Buenos Aires

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So this is before I forget:

I went to Buenos Aires, for a whirlwind 3 nights and 4 days, during Semana Santa. I had the good fortune of staying and exploring with my dear friend from New York, right before she returned to the New York/NJ metropolitan area after a few months of studying in BA. We ambled through Palermo, San Telmo, Puerto Madero, La Boca, and Recoleta, catching the buses from time to time (Argentina´s busses have so much more character than Santiago´s, the relative difficulty of obtaining enough monedas to pay for it notwithstanding).

What struck me about the city, beyond its beauty and stark contrast to Santiago (graceful, ´european¨, sweeping -- since I´ve never been to Europe, I´m appropriating that adjective from everybody who has ever described what I saw -- to Santiago´s more cramped, gris, humble feeling)? It is enormous. It is teeming with thin blondes and tall, beautiful young men. It has the quality, at least it did to me, of a place that knows it is cosmopolitan, the pet of South America. It feels like its own world.

I didn´t even really see the poverty in the city, except in the miles of slums the bus swept around on the highway coming in and out. Thus the assumption of vast segregation, as per usual particularly in South America, seems safe.

It has its dirty Times Square of sorts in Microcentro, though not as brillante or as successfully gaudy. I must say nothing I saw there compared to New York, as far as what makes New York New York. But igual, the beauty of Recoleta Cemetery, the uniqueness of La Boca, the vast green areas of parks and the impression of space space space -- I could not find in New York.

The ice cream is delicious, delicious. The coffee is real, the dulce de leche runs rampant. The restaurants often have menus in English and Spanish. (Graah...am I in South America, or Orlando, Florida? Cést la vie.). And, finally, it rains there...

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Photos

Recoleta Cemetery
Eva Perón is not the only ¨important¨person buried here...

puente de la mujer
at Puerto Madero...a famous bridge, where couples are to kiss and kiss at sunset. hmm.

La Boca
brilliantly colored buildings, now a tourist haven, painted that way by poor immigrants to make their barrio shine

tango
tango show at Café Tortoni...no obstante its famousness, I thought the man who sang was a little bit obnoxious. but the dancing was wonderful.