The instructions in the email are simple: ‘Meet in Colegiales at the corner of two roads – Conde and Jorge Newbery.’

Colegiales is a quiet residential barrio of Buenos Aires, so this random intersection at first seems an unlikely starting point for the graffiti tour we’re due to go on the next day. Even in a city like Buenos Aires, where street art is more ubiquitous than street lighting, I had expected to be told to meet at a cafe, or a hostel, or a subway station. Somewhere where there are people.

But when we arrive the following afternoon, after a last minute dash to the bakery for some hangover-zapping empanadas, it all begins to make sense. Two of the four buildings on the cross streets are adorned with murals of cartoon-like characters and bright splashes of colour. I figure that even if we are going to meet an uncertain end, at least it will be in a festive setting.

Of course, we have no need to worry. In the four years since they have been running street art and graffiti tours around Buenos Aires, Graffitimundo has been recommended by the likes of Time Out, The New York Times, Lonely Planet and my friend Sonia, so they must be good.

Proving the universal truth that no matter where you go in the world you will come across another Australian, our guide Kirsty is a fellow Sydneysider who had travelled to Buenos Aires a few years ago and fallen in love with a boy, the city and its art. She admits that she is not an artist but an art-lover, and her passion is evident in her wild gesticulations as she talks and the way she bounds off the bus at each stop. Even when the grey clouds overhead are fast turning into a torrential downpour, she insists on wrenching us from the warmth of our bus seats to get a closer look at this artwork or that – and it’s always worth it. This is an insight into the city that a thousand tango lessons will never teach you.

Over the course of the afternoon the tour weaves its way from Colegiales through the neighbouring districts of Palermo Hollywood and Palermo Soho. Kirsty fills us in on the history of various pieces and the stories of their artists. The street art scene in Buenos Aires exploded during the Argentine economic crisis of the early 2000s, when politically motivated murals began to spring up around the city. Since then, the police and locals have embraced street art with many businesses going so far as to commission work for their buildings.

The scene in Buenos Aires is dominated by a handful of artists who have almost become celebrities in their own right over the past decade, recognisable by their unique styles and street pseudonyms. The tour includes a stop at one of the studios used by many of the artists – a cavernous warehouse space complete with resident cat – but when we call in this afternoon it is mostly empty.

After a few hours the rain calls a premature end to the walking part of our tour so we seek refuge at Hollywood in Cambodia + Post Bar, the city’s only street art gallery and bar. At the gallery I’m fortunate enough to meet one of the artists, Stencil Land, but with my limited Spanish and his non-existent English we don’t get much further than polite greetings and big smiles. But in a way that’s enough, because his art and that of his colleagues has already shown me the heart of Buenos Aires.

Check out Graffitimundo here.

‘Does anyone know about the cost of ski passes, cheap accomm, etc, in any of the ski resorts in South America?’

I didn’t even know Argentina had snow but I know you guys are a lot smarter than me – can you help him?

Age: 22

Occupation: Publicist

Favourite travel destination?: Argentina – it has more to offer in one country than any other I’ve ever been to. I’ve been absorbed in the hustle of Buenos Aires for weeks, tasted some of the best wines in Mendoza, gone adventuring in the Andes in Patagonia, and been awed by the natural phenomenon that is Iguazu falls at the Brazil-Paraguay border. And can we spare a moment to salivate over the Argentinean steak?

Worst travel experience? What happened?: Being kicked out of an overnight train carriage by an intoxicated train conductor and his lady of the night. I believe it was approximately 3am, somewhere in between Bosnia and Croatia.

Best tips for beating jetlag?: Keep yourself awake for two days and then hit the sack at an appropriate hour on the second night.

What is the one thing you don’t leave home without?: A return airfare – otherwise I may never come home!

Do you stay in touch with people while you’re travelling?: Less and less with each trip. I used to buy phone cards but now I may just check my Facebook. Home is always there but those special moments when you’re travelling aren’t.

Best meal you’ve ever had while travelling?: The freshest Sashimi imaginable, served to us by the platter at 5am at the world’s biggest fish markets in Tokyo. We were seated amongst breakfast diners, but this was something of a late supper for our party… perhaps that is why everything tasted so amazing?!

Best kiss?: A tall, dark and handsome Swede on an idyllic beach in Thailand.

Best/scariest/funniest drive?: The night we found ourselves struggling to steer down the windy, cliff-facing roads of Santorini (Greece) on quad bikes in near gale storm winds comes to mind.

What has been the big WOW moment of your travelling life?: It happened somewhere in between Olympus and Fethiye in Turkey, cruising along the Mediterranean Sea in a 14 person yacht. I was sipping on a cool drink and watching the sunset after having spent days at sea with some of my closest friends whom I hadn’t seen in months.

Photo caption: This is the day we arrived in Cabo Polonio in Uruguay – a holiday town with no electricity, no cars/roads, no English speakers, no other Western tourists, and the world’s best fish empanadas. With a population of only 80, this small town is set amidst sand dunes and is only accessible by monster trucks that pick up passengers from the side of the road in the middle of seemingly nowhere.