Tulips in Keukenhof, Netherlands. My photos.

I took this picture a week ago, at Keukenhof,Willem-Alexander pavilon. A lot of beauties there! :D 

La Cabaña Suiza: Great Food in a Haven of Peace!

La Cabaña Suiza

It´s situated out of the city, at the road going from Guatemala to Antigua Guatemala, at the mountains. They offer hotel and cafeteria services, taking care of the gardens in a very special way, that´s part of what made them famous.

The goal of the cafeteria is to give real Swiss food options, but as usual, for breakfast, they had to offer Guatemalan´s style food to have success.

It´s really magical to go there, also you can appreciate a nice view of the city.

Here some of the pics they have at their web:





I have already talk about this at the post Breakfast in Guatemala: Where to Eat (Third Part) but someone advised me it will be more useful to place them in different posts, so here is it, it contains exactly the same of that post, in case of new comments about this place, I´ll write a new post.

Argentina. Third Part: Doing Tourism in Buenos Aires

As I´d mentioned in the First Part, till now I´d visited Argentina twice. In my first visit, in 2004, I had been in Buenos Aires just 2 weekends. The second time I was there in total 7 days, but taking into account the Scrabble in Spanish World Championship days (4 days).

So, I really had short time to visit Buenos Aires, then I tried to maximize the time the best I can. For this what I do is to start with the recommendations of people I know, then I do a deep search in Google about what the place I´m visiting could offer me, I also try to look for interesting places/ restaurants/ plays / concerts at the magazines of the flight, also I collect information from the tourist information desk at the airport, the same from the tourist information desk of the hotel and at last (but not at least) ;) I ask the people of the hotel. Time to time I also buy a book of the city, but it wasn´t the case this time.

Once I have all the info about places I would like to meet, I try to find them in google maps and to see if it´s viable to do a route by my own. Usually it means a lot of time, due I would like to stay more time than what is usual when you do a concerted tour, but also you can see exactly what you want the time you want. As far as what I haven´t enough was time, in this case I preferred to do it in a concerted tour, that was planned to be in a whole day, but due the problems of the flight, it was a half day one.

I had a lot of Argentinean friends, in Guatemala and in Spain. Always they said Buenos Aires was the most European city of Latin America and a very beautiful one. They told me a lot about its beauty, so, going there was one of my dreams. Maybe that was the problem. Maybe Buenos Aires changed after Corralito quite a lot. I really don´t know, but the point is that Bs. As. disappointed me a bit. Ok, it´s big, quite big compared with most Latin American cities. Yes, there are a lot of entertainment options there, I think that was the part I liked more. But yes, there were a lot of things I liked in Bs. As, point is I wouldn´t go back to Argentina just due Buenos Aires. I really would love to but due Iguassu, Calafate, Patagonia and other places I still haven´t been.

Here my recommendations in Buenos Aires:

Caminito: this is a walk road - museum where you can “live” an important part of Buenos Aires history. You will find there a lot of souvenirs stores, tango dancers at the street and a colorful surrounding. Here some pics:



And some videos:





Florida Street: this is a commercial pedestrian street. You can find here good leather stuff, good prices, but if you have time enough and you have an Argentinean friend, there are also good outlets with better prices. You also can find here tango street exhibitions. I´m afraid I had a bad experience here. I bought some chocolates in a precious wood box, the chocolates were great, but at the bottom of the box I discovered… some small cockroaches!!! :((( Yeap, I´m afraid it was after eating some chocolates! :(( and at home in Madrid, so no possible to claim anything.

Here some pics:


Topo´s pics.

And a video:



Close to Caminito is the Boca Football Stadium, where you can go to a tour as well. I haven´t because I stayed outside with some “friends”… ;)



Palermo Woods or September 3rd. Park: it´s a magic place, worth view with enough time.



Botanical Garden: precious place, deserves you to go with time. Also has a Japanese Garden.

Blai´s pics.

For eating I really have no complains about any place I had been in, but my favorite one was La Caballeriza in Puerto Madero.




In 2004 I had an invitation for going to a family barbecue and definitely it was the best food I had in Argentina! :)

If you are interested on Tango shows, you have street options at Caminito and at Florida Street, but I had gone also to La Ventana. This is a show, I mean, you don´t find there what you would watch at the streets. But it´s marvelous! :) They offer a pack of show + dinner and even to pick you up at the hotel.



