Buenos Aires

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We arrived back into Buenos Aires gigantic bus terminal and to our final adventure. With five days in our pocket we had time to explore and enjoy another one of South Americas iconic mega cities. We had chosen to base ourselves in San Telmo, BA’s charismatic neighbourhood that gave birth to the cities Tango scene. Set in a classic crumbling European style this artesian neighbourhood has a unique atmosphere and harbours the majority of BA’s traditional and modern Tango venues. San Telmo is losing its reputation as a dangerous area, mainly due to the influx of wealthy patrons wanting a slice of its charming ambience, cobbled streets, café culture and classic antique filled shops.
We left our overpriced ‘hostel world’ accommodation and found excellent, well priced, locally owned beds in the centre of San Telmo. Our hostel even had its own Tango master, of course we took advantage of attempting to learn the craft!
Generally, ignoring the guide books and hostel sites gives a traveller the opportunity to find ‘real’ accommodation at a fair price.

We wandered into the historic centre of Buenos Aires, meandered from Plaza to Plaza admiring its wide boulevards, tree lined streets, corner eateries, grand colonial architecture and shopping areas. Reminding me of a cross between Paris and London, maybe home wasn’t too far away. We watched a procession in Plaza de Mayo of mothers demanding the truth about their children who ‘despaired’ during the ‘dirty wars’ under the military dictatorships of the 70’s and 80’s. We made our way down to the railway area to visit a local gallery where the owner uses old railway parts to produce modern sculptures. A visit to BA is never complete without a mad dash over Aveneda 9 de Julio to one of the cities most recognisable land marks, the Obelisco. Of course finishing off at a street side café is a must to any day and a good opportunity to watch the world go by.

Buenos Aires has many neighbourhoods worth visiting, all very different with each offering a taste of BA’s many faces. Palmero would be our next encounter, BA’s park area and the perfect place to hire out bikes to cycle between green spaces. With a backdrop of tall apartment buildings the parks all offer their own individual theme with impressive results. Buried in the trees we would find ponds and lakes, some lined with deckchairs, others boasting wooden bridges and Japanese style ornamental structures. Observing the local dog walkers with their hands full is also a must. We ate at the park side asado’s (bbq’s) and drank in the small cafés in residential Palmero - Palmero Viejo. A visit to this neighbourhood isn’t complete without taking in Museo Evita, a classic Palmero building dedicated to her life and work. Other museums we stumbled across included a local art gallery exhibiting local artists from BA.

Back in San Telmo we visited one of the local traditional Tango halls. These places are different to the Tango shows that BA is famed for. Great as the Tango shows are, the local Tango halls are not for show. They are where local people come to dance and socialise, which is exactly what we did! The professional shows are as much of a must, the dancing is different, its show dancing Watch Video (which is very impressive) and comes with excellent food, drink and hospitality Watch Video .

Next on our suburb list was the high class Recoleta. Exclusive, this area is home to another one of BA’s big draws - Cementerio de la Recoleta. With BA’s oldest church next door we entered the shrine to Argentina’s generations. We wandered in between the tall walls admiring the splendorous ornate dedication to Argentina’s elite. We spent a long while exploring the beautifully detailed marbled façades and statue guarded tombs before we finally managed to track down Evita’s grave. Not as wondrous as we were expecting, actually one of the less impressive mausoleums. Never the less it’s where the hordes head for and where Argentines come to be photographed with one of their countries icons.
A walk around Recoleta displays that this country certainly isn’t poor. More modern than the historic centre, a stop at a street side café is always in order to people watch. The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes show cases Argentine and European art whilst proving that BA has it fair share of world class museums.
The vibrant young set up under tree cover in open green spaces and play music to the gathered contingent, (ok not particularly good) while the weekend markets outside the cemetery sell a variety of goods.

Another must with a visit to Buenos Aires is to sample the nightlife, it’s the sort of city that has a ‘you name it, its here’ attitude. From super clubs banging out the latest European and Latino dance to upper market ‘hip’ establishments. Even a visit to Palmero’s local bikers bar makes 6am interesting…….

Can Buenos Aires offer us any more? Of course it can! Back in San Telmo the Sunday antiques fair takes over the ‘barrio’ with stalls lining the cobbled streets and plaza. Tango dancers Watch Video can be seen dancing for tips or just for fun and the range of quality antiques on offer is pretty impressive. It was great fun getting elbow deep in brick-a-brack, if you need a quality classic gramophone then this is the place to find it!

One of the reasons we went to Mendoza first was to free up the time for one of the worlds classic footballing derby’s - River Plate V Bocca Juniors! We managed to get tickets to the sold out game in Rivers massive stadium. We walked from the metro station to the stadium with the masses, while the police stewarded all to avoid those ‘situations’. Ignoring the usual advice we got tickets behind the goal in amongst the River fans, this is a section of the ground where you find the real fans, real passion and the real life! The stadium was sold out, in fact so sold out that all that was left was the stairs to stand on!
Awashed with red and white (rivers colours), flags and banners were draped over the stadiums levels. All fans were decorated with shirts, hats and some with the usual face paint. Chanting of course is a must and mad flag waving is also well regarded! Watch Video We watched River take a first half lead and played some decent football. During the half time interval, beneath the stair case we were handed newspapers. Not for reading but for tearing up to be used for football confetti!! There must have been enough papers handed out to furnish the whole of BA, but hey this is one of the biggest games of the footballing calendar! As the teams came out for the second half the stadium turned into a mist of confetti while everyone jumped up and down like a mad man screaming for a River triumph. The second half didn’t exactly go Rivers way, Bocca ended up equalising which was reflected in the crowd’s mood. Gone were the chants of ‘River, always in my heart’ instead screams of ‘Por favor’ echoed around the terraces. With the game ending in a draw the sombre mood continued. We waited while the Bocco fans in the tear above us left the stadium. Kindly, they made sure to throw a few broken chairs down……
On a high we left River Plate and returned to San Telmo and Plaza Dorrego where the remanance of the markets were being packed away. We sat in a plaza side café watching the Sunday night Tango ‘freestyle’ sessions and knew that our time in Buenos Aires and South America was nearly up.

For our last day we would hire out more bikes, this time in San Telmo and cycle from this vibrant barrio and over to Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires newest and sleekest area. Another part of town for the exclusive we cycled around for a while before settling at one of the waterside restaurants for some sumptuous pasta. For the remainder of the afternoon we embarked on a kamikaze ride through the centre of BA tackling the cities traffic and bustling shopping streets.
I crammed in my last churrasco (steak), packed and then headed to the airport where we would fly back to Santiago.

Buenos Aires has been a great place to visit, vibrant and cultured, there’s so much to see and do here it’s hard to get bored. Another super city and another place firmly pinned on the jet-setters map.
Full Photos on Flickr

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