Self guided Walking tour Retiro & Recoleta






This self-guided tour includes a bit of everything, architecture, museum, my favorite place in Buenos Aires, one of the coffee shops I love the most and a tasty lunch finish by delicious gin tonics. I hope you love it <3

* There is a map at the end with all the stops mentioned!



Stop 1: Torre Monumental


This tower was given by the English Goverment as a gift for our 100 years anniversary on the Revolution, but most people think it was a an ironic gift after the english won the war against us. Anyway, is a nice viewpoint, you can visit it everyday 11 to 18hs (except tuesday!!) and from this tower you can see one of the most iconic buildings of Argentina: the Kavanagh. 


So much to say about the Kavanagh. When it was inaugurated in 1936 with its 120 meters, it was at the time the tallest reinforced concrete building in South America and the first residential building in Buenos Aires to have centralized air conditioning. Since 1999 this building belongs to the World Heritage of Modern Architecture, by the decision of UNESCO and in the same year, it was declared a National Historic Monument.


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Stop 2: Coffee stop


To get here you will walk through Basavilbaso and Arenales, walking around the San Martin Palace, this whole street is just beautiful (you can see here also my post on the most beautiful streets of Buenos Aires). 





And walking through Esmeralda you will see another palace! In this case is Estrugamou Palace (also known as "aristocratic elbow"), which up to today is still residential.

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Self Guided Walking Tour San Telmo





I'm the type of person that do Excel sheet for each travel itinerary and like to plan ahead everything. That's how I come across for the first time to a Self-Guided Walking Tour post in Edinburgh, and I was like, wow this is amazing.

After living 8 years in San Telmo, Buenos Aires I kind of feel ready to do a Guide myself. So here is a 24hs tour to the Center, San Telmo, La Boca and Defensa. Be ready to walk around 15km and eat delicious food in the way :) I hope you enjoy it!

* Note: this tour was though to be done not on Sunday. Since San Telmo has a HUGE street fair during Sundays and is a bit crowded, but it can be done anyway maybe we a bit more time.

* There is a map at the end with all the stops mentioned!
9am - Teatro Colón

 The itinerary starts from the
 Subte station "Tribunales". 
From there you can cross the park 
to see the stunning Teatro Colón from outside.
Then you can walk a few streets to
see the Obelisco and then walkthrough
Av. Roque Saenz Peña directly
to Plaza de Mayo.



10am - Have Breakfast and visit Plaza de Mayo

Picture by @andregrevex

Once you arrive to Plaza de Mayo you can walk through Av. de Mayo (which is really beautiful avenue) at the end of this avenue you can see the Congress building.

Here I recommend you 2 coffees shop:
  -  the first is the iconic Café Tortoni, you can enjoy some "Cafe con medialunas" this is our typical breakfast. However Tortoni has also nice "Churros con Chocolate".
  -  In case Tortoni is too crowded you can walk back to London City Coffee where multiple famous writers and iconic figures of Buenos Aires spent time there, such as our writer Cortázar.

Counter of Tortoni Café, Buenos Aires


Then you can walk back through Av. de Mayo and reach Plaza de Mayo again. This Plaza is quite important here we have the Casa Rosada, the Cathedral (where the Pope use to give mass) and the Cabildo. Is a place where most of the manifestation take place since is connected to Congress.

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You can see in the floor of Plaza de Mayo some white Scarfs draw in the floor, this represents the "Grandmother of Plaza de Mayo", this are grandmothers you ask until today for their missing grandchildren during the dictatorship.

** If you want to enter Casa Rosada, you have to book a visit in advance, they are free.

Stunning picture by @aguspiluso

12 am - Walk through Defensa Street 
Now you are entering San Telmo. Defensa Street is the main street and on Sunday there is a huge street fair that starts from Plaza de Mayo and continues to Plaza Dorrego.

























-  Stop 5: is a really old Pharmacy call "Farmacia la Estrella", from 1834. Take a look inside and to its beautiful sealing!. Just in from is a small Museum of the city, sometimes they have exhibitions about local products or traditions, is free to enter so feel free to give it a look.

  - Stop 6: Oldest library in town, "La Librería del Avila"!, this is the library it has more than 100.000 books and it has been witness of big part of our history. Is used to be call the "School Library" because if you look just in front, you can see the prestigious National School of Buenos Aires.

