According to weather statistics, January is the warmest month of the year in Buenos Aires, but this February does not seem to have heard. Below we give a brief list of summer links.

Possible attitudes towards Buenos Aires heat are two: resistance or acceptance. Those who pick the first option look for refrigerated interiors and escape the sunlight. Other people, however, enjoy the warm outdoors, sunbathing and even sports at noon.

Links for the resistance:
Ice cream shops in Buenos Aires
Theatres
Museums

Links for heat lovers:
Buenos Aires beach
The Ecological Reserve
Sports Clubs

As travellers, when we reach our destination we get a first impression that is not always definitive. Gradually, after days and tours, we build an image, a sense of the place. But sometimes there is a moment, a single point in time, that makes us remember the trip forever.

The whales blowing water in Puerto Madryn, the lights of Paris from the heights of Montmartre, the first bite of prosciutto at a tapas bar in Madrid, the roar of the Iguazú river are some experiences shared by thousands of travelers every year and preserved for a life. To make this article, some visitors to Buenos Aires told us their unforgettable moments.

Jay (48 years old), Atlanta, USA:
“Dance is one of my favorite activities. In my town I took ballroom and salsa classes, and, during the past year, also tango. On this trip, with my boyfriend Rick we visited Península Valdés, Mar del Plata and we reserved Buenos Aires for last. Since before leaving home, I was obsessed with the milongas. My tango teachers had recommended several, and the first one I went was Gricel. As soon as we entered, before looking for a table, I realized that the level of dancing was high, well above what I had seen. I spent the evening watching the couples on the floor, not daring to dance, almost without speaking. The elegance of so many men and women of different ages I found thrilling.”

Loek (21 years old), Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
“I must admit that in my country I am not a follower of football. I Just watch the World Cup or the games that my friends force me to see. So the idea of going to the stadium in Buenos Aires did not attract me so much. But luckily, I let them convince me and instead of spending another evening drinking beer in Palermo we went on a Sunday to see Boca. First, I was impressed by the crowd in the streets around the stadium; rather than walking they were jumping while and singing at the same time. Then the stadium itself, so steep, so huge. When the teams appeared on the field, the noise, the confetti, the shouts made me crazy. In the meantime, I was another fan.”

Juliette (33 years old), Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“My parents are French, but they have lived in Brazil for forty years. My mother is a baker and my dad, a cook, like myself. I love to eat, and I am especially carnivorous. In Sao Paulo, where I live and work in a restaurant, you get good beef, but it is expensive. Of course I knew the reputation of Argentine beef, and when I tried it a the parrillas it did not disappoint me, but neither it fascinated me. The problem was that I could not get my steak as raw asI like it. So I asked at my hotel and they recommended to buy at the Juramento market in Belgrano, and they also lent me the kitchen. I bought what you call chorizo steak, and I call entrecôte. I charred the outside and left the center red, almost blue. After that, I’m thinking about coming to live in Buenos Aires for a while and find work as a cook.”

In Buenos Aires-in all of Argentina-, January is the month when most people take vacations. The city gets empty of locals and filled with national and international visitors. What do they do in Buenos Aires in January?

As in any time of year, many travelers divide their time between tours and shopping. In January there survive many of the New Year’s offers; shopping experts know they have to look for counter season clothing.

The attraction of Buenos Aires as the region’s cultural node does not decrease during the summer. The agenda for January at bue.gob.ar has six activity pages. And, of course, locals and visitors also go to the beach.

Sport activities are one of the driving forces of the domestic and international tourism. The Tennis Grand Slams, the formula one, the olimpic games and the football World cups are the most important examples.

But travellers don’t devote themselves to stadiums. According to the Department of Tourism of South Africa, during the World Cup 2010, 83% of tourists visited other four destinations apart from the venue cities.

In Buenos Aires, in November and December, inhabitants and tourists can enjoy three tournaments with world relevance.

On the 18th of December, the last fixture of tournament of ligue A. Until now, when every team has only five matches to play, Boca Juniors has a sixth lead ahead of Racing and
Atlético de Rafaela. Boca and Racing, two of the greatest teams of country, will play the last fixture in Buenos Aires. Boca plays against All Boys in “La Bombonera” (as locals call the Boca’s Stadium) while Racing meets Vélez, last champion.

