entrepreneurs… BA has a lively development scene that seems to be growing.
you are one of the few locals i am friends with on foursquare. one of myhopes for foursquare is that it makes showing up in a new city a lot morefun
Absolutely! I got an invite for the BB app for Xmas, hopefully as they rollout more testers usage will take off. I’ve only come across 3-4 active localusers.
is that because the iPhone isn’t popular down here or that foursquare hasn’tgotten much attention, or both?
The iPhone is popular but expensive, and has only become available on allthree mayor carriers in the last couple of months. BBs are much morepopular, overall, trailing only Nokia in the broad smartphone categoryFoursquare has had virtually no coverage in the local press, including mayortech blogs. I found out they had BA up at an expat mixer a month ago!
a number of local entrepreneurs have emailed me looking to connect while i’min town and i’ve emailed back that it’s a family vacation and i want to givemy wife and kids full attention.however, if they were on foursquare, they’d know our whereabouts 🙂
Ahaha, that’s hilarious!I won’t tell 😉
Don’t forget about OLX and Sonico 🙂
We went once a few years ago. Nice place to visit — especially in December. It was neat to see the sun stay out past 8pm in December. Have a great time.
Dave you’re listing a twitter page that seems to not exist…how do I add you to the list?!Nevermind, I found you…
Got the e-mail notice that you’re following me on Twitter — I’ll follow you back.
Haha, great to see you and GothamGal are already planning the travel blog I requested on Twitter.Note to self, read here before shooting out a post. Thanks for documenting the vaca for those of us that will be working locally.
awsome city. We did part of our honeymoon there.
Fred, I hope you have a great holiday and a wonderful vacation. Thank you for building this community.
Have fun, Fred. Thanks for your get year of posts!Lookin’ forward to the your thoughts on music over the next few days. BTWs, I took you up last year on your recommendations: Apple, Google, and Amazon. You made me look very smart. 😉
I’m not as smart as you. I blew out of those positions this spring. I made good money but you did a lot betterOne thing I know for sure. Market crises are great opportunities to buy the best companies in the world at fire sale prices
Brazil ETF — EWZ <<< very nice
Why not buy a few great Brazilian companies instead of buying a big basket of hundreds of good, bad, and indifferent ones?
I like ETFs as country bets. Quick in an quick out though I do tend to hold forever. I have done very well with ETFs.What do you like in Brazil?
I don’t currently own any Brazilian stocks, but a former correspondent of mine talked up this one to me last year, which, fittingly for this thread, has a major Argentinian connection: Brasil Agro. I haven’t done any due dilly on that in over a year though. I’ve been focused more on looking at potential short candidates recently. I should probably try to come up with a few small Brazilian stocks I like so I can scoop them up during the next correction.
i highly reccommend punta del este in urugauy. its quite close to BA and is in my opinion hamptons meets miami south america style. great beaches, surfing and swimming, great food and nightlife, bustling scene.
We were there 10 yrs ago and thought about going back on this trip but ended up deciding not to. I agree that it is an amazing place
Have a wonderful holiday season and enjoy the lack of snow!
Have a great holiday Fred.Of course, enjoy the local Malbec, the wine of choice down there.
A chilled Malbec rose is a perfect choice in this weather (currently ~ 85° and humid in BA). Additionally, the Chardonnay’s in Argentina are also nice. I have had a few good Pinot Grigios here, but they are not as common. Make sure you know how to avoid dulce (sweet) 🙂
Thanks for this info Ryan.I’m sure that Fred will read this and take advantage of your good advice.I’m in NYC and there is wine from everywhere everywhere. My choice for the holidays is Occhipinti Nero D’Avola/Frappota blend from SE Sicily, made organically.
Ha… NYC is also my, “home.” The selection of Argentine wines is not fantastic in NYC (i.e., you really only get the rojo Malbec). I have been in BA for six months now and I definitely miss the French and Napa selections available in NYC. Thanks for sending your favorite, I appreciate organic wines and will definitely scope your blog.
http://www.chambersstreetwines.com is my local store and the owners are leaders in bringing in organic wines from France and Italy into the city.Enjoy your holiday and good chatting.