🥩 If you are hungry at this point and want to have launch, I highly recommend having lunch at Alfonso (in Av. Belgrano 782) cozy place with comfort food and very nice selection of wines and vermouth. 

  - Stop 7: Monumento de Mafalda, this is one of our most loved cartoon characters created by Quino. If you never heard of it, it was translated in almost any language and although it looks like a cartoon for kids it talks about world issues about politics and economics that is almost as relevant for adults. Mafalda use to live in San Telmo exactly in a house in Chile 371 that actually exists, so you can check it out!

Casa Mínima, San Telmo, Buenos Aires


  - Stop 8: Casa Mínima, this is known to be the narrowest house in Buenos Aires, not sure if this is true but is cute and the street as well ;)


4 días en Mendoza, Argentina - Itinerario completo día por día de que hacer.

Stop 9: The San Telmo Market!!

My favorite place in the neighborhood, the oldest market in Buenos Aires and recently
remodeled with a lot of restaurants
(before there were antiquities
and fruit and and vegetable stores).

Here there are also a lot of  tourist traps, so be careful.

Here you have 2 choices, have lunch in the market, or grab something
small and wait to eat some
big meal in La Boca. 



🌭If you go for the small bite, I recommend eating 1 choripan en Nuestra Parrilla (stop 10), is on the outside (over Bolivar street) of the market and not a tourist trap.

🍦Exactly on the opposite side, also on the outside side, in Defensa street you have 2 icecream shops ( if you didn't notice we love ice cream here and we eat a lot of it!)

☕️If you are craving for some coffee, go to Coffee Town, just in the middle of the market, is the best in area!

🥩 If you for the BIG meal, my favorite restaurant is Saigón is kind of Vietnamese - Argentine, I highly recommend trying the Bo Lu Lac (Is meat with rice). But I understand if you want to eat asado, so here I would recommend to go to Desnivel, is not fancy but you eat really good!


4 días en Mendoza, Argentina - Itinerario completo día por día de que hacer.
Café Rivas, San Telmo, Bueos Aires

Café Rivas y Galería Solar

This are two other places you can
visit while you are around. The first
one is Café Rivas, a beautiful café.

Just one block from the San Telmo Market you can find the Galería Solar, this use
to be an old house that is now full of shops.



- Stop 10: Last stop, this is "El Patio de los Ezeiza". This is a house that was built around 1876 to house the Ezeiza family, an aristocratic family. Later, the Ezeiza would leave the house to move to Barrio Norte, like many other upper class families in Buenos Aires during the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1871. After this is become a school, later a conventillo and right now is full of shop so you can just wonder around!

Patio Ezeiza, San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina





 15hs - Go to Caminito en La Boca
From "El Patio de los Ezeiza" you can take bus 29 to Caminito or take a taxi. The taxi should cost about 3usd max (official USD, not the blue USD). You can use Google Maps to get here, it works pretty ok with the buses.

CAMINITO, LA BOCA
An important note here, La Boca is the
neighborhood and is not the type 
of neighborhood you want to be at night.

 However, Caminito is the tourist street 
of this neighborhood. My advice
here is: first, if it is getting darker 
rather leave this for another day,
if you choose to go to Caminito, wonder
only where you see tourists, don't go
go beyond this, because as I said,
is not the most friendly
neighborhood out there.

 The tourist part you will notice
is the one with colorful houses
and is about 3-4 blocks.


You might be hungry by this point, so:

 - 🥩 Stop 13: "Don Carlos" also recommended by Anthony Bourdain in his episode of Parts Unknown in Buenos Aires. A small restaurant run by a family in front of the "Estadio La Boca". You sit here and the owner will bring you food, no question ask, until you cant not walk anymore and decide to stop eating what it will become one of your best food memories.

-  Stop 12: After this, you can wander around Caminito Street, and maybe check the "Fundación Proa" sometimes they have interesting exhibitions.

17 / 18hs - Go to Puerto Madero
Here as well you can take a bus or a taxi for around 3,8usd. The starting point here is the Puente de la Mujer, this is beautiful day or night. By crossing this bridge you are officially in Puerto Madero, and no wonder that you will see that all streets have suddenly women names.