The final match of the tennis exhibition tournament Copa Peugeot takes place on the 18th of December. This tournament starts on the 15th of December. The Cup is celebrated in the most important tennis stadium of the country, the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis Club. Six national and international players will participate in this edition. In 2011, Spanish tennis players Feliciano López and Fernando Verdasco (on the 21st and 24th places of the ranking) are the special guests. The list of unconfirmed participants includes American James Blake (former number 4, today on the 69th place) and Mardy Fish (on the 8th rank), and French Gael Monfils (on the 10th place).

The third tournament of the end of this year in Buenos Aires starts on the 19th of November and ends on the 10th of December. The Open Championship of Polo is considered one of the most important in the International calendar. Eight Argentine teams with the best polo players of the World take part in this important event. This Championship takes place in the “Campo Argentino de Palermo”.

Everybody loves travelling. However, do we think about the environmental and social impact caused by our trips?
Every movement by some means of gas transport leaves its footprints of carbon; planes, particularly, are much more pollulant than ships, while buses are worse than trains. What about people? How do inhabitants feel when their city is crowded by tourists. What about economics, the value of the houses, the respect for the traditions? We are not used to think about those consequences. Until now, tourism was synonym for joy and exploration; but now “no chimney” industry is becoming more and more famous and consolidated. It is really necessary to guarantee the continuity of this industry, which is also source of pleasure and important economic activity.

That is why the concept of responsable travel was born: working based on agreements by the public and private sectors and society in general, by taking care of the natural resources, social and cultural patrimony. It intends to use less energy, reduce the amount of garbage and maximize recycling. Furthermore, of course, this kind of tourism is developed based on decent wages and work conditions.

For consecutive second year, the Network of Responsible Travel organizes the Week of Responsible Travel. This week will take place from 3th until 12th of November, in Buenos Aires, and will offer conferences, a fair, a contest of photos and a film mini-festival with eleven movies. A Golden opportunity to think about our behaviour as tourists but also as hostess.

The FIT of Buenos Aires is the largest fair of tourism in the American continente and one of the most important in the world. The Edition 2011 takes place in La Rural of Palermo from 29th of October until the 1st of November.

The International Fair of Tourism in Latin America has taken place every year in Buenos Aires since 1997. FIT 2010 occupied 42800 square meters of La Rural with exhibiting companies from 1800 countries. Last year, this fair gathered almost 90000 visitors. The last two days of the FIT – Monday and Tuesday – are exclusive for professionals of the tourist sector.

For workers of tourism, the fair is synonim for a crowded meeting of ideas, information and businesses. For the audience in general, they pretend to be travelling around the world without leaving the city. For everyone, it is our chance of meeting people, seeing live shows, taking part in promotions and parties, tasting drinks and exotic or traditional dishes.

In 2011, the stand of Ente Turismo of Buenos Aires has as main theme, the cultural tourism, and as golden product, the gastronomy. In the stand – the Lumber 292 in the Blue Pavillion – there will be room for films, a gastronomic space, games and Publications about the economic importance of tourism for Buenos Aires. On Saturday and Sunday, there will be cooking lessons in charge of famous professional cooks (at 5pm and 7pm, respectively)

Tyler Cullen –photographer and video maker– went out to go around New York with his camara and asked people what they were listening to.

From the invention of the walkman, walking with music background has become everyday. The mp3 players – small but huge in capacity – fill their ears with white headphones. By bus, subway and at streets, more and more people listen to music while strolling around the city.

Some fans choose the song of the day depending on their mood or the planned activities. Other people, the most careless ones, download someone else’s music lists and upload into their devices without knowing what they are going to listen to.

The musical travellers deal with difficult dilemmas: Which song is the best one to visit Montmartre for the first time? And what about the favourite song to go jogging in Central Park?

Tyler Cullen uploaded his video on Youtube in May of 2011. Less than a month later, Greg Henkel and Agustín Norverto had already recorded and uploaded the version done in Buenos Aires. The idea of Cullen was taken and adapted, until now, in 30 other cities.

Which song would you recommend to visit different parts of Buenos Aires?

