After more than 36 hours of travel, we were keen to get out and about in Buenos Aires, to stretch our legs and get some local currency and SIM cards for our phones. Unfortunately, by the time we landed at Ezeiza International Airport, transferred via car to our hotel in the Recoleta barrio and checked in, it was almost 5 pm on a Sunday afternoon local time. So exchanging currency and finding SIM cards was challenging!!

In Search of SIM Cards – Part 1

You might be wondering why we wanted physical SIM cards. The simple (and somewhat illogical) answer is that we used eSIMs once, and it was frustrating to get them “installed” and working, plus we weren’t able to make WhatsApp calls due to throttling. Besides, our pre-trip research suggested we’d be able to pick up SIM cards in the arrivals area at the airport. After checking with airport information, we learned the recommended store closed several months earlier. And there were no other locations in the arrivals area selling SIM cards. 🙁

So we were delighted when we found a kiosk (ie convenience store) less than a block from our hotel selling SIM cards. But they wouldn’t take USD nor credit cards. So off we went, in search of somewhere to exchange USD for Argentinian pesos.

Exchanging Currency/Cambios

You might be wondering why didn’t we exchange currency at the airport. It’s because the official exchange rate, in effect at the airport, was about half the “blue market” exchange rate available through cambios or Western Union (approximately 350 pesos/USD vs 670 peso/USD).

Because it was early Sunday evening by this time, the Western Union and nearest cambios were closed. So we ended up making a deal with the server at the restaurant where we ate supper, swapping US$20 for 13,000 pesos. Success!

After eating, we headed back to the nearby kiosk, happily handed over 4,000 pesos (approx. US$4) for 2 SIM cards in cardboard sleeves printed with Spanish instructions for activating / loading data.

Back at our hotel, we got to work. I managed to get some degree of activation on my Pixel 8, but we had no success with Mr GeoK’s iPhone 15.

In Search of SIM Cards – Part 2

The nearest Personal phone store opened at 10 o’clock the next morning, so we had a couple of hours to wander around and enjoy some nearby sites/sights before lining up at the Personal shop, a few minutes before opening. Highlights:

Once inside the Personal store, we waited for our number to be called. Then, with extensive assistance from Google Translate, we explained the situation. Long story short, the SIM cards we’d gone to so much effort to purchase the day before were no good. Fortunately, the kind customer service rep replaced them at no charge. But we couldn’t load a data plan onto the SIM cards at the Personal store. For that, we had to find the nearest Farmacia, where for the equivalent of about US$5, we got more than enough data to last us the next 30 days.

For another take on our introduction to Buenos Aires, check out Mr GeoK’s Relive video recap.

Domestic Flight

By the time we got the SIM cards/data plans sorted, we had to hurry back to our hotel to check out and catch a taxi to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery for our flight to Ushuaia. Everything went well until we joined the check-in line…a 7 section, snaking line of at least 300 people for all destinations in southern Argentina!

With the single line feeding all of the check-in desks, it went faster than we feared. And the first time we heard someone calling any passengers for a proximal flight, we knew we’d be okay because we’d get called to the front if we were still waiting in line as boarding time approached. That wasn’t needed, because we’d allowed enough time.

From the gate, we boarded a shuttle bus to the plane, where we climbed a rolling staircase to board. Here’s looking back at the airport.

Return to Buenos Aires

After a few days in Ushuaia, and 23 days aboard the Greg Mortimer for our Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica Expedition cruise, we flew back to Buenos Aires. Three things of note:

• One of our suitcases weighed in as overweight at the Ushuaia airport. We had to take a little paper chit over to another window, where we stood in line to pay the equivalent of US$2 for the overweight fee, and then go back and drop our bag. The staff time, space and supporting equipment to collect the US$2 would have cost way more than US$2, so we thought it was a nonsensical bargain.
• Landing back at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, getting a taxi to our hotel proved to be a challenge. First, we had to download a particular app to get a booking confirmation to show the driver when we finally made it to the front of the taxi queue. Second, our hotel address wouldn’t come up in the app, so we had to go to the airport information desk to get help. It all worked out in the end, thanks to considerable help from Google Translate.
• When we first booked our flights for this trip, we had only an overnight in BA before flying back to Canada. But several months after booking, Air Canada changed the flight schedule such that we had an extra full day in Buenos Aires. How best to enjoy that time? We opted to book a rooftop photography tour. We paid a small deposit in advance, and the balance on the day of the tour.

Rooftop Photography Tour – Part 1

By pre-arrangement, we met our photography guide, Bernardo, in the hotel lobby at 5:05 am. He promised a short walk to the first of nine photo stops, ending about 8:30 pm, with a midday break.

1. Apartment Rooftop Overlooking Cementerio de la Recoleta

Unfortunately, it was raining that morning. We layered on rain gear and headed to a nearby apartment building, where we accessed the rooftop overlooking Cementerio de la Recoleta, hoping for some sunrise colour. Buenos Aires’ first public cemetery, the more than 6,400 mausoleums are situated on what were originally the holy grounds of the Monks of the Order of the Recoletos. Many notable Argentinians are buried here, including 26 Argentine presidents, city mayors, Nobel Prize winners, and Argentina’s beloved Eva Peron.

It rained the whole time we were on the apartment rooftop, and the sunrise was a total dud. But it was still interesting to zoom in on some of the impressive mausoleums. Just outside the high cemetery walls, we could see the modern Recoleta Urban Mall.

And the tangle of telephone and television wires on the rooftop also provided photographic interest.

2. Near Floralis Genérica

The second stop on our rooftop photography broke the mold, in that it didn’t involve a rooftop. But since we’d already visited Floralis Genérica during our search for SIM cards a few weeks earlier, we opted for street photography in the general vicinity of Floralis Genérica.

