Advertisement
Published: February 10th 2009
Ashley and I made the six hour trip from Mar del Plata and arrived in Buenos Aires in the early evening on Thursday, January 15. From the bus terminal we caught a cab to our next hotel, The Dazzler Suites. Upon our arrival they told us our room was upgraded and asked if that was ok with us (to which I obviously sarcastically responded, no, please give us the smaller room). After relaxing for a little while we decided we felt like Mexican food for dinner (I had not eaten Mexican in all of my time abroad and Paraguayan food is nothing like it for those of you who may have thought otherwise). We decided on a place recommended by the hotel that was on Puerto Madero, the somewhat ritzy port turned restaurant and nightclub district of Buenos Aires. We took a cab there and the cab driver let us out about a block from the restaurant, at least that is what he told us. Turned out he had absolutely no idea what he was talking about and we spent about half an hour looking for the restaurant. This was not all bad as we got to see a lot of
the port all lit up at night. We finally arrived at the Mexican restaurant complete with all of the usual favorites, margaritas, and a fairly obnoxious mariachi band that found it necessary to play as loud as they possibly could when they were about a foot away from everyone. We had a nice dinner, but we were both pretty tired from all the traveling (I’m pretty sure I fell asleep while we were waiting for the bill). We decided to call it a night as we had a big walking day planned for Friday.
After a bit of a leisurely morning we set out on our great walking tour of Buenos Aires. We started by walking down Avenida Nueve de Julio, what Argentineans boast as ‘the widest street in the world.’ The street itself is split up into various sections with dividers and had something like 16 lanes, but somehow Ashley was still not that impressed by the size of the street (For the record, I was). Along Avd. Nueve de Julio we passed the Teatro Colón, a world-class opera hall and a major landmark of the city. The largest theater in the southern hemisphere until Sydney Opera House
was built in 1973, Teatro Colón hosts a opera, ballet, and classical music. Unfortunately, because of renovations being made to the building, we were only to see a bit of the outside and what we saw was really not that impressive. Continuing down ‘the widest street in the world,’ we came upon the famous Obelisco, a 67 foot monument that was built in only one month. When Argentineans have a big fútbol win to celebrate they generally meet in front of the monument, which looks somewhat like the Washington Monument in Washington D.C. From there we ambled off the main stretch and down some side streets until we arrived at La Plaza del Mayo, a main protest destination in the city (we did not join any protests, although we did walk by one with many armored police men who looked ready to ‘control the crowd’ in any way possible). The plaza has a number of fountains and statues, one which commemorates the first anniversary of Argentina’s independence from Spain in 1810. On the east side of the plaza is La Casa Rosada, the home to the offices of the President of Argentina. The word rosada means pink, which is the
color of the building. There are a few theories as to why this color was chosen, ranging from the possible combination of the red and white of two opposing political parties in an attempt to make peace in the late 1860s to the possibility it was painted with bovine blood, a common practice in the late 19th century. I am more inclined to believe the cow blood explanation, only because I think it is more unique and pretty cool. You may recognize the balconies of the building as the place where Juan and Eva Perón addressed large crowds of Argentineans, but probably more likely as the place Madonna did the same while portraying Eva Perón in the movie Evita. On another edge of La Plaza del Mayo is located the metropolitan cathedral, which if you ask me looks more like a museum than a church from the outside. We took a quick peak inside, where it did indeed look more like a church. Just to give credit where credit is due, some of the impressive facts I am throwing around here are coming out of, you guessed it, The Lonely Planet guidebook on Argentina.
After lunch on Florida, the
main pedestrian/commercial street in the city, we headed for the neighborhood of Recoleta, the most wealthy and fashionable area of Buenos Aires. At this point in the day Ashley started to have a bit of a problem with the backs of her legs. What we originally thought was sunburn began to look more and more like an allergic reaction (though the sun was not helping either). Her legs swelled up, turned red, and had tons of little bumps on them. From about this point onward I heard how badly her legs hurt, probably roughly 50 times. She told me it was ‘the worst pain she had ever felt,’ and I must say, I believed her as it looked pretty painful. Given her misery, I did not think it was the best time to take a picture to document it, but for the record, her calves/ankles were so swollen that she had cankles (a non-medical term that describes when you can really not differentiate between a person’s calf and ankle). Although she was in quite a bit of pain, Ashley was not giving up for the day and we pressed on, hugging the sides of large buildings for shade. We headed
for the famous Recoleta cemetery, whose crypts are full of deceased past presidents, military heroes, politicians, and other famous and influential people. We wandered through the ‘streets’ of the cemetery, and when I say ‘streets’ that is pretty much what I mean as each family has above ground ‘houses’ made of marble that cover the underground crypts of their deceased relatives. Many of the sarcophagi were ornately detailed with statues, expensive metals, and stained glass. The inside of most of them had some sort of small altar, a crucifix, and a stairway that led down to the crypt where the coffins or ashes were stored. Some of them were huge and looked to have at least twenty coffins in them. Apparently Eva Perón’s grave is located in the cemetery, something we did not find out until we had left. It was a very unique experience and I was glad to have stopped there, but I will not lie, the place gave me the creeps. I think this was because it kind of reminded me of a city of the dead, definitely not a place I would want to be at night. After seeing a bit more of the neighborhood it
was clear Ashley’s legs were telling us it was time to go back to the hotel.
