Brad’s friend Nick from Australia contacted us to say he and his wife, Jen, were coming to Buenos Aires, so naturally we had to stick around to enjoy New Years with friends. In order to fund this extended stay in “BA” we had to work for a couple weeks. Our first workaway was at Caseron de Palermo, a hostel in Palermo Soho, the hipster/boutique/cafe area of BA. We spent a week working the midnight to 6am shift which basically consisted of babysitting drunk people and answering the doorbell. Working the night shift gave us a great chance to explore the city during the day. We spent most of our time exploring the shops and cobblestoned streets around Palermo. We discovered this cool wine shop called JA! that held wine tastings. We had some excellent wines from Mendoza which were accompanied by some regionally made cheese as well. Probably the highlight of the night though was our “translator” on staff who got so drunk that he could no longer translate for us; luckily one of the other guests was happy to help out. Our hostel was also great about engaging the staff and guests. The head employee and his band put a show on for us one night, and we also had a two-night Star Wars marathon to get ready for the new one that came out while we were there (we were able to see the matinee opening day).

After a week at (pretty dingy) Caseron, we headed to workaway number two in the hoity-toity neighbourhood in town, Recoleta. We stayed at an apartment and helped the owner renovate. While we were there the work was pretty easy, and since it was over Christmas he gave us Christmas Day off. One night we went to one of the more popular “speakeasies” in town, Frank’s. We showed up at a mysterious address, knocked on the door and were greeted by a massive suited doorman who asked us for the password. We got it wrong but luckily he let us in anyway. You enter into a tiny quiet room, and have to go into a telephone booth, type in a “secret” code to unlock the hidden door on the other side. What was inside was right out of a swanky underground prohibition bar. We had a couple of the best (and most expensive) cocktails we’ve ever had. It was a really cool, unique experience; Edmonton should have one just like it.

For Christmas in Recoleta we spent the afternoon drinking two for one happy hour drinks around Palermo, then headed to one of the best Argentine Parrillas in town, Don Julio’s, where we had some of the best steak of our lives. Christmas Eve was spent in similar style. We shared a cider (traditional Argentine Christmas drink, only in stores for the holidays), ordered some excellent Argentine style pizza, and watched movies for the night. Christmas in Argentina is very different than what we’re used to; they celebrate everything on Christmas Eve. They have a big family get together, and everyone in the city lights fireworks at midnight, and I mean everyone – people were lighting firecrackers from their apartment balconies. During the fireworks is when Santa comes to deliver presents and all the kids get to stay up late and open gifts that night.

With the holidays over we went back to our favourite neighbourhood in BA, San Telmo, which looks like it could be a neighbourhood in Paris. We visited the massive Defensa Street market again, buying all absolutely essential souvenirs, and went to an Air BnB which was a beautiful, massive loft apartment which we shared with 4 other people and a foosball table. 

Queue Nick and Jen: we spent our first day with them doing a free walking tour around the city, followed by an excellent tango show that night. It started with a quick and easy tango lesson, which we both rocked at, and then had a dinner and show. The dinner was surprisingly good, especially considering it was accompanied by unlimited wine, and the show was fantastic. We never thought tango could be so exciting. The next day was New Years Eve. We stopped by the Plaza de Mayo to watch the “Madres (mothers) de Plaza de Mayo” do their weekly silent protest. They do this to raise awareness about all of their children who were kidnapped, tortured and killed by the government during a ruthless dictatorship in the 1980s. After that sobering experience, we reunited for a night of pizza and wine and much more fireworks. At midnight we went to the river that runs through the city to watch fireworks go off from every direction. At some points there were about 10 different fireworks displays going at the same time. After they were over, our group joined the nearby patio parties that were set up along the waterfront for a bit of dancing and mingling with the locals before calling it a (very late) evening. After an equally late wake up the next day we packed up and headed to the bus stations for our next workaway on a vineyard in wine country.