Here is there is not much to do more than walking and seeing the contrast of such a new architecture just in from of the oldest neighborhood such as San Telmo. I like to walk next to the "Darsena Sur" and then through Av. Int. Hernan Giralt that is close to an ecological park.

If you are hungry at this point I can recommend:
- 🌭 Salad: eat a choripan in some of the kiosk over  Av. Int. Hernan Giralt.



20hs - Return home / hotel

If you return through the marked path, you can see the "Centro Cultural Kirchner" that used to be our old Central Post Office. They offer guided tours and maybe you can enter to see a part of the building.

From here you will see the Metrobus with the main buses or it is quite a busy street so you can take a taxi!

🍹 Stop 16: Or if you feel like continuing and having a little celebration drink, I highly recommend one of our few sky bars in town: Trade Sky Bar. Is better to book in advance! It has an amazing view of Puerto madero. 



I also recommend this 36hs in Buenos Aires New York Times Guide. Totally love it an agree in all the places and you can have a taste of the other neighborhoods in Buenos Aires :)

I really hope you liked this self-guided tour in San Telmo! and I would LOVE to know if you did it :)
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DIY: Pintar piso de cerámicos con pintura para piso




Este verano decidí arreglar el balcón de mi departamento. Así que decidí pintar el piso de cerámicos con pintura para pisos y hacerle un diseño con un stencil. 
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Qué hacer en Villa La Angostura - Qué hacer en El Bolsón - Itinerario completo de 5 días



Itinerario Villa la Angostura y el bolson de 5 días


Hace unas semanas fuimos a Villa la Angostura 3 días, al Bolsón 2 días y después menos de un día a Bariloche donde salía el avión. Espero les sirva esta itinerario!

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Las 14 calles más lindas de Buenos Aires



Las 14 calles más lindas de Buenos Aires


Hace mucho que quería hacer post, aunque creo Buenos Aires tiene muchas de sus joyas a la vista, también me parece que tiene muchas ocultas por descubrir.  Espero descubran algunos rinconcitos nuevos con este post :)

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Mapa con todos los Jacarandas de Buenos Aires




Dentro de semanas empiezan a florecer los jacarandas en Buenos Aires! y hace poco me enteré que el gobierno de la ciudad tiene una base de datos con toda la arboleda de buenos aires, cuadra por cuadra que tipo de árbol hay y su altura. Así que decidí con esa información hacer un mapa con todos los jacarandas (que por cierto, resultan ser muchos)
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Review Galen Leather Co Handmade Leather Vintage Stationery



I was recently contacted by Yusuf who is carrying a family company based in Istambul - Turkey started by her sister called Galen Leather. They made beautiful handmade leather notebooks and stationery that transport you to another time. 

Their store is totally a dream, they have pen cases, notebook covers, wooden writing boxes, and anything a stationery lover would dream off. The best part is that they ship internationally so I was able to get this all the way from Turkey to Argentina.

Recientemente me escribio Yusuf que lleva adelante una empresa familiar basada en Estambul - Turquia que su hermana creó llamada Galen Leather. Hacen cuadernos hermosos en cuero y todo tipo de stationery que te transporta a otro tiempo. 

Su negocio es un sueño, tienen portalapices, cubre cuadernos, cajas de madera llenas de stationery y cualquier otra cosa que un amante de la papelería podría soñar con. La mejor parte es que hacen envio internacionales así que pude recibir este paquete directo de Turquia a Argentina. 

Review Galen Leather Co Handmade Leather Vintage Stationery

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DIY Shaped Cushion with Punch Needle / Almohadón con Punch Needle



It's been a while since I do something with the punch needle and I notice I could use the same technique to do some shaped cushion which I though it will look really fun in the sofa. So here is the tutorial :) 

Hace mucho tiempo usé la aguja punch para hacer una alfombra y ahora me di cuenta que se puede usar la misma técnica para hacer almohadones con diferentes formas! Así que va el tutorial de como lo hice:


DIY Shaped Cushion with Punch Needle / Almohadón con Punch Needle

The materials I use were:

  -  Wool
  -  Punch Needle
  -  Linen, for the back of the cushion
  -  Burlap, where I did the design
  -  Glue
  -  Thread and needle
  -  Polyester Fiberfill


Los materiales que use fueron:
 - Lana
 - Lienzo para la parte de atrás del almohadón
 - Arpillera, donde bordé el diseño, he visto que usan una tela que tiene agujeros más chiquitos pero no se como se llama, si la conocen me dicen?
  - Hilo y aguja
  - Plasticola, después me enteré que es mejor usar Fortex
  - Vellón siliconado

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Prague Off The Beaten Track - Secrets of Prague Full Guide




Since a year ago I moved to Brno, the second biggest city in the Czech Republic that is about 3 hours drive from Prague. Since Prague was kind of the closest biggest city I have had for a year I did several day trips looking for fun things to do that were not the typical tourist spots!