Ashley took some Benydryl and some Ibuprofen and decided it was time for a nap, as we still had some big plans for the night. Being the good boyfriend I am (shameless plug for myself) I headed out on a bit of an adventure to find us some dinner. I went to a place that was pretty much the Argentinean equivalent of Chipotle, although not nearly as good. Ashley was really impressed because I brought back the burritos and set up plates and all for us to eat them on. After dinner we got all done up and headed to Puerto Madero for something that we figured was a necessity to see in Argentina, a professional tango show. The show we saw was called Madero Tango and combined traditional tango elements with more contemporary elements, accompanied by live music and some singing. Overall, the dancing was pretty impressive and fun to watch, although I could have done without the singing. In college I took Ballroom Dancing 1 and we learned the tango for a few weeks, so I was able to appreciate the
movement a little more as I have somewhat of a general understanding of the dance. I told Ashley that one day I was going to be like those professional tango dancers, to which she responded I hope not (she was not as impressed with their moves and long, greasy hair as I was). After the show, a little after midnight we headed for a British style pub where we had a few beers until it was time to make our appearance at a nightclub. In South America it is not ‘cool’ to show up at a nightclub until 1 or 2 am, at the earliest, and sometimes not until 4 or 5 am. I find this funny because this is the time the bars and clubs usually close in the United States. I can only imagine what a mess it would be if they were open until the morning, like in South America. After a few beers we made our way to a club called The Museum. The outside of the club looked like nothing more than a rundown warehouse, but the inside was a little more interesting looking. Apparently the building was an old factory designed by Eiffel, the
very same Eiffel who designed, you guessed it, the Eiffel tower. It was a huge dance hall type space with three or four levels of balconies, none of which we could use as there were not enough people there that night. Although Ashley’s legs were not feeling the greatest, she was a good sport and allowed me to showcase my new, amazing South American dance moves until about 5 am (she told me I am not allowed to bring my new moves back to the United States). We grabbed a cab back to the hotel as the sky began to get brighter, thus ending our extremely epic day.
Seeing as we did not get to bed until about 5:30 am, we slept until around noon on Saturday, January 17. Once we eventually got up and moving we headed to Florida street for some food and a little street shopping. We ended up talking to an Argentinean watercolor artist who painted scenes of tango dancers. What is surprising about many of the artists is that they speak fairly good English that they have picked up from talking with tourists passing by. After a little more browsing and Ashley probably buying
another pair of sandals (I am not sure if she bought some on this day or another, but the odds are good that I am right), we made our way by subway to the city zoo. I was very impressed by the size of the zoo and the number of animals that it had. My main problem with going to zoos now is that since I have been on safari in game reserves in South Africa and have seen many of the animals in their natural habitats in the wild, so seeing them in small enclosures is much less thrilling. Nonetheless, it was still enjoyable to see all of the animals and be outside on a beautiful afternoon. Unfortunately for me, it was around this time that my body/skin decided it was time to punish me for my irresponsibility in the sun a few days earlier. My back was a little itchy and I asked Ashley to look at it. It turned out that my whole back was covered in little water blisters, very attractive. Although they really did not hurt that much I knew that within a few days all of my skin would be pealing off, so I
had that to look forward to. After the zoo we walked past The Palace of Running Water, an impressive looking waterworks building. We were not able to go in, but the outside was very interesting looking. Following the waterworks building we headed back to the hotel to shower and rest before heading out for our last night together. For our last dinner we went to a place called The Alamo, an American themed sports bar type establishment. The thought of going to a place that would maybe remind me of the states and possibly have some American style food was intriguing enough for me to want to give the place a try. Sure enough the place had many American favorites such as chicken wings, hamburgers, club sandwiches, and fries (however, it lacked Ranch dressing, like the rest of South America). It was nice to eat a few things that I had not had for more than half a year and would not have again until I return to the states. As the night progressed we moved onto another American favorite, vodka Red Bulls (really brought me back to my college nights at Brother’s and Brats in Madison, and wow, does
that make me feel kind of old to be remembering the ‘good old college days’). We ended up spending about six hours at The Alamo, heading back to our hotel around 4 am.
We woke up around 9 am the next day as we had to check out of the hotel at 10 am. We were able to leave our bags at the hotel and headed out to take advantage of our last morning/afternoon in Buenos Aires. We jumped on the subway and headed for the neighborhood of the city’s botanical gardens. Before we went to the gardens we stopped at a nearby café for lunch, where our waitress did not really seem to like us the whole time. I think she took about half an hour alone to bring the bill, so we took great joy in leaving her a tip equivalent to about $.60. Ashley and I both agreed it was fair. Next we took a stroll through the shade of the trees in the botanical gardens. There were not a whole lot of interesting plants or anything, but the place was full of marble statues. After about an hour it was unfortunately time to head to
the airport via our hotel. We took the subway back but somehow ended up farther away from our hotel than when we got on, so we had to grab a quick cab. We picked up our bags, headed for the airport shuttle station, and were then on our way to the airport. I was not flying anywhere but thought I would spend as much time possible with Ashley as we would not be seeing each other again for about four months. We arrived at the airport and Ashley checked in and then we just went and sat for about 40 minutes until she had to go through security. While we sat we took out all of my dirty clothes (pretty much everything I had at that point) and repacked them so everything actually fit in my backpack (what a good girlfriend, always taking care of me). As the time for Ashley to leave approached we both started getting a bit emotional. The humor in this is that Ashley always claimed not to be a crier until I came along and I am pretty much incapable of crying (I can count two other times in the last 8 years, I almost
did not even remember what it felt like). I actually think all the other people waiting that were not saying tearful goodbyes were a little uncomfortable with the couples who were saying goodbye to each other (we were not the only ones, so it is not like we were completely out of place). Seeing Ashley walk through security was honestly one of the hardest goodbyes that I have ever dealt with. With that I was alone and getting away from the airport and out of Buenos Aires as fast as I possibly could. Stay tuned for the next leg of my great adventure.
-MWC
Advertisement
Tot: 0.061s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 10; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0316s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Matthew K
non-member comment
Qdoba
If you were really a good boyfriend, you would have found her some QDoba...