All stories about "Cintra Scott"

The Gray Lady is all atwitter about Buenos Aires. The New York Times has named BA "cheap" and/or "gay" in four separate items in the first half of December alone! First, on December 2, T Magazine ran a "Style Map" titled "Cheap and Cheerful." "A still-kicking dollar" and "great shopping" richly reward travelers, says T. (Incidentally, the one place to eat mentioned in this roundup of Palermo Hollywood is Casa Felix -- a meat-free underground spot profiled here on Gridskipper when it opened back in February 2007.)

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Recoleta Cemetery, the final resting place of Evita and other boldfaced names of Buenos Aires society, now has its own blog. AfterLife is a new creation by map-maker, tour guide, travel writer and photographer Robert Wright (mentioned in this space before). Why do BA's dead need their own blog? Well, the cemetery is huge, fascinating and there aren't many reliable fonts of information for English-speaking tourists once you're there. (The old ladies feeding the stray cats may give you an earful, but even the master of Argentine Spanish could find their stories hard to follow.)

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After living in New York for more than a decade, I thought brand new subway lines were just the stuff of urban legends -- like crocodiles down in our sewers. But one actually debuted last week in Buenos Aires. Welcome línea H, The first new subway line here in 63 years! For 70 centavos (about $0.22), tourists and locals alike can ride líneas A, B, C, D, E, and as of October 18, H under the city streets. With only 5 of the eventual 13 stops completed, H currently unites the neighborhoods of Once (think synagogues and the movie Lost Embrace) withParque Patricios (off the typical tourist map, with its old slaughterhouses and hospitals).

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Of the 3,000+ pizzerias in Buenos Aires, 39 have been deemed "of patrimonial valor" in a new 240-page book published by the city's Ministry of Culture called "Pizzerías de valor patrimonial de Buenos Aires." (Some civil servants have fun jobs, huh?). You can pick up a copy at la Casa de la Cultura (Avenida de Mayo 565). To save Buenos Aires tourists from lugging the entire tome around, here are a few recommended highlights.

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Just in time for the Gay Soccer World Cup, there's a new, gay discount card for Buenos Aires tourists. Dubbed the "Friendly Card," this piece of plastic is good for up to 30 days on the city's gay-friendly circuit -- for a cost. According to the site, the cards go for $50 (silver), $100 (gold,) or $200 (platinum) and include level-appropriate "welcome gifts," plus discounts at restaurants, discos, spas, and other services. The creators of the card are four gay, wine-related businesses, so offerings may favor tipplers. Just a guess. (Note that I resisted the urge to make a "Do you know how I know you're gay?" joke.)

Friendly Card [via Los Tiempos]

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They say it hasn't snowed in Buenos Aires for 100 years, but the thermometer touches down to zero during the winter months, and the sun sets by 6 p.m. Bonus: The nights are long, and the top BA hotels are charging off-season rates. The Four Seasons Buenos Aires -- choice of Los Rolling (a.k.a. the Rolling Stones) when they're in town -- now have room rates starting at $295 with breakfast -- compared to $395+ in high season. A mansion room is now going for $310 per night, compared to a more rock-star rate of $1,000 in warmer months. There's also a "South American at its Best" special for six nights -- three in Buenos Aires, three across the river in Carmelo, Uruguay -- starting at $170 per night for a bungalow in the pine and eucalyptus forests by Rio de la Plata. One massage per person included in the package.

Four Seasons Buenos Aires [Official site]

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According to the Sunday paper Perfil, the Buenos Aires barrio of Palermo will be home to the world's very first Barbie Store come September. The 7,000-square-foot retail extravaganza is to include a real-life beauty salon, tea house and party space -- alongside the impossibly thin and buxom dolls and related fantasy accessories.

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Klub Killer doesn't sound like the kind of place to go at night to feel ... well, at home. But it is. The 1920s-style building boasts velvet couches, old black-&-white TVs, turntables, a dart board, and permissible smoking in a central, covered patio (it's getting chilly in smoke-free Buenos Aires this time of year). Bonus: It's off the typical BA-tourist circuit in the charming barrio of Boedo (ring the buzzer at Barros Castro 809). Klub Killer is officially open after midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, but you can arrange extended hours for special events. Why the aggressive name? Maybe it's to honor the presence of early-1990s classic Street Fighter II.

