More insider knowledge on from Dr. Kazumi Stahl…

When someone comes to visit me, the first place I take them is La Giralda café on Corrientes, the avenue of the theaters and bookshops.

If there’s one thing you should know about getting around my city, it’s Buenos Aires has the oldest subway system in Latin America, opening in 1913, just a few years after NYC. (…among other things one might find that NY and BA have in common…!)

Past students recommend the NYU Buenos Aires-arranged trip to Iguazu (or Mar del Plata!, or Mendoza!)

Locals know to skip and check out Tigre upriver and the islets and communities set among the river channels instead.

In the past, notable people like genial writer Jorge Luis Borges, human rights activist (and Nobel Peace Prize winner) Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, and fiercely gifted pianist Martha Argerich have called my city home.

The best book about my city is Fervor de Buenos Aires by Jorges Luis Borges because he wrote it when he was in his early twenties and Buenos Aires is a city of the young. And also because Fervor de Buenos Aires is a collection of brief poetic texts that take us to places where we can truly go, physically and right now, in this city. Making poetry, like Buenos Aires, a matter of choosing to go out and meet it.

My city’s best museum is MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinamericano de Buenos Aires) because of its dynamic approach to making contemporary art available to the public eye, its open doors to public events in all fields from cinema to literature to cuisine and for all audiences including a set of programs specially curated for cross-cultural youth.

The best place to spend time outdoors in my city is the Bosques de Palermo circuit of lush parks (989 acres, in the heart of the city!) with rose gardens, an idyllic lake, botanical gardens with a fantastical glass hothouse in the middle, and rolling grass studded here and there with potbellied Palo Borracho trees and their crazy big pink flowers like party hats… The Bosques de Palermo can mean an instant escape from the city’s rush and crunch; going there is like falling into a world apart commanded by magnanimous exuberant nature. But it’s also right in the middle of the bustling metropolis too…

My city really knows how to celebrate El Dia de la Tradicion (The Day of [Autochthonous] Tradition) because on that day, Nov 10th (birthday of poet Jose Hernandez), the customs and lifestyle of the Argentine cowboy or gaucho are honored and shared – ranches outside the city like in San Antonio de Areco open to the public and put on shows, offers local foods and music. And inside city limits too Tradition has its day: in Mataderos, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires, the cowboys run the rings on horseback and share a feast of roasted meats or vegetables in the warm sun of November in the Southern hemisphere.

The “Ateneo Grand Splendid” bookstore café on Avenida Santa Fe is my favorite place to grab breakfast, and Fervor (named for Borges’ youthful first book of poems) is the spot for late-night eats.