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Published: March 9th 2011
During our travels in New Zealand we had hoped to learn a bit of Castillano (Latin American spanish) in order to prepare ourselves for South American travel. With help from our children's spanish book, and our phrasebooks we had a basic grasp by the time we boarded the plane. Over the course of our 9 days in Buenos Aires however our vocabulary and pronunciation progressed significantly. We were ordering beers and bakery goods with ease and chanting with the football fans, however the difficulty came when somebody spoke back to us. Spanish is an enjoyable language to speak and to listen to, but the speed of speach here is dazzling and with dialects and regional accents deviating from our textbook style we struggled to hold a converstaion. We're still having fun with it though and this key difference from our Oceanic adventures made the travel here new and exciting once again.
It had been quite an excursion to get to this city of 'good air' as its name implies. We had left Auckland at 8pm on the 15th of February, an at times turbulant flight had brought us to South America in 12 hours. We touched down at 5pm local
time, calanders still on the 15th of February, three hours before we left Auckland. Time travelling is easy when you know how! It felt very strange and certainly confused our body clocks, it would have been early morning NZ time but it was approaching evening here as we boarded the city bus into the centre. The adrenaline rush of a new continent, new language and new time zone mean that the 35km ride into town for possibly the cheapest price yet (30p) went by in the blink of 2 hours.
There was no denying that we were tired and after checking into a tiny bunkbed cupboard of a room, we took a brief stroll along the busy Avenue Santa Fe on the edge of the upmarket Palermo district, in an effort to stay awake and aclimatise. The pretty common areas of the Giromundo hostel made up for our stuffy back-bedroom and we enjoyed a cheap South American beer in the mezanine lounge before hitting the sheets. Despite our tiredness and efforts to intergrate to our timezone we failed, remaining wide awake for most of the night we finally slept at 5am.
It took 2 days for our bodies
to slip into the correct circadium rhythms, during which time we had strolled the wide,pleasant, tree-lined avenues of Palermo, sipping coffees at chic cafes beside cobbled streets and eating empanadas in cafeterias. We had practiced 'muchos castillano' and gradually adjusted to the late lifestyle so different from the recent camping life we had been leading. The culture here is very similar to some European cities especially in the time they keep; siestas over midday, dinner at 10pm earliest, and partying until dawn.
The greater city of Buenos Aires covers a huge distance and is divided into many districts, in the time we spent in this vibrant city we explored about eight of these forty plus barrios. About the time that our bodies were getting used to their surrounds we relocated ourselves from the box room in Palermo to an amazing third floor 'habitacion' in a town house in San Telmo. Hotel Bolivar is located in a street of gorgeous old buildings, and although its wooden floors and marble spiral staircases are worn, it is beautiful. The room we were given had been simply decorated but the abudant natural light, high ceilings, shutters and wrought iron balcony made it feel
Steak...
only a small portion!airy and spacious. We loved the hotel instantly and felt very at home there (partly the reason we spent longer in B A than we had planned). Its location in the cool San Telmo quarter was perfect too, surrounded by 'Panaderia's' (Bakeries) 'Parilla's' (Grill houses) and 'Mercado's' (Markets).
There were many facets of the life of a Porteno (Buenos Aires resident) that we related to, but my favourite was the morning ritual of coffee and pastries. The humble croissant exists here under the guise of media lunas (half moons), and fracturas are a bewilldering array of sweet pastry treats. A selection of these with a cup of strong coffee seems to be the only way to start your day here, which obviously I am a big fan of! The only way to finish the day is with a glass of red wine and a hunk of steak on your plate, which (sorry to the mothers, and the cows) we both heartly indulged in and enjoyed at many a restaurant. Following this it is best to continue the enjoyment with litre bottles of cerveza (beer) and at about 2am one should enter the effortlessly hip club Cocoliche. This was the
way our friday evening played out. The DJ played pumping music all through the night to which we grooved, until at 6am we walked the 8 blocks back to our bed, stumbling over the last steep stairs in our weary desire to sleep. It had been a great evenings entertainment, this city sure knows how to party!
