8 wonderful days in Buenos Aires. What a city! It’s incredibly European and I have found myself thinking that I’m actually in Paris or Barcelona. Our apartment really reminds us of the apartments we’ve stayed in in Paris (but with better pluming!), while the 5-10 storey apartment buildings that are everywhere in this suburb remind us of Barcelona. They have the same elaborate iron work on the balconies and front gates.
We take everything back that we’ve said about Argentinian dogs. They are ever so nice here in BA but just like Paris there is a lot of caca to avoid on the footpaths . Professional dog walkers take large groups of pooches out walking during the day. Some will remember the dog walking challenge that was included in The Amazing Race Season that came to Argentina a few years back.
We visited the Casa Rosada and Plaza Mayo to continue our homage to the Perons. There is some comment in the press here about how the Kirchner’s were fashioning themselves on the Perons. It also occurred to me that Hugo Chaves has a lot in common with them all as well. Perhaps the Kirchners are a little more democratic than the Perons or Chavez.
Here are some pictures of the Theatre Colon (Opera House) – Built in the 1st decade of the 20th century to rival the best in Europe. No expense spared. Truly spectacular. Did a tour and saw 10 minutes of the dress for the Magic Flute. Most entertaining when the French Soprano, flying in on a moon, called a halt to the run to complain about the orchestra (en francais naturalement).
Congress building. Again a wonderful building although for much of Argentinian history the Presidents and dictators have run roughshod over the representatives and senators. I don’t think that Christina Fernandez de Kirchner (she is referred to as CFK in the press here) controls Congress.
Shoe shine? Galleria Pacifico (a shopping mall) in the background. There are fantastic shopping malls as well of lots of boutiques. We’ve been very naughty boys and have done a lot of shopping
We continued the Evita Rainbow Tour by visiting the Eva Peron Museum. Gets middling reviews in the guide books but we loved it. It was really informative and seemed to get to the heart of what the Perons achieved while acknowledging the arguments of their detractors and not fawning about them. Good gift shop too.
On Sunday we went down to La Boca to see the coloured houses – largely a tatty artificial tourist trap. However on the way there we had to walk through the crowd arriving at the Boca Juniors Stadium to watch their match with River Plate. This was far more interesting. You could hear the chanting from the stadium even though the match hadn’t started. There were flares going off and supporters walking around with banners talking to the press, who were everywhere. People driving to the match were parking in the side streets and the local residents appeared to be organising parking and charging for it. In one street they had cars double parked and the owners were merrily throwing them keys.
On Monday we had a big day. We got a ferry across to Colonia in Uruguay. Colonia was established by the Portuguese as a smuggling port to counter Spain’s power over trade derived from having established Buenos Aires. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and was beautiful and a great place to while away the day.
We finished the day by going to a milonga recommended by Manuela , which is a social tango dance evening. It kicked off at 11pm on a Monday evening and was packed with both locals and foreigners dancing – and of course quite a few foreigners like us watching. When we left around 12.30am it was still going strong.
This is all from Argentina. Where to next time??????
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