A Gringo's Saturday night in Buenos Aires.
- B K
- Dec 2, 2017
- 6 min read
One day I woke up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I go out to my varanda to stretch my arms towards the afternoon sun, I look out to my horizon as I appreciate the view & observe the Paris alike city. As I glanced down over the balcony and noticed that it is so peaceful and nobody is around. I can spot the chocolate bar wrapper flowing within the wind down the street. I tap the microphone on my hearing aid to be sure that it is on and it was. It looks like the end of humanity has arrived, that thought has come to my mind. Confused and surprised that no-one is to be seen on the streets. My younger brother comes out and stands beside me, resting his arms on the railing,"Bro, that was a great night, how good was it! This place has some really amazing nightlife vibes" he says with fatigue. My only response to him was "Where is everyone ? " He takes a moment as he lights his cigarette. "In B.A, (Buenos Aires) everyone parties and goes out on Saturday then chill out to recover on the Sunday"
They say that New York City is a city that never sleeps, however when I was in NYC, I had trouble finding a bar at 4am on a Friday night with my buddy from San Antonio, and it kinda disappointed us. New York city does go quite. Buenos Aires is definitely one of the front runners when it comes to 24hr partying and has a huge variety of choices in nightlife. Many of the best things about this fascinating city happens after dark, and you’ll notice that nightlife and nighttime activities play a key role in the lives of porteños (Argentinians, it literally means 'person of the port'). It was strange for me to see that people go out for dinner at 1am or to meet up for la previa, which is pre-game drinking at friends house. Then head out to the bars, don’t even think about arriving at your chosen venue before 2 a.m as this is when most clubs are opening their doors but thats when the party kicks in. I was truly amazed how the Argentines can stay awake and keep on dancing, socialising and keep up with the music, but I had noticed that they aren't huge boozers, which kinda explained how they were able to do it, so you’ll rarely see them stumbling. They were blown away how much me and my brother able to drink a lot, we just told them that "We're Australians"
I am a Rock 'n' Roll guitar lover and I have passion for Hip Hop as well. I am not a big fan of House/electronic music. As a musician, I am willing to be opened minded when it comes to music and I like to boogie woogie on the dance floor time to time. House, Techno and Electronic is huge in Buenos Aires and big-name international DJs are constantly landing on Argentine shores to entertain adoring fans with hours-long sets. I've been to a few raves in the past featuring Deadmau5 and Tiesto. My brother loves that genre of music as he's more familiar with that style of music. Once, he got a chance to meet with Skillex on a boat in Fuji along with his good mate Joshi.
Compared to this, We just fell in love with the "club scene" in B.A. and hands down they know how to party and deliver a good night out..
On a Saturday night, my brother and I went to meet up some friends at the Fusion Bar in the city centre. Since they were bartenders, we were able to get some free drinks. Also to add, there was a girl I wanted to get to know better, unfornturnly she didn't speak english and my Spanish is a bit rocky, I had no luck but never-less we become friends. We hung out, played some Uno and chatted away. some travellers joined us as well. Around 11pm we started to make a plan for the night. One of our buddies, said that there was a Bus Pub Crawl happening and it ends at the rave hosting upcoming Dj's. I was like "fuck yeah, I'm in". After we brought our tickets, finished off with some shots of Voodoo - overproof rum at the Fusion bar then headed to Irish Pub near Avenida Corrientes. That weekend in Buenos Aires, the F1 ePrix was on, the pub was packed as fuck with motor lovers ! There was a cool live band and the singer was brilliant. After an hour. 30 people including me and my brother headed to the 'bus stop' location to get on board onto the "Party Bus". Nothing like I experienced before. Free beers, two stripper poles, dico flashing lights, music pumping through its fat speakers, everyone cheering out to the people on the streets, 2 Aussie, 6 Brazilians, One guy from Switzerland, 4 English backpackers and the rest of are porteños, just making a fool of themselves and enjoying our ride until we get to the next location. Once we arrived at only god knows the name as I can't even remember, however I do recall that the club had 4 levels and every level was different genre of music and we only there for a short amount of time. Usually when you go out to the clubs in Argentina, girls go in for free and men pay AR$100 but with our host from the party bus negotiated with the huge bouncers and ticket girl, to get the males in for free. Next we went to a bar not far from previous location, it wasn't anything special that clicked to me but it certainly had something of offer for Electronic lovers. Back on the bus, we finally head towards the final destination - Terrazas Del Este.
This place, was mind blowing, I just could not get over how big it was, it was so unreal and it was just a club that hosting an event to welcome some up coming international Dj's. There was just only good vibes, stunting good looking girls and many rooms filled with different styles of theme and music, I spend most of my time in the outside area where the main stage was. I was able to see the sea and the bright stars over my head. As I dance away and making new friends, one of my porteños friend demanded that I followed him "Amigo, ven conmigo" (friend, come with me) he said. As I did, I followed him to the washroom, thought is was weird suddently he pulls out a little bag of dust and made a few lines."Well, why the hell not right" I said to him in english, he laughed and had no idea what I said to him. The adrenaline kicked within seconds and just got me pumping, so clean and the buzz lasted a good amount of time. I've had Big C in the past and it was dissappointing, really short buzz and shit quality. My amigo tells me in english "Best in tho world"
My brother noticed my energy had increased and he checked up but not too worried as he knew if I was smiling, dancing and chatting like crazy. The sound of the night became more mellow with the techno beats, you see the sunrise rising up from the ocean. I looked onto my phone, it was 8am. It was time to say adios to my new friends & make my way back home with a smile. It took me and my brother forever to get back home as we had missed the bus.
From that day on, any clubs or rave events, I tend to compare to Buenos Aires Clubs but I shouldn't do that, if something is done right, then the rest should follow. However saying that, I should take in account that each country has it's own laws and regulations and what not. If anyone tells me that NYC, is the best place to party. I kinda look at them with a bit of pity as it not 1978 anymore because back then NYC had the best clubs. I try to encourage others that they need to go to Berlin or Buenos Aires and experience the nightlife before they can make a statement or to compare for that matter.
Buenos Aires is a city for night owls.