However it seemed that the builders and road maitenance people didnt have much sympathy for our recovery. With just 5 hours sleep under our belts the pneumatic drills and hammers on either side of our bedroom walls fired up. Fortunately we were able to shake off our tiredness with a potassium-full bannana and a few bottles of water, and so began the next day in paradise. Having traversed the leafy boulevards of Palermo, and the quirky shops and street stalls of San Telmo it was time to venture across the city to the Recoleta. Passing through the Plaza de Mayo we admired the dramatic buildings that encircled this momumental city centre square. There was the Casa Rosares (the pink palace) where the famed Evita, Eva Peron, gave her emotional speech to the adoring fans beneath, and numerous other stunning architectual gems. This
history bound up in buildings was wonderful to behold and it was great to be surrounded by an environment where there is extensive and longstanding culture.
The day took a somewhat morbid turn next as we explored the beautiful and grossly lavish cemetary in the Recoleta. Although a major tourist attraction with tour groups swarming the narrow alleys, this village of tombs is quite amazing to behold. The rich in life have continued their opulence into death with gargantuan marble creations complete with huge mosaic domes, sweet cherubs, and Grecian columns. It took up a large area and the crowds gathered as we approached the family tomb of Eva Duarte (or Peron as she was in marriage). The famous lady seems to be loved and worshipped as a saint, and the comment of one American man as he walked away really took it too far... "This is the highlight of my entire life, ever since i saw the movie i've wanted to come here".
The days were slipping by and yet there was so much more that we wanted to do and see in Buenos Aires. Watching a football match was of course high on the agenda and
so we enquired with the friendly guy at the front desk who told us all that we needed to know. Sadly Boca were playing away from home this weekend, but River Plate were hosting a nearby Buenos Aires team, the first home match of the season and bound to be a good one. The game would not be starting until 10 past 7 (a strange time i know) so we had all of the day to browse the Sunday Antique market in Plaza Dorrengo. It was a beautifully sunny day and the stallholders were out in force, brass and glass glistened and leather belts and homemade jewellery drapped the tables. The best part of the market wasn't this though, or the wonderful array of antiques, it was the live tango shows with their passionate dancing and evocative music drawing culsters of onlookers.
Football time soon rolled around and so we navigated across town, with surprising ease bought tickets and entered the 60,000 capacity stadium. The ease of our entry and cautious pre-planning meant that we had about 2 hours before the match kicked off but it didnt matter. The fans were already piling in, and anticpaction was building. With
only 10 minutes before the wistle blew a huge surge of supporters in the upper tier, the populares (standing) scetion, prompted the beginning of the most crazy performance of a football support i've ever seen. Drums pounded from the samba band that lead the crowd, flags waved and banners were proudly displayed, the melodic singing and hand flapping, and stamping of feet created such a buzzing atmosphere that we were entranced before a ball had been kicked! When the teams finally did emerge the fans out performed them, such an awesome atmosphere maintained for the full 90 minutes was hard for the footballers to match, although a stylish performance from River Plates young striker Lamela guaranteed a 2-0 victory for the home team. It had been the most dramatic crowd to be a part of and truely showed the love of football in this part of the world, we had been jumping the full match and the River Plate songs will be firmly imprinted in our minds now. An experience never to be forgotten.
The next day, still humming "Vamo Vamo Vamo River Plate", we ventured into enemy territory to see the Caminito in Boca. This collection of rainbow
coloured houses was once the artists enclave of Buenos Aires, and although some of these residents still produce their work here and display murals on their walls, the buildings are mainly full of gift shops and expensive restaurants.
For us the people and atmosphere of Buenos Aires was brighter in colour than the Caminto, which felt fake in comparison to the warm diversity of the other barrios. The mix of Spanish, Italian and Indigenous communities have created a vibrant and exciting city whose many charms have made it one of our favourites. Not least for the excellent heladeria's, where dulche leche (carmamel cream) and tirimusu ice cream made a lasting impression! 'Buenos Ondes?' (Good Vibes) 'Si Senhor!'
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Graciela
non-member comment
Hi
I am glad to know you enjoy my country. Argentina has a lot to offer and to show. I am glad to know you enjoy our DULCE DE LECHE, wow, yummy, delicious. Love from Argentina. Graciela.