Hace un año atrás me mudé a Brno que es la segunda ciudad más grande de Rep. Checa y queda a aproximandamente 3 horas de Praga. Así que tuve la suerta de hacer varios viajes por el día a Praga donde no debaja de ser turista pero quería conocer cosas nuevas fuera de las principales atracciones!

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Doing a cookbook: How I decided to document all my family recipes in a cookbook



Some time ago I decided to start documenting my family's recipes. My mom comes from Perú, my father is Argentinean, my grandparents are Chinese and Spanish, so the food at home was extremely diverse.

Just before deciding to move out from home, I decided all this needed to be documented. This is how a journey of documenting more than 60 recipes began for 8 years. Photography of each dish, copywriting of the recipes and graphic design of the book were done by me.






Here are some details of the book and the process I followed to make plus some tips cause everything doesn't always go as planned 😅



As my two previous photobooks (Erasmus photobook and China trip photobook) I decided to print in Blurb (Even though I wish Blurb have sponsored this post, this is not sponsored just honest review haha)



Biggest Learnings of Food Photography as Amateur 

  - Natural light is everything
  - Learn how to do a balance composition, like adding extra elements to the picture, maybe some ingredients, a spoon, another plate, a glass.
  - Play with color contrast and textures!
  - Take the photos fast! (you can tell when the soup you are doing a photo is cold or the ice cream is melting)

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Before making this book I hadn't had any experience in food photography. I started documenting my family recipes just one year before I move away from home, I was 17 years and this was 2011 (left photo). I finally got to finish it in 2019 (right photo). This is the reason that pictures in the book are diverse in quality, they not only reflect my family cuisine but also reflect 8 years of learning and improvement.

 


Handy elements for food photography

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Aliexpress Stationery Curated product review and Haul





This is not the average post I do here, but seems I have not been doing many DIY or travelling cause... coronavirus. I decided I will show a small haul of stationery and other tech stuff from Aliexpress. I guess all readers here still like stationery products as much as I do :)

I am HUGE fan of Aliexpress, not only because you can find whatever you want but because you also find things you didn't know you want or even existed 😅that's a bit dangerous to be honest.

Here are some findings of some of the cutest products I have bought and which I enjoyed and been surprised by the quality. I hope you like it :)

Aliexpress stationery products haul review selection


I noticed that there are some products in Aliexpress that are done by particular designers and are not so easy to find. This Oatmeal paper notes is one of them, I loved the vintage and kawaii look of this notes plus the packaging, super adorable!

Aliexpress stationery products haul review selection
Oatmeal Oats vintage notes here for 1usd
Aliexpress stationery products haul review selection

This are just paper notes with a look kind of Windows 93

Aliexpress stationery products haul review selection
Computer Game Memo notepad here for $1.35 USD





Adorable kawaii notes of fluffy animals here:

Aliexpress stationery products haul review selection
Cute Kawaii Rabit Memo Pad here - $0,45usd

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7 Cities to visit in Czech Republic other than Prague




Since May this year I live in Czech Republic! Big big change. I am currently working at Kiwi.com (an online travel agency). While living here I found extremely difficult to find information online about what to visit (a part from Prague and Vienna) so slowly I had gather some information by asking coworkers and doing some fine research. Turn out Czech Republic has so much more than Prague! and a crazy amount of castle all over the country!

This a post to give you an idea of what day-trip you can do from Brno or what cities you can visit in the Czech Republic apart from Prague. I didn't dig deeper into what to do exactly in each city, is just an overview. I hope you like it! and if you happen to be local or Czech reading this post, extra comments/tips of these cities or others are more than welcome, this is just what I figure out with my non-existence Czech.

