Our apartment.

At around $11 a night each, our bright one bedroom apartment in the heart of San Telmo was perfect. It was all clean and well maintained, had its own laundry, everything worked and with an on site maintenance / doorman, it was safe. Although, Tristan accidentally locked the keys in one day and the cheeky doorman got in a little too easily with a credit card. We booked it on AirBnb and our host Hector was great. When he couldn’t be there when we arrived he had a close friend welcome us. Photos are here.

We had one key and no mobile phones, so logistics were a little tricky. We had to be home when we said we would so I couldn’t take up offers to go to lunch after yoga et cetera. Once we started working different hours we were lucky enough to be able to leave the keys at the hostel we’d worked at, which was a 30 second walk away.

Within minutes we had everything we needed or wanted. The well-stocked grocery store was directly across the road and something we got very used to if we ran out of anything (like wine). I even bought a shopping bag as a souvenir to remember it by, aaw.

Our standard Malbec ($2.50 a bottle!).

The building has 10 floors and we were on the fourth so it was a quick walk down. On our last day we finally remembered to check out the roof. We hoped for a parilla (communal BBQ), but found a clothes line and great view.

The block was a little noisy, but I got used to it very quickly. People sounded like they were beside me, especially when playing music (often horrible teen-pop!). Some days the dogs had barking wars that make me worry for their throats. I loved the tiny lifts; they shut via two iron expanding doors like you see in the movies. The building also reminded me of my grandparents place in Germany, so I was a little nostalgic.

View directly in front of our door. It says “Ssshh, neighbours are sleeping” because the windows above belong to a cool bar.

View down our street.

Yoga in Buenos Aires

Ten minutes from home was my yoga studio; Buena Onda Yoga. Run in English, it’s founded and frequented by American ex-pats, has three studios across the city and the one in San Telmo is above a vegetarian restaurant. I practiced around four times a week for five weeks until I got a job with conflicting hours. The instructors played nice music and were happy to tailor classes to people’s needs or wants.

The street my yoga studio is on: the middle white building.

At $88 for an unlimited monthly membership, it was a great deal and I really missed it when I started working, and still do! The restaurant does cheap and delicious weekday lunches and your membership also gets you discounts on boot camp classes, cooking workshops and I think their retreats.

Steps to the yoga studio.

Lunch entree: mini pumpkin soup, toasts with dip and home made lemonade.

It was so nice to have a regular place to be and see familiar faces. Especially welcoming were the hugs and kisses, which is pretty common in Argentina anyway. I find it unique and almost astounding that these days you can be almost anywhere in the world, but once you step onto any yoga mat in any yoga studio, it’s pretty much the same. You hear the same words, feel the same stretches, tensions and reliefs and see the same shapes made by the yogis around you. It’s a terrifically assessable home away from home.

Suspecting that the yoga community would be a good way to connect to my new home, I started yoga two days after arriving. My suspicions were correct! After the first class I had the details for some Spanish schools and teachers, advice for getting work and an invitation to lunch. I made friends! Michelle sadly left three weeks later but not before we went to a party at her apartment, stayed out til 5am at a club and were introduced to other people.

There were plenty of other yoga studios around Buenos Aires and at least one other that spoke English but I didn’t get around to visiting them. Buena Onda in San Telmo was more than fine. While the public transport was easy, it was usually muggy and crowded!

Our temporary home: San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

After our overnight bus, we arrived in Buenos Aires at 9am on Sunday 1 April and for the first of many times to come I sang in my head “What’s new, Buenos Aires? I’m new!” (from the Evita musical). We rented an apartment on AirBnB in the heart of San Telmo; the city’s oldest neighbourhood or barrio. We chose San Telmo because a friend had lived there years ago and described it as similar to Melbourne’s Fitzroy, whereas the other popular place; Palermo, is more like Chapel St and home to lots of American ex-pats. It was a very quiet, drizzly morning and getting to our new home was an easy subway ride.

There’s so much to say about our two months in Buenos Aires and as I’m clearly not posting in the moment, it’ll be easier to write it in topics.

San Telmo

As the oldest barrio in Buenos Aires, San Telmo is full of character, history, grit, rejuvenation and hipsters. The bus and subway service is great and it’s pretty central to the rest of Buenos Aires. Many streets are lined in cobblestone and some seriously good and colourful graffiti art adorns its walls; a juxtaposition right there. Even its subway station is covered in creative mosaics and Arabic text.




