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Published: December 1st 2004
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Summers here, and the time is right, for dancing in the streets..
Boca. And so back to Argentina... and what can I say about it's capital, Buenos Aires?? Firstly, I should mention that the first disease that any traveller catches is exaggeration... everything becomes spectacular, awesome, etc etc... now sometimes this is actually true, but mostly the description comes in order to justify whatever time, money or hardship the writer has spent in order to visit the place in question...
But... Buenos Aires IS quite simply pretty much the best city I´ve ever visited. It has the wide boulevards and grand early 19´th century architecture of Madrid or Milan, a renovated dockside that throbs with bars and restaurants a la Lisbon or Dublin, quaint bohemian neighbourhoods that attract artists, musicians and dancers, like Prague or Paris, the eclecic food and shopping of New York or London, the worlds classiest opera house, passionate following of all kinds of sports, an awesome nighlife, and best of all, the place is dirt cheap.
We spent a week in BA, but it could have been a lot longer..
We kicked off from our central hotel, and walked around the standard grandoise public buildings, elegant plazas and cathedrals of any respectable european capital. This included the Theatro
La Casa Rosa, Argentinas old government building, and scene of the Perons return from exile. Colon, a 8 story opera house that was just sumptious. Our next day took us to San Telmo, and it´s flea market.. this place was very evocative.. elegant but slightly faded cobbled streets were full with painters, antique dealers and bric a brac merchants in fancy dress punting their wares, as the cafes filled up with a mixture of middle class locals and tourists.. all to a soundtrack of tango.. dancers in the bars and in the street. Now obviously this was slightly for the bnefit of the tourists, but there was a genuine bohemian feel to this place, and it had not become in anyway tacky or overdone.. kind of like Montmartre in Paris before the African street hawkers moved in...
A similar artsy place is the working class district of Boca, where Italian immigrants painted their ramshackle housing in bright colours - and invented Tango. This is also home to Boca Juniors, the footy club, beloved of brilliant Agy cheat and pie/cocaine addict Diego Armando Maradona.
What else, oh... Evita. Now I havent seen the Madonna film, or the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical - so I had no pre-conceived ideas.. so having seen her museum, been to
Back end of Casa Rosa. Typical public bulding in BA, really her grave, and eavesdropped on a few guided tours that I didnt pay for, I come to this conclusion... imagine if Victoria Beckham had married Tony Blair, renamed official government social welfare programs in her own name, thus taking the plaudits from the ever gullible working classes, then turned into a Princess Diana figure, complete with a hugely publisized "retirement" from public life, the tragic early death, and subsequent 2 weeks of over sentimental mourning.. you have Evita.. and those of you who know my opinions on the 'Queen of Hearts' will know thats not a good thing!
Still, her grave lies in the elaborate mausoleums of Recoletta Cemetary.. in the heart of the gitzy part of the city.. surrounded by lovel parks, polo fields and the racecourse..
There was also the salubrious northern suburbs, whos restaurants we frequented on our final 3 nights in town... when we were doing the theory and closed dive sections of our PADI scuba diving course (its cheap here, and we want to do our final qualifying dives somewhere nice like Tahiti or Fiji). We ate incredibly well, with fantastic wine, and excellent sushi.. but the big thing here is steak.
It is
Congreso - current home of parliament. A copy of Capitol Hill, Washington, asi it happens. Aside from looking like Europe or America, you can tell it´s S.America.. theres a political demo going on! delicious and cheap... (2 pounds will buy you a fantastic steak in a fancy restaurant with all the trimmings), which brings me on to my favourite bit about BA, the nightlife..
People head out late.. eat at 11 ish, then head to a bar until around 3, then to a club... The tango show is popular with young and old, and this racey, sensual dance can be seen all over town in the poshest hotels to the most basic of bars, and even on the street, which makes a classy alternative to Big Issue vendors!
The quality/price ratio all over town was quite scary... for example, we ate at on of BA´s trendiest restaurants, renovated warehouse chic, impossibly good looking staff all decked out in black, "name" DJs mixing ambient background french hip-hop.. you get the idea.. anyway, we had a full 3 course meal of real haute cuisine stuff.. including sushi to start, with a v.tasty bottle of chablis, a couple of cocktails each and coffee, the whole thing was 12 quid a head.. and I got to sit next to 2 Peruvian supermodels, but thats another story!!
We then headed to a nightclub, looking like sydney opera
Theatro Colon. Stunning auditorium in this opera house, where photos weren´t allowed! house, with an open deck to the harbour, lots of terraces, complete with water features, and around 3000 people dancing and flirting away... now not only were the fountains and pools were thanfully free of any rubbish, piss or fighting men as they would have been in most english clubs, but the women were.. well, quite frankly.. stunning. I actually thought about how it compared to Infernos in Clapham, and I couldnt stop laughing. So here is the fact: In 3 hours in this large nightclub, I saw 2 mildly unattractive women. As we left at 5.30am, there were still peope queing to get in... quite a place!
Oh, and the shopping... Leather is incredibly cheap, and the big shopping malls are full of all the normal designer names, and loads of funky little boutiques as well... If I was coming home for Xmas, my family would have been in for a treat.. but as I´m not, they´ll just have to live with it.. But really, I left Rach to explore the shops.. not really my scene, but for the ladys out there, I was told that it would make an excellent shopping destination to rival new york!
San Telmo on market day... a lovely neighbourhood, like Montmatre, but without Nigerian hawkers flogging sexually explicit cigarette lighters. Now, the Peso wont always be so cheap, and a place this good cant be a secret for too long..
so make the most of it, people!!
so fairwell, Beunos Aires... I´ll certainly be back, and if I ever get married, I know exactly where to come for my stag do!!
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