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Published: March 11th 2010
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It takes two to tango, but the lady moves a lot faster than the man, it seems! Buenos Aires: 31st January - 8th February 2010
What if a bunch of Spaniards and Italians decided to make a new country? If they did, you could bet that fashion and dancing would be at the top of the agenda, pranzo on Sunday would be the most important meal o f the week, drivers would be aggressive yet skilled, and the national religion would be soccer. In reality, no imagination is required. You can visit the result: Argentina. And the capitol, Buenos Aires, is squirming like Fredo Corleone for respect, in line with Rome and Madrid.
Accordingly, Buenos Aires yet another city that claims to be “The Paris of...” some place...“the South”, in this case. (Parisians must be very happy to live in a city that is the benchmark for so many other cities.) Nobody ever claimed their city was the Houston of the East, or the New York of the North. In the case of Buenos Aires, though, I'm not sure I agree with the Parisian paradigm.
First off, it's true: Buenos Aires really does feel like it's been plucked from southern Europe. I couldn't put my finger on it....it's something about the amount of colonial
And you thought the Washington Monument was big?
Maybe this is partly responsible for the comparison to Paris. architecture, the dated infrastructure, or the homogeneity of the population. From my perspective, if Barcelona and Budapest bore a bastard bambino, it would be Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires inherited Barcelona's party atmosphere and fashion sense along with Budapest's faded grandeur and gray military aftertaste. It seems to be a good mix. Yet, I did not get the sense that the locals were “stuck up” about their city or that they considered themselves Europeans rather than South Americans. To me, they seemed like nice people, very nice, in fact. And many of them spoke great English. I rarely relied on my broken Spanish to get by.
Our experience was most affected by the weather. When it stopped raining for more than 5 minutes, we would go sight-seeing. We took a bike tour around town one day in the pouring rain, but it was still fun. The stop everyone is sure to visit is the museum dedicated to Eva Peron. We found it an extensive and impressive collection of memorabilia, and we left feeling much more secure that workers rights were protected and that peroxide manufacturers would retain a solid cash flow stream for years to come. We even made it
over to Eva Peron's mausoleum, which is in the city's cemetery, an impressive sight on its own.
Subsequent tours took us to various old neighborhoods around town. One of the more interesting sights was the memorial to the Falklands War. It had a certain Vietnam Memorial look to it that made me wonder if their similarity was indeed a coincidence (on a few levels). What definitely was not a coincidence was the placement of the memorial: directly across the street from a clock tower built many years earlier by Britons who wished to make a contribution to their new country of residence. Passions are yet again brewing on this topic as it seems there is oil near the Falklands.
Another similar feature around town is the Japanese Garden, built by an association of Japanese-Argentines. It's a beautiful spot, and full of massive goldfish who seemed to be related to Pavlov's dogs. Anyone who strays near the water's edge is greeted by 10 to 15 fish eagerly awaiting a snack. Good thing they don't have legs and teeth or the visitors might be the main course! Fortunately, legions of awestruck children are on hand to cast endless handfuls of
What is it about little islands off the coast of a big country?
The memorial to those lost in the war for Las Malvinas (aka, the Falkland Islands) bread crumbs to the fish.
Our friends Liz and Ali crossed paths with us while we were in town. It was great to see them after so very long, and while the girls were catching up, Ali and I did what any two men would do on a Sunday afternoon: we watched football. But, since we were in Argentina, that meant soccer. But then again the cool thing was that we got to actually go SEE a soccer game, and the best part was that we survived the experience! Fabulous! Let me tell you, they like their soccer there. And Ali did a great job of describing our big afternoon out.
Click here to check it out One of the great things about Buenos Aires is that (and this comes up a lot in our blogs, I know, but we ARE on a budget) it's very economical. We took cabs most everywhere, and here's why: most cab rides cost US$5 plus or minus....about the cost of two New York subway fares. So, even though we were taking cabs everywhere, it was like we were taking the New York subway, only faster...and cleaner. And it gets better. How nice was it to order a
bottle of beautiful Mendoza Malbec for US$3 ? That's right: three bucks for a bottle of wine. At a restaurant. And it was good stuff.
Finally, every visitor to Buenos Aires must see a tango show. To appreciate tango, you need to try it. If you think the chicken dance is hard...well, let's just say that tango is difficult to learn. We went to a place called Cafe Tortoni, which we really enjoyed. First, the theatre is fairly small so there's not a bad seat in the house. And the price seemed to be lower than other, larger tango shows. Most of all, the show itself was wonderful. How the dancers cease to be governed by the Law of Gravity is anyone's guess. If you do make it there, be sure to have coffee or dinner in the actual cafe upstairs, a beautiful establishment built in the 1900's with lots of wood and polished brass. You will not be disappointed!
Buenos Aires was our last stop in South America, and as usual, we left with a longer list of places to visit than when we arrived. We'll just have to go back!
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Mary Pelham White
non-member comment
oh, to travel with Rayma and Doug
Your travelogue is so well-informed, interesting and amusing. I want to see the world with you two. Buenos Aires sounds wonderful. Rayma, how're you holding up carrying a little one along? I am still so happy for your visit at Christmas time. Thank-you for so generously sharing your life and travels. Pax Mary Pelham