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After having gotten to know Buenos Aires, with its decadent architecture, variety of restaurants and its boutique shops, I could fully understand why it is known as “The Paris of the South”. With a population of 13 million, in a country with only 40 million residents, it really is a sprawling metropolis, but the city centre itself is rather conveniently compact. Our bus from Cordoba arrived late in the evening, but luckily the giant bus terminal was only 2 stops on the SubTe (underground) from our hotel. Only 100m from our hotel was one of the city’s most famous landmarks, a giant white obelisk commemorating the country’s centenary of independence in 1910. This monument forms the centre of the Avenida de Mayo; the world’s widest road (I counted 14 lanes at its broadest). During our first full day in the city, we started off exploring by foot, firstly arriving at the Congreso building, based on the Capitol building in Washington. The road that led from here to the main square was filled brim with all sorts of restaurants, bars and theatres. The main square, the Plaza de Mayo, is enclosed by the Casa Rosada (the Pink House, which houses the Presidential
Offices), the Cathedral, and what remains of the Cabildo (City Hall), as well as other ornate buildings. There was a small protest going on just past the Casa Rosada, though disappointingly small and tranquil for a South American demonstration. Behind the Casa Rosada are the former docks on the River Plate, in an area known as Puerto Madero, which have recently been redeveloped into a rather nice, upmarket area filled with restaurants and apartment buildings. The docks are on an inlet of the River Plate, but as we wanted to see the main River we continued heading east until we reached a large nature reserve, which was not the sort of thing you’d expect to find so close to the city centre, but it made for a nice walk until we made it to the actual River Plate. Unfortunately it was rather cloudy and cold, so there wasn’t much to see - we definitely couldn’t see Uruguay on the other side. We couldn’t even see the top of the high-rise apartment buildings due to the low cloud. Choosing somewhere to have dinner everyday was always a challenge, as almost all restaurants seem to sell the Argentine staple foods of beef
steak, pastas and pizzas, but at varying prices and quality. On the whole, I think the places where we ended up were nice enough, though the city was definitely much more expensive to eat out in than other cities in Argentina.
For our second day in Buenos Aires we decided to do a bus tour, as quite a few of the city’s attractions are located a fair distance away from the centre. The first stop was in La Boca, most famous for its football team and La Bombonera Stadium. As this neighbourhood isn’t particularly safe, we didn’t linger too long, trying to stick to the tourist trail only. One of the main streets in the area, the Caminito, is full of painted houses and cheap souvenir shops, as well as Tango dancers on the street performing for money. From here, the bus continued on to the more affluent neighbourhoods north of the centre. Just north of the centre is Retiro, where the bus station is located, but also home to the large Plaza San Martin and the English Tower, located in the Argentine Air force Plaza, renamed from British Plaza during the Falklands Conflict. The bus then toured the
adjoining borough where all the embassies are located before heading back into the centre.
After three days in the city, Daryl and I headed for the main airport, as it was unfortunately time for him to head back to the UK. It had been a fun trip from Santiago across to Buenos Aires together, but as all fun trips do, the time seemed to fly by.
Back on my own again, I stayed in the city for another 3 days to explore some of the museums and some of the areas we hadn’t had time to see. The 2 oldest areas of the city, San Telmo and Montserrat, are not situated far from the main square. As it was the weekend, San Telmo was alive with antiques stalls - a bit like Portobello Road. The church in San Telmo was interesting - the left tower has canon shells still visible, dating from the British invasion in the early 1800s. I met up with some of my uni friends who are spending a year teaching in the city, and it was nice to catch up with them, and when we ended up having dinner with some French friends of
theirs, it was useful being able to practice my French and stop it from getting too rusty. (But it’s still difficult and confusing switching between Spanish and French)
The area known as Recoleta holds one of the city’s most famous attractions - the Recoleta Cemetery, containing the grave of Eva Perón amongst others. It was very strange to see a cemetery with so many tourists around, and also with so many street sellers peddling souvenirs of the city and of Recoleta. The cemetery was packed on the inside as well - it was like a mini-city, with mausoleums lining the streets and avenues. The biggest crowds were around Evita’s final resting place, though I eventually managed to work my way through to see it. Recoleta, as well as neighbouring Palermo, also contained quite a few interesting museums; there are so many in the city in fact, that I barely scraped the surface. A few weren’t very interesting, but the Fine Arts Museum was absolutely enormous, and the Arms Museum was also worthwhile. As I have to come back to the city twice more, I’ll no doubt have the time to visit a few more sights around the city as
well as the attractions that lie outside of the city.
Besides being known as a centre for cuisine, Argentina is also synonymous with a drink - maté; a type of tea drunk out of a special cup with a metal straw and which is even more popular in Uruguay and Paraguay. In Argentina people seemed to be drinking this on every corner, though possibly less so in the capital than elsewhere. Most of the souvenirs in the handicraft shops were consequently related to Maté, the Tango, or leather. Standard tea is clearly not as popular; when Daryl and I asked for a tea with milk, they made it by just adding tea to hot milk with no water!
It was time for me to move on, though as I knew I would be back (my flight home will leave from BA), it didn’t matter that I had a few things left to see and do. My next blog will come from my next stop - the City of Rosario to the north of BA.
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