Primero Semana - The best breakfasts we'll have

Hola Amigos. A whole week has gone by so we thought it was about time we got started with our first blog.

Our first week has been a whirlwind of school lessons, traffic, luxurious hotel rooms, endless walking and 'Tangoing' badly in Buenos Aires. Thanks to a very kind ex employer we had the opportunity to stay in some amazing hotels which was an absolutely phenomenal start to our trip.

Our first day began with a stay at the Faena Hotel, located in the 'new money' district of  BA, Puerto Madero. The old mill (made from bricks from Manchester!) was opened 8 years ago  by Snr. Faena who originated as a fashion designer and branched into hotels following a breakup with his girlfriend. Philippe Starck was commissioned to design his first hotel in South America and it really is impressive. With a gigantic ornate crown in the middle of the swimming pool to white unicorn heads adorning the walls of the gastronomic restaurant the design is shock and awe at its finest. This was the first of our luxurious breakfast experiences - the  best apples in the whole of BA! After a walk around the famous San Telmo Antiques Market and a well deserved siesta we were then treated to dinner and tango show at the El Cabaret in the Faena (one of the best shows in the city) - this intimate cabaret club styled with traditional 20's decor puts on a phenomenal 1.5 hour show taking you on the journey of tango from inception to modern day it was a real wonder to see the dancers move around the stage with such passion and skill performing one of the hardest forms of ballroom dance.

Monday had arrived, and that meant our first day at Spanish School. The El Pasaje Spanish school located in the centre of town was where we began our first baby steps at understanding Latin American Spanish. There were 5 other people in our beginner class and our teacher Felipe was a 24 year old Chilean Linguist (read: grammar Nazi!). We had lessons every morning and we now have a good understanding of the grammatical basics and pronunciation so that as we improve our vocabulary we are able to correctly put together sentences in the correct tense etc. While we were hoping to learn more in terms of conversational Spanish and vocab we think our time here is very worthwhile and are already seeing the gains, plus, we met some great people at the school and are already talking about having more lessons, maybe in Bolivia.

Another hotel, another amazing breakfast experience.....We relocated to the Four Seasons which really lived up to this luxurious hotel chains reputation. Nearly completed this hotel has undergone a full refurbishment, we were very kindly upgraded to a junior suite which was fantastic and provided a well deserved nights sleep after a day of studying hard! And for the breakfast...this was the winner of our desayuno experiences so far. With chefs slicing freshly cut charcuterie before us and daily changing eggs selection (cheesey eggs were the winner for us!) it meant we could make it to late afternoon before we needed an empanada (or three!).

On Tuesday we went to a football match, Velez v Emelec in South America's Champions League, the  Copa Libertadores. We had to get a lift in a Renault Clio with three other keen fans so it was a bit cramped! Once we had been served pizza and beer by the  oldest mozo in town we headed to the stadium. Velez are a  relatively  small side, but have  enjoyed plenty of recent success. Unfortunately a 0-0 draw suited both sides so that was the end result. This didn't detract from the  great atmosphere though with plenty of  noisy home fans and drms to accompany the chanting all match long. Hopefully we'll see some goals next time we catch a game!

Wednesday signalled a  change from the luxurious hotel lifestyle we had become accustomed to and we arrived at the KMO Rock Hostel, a short walk from the Spanish School (which made the mornings all that more easier) this hostel was uber friendly and it was nice to socialise with other travelers on similar adventures to our own.

The next day we moved to the Alvear Palace, the grandest of our hotel experiences, we were informed upon check in that we had been upgraded to the presidential suite as the hotel was fully booked. For two twenty somethings with backpacks this was gobsmacking, our suite comprised of lounge with dining room and kitchen, plus 2 bathrooms, master bedroom and office. Our plans to explore the city further went out the window and instead we grabbed a bite to eat round the corner and then enjoyed the luxury of the jacuzzi bath and the biggest bed we'd ever seen! Breakfast was served by staff in red tuxedo jackets and dickie bows....need we say more!

As well as our amazing hotel experiences we made the most of our time in the city (although slightly limited as we were at school until 2pm everyday). We wandered through Recolata Cemetery one balmy afternoon as well as of course seeing the Casa Rosada and THAT famous balcony.  Palermo is the uber cool part of the city with pop up boutiques and cool restaurants and bars...we tried our hardest to dine / go out the BA way, which meant dinner at 10pm and not turning up to a bar or club until 1am, but with school every day at 10 it was a challenge!!

Our final evening culminated in the most typical experience in a not so typical venue - Tango. From reading a review in our guidebook we decided to experience "bohemian tango", located in an old warehouse, La Catedral was a hippies dream with bare lights, art installations and dirty bathrooms this converted warehouse was more than impressive. After stumbling through in Spanish we were told the next 'international' lesson was at 10pm so we grabbed a vegan wholegrain pizza and a bottle of vino tinto and settled in before we took to the floor. 10pm rolled round and the two instructors took to the dance floor to signal the start of the class. There were about 25 people participating a mixture of locals and also some tourists too. It became clear very quickly that the lesson was only going to be taught en espanol so we just had to follow along quite helplessly hoping we were doing the right thing. By the end of our hour and a half lesson we were twirling the dancefloor without stepping on each others toes and we even got a "muy bueno" from the teacher - so a real success! Then the real dancing started with a traditional milonga interspersed with live singers it was amazing to watch all generations mix on the dancefloor, seriously mesmerising.

So our time in Buenos Aires has come to an end and we are now in Puerto Aguazu for the next couple of days to see the "cataratas" before heading into Paraguy (Asuncion) and then dropping back down into Argentina before our assault on the wine regions.

Who knows what kind of breakfasts are ahead of us...