If you are newbie in Czech Republic (as me) I will tell you a surprising fact (or at least it was surprising for me): Czech Republic is great producer of white wine, their viticulture region is in the south of the country, this region is call Moravian and they produce around 96% of the wine of the country. I marked in yellow on the map along with the cities I will talk about:


day trip cities from Brno - Cities to visit in Czech Republic apart from Prague

Znojmo


Znojmo is a little town in the Moravian region and therefore is full of winery producers. On your way there you will see that is full of vineyards. When I say little, is really small and I recommend to go during summer so you can enjoy the nice views while drinking some local produce white wine. Is perfect for one-day trip and if you get bored you can take the bus back to Brno whenever you want. 

The number one activity here seems to be doing the “wine trail”, basically renting a bike and go around different wineries. I didn't do this since we planned the trip little in advance. However, in the city you could see all around sign indicating the different trails. More info can be found here.


How to get from Brno to Znojmo?

It is really really simple because is a internal bus, so you just pay when you get in the bus like any other city bus. At the time I went it was the bus 108 leaving from Brno Dolní Nádraží, check the schedule because on weekends usually have a frequency of 1 hour.

Lagarde Bodega - 4 días en Mendoza, Argentina - Itinerario completo día por día de que hacer.

Mikulov and Lednice

View of Mikulov city from the hill
View of Mikulov Hill from the Castle

Have you heard of Mikulov before? Me neither… and yet this my FAVORITE towns from this list. I was extremely impressed by the beauty of Mikulov. I believe is even smaller than Znojmo, but OMG, so so beautiful. There is a small hill in the city where you can admire Mikulov from above, but the city itself it feels like a little Italy and is really well take care of. The gardens of the castle were carefully trimmed and immaculate perfect. The city is so small that you can see people going around with their glass of white wine around the castle, the center, is like an open bar.. but is a town.

I would recommend coming here even if you are just visiting the Czech Republic.

Lednice Castle, Czech Republic


Now let’s talk about Lednice. Lednice is 45 minutes away from Mikulov in a bus, so doing both towns in one-day is perfect. The most iconic thing about Lednice, is its amazing castle and its park (that is the biggest one in the country covering 200km2) both being part of UNESCO world heritage. If you take the bus 570 from Mikulov to Lednice, it will literally leave you 50 metres from the castle, which is free to enter.

 My recommendation here, both cities are small but if you want to be chill, organize yourself to be around 10:30 - 11 in Mikulov. You will have lunch there, maybe an ice cream and then around 16-17 you can head to Lednice with a nice wine and wander around so at 20:00 you go back to Brno. (I didn't know this and I arrived to Lednice at 19hs so I was literally 1 hour in the castle and then went back, a reason to go back next summer… )

Here is why you should get back by 20:00:
IMPORTANT! keep in mind that if you want to go back from Lednice to Brno, the last train is around 21:00 and the last bus that gets you to the train station is at 20:00. So at 20:00 you should be heading back!

How to get from Mikulov from Lednice?
Take 570 bus, google maps have the schedule on it, so just follow the map! is only 45 minutes away. 

How to get to Mikulov from Brno?
Same as Znojmo, there are city buses. You can take then 105 from Brno Zvonařka and in 1hr 30min you will be in Mikulov.

Valtice

This town is over the border with Austria and is only 7km from Lednice (actually one of the wine trail you can do is Mikulov - Lednice - Valtice all by bike). Valtice has, of course, another castle, which is really stunning and also part of UNESCO World Heritage. But the unique thing about this castle is that is home for one of the oldest and largest wine cellars in the Czech Republic. Here you can find the best 100 winning wines from Moravia Region.

The entry to the cellar was about 200 czk and you can stay there for 2 hours tasting all the wines you want. You can bring your own cheese and aperitifs to accompany your wine and of course you can buy the bottle of wine you liked the most.

I don't want to be hard on Valtice, but apart from this, there wasn't much to do in the town… In my case I went we a group of Brno Expat Center that organized a tour from Brno with a professional wine taster!

How to get to Valtice from Brno?
You can take a train to Breclav and make a combination there to Valtice. Is about 1 hour 30min (check the Czech train info here)

Valtice, Czech Republic - Go wine tasting more than 100 wines in a castle
Valtice, Czech Republic - Go wine tasting more than 100 wines in a castle

Olomouc

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