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Published: September 23rd 2009
Tim Version:
* Lounged, dined and drunk a little too much in the massive city of Buenos Aires.
* Saw the rich side in Puerto Madero, the poor side in La Boca, the famous side in Recoletta, and a protest/rally with guys masked and armed with sticks/poles looking like they meant business.
*** A quick apology with the photos. The first 86 are out of order due to apparent "database errors" when I uploaded them, and then many more photos never showed, which I have now put up, hence the re-release of the blog entry ***
The true variety version:
Its a big city. A really big city. This however doesn't mean the main touristy parts are too far apart. In fact with the subways it is easy to get to most of it. With streets ridiculously wide like Av 9 de Julio you almost need a subway in some parts just to cross the street! Find yourself driving in the wrong lane for a turnoff here could be disastrous.
Known for being very European, which I have found it very much is but without losing the latin flavour, Buenos Aires is a picture of
$$$ down here in South America. It is however, to me at least, a picture of old money. The economic woes of Buenos Aires and Argentina as a whole can be seen easily here, where ornate beautiful structures and public parks are now too costly for the city to maintain and are slowly falling into disrepair. This isn't to say the city isn't beautiful - in fact in some places this adds a more human and interesting side to city.
I didn't come here to do anything in particular, there were no big aims. I came to see what all the fuss was about, and to just do whatever I felt like doing on a day by day basis. My first Hostel here was called Rayuela and it was amazing! It is the most homely, modern, clean and comfortable hostel I have stayed in! Not in competition with other great hostels such as "Sunset Backpackers" in Florianopolis, Brazil, this one is instead a Boutique Hostel, made for quiet comfort. In it I met some Colombians, some French, and a guy from the US but mostly I kept to myself and explored solo as I wanted some alone time. The
second hostel I stayed at when I wanted some social time was Millhouse, a huge hostel that is a party place all the time. It was perfect for that, where you could find someone drinking at any hour of the day and make friends just by walking down stairs, sitting at a table and introducing yourself. It would, however, drive me insane if there more than a few days.
It's an easy city to walk with street names plastered all around. Over a period of about 12 days I checked it all out and there is a good number of public parks and open space. It was relaxing seeing families playing and old dudes playing chess at all times of the day. The only danger is land mines (dog poo). Dogs are walked everywhere and I never saw anyone with a pooper scooper so walking can be hazardous for your shoes.
While the inhabitants seem relaxed and happy, there is also the slowly economically dying side of the city. Not that I know it's financial situation inside out but I know of the devaluation problems with it's currency and that perhaps due to it being so rich with
such grand structures and public works before, it has now all too easily become unaffordable to maintain it all. Cracked footpaths and roads, damaged public works and those kinds of things are a common sight, even in the super rich area of Recoletta. It's interesting seeing a worn road next to a badly cracked and sometimes graffiti covered footpath next to an extremely rich apartment block with an art gallery on the first floor.
In Recoletta I visited the famous cemetary, the resting place of many famous Argentines including Evita. Her burial area is actually very minor and humble, tucked away among the masses of others like it, as you can see from the way I had to take the photos of it. Some of the other setups for those around her though are phenomenal! Giant statues with full marbel gazebo setups, Angels everywhere, areas to hold 12+ family members if they wished to sit and pray for the person etc. Thats a lot of people with very big egos if you ask me. Part of the beauty of walking around Recoletta and the areas around it is that in parts it switches from the constant grid-like street setup
to more meandering, curving streets adding a real visual and calming appeal to the area. This is where money really seems to help, allowing you to break out of the box and do your own thing.
In contrast is La Boca. The very working class area, La Boca is home to the infamous soccer team Boca Juniors and their violent rioting supporters. The touristy part of La Boca near the docks with the colourful houses is as touristy as you could possibly get. Its still an interesting area with a lot of street performance tango going on but to me just felt too setup now. You can get your photo taken next to plastic Maradona things, learn tango on the street, and dine on very basic tables and chairs "like the poor people do" kind of thing. Yuk. I decided I'd go off the beaten track and check out some of the more back streets and quickly found why the area has it's reputation. In daylight I didn't feel unsafe but at night time I can see it being a scary place to be. Run down with beat up old cars and unmaintained buildings, many of whom looked hacked
together with random bits of wood that you could blow down with a large sneeze, I walked for a while around not so happy looking people, mangy dogs, and not many other people walking at all. Upon returning to the main street to walk home a different way I found many closed business all along the street. There was also much public spray paint protests about using all the abandoned housing and buildings to try and house the rising number of homeless in the area, a sad state of the economy of around here. Upon returning to the centre of Buenos Aires it is like a totally different city and the direct contrast allows you to better appreciate the wealth of the central parts.
Puerto Madero - wow. Now this is where the money is! Very new, very well setup, very clean, very enticing, very expensive. This is NOT the place for history or culture or the true feeling of Buenos Aires, this is the easy living part. With multiple new buildings, perfect roads, wide perfect sidewalks and many restaurants of which i could afford almost none, this is where I would want to be put if I needed
to live here. It runs along the outer side of the locks where many boats are moored, between that and the ecological reserve backing on to the Rio Plata, keeping it segregated and "safe" from the rest of the city. Again like other areas and Argentina in general, at the start of the trip I wouldn't have cared about seeing this area and would say I could see it anywhere... now, I appreciate it. Everything worked. It was also an excellent place to sit near water and listen to music or read or whatever, and even though it was brown river water it was still water and that kept me smiling.
One incident I saw by luck was a political rally going on down near the entry of the La Boca area. It was something to do with the socialist movement (these guys being pro socialist) with banners all about it and Che Guevera all around. Now this is nothing strange as you can find political rallies and protests fairly easily in latin america, however what i hadn't seen was the set up protection this had going on. At both the front and the back of each section of
the rally people were large groups of males carrying large pieces of wood, metal bones, and other baton like weapons. They all had hoods on and their faces covered except for their eyes and were constantly vigilant, looking around and fanning out to look for any possible trouble. Around here I would expect this to be needed to escape what seems to be a problem with police brutality, but the police were even coming up the rear of this rally to protect it. They weren't menacing (the people with the sticks), but you could see they wouldn't think twice about taking a swing if needed. If you see the photo I put up of the insanely protected police armoured vehicle then you can see just how much trouble they must have here sometimes.
The market along La Defensa is also a real highlight to me as you see all types of Porteños mixing and mingling. Every 2nd stall is selling Matte glasses, flasks and straws, and there were quite a few people from countries such as Bolivia and Peru here selling their crafts such as blankets. Looking at the price tags I can see why! The amount more that
you get here for selling them is crazy, though they are still pretty cheap. There was music playing, public art, all sorts of food being sold, public tango dancing, and lots of classic old shops opened for business. I bought, well, nothing, as I'm not a shopper, but the food was good and it was still sweet to see.
While I tasted the nightlife of Buenos Aires, it wasn't my style. Like heading out in London, it was cold, expensive and mainly about getting as drunk as possible as quickly as possible. Me, I prefer the Brazilian style where they drink for longer, don't get so drunk, and it's in a warm climate where wearing a Tshirt drinking in an outdoor area works even in summer. There s also a tropical vibe to Brazil, versus the European sophisticated artificial (as in it must be man-made to be beautiful) vibe to the stuff here. So yeh, if you like that then you will love Buenos Aires!
With everything in BA seen that I wanted to see I decided to leave a couple of days early to head back to Santiago before my flight as the mountain pass over the
Andes can be shut for days in winter and I didn't want to take any chances. I like BA but I don't think I'll be in any rush at all to return.
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