Impressions of… Palermo, Buenos Aires

Palermo is divided into two halves: Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood. As these names suggest, Palermo is an area fuelled by café culture, night life and modern restaurants.

Street art in Palermo

Every few doors seems to lead either to a café or a pastelería, the delightful scent of coffee wafting out to the busy pavement and the cakes stacked temptingly in the windows. Argentinians seem particularly keen on alfajores (a kind of cookie sandwich often filled with dulce de leche) and – inexplicably – lemon meringue pie, always looking mouth-watering with its burnished white meringue peaks atop a soft layer of lemon.

In Palermo you are also spoilt for choice of steak restaurants. One evening we underestimated the popularity of La Cabrera and, with steak on our minds and unwilling to wait an hour for a table, settled for the similarly named Las Cabras. Although our table was lit by only a single candle and we struggled to read and translate the menu in the dim light, we managed to order an exquisitely tender lomo apiece, along with a Mendoza red wine and an Argentinian beer which arrived in a one-litre bottle!

Parque Tres Febrero, Buenos Aires

For a large and busy city, great effort has been channelled into maintaining green spaces in Buenos Aires and this is especially evident in Palermo. The fumes of the endless traffic are offset by the trees lining most of the streets, their new spring leaves bright and fresh. There is a network of parks to the north, some of which contain botanical gardens or mini zoos for which there is an entry fee, but others are free, including the Parque Tres de Febrero. The perimeter of the lake is a prime spot for runners and drinks sellers calling out their wares – agua con gas, coca cola! Gaggles of orange-beaked snowy-white-feathered geese waddle about, some followed by huddles of fluffy yellow spring goslings.