March 31-April 1, 2026
One of the biggest highlights of my time in Argentina was getting to spend time with a local friend in Buenos Aires. During my first two days in the city, he told me about his university, showed me his favorite restaurants and cafes, and took me to explore the waterways of the Paraná Delta.
First Impressions of Buenos Aires
I arrived to Buenos Aires by ferry from Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay on March 31st – about a 75 minute journey and my first time traveling to a new country by ferry! This is also a common day trip made by those visiting Buenos Aires. Anyway, I headed to my hotel and dropped my bags off before heading to where I would meet my friend, Aki.
Aki goes to the University of Buenos Aires, quite close to where I was staying in the San Telmo neighborhood – he actually recommended that area. He was in class at the time when I got there, but that gave me some time to wander around and exchange some money at a Western Union branch. I loved the architecture in this city!
The spot where I would meet him was a gas station, one with the fanciest design I’ve ever seen for a Shell! It seemed to be quite common for university students to come here, grab some lunch inside, and study. I just got a drink and waited for Aki there, since I was early.
A bit after 1:30, Aki and I met up, and we proceeded to start walking to lunch. He had about an hour and a half for his lunch period before he needed to go to his evening classes, which would last all the way until 10 pm! He showed me to a local cafe, and we enjoyed some sandwiches while chatting.
While I had never met Aki in person, I know him from an online community called Build The Earth, a project seeking to recreate the entire planet on a 1:1 scale in Minecraft. Of course, it would not be the only thing we’d talk about while I was in Buenos Aires, but I was excited to see places in real life I had already visited in Minecraft!
Anyway, after lunch I walked with him back to his university, to a building which looked more like it belonged in Washington, D.C.! Apparently, the law building was twice the size – but we would visit that another day.
After this I headed back to my hotel and checked in. It was basically a series of small lofts above a restaurant – you can learn more about it here. From then on, I was free for the rest of the day.
I did not have many plans, but I had recently seen a video about a local pizza place in Buenos Aires, and as a certified pizza enjoyer I knew I had to try it! I could have taken public transport, but it was only about a 45 minute walk away, and I thought it would be cool to take a long walk through the city – and boy was I right.
Going through the city was awesome. The architecture continued to astound me, and there was so much to see along the way. For example, I passed by a group of kids playing soccer right along the sidewalk. I was really able to feel how alive and active it was, with many different languages being spoken – it definitely seemed more touristy than my recent time in Uruguay, but not in a bad way.
I eventually came across the Obelisk, a massive monument at the center of a long avenue stretching miles through Buenos Aires. The landscaping here was actually crazy to me – tons of road lanes, a separate middle bus lane, and multiple series of parks and plazas which continued as far as I could see.
After crossing, I only had to walk a few more blocks to get to my destination: Güerrín. This is one of the most-reviewed restaurants in the world, with over 200,000 at the time of writing (with an average of 4.7 stars)! I didn’t sit down at the restaurant, but rather ordered at the front, getting 2 slices: a basic mozzarella and the more unique fugazzeta.
The mozzarella slice was good, but the fugazzeta was probably one of the best pieces of pizza I’ve ever had. It almost reminded me of the deep dish pizza I had while in Chicago, but rather than sauce and toppings on top, it was caramelized onions! Apparently this is a Buenos Aires staple, and it really caught me by surprise as I thought the onions would have a much stronger taste – but it was a perfect balance. I would highly recommend trying it if you visit the city!
From there, I started to head back, but right near the Obelisk I spotted a fancy-looking McDonald’s on the corner, and I knew I had to go! I was still hungry because I thought I would eat more at Güerrín, so I figured why not continue my travel tradition?
I had quite the good meal here! I ended up with a Bacon Cheddar McMelt (basically a bacon cheeseburger with onions and cheese sauce), bacon cheese fries, and a KitKat McFlurry with dulce de leche flavored ice cream! Nothing too out of the ordinary, but certainly delicious.
From there I continued walking back to the hotel, briefly stopping along the way at Plaza de Mayo – the main city square of Buenos Aires. Here I saw the Casa Rosada (Pink House), the workplace of the President of Argentina – similar to the White House in Washington, D.C. I actually got there right as the evening lights turned on! From there I headed back to my hotel for the evening.
Buenos Aires had absolutely blown me away, in terms of architecture and food especially. It was such a lively city and I was loving every bit of it.