The agency of tourism STA Travel gave a hard work to reject to the Australian movie maker Rick Mereki: a six-week trip around the world shooting videos for the Internet.

STA Travel works in 92 countries and is directed by travellers with low-budgets; in general, students. Of course, the target of a company as STA is also the audience by the internet. For that reason, the idea of producing videos to post on the web could not fail. It was really successful.

Mereki, Tim White (the producer) and Andy Lees (an actor of Sidney) went around 60 thousand kilometres, took 18 flights and visit eleven countries in 44 days. Meanwhile, they record a terabyte of video with three short movies: Eat, Move and Learn. After being one week online, the videos had more than six millions of clicks.

Some countries of our region were visited for this purpose, the team was in Chile, Perú and Argentina. They also went to the gastronomic meccas as Spain, Italy and France. Among the delicious dishes in the fast pace of Eat, an inhabitant of this city can see a “morcilla” and “choris” (a local and friendly way to call a kind of pork sausage), a steak with “chimichurri” (a domestic spicy sauce for grilled meat) and the last dish of the video: the most voluptuous “flan” (crème caramel)

One of the things we always remember from our trips is food. Everybody knows that Paris tastes of croissant and quiche lorraine, Mexico makes our tongue burn, Lima means fresh ceviche and in Brazil, it is necessary to dring coconut milk to quench our thirst. Even though we can drink Caipirinhas in New York or eat thai food in Santiago, nothing is the same as the own taste of every town.

Which taste, which smell has Buenos Aires? In the morning, at downtown city, a latte coffee with croissants. At lunchtime, the dishes that mix the Spanish and Italian influences and the inevitable “empanadas”. All day long, the green foam of the “mate” is found at offices, classrooms, parks and desks. Anytime, adults and children cannot resist the temptation to enjoy an ice-cream in the corners of the tourist neighbourhoods but also in the other ones.
In the evening, there appear the drinks and the “picadas” (meat and cheese plate). At night, pizza houses launches their irresistible smell of oil and garlic but the “parrillas” ( grill restaurants) feel pride of their steaks being grilled in the pavements. Italian restaurants do the same with their pastas. Apart from traditions, the new trends of cooks make us get surprised with the proposals of fussion. Wine is always present in every toast.
But one characteristic smell of the city is that one from the “choripanes”, those sandwiches of chorizo (highly-seasoned pork sausage), sold in the carts of the Costanera or in the surroundings of every football stadium. The “chori”, as local call it, is delicious, cheap, full of fat and irresistible.

To celebrate the tastes of our city and invite people to get acquainted with them, the first Gastronomic Week will take place from the 10th of October until 16th of October. The Association of Hotels, Restaurants and Cafés of Buenos Aires meets the Ente Turismo to create an irresistible progam of gastronomic tours, open-air cooking lessons, meetings with writers who will tell us the history of dishes. We cannot avoid the tasting of drinks or the recipes’ contest. The city invites us to sink our teeth into the best dishes. Bon appetit!

Take a look at the complete progamm

We already feel the smell. In some neighbourhoods we smell the fresh jasmine of the country; in others we can see the bloom of colourful wisteria. Even, at downtown city, air seems to be softer, more promising, almost provocative. Skin gains timidly ground on clothes: an arm here, a calf there, maybe feet get free from boots. Behind the skin, here come the glances, conversations, meetings.

In springtime, we love ice-creams every time, and enjoy the tables along the pavement and the splendid fruit shops as luxurious boutiques. Of course, flower stores are a must-see place. The trees that Carlos Thays planted in the parks of the city take turns showing their colours: pink lapacho makes Plaza Italy even more beautiful, the tipas trees stain the Palermo woods with yellow and in November, the Plaza San Martín becomes violet with the help of the jacaranda in November. Even, doves of Plaza de Mayo seem to be happier. Parks are overcrowded, tourists have picnics and local people use their lunch-time to enjoy the first intense sun.

At evening, we are not in a rush to go home any more, we want to take a stroll around the city, look at people, go on. Most people change their home return for a happy hour with fruit drinks, there is always a musician in a terrace with an incredible moonlight. Spring has just come and landscape and moods change. Even allergic people, among their endless sneezes, cannot deny it.