Buenos Aires is a magical city. Its architecture is stunning, its statues are fascinating creations and it's the sort of city where you encounter 10 piece bands performing with passion on street corners.

On our first night out I was constantly craning my neck. Parts of it reminded me of images of New York although Tim says it made him think of his time in London. I had two objectives that first night: to find the El Ateneo bookstore (a Borders, Argentina-style) and to have a famous Argentine steak dinner.

We found one of the stores fairly easily on Buenos Aires big commercial drag Florida Ave - and then we found its big English books section. I bought three new books, even managing to find a CK Stead novel, so now I'm reading about a book set in New Zealand - a nice slice of home.

Even with this little coup, the mighty steak was the night's highlight. Argentina is a very affordable country for New Zealanders to travel in at the moment. I've heard it's more expensive than a few years ago, but it is still a complete bargain for meals, accommodation, almost everything.

Our steak meals were cheap but they still came out so ridiculously large that I looked at our waiter as if to say 'you've got to be joking me.' It was a monster. My apologies to all the vegetarians in the audience, but it was close to the greatest meal of my life, prompting me to learn the Spanish phrase for 'that was delicious'.

After we'd successfully eaten a typical Argentine meal, we were set on finding out more about their traditional dance, the Buenos Aires institution of the Tango. I'll tell you about our four left feet in the next post. Dios mio, it was an embarrassing effort.

Check out more photos from my trip in my Flickr album.

Find out more about Buenos Aires.

Read more about Kelly's adventures.