Exploring the Paraná Delta
The next day, Aki picked me up from my hotel around 9:30. While public transportation is great in the city, he does have a car, which allowed us much more freedom of movement that day. This was helpful because we were going quite far, to the city of Tigre on the northern outskirts of Buenos Aires. This is the start of the Paraná Delta, a huge region with interconnected waterways and islands which Aki and I would be exploring.
The drive there was fairly uneventful, but I got to see some more of the city and experience its insane traffic jams while Aki told me about some of the country’s history and fun facts. We also passed by an area called Retiro, which he has recreated a lot of in Build The Earth – it was a place I had explored in Minecraft, so it was surreal to be driving through there.
Once we made it to Tigre, we parked in a small suburb and walked along a river to the ferry terminal. Aki bought us tickets for a water taxi out to the Delta, and after waiting a while in line we loaded up onto the boat and started on our way.
The boat ride was interesting. It was clear that quite a lot of people lived out here – we passed by plenty of houses and docks, while picking up and dropping off people along the way in an almost surgical precision. It was really quite impressive to witness. It also felt very similar to the San Joaquin Delta region near my own hometown in California, which reminded me of all the times I’ve been out boating there.
Eventually, we got out at a stop near a restaurant, but first Aki wanted to walk for a while. We followed a small path along a thin branch of the river, going by more houses and docks along the way. We also had a dog following us for the whole time! After around 15-20 minutes of walking in one direction, we started heading back the way we came.
The restaurant we had initially stopped near was called Restaurant La Rivera, and it’s where we ended up eating lunch. We had a nice view of the river from there as we sat on an outside deck overlooking the water. It actually started pouring down rain partway through, so we had to move a little bit further underneath the canopy!
We had to wait for a while after lunch to be picked up on another water taxi, as many of them were actually being used as school buses for the children who lived out on the islands! But when we finally got back on, we passed by several cool spots on our way back. One of these was Museo Casa Sarmiento, the former residence of one of Argentina’s presidents which is encased in glass to protect it from the elements.
Additionally, there are multiple abandoned ships on the side of the river as you leave or approach Tigre itself – old vessels which will likely remain there until they have fully withered away from the elements.
After Aki and I got back from the Delta, we walked along the river for a while. We stopped for some refreshments in a gas station (which could serve both cars and boats!) before passing several rowing clubs, including one in a beautiful building across the river. We also went by the Naval Museum, and while it was closed, they had some planes on display you could see through the fence.
We then went and saw the gorgeous architecture of the art museum further along the river, relaxing there for a little while as we enjoyed the nice weather (we did not go inside). While the water wasn’t exactly crystal clear, being very murky and brown from all the sediment, it had become a bright sunny day – though it was a bit humid for my liking.
Markets, Alfajores, and San Isidro
After heading back to the car, we drove to Puerto de Frutos – basically the local open-air market area of Tigre. It originally was meant for the selling of local crafts and fruits from the Delta, though that particular aspect has lessened over the last several decades. However, it is still full of local restaurants and shops. One of these was Vitajugos, a juice shop that sells items like smoothies made from fresh fruit – it was pretty good!
We then walked down to a place Aki really wanted me to experience – an Argentinian chain called Havanna. They are a confectionery shop especially known for a food called alfajores. These are an absolute staple of their food culture, being two sweet biscuits joined with dulce de leche and surrounded in milk chocolate. These things are delicious! We sat for a while overlooking the river as we ate our alfajores, and I was just so happy to be there.
On our way back to Buenos Aires, we briefly stopped to walk around the town of San Isidro. We passed by a set of old colonial houses from the 18th century, and also saw a massive cathedral built in the late 1800s – there was actually an ongoing service due to Holy Week, though we didn’t go inside.
The last place we stopped for the night was La Paceña, a restaurant run by a kind Bolivian man who had brought his cuisine to Buenos Aires. But first, we passed a huge group of people who looked like they were celebrating Holy Week with some sort of procession – probably Catholic but I’m not totally sure.
Anyway, Aki had visited this restaurant plenty of times, and we specifically went there for the empanadas. They were unique here compared to everywhere else I had eaten them, with distinct shapes and also made with corn rather than flour according to Aki – whatever was different made them the best though! There were a variety of flavors, such as ham + cheese, beef, and chicken – though all were very good.
After he dropped me off, I headed back to my hotel tired but excited for the next day. The Paraná Delta had been unlike what you’d normally expect from a metropolis, and reminded me of home in several ways. But we had much more left to explore in Buenos Aires. The next day, we would travel all around the city, seeing its history and culture before returning to Aki’s house for homemade asado – easily the part of the trip I was most looking forward to.