Advertisement
Published: July 23rd 2006
Puerto Madero - From a Boat in the Bay
I took this picture on my return from Montevideo - see the next blog...We landed on our feet in BA, after trying to book into the infamous Milhouse "Party" Hostel and being knocked back from several others, we obviously looked weary, disapointed and a little like Mary and Joseph when we knocked on the door of El Cachafez hostel. They too were full but upon hearing that we'd be staying in BA for a week, they knew of a room in an apartment in the Microcentro (Downtown) that we could rent for the week. Result! The deal was sealed as soon as we walked into our living room, past the dining room, through the kitchen and into our room with massive en suite - all for the standard hostel price! Sharing the living space with 3 fabulous Europeans from Germany, Holland and Spain, made it all the more sophisticated! Laura also had the opportunity to cook one of her (in)famous curries (with whatever vaguely Indian spices she could lay her hands upon in the supermarket) and hosted a truly international dinner party with English, Australian, German and American representatives.
As painful as it may sound to the full-time workers out there, we have also been craving routine, specifically something to get us up
in the mornings other than our check-out time! Also keen to formalise our potted Spanish, we signed down to 20-hours of Spanish lessons with "One-on-One" for a week (great professional tutors). Despite having homework each evening(!) we managed to see a different part of BA every afternoon. Like London, each area has its own vibe so we've separated this blog into sections for those of you that might be interested in visiting Argentina in the future (you definitely should). Our overall plus point is experiencing the Tango dance in its birthplace - the dance can be passionate, cheeky, sorrowful and sensuously performed by even the most masculine of men. You can watch street entertainers dance the real steps or see jazzed up performances at a dinner show, take a lesson or two and then put the steps into practise at one of the local Milongas (Tango clubs). T and I only took a 2 hour lesson but apparently we have potential - if I stop trying to lead!
Microcentro, El Centro & Retiro The Microcentro (or downtown as it is known in English) covers the area around Plaza de Mayo to the famous 20-lane monster road that
Microcentro - Avenida 9 de Julio to the Obelisk
This road is the widest in the world with 14 main lanes and a further three on each side making a grand total of 20! is the "Avenida 9 de Mayo" (widest in the world), to the west. This area is BA's version of Leicester Square, Oxford Street and Picadilly - shops, fairly crap restaurants (think Aberdeen Steak House) and lots of significant monuments. It contains the governmental and religious centrepieces i.e. the pink Presidential building on the famous "Plaza de Mayo", where Eva Perón (Evita) spoke to the crowd of Porteños (people of Buenos Aires) below and where Madonna recreates the scene in the film Evita as well as the city cathedral. It was on the northern limit of the Microcentro that we made our home in our shared apartment. Although the area isn't green and beautiful, it is a convenient point of departure for other more charismatic and vibrant areas and everything you need is on your doorstep, amongst a number of things you also don't need! From the Microcentro you can pretty much get anywhere in BA taking the underground or "Subte" as it's called, from which 3 lines originate and spear out like spokes on a wheel.
Beyond the monstrous boundary line of Avenida 9 de Julio to the west, is the rest of the main heart of BA referred
Microcentro - Pirámide de Mayo
In the Plaza de Mayo to celebrate the day of independence marked on the monument. to as any of "El Centro", "Congreso" or even "Montserrat". The area is slightly more residential than Microcentro and slightly less congested with people, cars and local buses called colectivos (just!). The Congress building is here as well as a number of important centres for enjoying the arts including numerous Tango clubs and the magnificent Teatro Colón, an impressive building which houses top-class opera and theatre. It was also in this region (10 blocks away from our apartment - I know, as I walked this drag every morning for 5 days) that our Spanish lessons took place. Our daily walk to class down "Viamonte", braving the various road crossings along the way (including Av 9 de Mayo), became second-nature to us and although the walk wasn't particularly memorable we both feel like we really know a part of BA and it was also apparent that we even looked like we did, as more than once, we were asked for directions by Porteños passing-by!