They also make gelato with wine down there, believe it or not.
New one to me Dave. Thnx
Maybe someplace in New York does too; if so, you should try it. Quite refreshing, actually. Probably more of a summer thing though.
I’ll check it out Dave. Best to you and the family for the holidays and the new year.
Best to you and yours as well, Arnold.
OLX? isnt that fabrice grinda in New york?
The OLX headquarters are in NYC, but most of the operations are in BA.
careful on the shopping front – the leather goods are beautiful and the prices extremely low. i recall not being able to see the hotel room floor after a few days!I am terrible with names but there is a great little restaurant around the corner from the four seasons underneith a road bridge – literally coming out of that hotel and its down on the right – it has an austere european (germanic even) meets argentine feel about it…..
Enjoy! My wife and I were there in October. Great place and even better people.
That’s awesome! Enjoy the warm weather, asados and great wine.You are welcome to come visit our office in BA. At Aycron we are big fans of your blog.There is an exciting and constantly growing tech startup scene in BA.
I think this will be a no work/family week but I very much appreciate the invitation. I am so pleased to hear that you find the blog worthwhile
I have been here with my family as well. (my wife is from here).we are heading back to nyc tonight.enjoy and best wishes for 2010!
Safe travels robert. What was the best thing you did this week that you’d suggest we do?
I was last there with your exact timing, Christmas->NYE week, in 1997. The city was relatively empty, everyone was reportedly in Punta. This had its pros and cons.Also, prices were expensive: about the same as San Francisco. It’s a completely different economic scene now, post-currency crash.Hope to hear about these aspects in subsequent trip posts from you and GG.
i’m an American who has lived here for 2 years and would be willing to show you around. there aren’t too many people who know restaurants in this city better than me.
Thanks for the offer. We’ve got a pretty busy schedule and I don’t think we can take you up on your generosity. But I really appreciate it
i’m not surprised at all, since i’ve never commented before.i’m going to mention a few things off the top of my head, maybe you’ll find them useful.i eat lunch almost everyday at Sudestada in Palermo Hollywood. It’s the best lunch in the city and one of the few places you can get spicy food, as Portenos do not like spicy food.I highly recommend El Baqueano in San Telmo. It’s definitely molecular gastronomy (or whatever the term is these days). You definitely have to order the tasting menu, which is $90, (or 120 with paired wines, 150 for premium wines) for seven courses. The chef studied in Spain but is now doing exotic Argentine meats and foods. This is one of my big finds, as I started going there soon after it opened about a year or so ago. (when else will you get a 7 course tasting menu for $23USD?)If Argentines are showing you around, they’ll definitely make sure you have an asado. You probably know all about how the cuts are different and how they thoroughly cook the meat, so even when you order a steak rare it might come medium well.I have no idea if you want to get an idea of the common life here. If so, I’d say you need to get outside Capital Federal and into the provincia. 10 of the 13 million people live in the provincia (suburbs), including the president’s house. fyi, Casa Rosada is not the president’s residence. now that i think about it, it’s also worthwhile to mention that getting outside of the touristy neighborhoods of centro/Puerto Madero/Belgrano/Palermo/Recoleta/San Telmo/Boca in Capital is more true to life.the most common daytrip is to Tigre. i assume you already know that and have gone/will go. leave time for the amusement park/museum/boat ride/banana port. other daytrip ideas are pilar (there’s a zoo up there), tandil, hot springs, going to Colonia, Uruguay on the BuqueBus.Finally, if you don’t drink mate every afternoon for merienda and have dulce de leche for every desert, it’s not an authentic experience. 😉
these are all great tips. thanks so much. we are going to try to do as many of them as we can
During my visit to Argentina, I went to Puerto Madryn and Bariloche as I knew those were unique places in the world. When I arrived I could not believe my eyes, they were marvels. No wonder everybody says that seeing those places is a must.Then I rented a Furnished apartment in Buenos Aires which allowed me to know all the tourist attractions that this exciting city has to offer.I really think that those who do not know Argentina yet should just get on a plane and go there. They will not regret it.Tiffany