I’ve always thought it curious how different a place seems to be when you remember how it looked and felt upon first arrival. Thinking back to the first afternoon at the crowded market and my first slightly on edge walk to yoga, it seemed different, surreal and not at all like the neighbourhood that is now up there with my ‘homes away from home’ around the world. San Telmo is where I practiced Spanish, first lived with (only) Tristan, did my weekly shopping, practiced at Buena Onda Yoga and worked as a cleaner and babysitter.

Defensa is the main street in San Telmo and on Sundays it’s closed off for a market. We only found it on Easter Sunday and thought it was a one-off, but it’s there every week in all its glory; roaming musicians and food sellers, bands on the corner, singers, puppeteers, dancers, hundreds of stalls and of course lots of tourists. By the end I felt like a real local as I’d get annoyed pushing through on my way to yoga or work! But then that’d make me happy and I remembered how lucky I am.

We lived near the corner of Independencia and Chacabuco streets and on Saturday’s until around 2pm there’s a fresh food market a couple of blocks away on Mexico St. We went every week and it was a good way for me to practice my Spanish. Even at the supermarkets, you don’t take what you want and have it weighed at the check out, but tell the staff what you’d like and they select it.

Dorrego Plaza is home to the Sunday antiques market, which at around 5pm transforms into an outdoor milonga (tango practice). The same antiques can be bought for around half the price at the indoor antiques market, which is open most days. Around the plaza and San Telmo in general, there are lots of old cafes and bars, full of wood and photos and looking like they’d been there for a hundred years (and in fact may have been).

We decided to eat out once a week and it was often to one of the many and diverse options in San Telmo. We definitely chose a good place to live! We also liked going to a cafe for either coffee and medialunas (small croissants) or to a bar for Martini Rosso with soda from one of those old spritzer jugs and free peanuts or popcorn.





One afternoon we visited El Zanjon. Originally a mansion, when yellow fever spread through the neighbourhood in the early 1870s it was abandoned and became an tenancy building, mainly for poor migrants. Tunnels were constructed to stop flooding and provide water to residents, but it was abandoned again in 1985. The current custodians revealed old tiles on the walls and discovered the tunnels after unclogging decades of rubbish. Its history identified, they decided against their plans for a restaurant and developed the building into a museum. It is definitely worth a visit. El Zanjon is privately run, has won awards and is partially funded by hiring out sections for events; it’d be a fantastic venue!

Foz do Iguazu, Brazil and Argentina

After the overnight bus from Sao Paulo, we arrived around 9am on March 28. It was a 10-15 minute walk to our hotel, Pousada El Shaddai, a little down a hill (meaning an uphill walk back), but otherwise perfect. It had a pool, kitchen, breakfast, friendly staff and a double room for the same price as a hostel dorm. Note: we only veer from hostel dorms if a double is around the same price, and it often is. After a quick shower, we hunted down and ATM and cash exchange place for a couple of hours; both sides of the falls only accept cash and we needed Argentinian pesos for the next day. We found a local bus and headed to the Brazilian side of the falls.

Iguazu Falls are bigger than Niagara Falls but for some reason don’t get half the attention. If you like rafting, rappelling and other adventures allow time to do these on the Brazilian side as there aren’t really any across the border. We went on a boat ride at the top of the falls and had the zippy boat to ourselves; well worth the $15! I love the eerie calm before the violent, thunderous crash of water below.

In Buenos Aires, I finally got a cable so I can download photos from my camera but it doesn’t work; Kindle’s are not all they’re cracked up to be… So, sadly you still have to suffer through random iPhone photos. In this case I didn’t use my phone at all but I want you to see just how amazing the falls are, so the following are google image pics (apologies to the photographers!).

Along the walkways are curious quatis, or coatis; they are not shy about trying to take your food! We walked out close to where the water falls and of course got very wet – bring a rain cover or change of clothes if the weather’s not warm!

We got back in the evening and bought groceries to cook dinner at the hotel. We hung out by the pool and chatted to a group of people from Iran, Netherlands and Brazil and confirmed our Argentinian visa online (really easy).

Another local bus took us to the border where we went through customs and got on another bus for Puerto Iguazu. We stored our luggage at the station and hurried to the Argentinian side of the falls. We were pretty short on time and regretted not getting up earlier but it was definitely worth the visit, especially the walk out to the Devil’s Throat.

After what to me was a long, sweaty run proving just how unfit I am, we made it in time for our overnight bus to Buenos Aires. It was our third overnight bus in 6 days and the best, like a plane! The staff insisted we accept little cakes and served us hot meals, dessert, wine, champagne, whisky! We watched three movies, cuddled up warm with blankets and enjoyed the large, almost fully reclining seats.