Slightly north of the central region is Retiro - a slightly more upmarket residential area. There are some green areas, nice residential areas and the central train station (think King's Cross). Along the boundary of Retiro
Retiro - Making Out on the Heath
Amorous couples smooch on the Plaza Libertador General San Martin. The Torre de los Ingleses is in the background. are a number of high skyscrapers which dominate the skyline and the focal point of the area is the huge Plaza San Martin. If you come to BA and stay in a plush hotel (4-5 star), you'll probably end up here and although it's pleasant enough it lacks the character of some of the other areas of BA. The area is home to the English Tower - a red brick tower donated to Argentina by us Brits and BA's version of Big Ben. Amongst the green areas are lots of amorous couples making out on the heath, more dogs than you can shake a stick at (or throw one to) and a lot of hobos spilling out of the train station (typical) and the shanty town behind.
To be honest, our favourite parts of BA where not in the central area. That's not to dissuade anyone from seeing them - there's loads to see and do but we prefered the more upmarket and slightly more trendy districts of Recoleta and Palermo and felt the brash nightlife of the centre was outstripped by the cool and vibrant version of Puerto Madero in the old docks. Still, if it's shopping, bright
lights and entertainment galore that you're after, the centre is the best place to get it.
Recoleta Our one day spent in Recoleta was one we're glad we didn't miss. On the advice of our house mate Benny, we set off for the Sunday morning artisan market, the green spaces and the rather quirky Cemetry. As it turned out, our visit coincided with Argentina's Independence day and so the streets were very peaceful and a pleasure to stroll along and lots of families were out walking the dogs, perusing the stalls and enjoying their coffees watching the world go peacefully by. You could almost describe the scene as idyllic - any other day and it would probably be the usual chaos but we made on and sucked in the clean air.
Perusing the artisan stalls both Laura and I decided that it was a good job we didn't have our own address to return home to, only that stopped us from handing over thousands of pesos for the delightful trinkets available. We have to keep leashing ourselves like that, purchasing anything means carrying it or posting it - the first we're not too keen on doing
(our combined packs already weigh 33Kg out of a 40Kg max on flights) the second option is very expensive and ends up costing more than the items themselves.
After much strolling we entered the slightly weird Recoleta Cemetry - home to thousands of mausoleums belonging to those BA families with enough $ to afford to house their dead in the oppulence they've grown accustomed to during their lives. Like I said earlier, this place is weird and very creepy - it's set out like a small town with streets and small squares, we even saw post boxes (that's what they looked like anyway) presumeably for sending your letters to relatives since passed away!! Within the cemetry lies the body of the second most famous Argentinian (second to Diego "Hand of God" Maradona), Eva Perón otherwise known as Evita. At the time we hadn't visited the museum dedicated to the woman (see Palermo later)and so we were clueless to her presence and so simply passed her by. Despite that minor oversight we did see plenty of other decorative mausoleums and even could see the coffins piled up inside - a bit freaky! What really caught our eye was the odd
Palermo - Eva's Eyes
Laura tries out Evita's eyes for size ' too small is the conclusion. incidence of vandalism and graffitti - obviously blatant disrespect for the dead or perhaps some sort of revenge, we can only guess because we weren' t up to the challenge of deciphering the Spanish offences.
Palermo BA' answer to Notting Hill; it's residential, it has loads of nice restaurants, boutique shops and its great to just stroll around the cobbled streets here, particularly in Palermo Viejo (the old town). The area is also home to the largest maniucured green areas in BA including numerous parks and plazas, the Botanical gardens, Japanese gardens and the Zoological gardens. Fine dining is definitely on ther menu in Palermo and I can vouch for the fact that there's some damn good food to be eaten here.