Pouring rain made for challenging conditions. The jacaranda trees and purple flower petals they dropped in the heavy rain provided some subject ideas. Here are some of our best results:

And Mr GeoK at work, plus his footbridge photo:

The paint decorating the footbridge was incredibly slippery, due to the rain. Our photography guide fell; fortunately, he was not injured!

3. La Confiteria Ideal

A few hours into our rooftop photography tour and we were ready for a refreshment break. Fortunately, our next stop provided a break from the rain, great photography opportunities and a menu. While we waited for our hot drinks and pastries, we enjoyed having this Cafe Notable (part of the National Cultural Heritage of Buenos Aires) to ourselves while exploring with our cameras. I broke out the fish-eye lens I’d packed along – for perfect this type of situation.

Built in 1912, and fully-restored, this is an elegant venue where notable personalities, Presidents and members of high society have gathered for more than a century. If you’re a film fan, perhaps you’ll recognize it for having been featured in Carlos Saura’s 1988 Argentine-Spanish musical drama film and Madonna’s portrayal of Eva Peron’s life in the 1996 American musical-historical film, Evita.

4. DK Club and Restaurant

We were running a little early, so before catching the elevator up to the DK Club and Restaurant (I think that was the name of the place), we had time for a little street photography…

Once the place opened, we headed up for good views in three directions, plus another cup of coffee for me / bottle of water for Mr. GeoK.

BREAK TIME

By this time, we’d been out of our hotel for almost 5 hours. By pre-arrangement, it was break time. We agreed to meet up with Bernardo mid-afternoon and enjoyed more street photography as we walked back to our hotel.

We reached our hotel just in time to eat a proper breakfast, with fruit and protein, before the morning buffet service closed down. After that, it was time for a short nap to replenish our batteries. 🙂

Then, with almost three hours remaining until it was time to resume our rooftop tour, we headed out to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (free admission) for a little dose of culture. Plus a reprise of one of the morning’s street photography locations.

After a quick, fast-food lunch, we met up with Bernardo for the rest of our rooftop photography tour.

5. Recoleta Urban Mall

Our first post-prandial stop was to be an upper floor balcony at Recoleta Urban Mall. Unfortunately, the balcony was closed due to weather damage. But we did manage to get a couple of non-reflecting shots through a nearby window. It was interesting to have a less-than-bird’s-eye view on some of the mausoleums.

6. Ateneo Bookstore

It was a short taxi ride to Ateneo Bookstore, described by National Geographic as “the world’s most beautiful bookstore.” It’s housed in a beautifully-maintained/restored 1919 theatre. This stop alone made it worth packing a fish-eye lens all the way from Canada to Antarctica.

7. Cabildo Neighbourhood Domes

Another taxi ride, and we arrived at a pay-to-enter spot, accessed from inside a mall, that led to a spiral staircase sized for shorter people. But, oh, the views!

The mall and the building to access the viewing area were also well worth photographing.

8. Cafe Tortoni

After descending the spiral staircase and pausing to admire the mall’s architecture once more, we set off on foot towards Cafe Tortoni, taking opportunities for street photography en route.

In addition to fairly classical architecture, we noticed whimsy and interesting details in some of the more modern buildings.

We were trying to find interesting ways to frame the Eva Peron building sculpture we’d spotted from the Cabildo domes viewing platform when our guide urged us away from Plaza Provincia de Mendoza. He was concerned about the groups of youth hanging about and eyeing us (and our camera gear) over.

At just about the same time, it started raining hard. Pedestrians crowded to the right, under building overhangs, some popped open umbrellas, and others ignore the liquid sunshine. 🙂

We joined the line outside Cafe Tortoni as the deluge let up. Originally opened in 1858, UCityGuides selected Cafe Tortoni as one of the ten most beautiful cafes in the world. Personally, I preferred La Confriteria Ideal (our morning coffee stop), for two reasons: 1) I preferred the architectural style; and 2) there was no pretension (i.e. making a line wait outside while there were plenty of empty tables indoors). But I did appreciate the refreshment break.

9. High rise Bar

The street photography opportunities were less interesting as we walked to our ninth – and final – rooftop photography tour stop. It was a high rise bar (I didn’t make note of the name), with a glassed-in balcony on all sides. We ordered drinks and a few appetizers to share, and settled in to watch the progression of early evening, to dusk, to dark.

Our guide provided some fleece tubes to help minimize interior reflections as the evening progressed. Unfortunately, it had been months since we’d done any night photography. We forgot to pack any remote shutters. And the app we usually use to remotely trigger our camera shutters just wasn’t working to connect my new phone to the camera. So, all-in-all, it was a bit of a disappointing end to the day.

After trying everything we could think of (eg delayed shutter release, swapping camera bodies, swapping phones, etc), we finally opted to give up in frustration. We thanked our rooftop photography guide, Bernardo, and headed out into the still busy streets to walk back to our hotel. After such a long day, we were ready for a good night’s sleep before flying back to Canada!

Final thoughts:

While we had challenges with the weather, a couple of access points and our gear (in terms of night photography), overall we’re happy we opted for a rooftop photography tour. It provided access to unique points of view that we otherwise would have missed. Honestly, though, the Tierra del Fuego birding tour was more our kind of thing – spending time in Nature!

We’ve already talked about the possibility of returning to Buenos Aires some time in the future. Next time around, we’d be sure to allocate time for a live tango show (with photography privileges) and a tour of the Recoleta Cemetery. There’s also a Japanese garden that I’d like to visit. If you live in Buenos Aires or have visited the beautiful city, what else should we add to our list?