Sao Paulo, Brazil

We weren’t going to visit this sprawling metropolis a 22ish hour drive inland from Rio. However, we were a week ahead of schedule and had Chloe’s company on the trip, so off we went. We gave it two days, but I’m sure you could spend more once you got to know it better. I felt it was largely a business city; the location for company head offices.


We found a cheap, non-crappy hotel online in Centro that was a short walk from the subway (always a plus!). I’m just now truly realising the disadvantage of not writing more immediately (as if there were advantages?). I’m only a little sure that we arrived in Sao Paulo around midday on 25 March. It’s now 24 May! Oops… (and I’m not posting until June 6!).

We walked around the mall area and for dinner went to a sushi place in a small arcade. Living in Melbourne, I’ve been spoilt when it comes to authentic multicultural food, so when I eat it anywhere else it’s always a little disappointing! The sushi itself was delicious (and included the big rolls you get in the U.S.A). What was odd was the sake served in little square bento boxes filled until it spilled over into a saucer. It made drinking difficult and wasteful! If this actually happens in Japan, let me know!

After breakfast at the hotel, we went to the UGT office; a union that Tristan hoped to make connections with as part of his role representing the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). It was kind of nice being in a corporate setting again, especially as we met with their international relations director. While they chatted in Spanish, I read English promotional brochures and was impressed by one about human rights for migrants, Indigenous people, children and workers from all sectors.

From there we visited the Sao Paulo Metropolitan Cathedral. In 1913 it took 40 years to build and looks over a European styled park, right in the middle of a clustered city; it sneaks up on you! We hoped to go to the top of the Altino Arantes Building; built between 1939 and 1947 as the state bank. You need your passport to get in though and we’d left our’s at the hotel, so we settled for views of its fancy foyer.

Getting hungry, we took the subway and walked through crowded market streets to the Mercado Municipal de Sao Paulo; a mecca for deli foods. We found a table and tucked into soft cheese, salami, pickled onions and a small bottle of red wine. Yum.





In the 1970s, 109 people disappeared (suspected kidnapped) under the dictatorial government; generally for some small action or maybe none at all. We visited the Memorial of Resistance of Sao Paulo, which thanks to the many photos, was educational despite my lack of Spanish. It was weird to see photos of various Nazi Party groups along side other persecuted associations. We saw the cells where people were kept and tortured, and the graffiti they left on the walls.


It’d been a long day of walking so we rested for a bit in a park, once we’d secured a bench! There were small waterfalls and even exercise equipment (most parks have these, even some bus stops – awesome idea!).

The weather wasn’t nearly as hot as in Bahia, but the idea of sitting in a cool cinema was appealing so we went to see 12 Years A Slave. It was in English (with Spanish subtitles), and is a great film. See it if you haven’t already!

We’d hoped to catch up with Chloe that night and see a little of Sao Paulo from a semi-local’s perspective, but her family lived a bit out-of-town and it’d been a busy week. Instead, we went to a Ramona’s restaurant, recommended on Trip Advisor (my new favourite website). One waiter spoke English but all the staff were friendly and the food was good. The chips were a little soft and burnt, the salad a little soggy but the steak tartare was terrific (and only $15).

For our last day in Sao Paulo, we went to the Sao Paulo Museum of Art; a 1968 concrete and glass building suspended on red beams. It creates a large open public space underneath, which along with some homeless people, that day it was full of student protestors. They were calling for cheaper and more frequent public transport and from our experience they were right to do so; the trains were easy to navigate but always very packed. It was great to see so many young people articulating their needs in an organised way. Most were there as part of smaller associations; another sign of an active and organised political culture.

Across the road was Trianon Park; a gorgeous, tree-filled, slightly dark reprieve from the city, and big! I think we just scratched the surface. There’s a bridge over a main road allowing the garden to continue on the other side and it’s full of quiet spots, sculpture and winding paths.

Nearby, we had lunch at a buffet place where you pay by the weight of your food. There are lots of them around Brazil and Argentina and I think they’re a great idea. For those on a diet it lets you choose exactly what you want to eat, and know how much it weighs. It’s deceptive though – I thought my plate would have weighed less than it did!

That evening we boarded a bus for a 16 hour journey to Foz do Iguazu to see Iguazu Falls; one of the seven natural wonders in the world. Yet again, the bus was comfortable and the overnight really not that bad (plus we save money on accommodation!).