Klub Killer [Official site]

-- Cintra Scott

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How do you say "happy hour" in Argentina? Trick question. The answer is "happy hour" -- with overly exaggerated h-sounds for effect -- except if it's the offensive-sounding "japo hour" (pronounced "hapo hour") at Kayoko in Palermo Soho. This little Japanese restaurant offers a beer, a few sushi rolls, and a soup for 8 pesos (U.S.$2.50) from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The rules are: No seconds, no sharing, and cash only. Just a block away, at the much more stylish Bar 6, there's a more typical "happy hour" 2-for-1 drinks special, also from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Deal includes beers and cocktails, such as their tasty pisco sours, mojitos, and caipirinhas.

Kayoko [via Whats Up Buenos Aires]
Bar 6 [Official site]

-- Cintra Scott

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The double-decker, long-distance buses (ómnibuses) in Argentina probably wouldn't occur to many travelers if alternatives weren't so limited in Buenos Aires, city of strikes and riots. So next time you find chaos at the city airport, you might consider an overnight bus to wine country in Mendoza or the ski slopes near Bariloche. This week, the earnest and helpful Argentina's Travel Blog offers tips for buying bus tickets. The main thrust of the advice: Check online, and "Do not be overwhelmed" by the more than 200 private bus companies to choose from. It also describes just how close to a bed your seat can get. An older but more thorough guide to buses comes from South American Explorers' website. They list many points around the city for buying bus tickets, saving you an extra trip to chaotic Retiro (pictured above in Clarín in a holiday rush).

Terminal de Ómnibus de Retiro [Official site]

-- Cintra Scott

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In Buenos Aires, the words "tenedor libre" in a restaurant window mean "all you can eat" (literal translation: "free fork") -- but don't let that scare you. Unlike in the United States, all-you-can-eat options in Argentina are not frequented by the 300-pound population (fat folks barely exist in Argentina). Even BA's svelte set enjoy buffet-style lunches and dinners. In Palermo Viejo, a new vegetarian tenedor libre called Spring (calle JL Borges #2284, phone 54 11 4775 7797) just opened near Charcas (pictured above). Spring's special touches include carrot sculptures and Chinese offerings. In Argentine pesos, lunch goes for $15 and dinner for $18. (In US dollars, that's just under $5 and $6, respectively.) On the other end of the food pyramid, Siga la Vaca ("Follow the Cow"!) is a temple for carnivores, with all the grilled beef you can stomach. The Puerto Madero location is always packed with tourists from neighboring Chile and Brazil who fly in to take advantage of the weak peso. Lunches and dinners range from $31 to $42 (about US$10 to $14).

Siga la Vaca [Official site]

-- Cintra Scott

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Nineteen months and ten issues after debuting in Spanish (with many launch parties, including a New York gala covered here), the Buenos Aires magazine Metrópolis is letting English-speakers in on its "maliciously porteña" take on the city. The Metrópolis en inglés website includes translations of select restaurant and bar reviews, as well as a few cultural columns. For city visitors growing sick of beef beef beef, the restaurant guide includes seafood, veggie, Moroccan, Armenian, and Chinese offerings.

Metrópolis en inglés [Official site]

-- Cintra Scott

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Kicking off Saturday, April 14, the El Dorrego design fairs will feature wares from over 100 Buenos Aires designers each weekend (Saturdays and Sundays) until May 13. Entrance is free. So, what inspires Argentine designers? Yerba mate: The breakfast of champions, of course. Also: Leather! Plus anything else that can be extracted from a cow. Last year at the fair, we bought a slick, modern mate set, made from porcelain and leather. This year's announcement says you'll also find clothing, shoes, jewelry, accessories, linens, luggage, lighting, toys, candles, soaps, etc. They will be hawked by pretty, female vendors, dressed just so (see promotional photo, above). Insider tip: Print out a 15% discount coupon. El Dorrego is on calle Dorrego at the corner of Zapiola, just down the road from the market of the fleas (er, flea market). It's on the border of Buenos Aires' Palermo and Colegiales neighborhoods.

El Dorrego, ferias de diseño [Official site]

-- Cintra Scott

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"That's not a good area at night," said our taxi driver when we asked him to take us to the colorful but poor neighborhood of La Boca at dinner time. But we wanted to check out the restaurant Patagonia Sur -- created by perhaps the most famous Argentine chef, Francis Mallman. So we reassured our cab driver and were off. Our evening's surprise did not emerge from the shadowy streets of La Boca but from the bottom of Patagonia Sur's menu. The fixed price for dinner ran 200 Argentine pesos (about US$65) and did not include wine (which could add another US$10 to $250 for Argentine selections). Wow: We had just read that the fixed price menu ran 150 Argentine pesos in 2006 -- that's +33 percent inflation in a year. But how was the meal?

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