I had a “situation” going to La Ventana ;P I´d book a reserve for a Saturday night, thru the hotel. The receptionist told me to be at the lobby in a specific hour, I did. There was a Uruguayan guy, Fer, waiting for going to La Ventana as well and we started to talk. He was in Buenos Aires also due job. We were waiting for more than a half of hour after the time they told us they will pick up us, but we both considered that in Latin America that should be normal. When the time of the show was so close, we finally asked at the reception desk and they called to ask what was going on… and… they didn´t have our reserves! It wasn´t clear if the problem was a La Ventana or at the hotel, but they had no more spaces for that night, no possible at all for us to go that night… in my case I still had the next weekend to go, so I did a new reserve for next Saturday. Fer invited me to go to din and I was a bit confused about what to do (you know, due that rule about not going out with strangers… this was before going to Moscow) and was in a bit embarrassed situation, you see, he already knew I was there alone and with no plans for that night, so, it would be a bit rude to tell him no and he seemed to be a good person, so I finally thought… “Why not?” (All this in seconds, of course) and I accepted. He took me to a place he knew to din, warming me that it wouldn´t be a fancy place but with very good steaks. I´m afraid I don´t remember the name, but yes, the food was really good and we laughed a lot. After the dinner he invited me to go to a Photograph exhibition of Yann Arthus-Bertrand that was at San Martin Square. Great one! :D



It´s really worth to check out the concerts and Plays, but you should check that out with time enough in advanced or you could not find entrances. In 2004 I had seen there an Eros Ramazzotti concert! :D Btw, I think it´s worth to mention that I went alone to that concert but I haven´t feel insecure or afraid about anything and I think it´s related with how friendly are the Argentineans.

(To be continued)

On the route: Sierra de Guadarrama

Spain is a big country with a lot of areas quite different from each other due their geography and weather. When it´s summer in Spain you can find temperatures as 50 C. degrees in places like Seville. Some times when you are in a place with a beach or a lake, you can live with that, but in places like Madrid, 30 C. degrees could make you to despair. That far, for so many years and till no more than 8 years, almost all the companies closed in August (the month with the highest temperatures), so all the workers should have vacations in August. I can remember my first August in Madrid, the streets completely deserts.

With the time, maybe because the prices of hotels, tours, flights, etc. were so high in August (as far as it was the only one month where most of the families in most of the Spanish Communities can go on vacations), maybe because when a company has an international market they can´t just close for a whole month (in Spain workers have 22 working days as vacations), or who knows exactly why! :D more companies are working on August, but anyway an important quantity of people go out of Madrid in summer time. This year it was remarkable from July 15th. to August 15th.

In my case, I prefer to stay in Madrid in August. First of all, due the prices, they are still higher during August, but also due the quantity of people at tourist places during that period. I love to swim in water, not in people! ;) Or to feel that I can talk with my family taking the sun at the beach without 20 other people around me hearing what I´m saying… or to hear the music I would like to hear instead of the mix of 6 different styles of the people around me (that are that close due at the beach you have no space, that it feels like if all of them are actually going with you!). And I prefer not to start to talk about what you can find at the sand, due this blog is for talking about nice experiences!!! ;P

But also I love to stay in Madrid in August due how easy is to go wherever you want, with fluid traffic, with no noise at the streets, finding place where to seat in rush hours at the subway, with space enough to watch what you want at the shops, finding places to seat at the restaurants, almost no lines at cinemas, with almost no lines for going inside a discotheque… uuuuuuuuuuufffffffffff!!! It´s marvelous to enjoy Madrid this way! :))

On the other hand, if you want to go to Madrid´s surroundings, also is the best time to do it! Fluid traffic (and people not driving as fast as usual), enough places where to eat, relaxed routes on foot… lovely! :)

So, as far as routes around Madrid are something that you can easily find in internet or at travel agencies, this time let me present you my alternative route at la Sierra de Guadarrama.

Let´s start at Rascafría. It takes like an hour and a half to get there in car, in case you haven´t stop in some of the towns you find before, like San Agustín del Guadalix, el Molar, Lozoyuela or Lozoya, that are nice.



I had the good luck to found a Handcraft Fair in Lozoya, here some pics:



I recommend in special way Rascafría for eating. It has a lot of restaurants and cafeterias, one of my favorites is “El Candil” but I´m afraid it´s not exactly a cheap one. Here some pics of Rascafría and El Candil:






I also recommend visiting the Monastery of Santa María del Paular that had been transformed into a great Sheraton hotel, here some views:



To drive at Puerto de Navacerrada is also a nice experience.







You also can find there good resting spaces for drivers where you can walk a bit and I really recommend you to drink water at their fountains, it´s the same one you can buy in bottles but fresher! ;P

I would suggest you, after enjoying that area, to finish your day tour at “Los Frutales” in Cercedilla. It has great gardens where to walk a bit, you can dine inside the restaurant or at the terraces under the trees.





Enjoy the summer!!! :D