Dear Buenos Aires

Well, magnificent city. How has it been 40 years before our first meeting?! It is a travesty, though I have only myself to blame. I assure you, it certainly will not be so long before our next.

You are truly the grand dame of this already impressive continent. They call you the Paris of the South, but you are more than that. You were put together with love, your city blocks planned meticulously and designed with an eye to perfect that which Europe had cobbled together over centuries. I was charmed by your grand boulevards lined with soaring trees and stately manors, towering beauty for the eyes to behold. I could spend years wandering their generous footpaths past your artesanal shops, and delis and markets peddling the crafts and produce your porteños brought with them from the docks when they came from Europe (mostly Italy, hence the surnames) all those years ago, another sign that those roots run deep. Or exploring your monumental parks and plazas, discovering statues, sculptures, meticulous gardens or other wonders (giraffes!). Or stopping to dine at cafes and restaurants uniquely and exquisitely designed in styles trending in times past and present, knowing a flurry of exquisitely dressed staff are waiting at any time of day or night to cater for me.

You are truly the belle of the ball, providing unexpected adventures for those who know where to look. Sure, you are not as spontaneously wild as your northern neighbours Brazil or Colombia - your venues are long established, steeped in history and built on traditions of service and excellence. There are no street parties to be found here. You are more refined than that. Instead, you house institutions, places to seek out for the best of the best - cafes and restaurants operating with the elegance and glamour of a golden age, saloon theatres where tango was born and continues to evolve as dancers hit the stage night after night, hidden speakeasies moulded from the current trends you'd expect in cosmopolitan New York or Tokyo, or cavernous warehouses set aside to let your people dance. You have it all, nestled in quiet refinement across your sprawling streets. I uncovered some of your best offerings, but how I wish that I had longer to discover more!

So thank you (and you, patient reader!) for celebrating with me (and being along for the ride!). I spent the first week of my sixth decade with you and caught you at your very best. Crowned in glorious sunshine, you were in full bloom, resplendent in jacaranda purple and luscious spring green. How lucky I was to have timed our meeting to perfection! You flawlessly executed all of my intended birthday plans to sit on the sidewalk at one of your famed parillas and enjoy the world's best steak and an exquisite bottle of red (thank you, friends - you know who you are!), and you let me live like a local in a charming apartment in one of your trendy barrios and start each day with a cortado and some medialunas, as any local should. You exhausted me with your late nights and overloaded plates (the trick was coffee and cake at 6pm for the energy to last for a 10pm dinner and drinks into the morning beyond), but my time with you was a special experience that I will cherish.

Until we meet again!