Palermo was our base for our second stint in BA and we got a fairly decent room in a hostel just off the main transport hub of Plaza Italia. We spent most of our time walking and perusing the shops and tried as best we could, to see as much of the area in the two days at our disposal. Our evaluation of Palermo is thus: Palermo Hollywood to the north is residential and
Palermo - "H"Elephants
I can't begin to describe the excitement on Laura's face when these boys appeared. a bit grubby and is basically missable, Palermo Soho in the south is the perfect place to stroll leisurely through the green spaces and Palermo Viejo in the centre is the area to wine and dine (and also to haemorrhage pesos in the shops, if you feel the need!). We chose to spend a whole day just leisurely wandering around the parks, including BA's zoo - both Laura and I love seeing the h'animals and so we couldn't resist. To be honest, it's actually pretty good and although you can see zoos in pretty much any big city in the world, not many have so many animals that are native to South America and so we enjoyed getting a closer view of the locals. The zoo is also doing some good work, with important breeding programs to help a number of near-extinct species.
Also in Palermo is the Eva Perón museum, which is fairly new and so the exhibition is still in its infancy. There's lots more planned when the necessary funds are amassed. What's there gives you a good insight into the woman and her life and its easy to see why so many Argentinians loved her and
Puerto Madero - Puente de la Mujer
Women's bridge officially but supposedly a Tango dancer - can you see it? why some also loathed her. In our opinion, her devotion and work in bringing about better working conditions and for women's rights, are wholely commendable and we think she deserves the devotion she received. Unfortunately her life was cut very short by uterine cancer at only 33-years old and a radio broadcast interrupted its schedule to deliver the famous anouncement "It is my sad duty to inform you that at 8:25 p.m. Eva Perón, Spiritual Leader of the Nation, entered immortality". Those who hated her, wrote the sickening words: "Hurrah for cancer" on walls around BA - her controversy went on beyond her death with grave robberies and Nazi sympathising allegations but few Argentinians would deny the importance of the woman and the impact she had, in such a short life.
Puerto Madero Basically this is BA's answer to the South Bank in London (or Newcastle's Quayside) - lots of converted warehouses now house a plethora of upmarket restaurants, bars and the odd club on the waterside, as well as flash pads for Yuppie Porteños.
Puerto Madero consists of four large interconnected docks which in the heyday were the hub for cargo coming into BA. Now
the docks are home to only pleasure yachts, a single (slightly random) 85m sailing vessel used by the Argentinian naval cadets as a training boat and a bunch of out of action dockside cranes. Like Butler's Wharf in London, lots of money has been spent upgrading this area to attract the wealthy Porteños to wine, dine and live here. There's a funky bridge called "Women's Bridge" (a bit like in Newcastle) - not a blinking eye but appartently a Tango couple (so we're told) - we can't see it ourselves. Beyond the four main docks are the North and South docks, which still bring Uruguayian passengers from Montevideo into the ferry terminals there.
We didn't actually see Puerto Madero during the day - it's strictly a night-spot (unless you live there). We strolled along the waterside occasionally dipping into another funky bar to sip another two-for-one cocktail, we ate some fine food and we also got turned down at a club which demanded a strict dress code of smart trousers and no trainers - sounded like Yates' Wine Bar to us!! It was actually a city-types night - straight from work on Wednesday night to get lashed is serious
commitment to the booze. Despite that disappointment, we loved this part of town - it had lots to offer and reminded us of being back in London in the Wharf region where we spent the last year before travelling - it hence brought on a touch of nostalgia which was drowned with another two-for-one deal!!
In conclusion.... Anway, both Laura and I loved this place and would recommend to everyone of all ages, to get along because there's something for everyone here and it shouldn't be missed! The peso is also still pretty good for travellers (about 3 to the US$) so it's also cheap but you get the same quality as you would expect in Europe - service is top-class, food is world-class, Porteños are really friendly and there's tonnes to see and do. Basically, you should all be here right now, Tango-ing into the night!! Since we stayed a while we went a bit photo crazy so get scrolling and have a look for yourself.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.244s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 39; qc: 173; dbt: 0.1401s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.6mb
Lesley
non-member comment
It brightens up my day getting your emails - You look like you are having a fab time and its just wonderful to see the great photos.