BA - The Paris of South America

Obelisco de Buenos Aries

Part Europe part Latino Buenos Aries is a beautiful city with tree lined streets, open plazas and renaissance style architecture providing a back drop to a city like no other in South America.  Looking past the cultured and sophisticated European cover Latino culture still thrives, albeit with an Argentinian twist of football, tango and te de mate.  It is impossible not to notice the wealth in the city compared to its neighbours despite the spiralling inflation in Argentina and current corruption allegations against the former President.   Manicured parks, boutique shops and modern apartment blocks dominate the central districts (there are 48 barrios in total) and there is a calm and serenity not present in other South American capital cities.  There are even pavements without giant holes in them or obstacles on them that might have allowed us to walk around admiring the city were it not for the vast quantities of dog shit that cover the paths – you can’t have everything!  We stayed in an Airbnb apartment in Belgrano, a nice central residential district that gave us time to relax and enjoy some comforts alien to us in the past year.  These first world luxuries were namely a bath and an oven so I could make pies and apple crumble… simple things. 

The National Congress

If we had flown from Europe straight to Buenos Aries we may have only stayed a short time as despite being a beautiful city to stroll around we felt we could have been in any of the famous European capitals (not meant in any way to be a slight.)  For us it was exactly what we wanted to experience; a little normality to rest and recover after some hectic travel.  What Buenos Aries does lack is an iconic landmark such as the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum but the central districts have some attractive architecture & plazas.  These are filled with locals drinking te de mate that is drunk traditionally in an ornate mug through a straw made of silver.  As we explored the down town we passed two of the most impressive renaissance style buildings in the city, The Teatro Colon and National Congress.  When visiting the latter we stumbled into a protest complete with opportunistic street sellers with BBQ’s.   Argentinian’s do not seem to be able to live a few hours without eating some form of meat!  Walking down the narrow streets east of the protest we found the famous Obelisco de Buenos Aries, a 68m tall phallic shaped monument erected to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the city in 1936.  Just around the corner we found an excellent restaurant serving Bife de Chorizo (steak), the must have food in Argentina which rounded off a great day exploring the centre of the city.

Teatro Colon

Recoleta Cemetery

Despite the European architecture in the city centre there was still enough noise and chaos on the streets to remind us which continent we were in.  Street venders selling everything from plug adapters to leather belts roamed the streets and there was enough noise and chaos to give the central shopping street a distinctly Latino vibe.  Unfortunately for me it was the 30^th anniversary of the infamous Hand of God goal by Diego Maradona and as we strolled down Calle Florida I was accosted by the Argentinian ESPN team to give an interview about my feelings towards the cheating bastard Argentinian legend.  With all the diplomacy I could muster I expressed my most sincere respect for his talent whilst pointing out that Pele was far superior; just as Ronaldo is better than Messi and Owen’s goal against them in 2002 was far better than Maradona’s against us in 1986.   My diplomacy was at least some conciliation for me as I had to endure nearly every billboard in the city advertising Maradona’s new book showing an image of the goal on the front cover.  An essential stop to explore the political history of Argentina is to visit the famous Recoleta Cemetery in the most bourgeois district of the city of the same name.  The amazing tombs house some of the wealthiest and most influential people in Argentina’s history including Eva Peron, the second wife of Argentina’s most famous President in the 20^th Century Juan Peron.  Although a champion for women and the working class she is almost ironically buried with her class enemy’s but hers is the only grave to be covered in flowers 365 days a year.

A squadron of parakeets

The docklands

The anti-Buenos Aries is the barrio of Puerto Madero, an area which unlike the rest of the city that famously faces away from the water embraces the Rio de la Plata, the world’s widest river which in places reaches 220km in width.  The restored port looks to have been modelled on London Docks with converted brick warehouses and modern offices running along the water front.  The highlight for us was the ecological area that has been preserved along the river which houses hundreds of species of birds.  The squadrons of squawking parakeets that terrorise the city are abundant in the reserve and we spent a few hours walking on the trails enjoying an unexpected break from the hustle of Buenos Aries.   To the north of the city another escape from the bustling city is the barrio of Tigre (named after the Jaguars that used to live their) which runs alongside a river delta with the same name.  A stroll along the water front took us past the naval museum which houses some remains of a vessel destroyed by the British during the Falklands conflict – we quickly moved on.   The barrio housed a lot of rowing clubs in buildings that would not have looked out of place along the Thames River and we enjoyed freshly made empanadas watching the river traffic heading to Uruguay.

El Tigre

Ultimately our time in Buenos Aries was us trying to have a holiday from traveling, a ridiculous sounding statement unless you have travelled for long stints.  Enjoying having simple conveniences like a wardrobe, a T.V and no immediate pressure to have to run around and see as much as possible was a change in lifestyle that we needed.  We may have watched far too many box sets and a lot of football during this time (Argentina went into mourning when they lost the Copa America Final) but it gave us a chance to rest Hannah’s ankle and recover a little before our final six weeks.  We eventually managed to get our Vietnamese working VISA’s from the friendliest immigration official we have ever encountered and we left excited to cross the water for a short visit to Uruguay, the penultimate country of our trip.