outofoffice: What do you do when you accidentally find yourself at a Gay Bar in Buenos Aires....... DANCE!

By Saturday in Buenos Aires we were starting to get our barrings in the city and getting in step with the pace of the city. So on Saturday we got rolling at about noon and Jonny and I headed out to the neighborhood of Palermo, which we absolutely feel in love with, think like Queen West in Toronto, but with a few extra upscale restaurants thrown in. We had already heard really good things about the area so we were pretty pumped to go, and Saturdays there is an open air market filled with Artisans selling their own jewellery, clothing, etc (which I took full advantage of).

By the time we arrived in Palermo around 12:30-1pm, the market was only just starting to get set up........ they really do move at a different pace here, in Canada weekend markets would be wrapping up by this time. So we spent the day wandering around the market grabbing food at a few great spots and hitting the shops. Although I did most of the shopping Jonny had the biggest score of the day and found himself a new short short bathing suit - wait for the pics you will not be disappointed - they come complete with a sail boat print right out of an '80s country club.

Shopping in Palermo

One find that we have to highlight is this amazing little cafe that we went to called Libros Del Pasaje. Jonny had read about it on the same coffee blog that we found the amazing coffee spot in La Paz. It is this cute little cafe buried in the back of an independent book store that was the most charming spot we have been to yet, it even had hand written menus. We relaxed there with coffees, he had a bagel and I had a ham and cheese tostado (like a mini sandwich) and we read Spanish magazines for over an hour.

Enjoying Spanish Glamour

the quaint setting inside

The view from the street

Around 7pm we headed back to the hostel to start getting ready for the night. We were trying to pace ourselves right because we knew we were going to try and hit city hard tonight in true Buenos Aires style and make it dancing until 6am. Around 10pm we headed back to Palermo with Kait and J.J. to meet up with our Kiwi friends at a great Parilla Restaurant, Don Jolio's, for a big Argentinian steak dinner. And feast we did, we all had beef in some form or another, mashed potatoes, veggies, a couple bottles of wine and all for the around $40 each Canadian. After dinner the boys headed outside for some cigars that Pete, our kiwi friend, had bought earlier in the day and we ladies stayed inside finishing our wine. Before we knew it it was 2am and we were the last ones there.

At 2am we decided that we would head to a bar to grab a few drinks before we hit a club for the night dance. I had heard about this little speak easy bar called 878 - indicating its address (for those that don't know a speak easy is a hidden bar with no sign or anything that usually looks like nothing from the outside). So we headed out to walk a few blocks to try and find this place and somehow along the way I had gotten in my head that it was 879, so when we pulled up to 879 and the door was covered with cobwebs I thought we had be steered wrong. Luckily Jonny spotted and really random man standing across the very deserted street wearing a tie and asked me if it could be 878, since that was the address he was standing in front of. I hesitated for a second and then the guy in the tie said "you looking for bar?" - Found it!! The place was great! A little hidden gem that even had a hidden room in the bar. The waitress escorted us there and we each had a few cocktails over the next few hours.

Inside the back room of 878

The hidden gem for the evening

Suddenly we realized that it was almost 5am so we decided it was time to go DANCING! Rachel and Pete decided to call it a night, so the 4 of us jumped in a cab and asked the driver to take us to the Roxy!! This was a club that we had read about online that sounded pretty good, and was one of the only ones that claimed to play rock and hip-hop and not just electronic music so we decided it was the one for us. After about 10min cab (now 5am) ride we pulled up and walked to the front and the door man informed is that they were no longer letting anyone in since they stop serving drinks at 530. After a little pleading, offering to pay a little extra and telling him we were Canadian and only here for the night the bouncer caved and let us come in, and even let us in free of charge! Just as we were walking up the ramp to the sweaty dance floor the bouncer grabbed Kait by the arm and whispered in her ear "It's Gay night". We all looked around, and he definitely was not kidding. Oooooooops. It didn't say that about the Roxy on line. We all had a good laugh and realized how badly we stuck out as the only straight people in the bar, in our only bar-ish back packing clothes, and without out any of that South American rhythm in our dance moves. We grabbed a few beers and the bar and jumped right into the dance floor and stayed there until 6am. After which we hopped a taxi home and watched the sun come out from outside the window of our cab.

Sunrise cab ride home

Sunrising over the square near our hostel

At the time when we were there I just thought of it as a funny story, but as I was reflecting on the night the next day I was kinda happy that we had gotten to see it. I was amazed to see in South America, where there are still a number of 3rd world countries and culture and customs that are still heavily based on religion that people were able to be open about their sexuality and in Buenos Aires a least, gay people where not forced into the shadows.

All and all in ended up being a great night which resulted in a very slow moving Sunday morning. The 4 of us finally got going around 230pm and headed back to the area of San Telmo. We started out by quickly beelining to a restaurant and gave across this amazing little spot tucked away in a back alley called Pasaje Solar. We all had some amazing Italian food and shared a bottle of Mendoza wine to help cure our hangovers. Sunday is an amazing day in San Telmo all the streets get closed down and it just becomes a massive street market filled with thousands of people. I am talking like 20 blocks of anything you could ever want, antiques, souvenirs, street food, art, leather goods, street performers, etc. I could go on and on about want what you can see there. Even with our hangovers were wandered around San Telmo for hours. After which we headed home, made our our dinner and called it a night. Early.