Buenos Aires, Part One

The obelisk at the center of Avenida

9 de Julio, the widest street in the world, at 144

meters across.

La Casa Rosada, the presidential palace.

It´s pink color originates in the mixing

of bull´s blood into the mortar to keep the

building cooler.

Colorful Caminito, at the heart of La Boca neighborhood.

An old club-turned-museum on the banks of the

Río de Plata.

Punta Chica, an old village near the BA. Notice

the South American humor here.

Well my friends, I am finally back in the US. I currently am writing this post from the lovely Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and will be back in Milwaukee in a few hours.

Regardless, I still want to post about my trip to Argentina, and furthermore I have nothing better to do for the next four hours.

Last Thursday night around 7pm, I got a call from my cousin saying we were going to Buenos Aires the next day at 7am. It was quite a surprise; we had been trying to book passage to Argentina all week and it was not working out. However, for about $120 round-trip, we did make it to Buenos Aires. We got in Friday morning to Argentina after an amazing beautiful flight over the picturesque Andes Mountains from Chile. Unfortunately, as I claimed my luggage, I noticed that the bag had been opened and that someone at one of the two airports had robbed me of my iPhone and camera chargers. It was disturbing but I also attempted not to worry because they were not very valuable items.

We were picked up by a tour guide and bus, and began the 45 minute drive into Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is actually a city of 3 million people in the Capital Federal, an entity similar to the District of Columbia. However, the province of Buenos Aires is home to 12 million more people, bringing the metropolitan population in excess of 15 million people. In a country of 40 million, it's shocking that more than 1/3 of a population can live in one city so large. People in Buenos Aires are referred to as Porteños, while people living in the province of Buenos Aires are called Bonaires.

My first reaction to Buenos Aires was of how old it looked. The city´s structures are all very old, and by far the vast majority of buildings are older than 70 years. There are very few new buildings besides shopping malls and the occasional tower. My second reaction to the city was how hot it was. Though Santiago usually makes it to about 88-92 degrees during the day, it´s a dry heat so by nightfall the temperature actually drops down to 65 degrees or less. In Buenos Aires, it´s humid and just as hot, so not only do the structures take a toll from this tropical climate, but also my body took quite a beating.

The first day we took a city tour, seeing eight of the neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, including: Palermo, Recoleta, La Boca, San Nicolas, and the Plaza de Mayo. The Plaza de Mayo is home to the Casa Rosada, or the Pink House, most famously seen in Evita or other photos and film reels of Eva Perón. It´s now the home of the executive branch of Argentina. La Boca is one of the older districts; it´s most famous feature is Caminito, a famous pedestrian street where the houses and apartments are all painted distinct colors. Recoleta and Palermo are both shopping and dining centers within the city. Recoleta is famous for it´s cemetery and for it´s arts and crafts fair. Palermo is an upscale part of town formerly comprised mostly of Italian immigrants. In Argentina, besides people of Spanish descent, the largest ethnic group is Italian, with as much as 25% of the Argentine population being of Italian descent. Italian culture, and especially cuisine, are an integral part of Argentine culture.

In the evening after our tour, we went to a local bar but didn´t last long due to how tired we were. On Saturday, we hopped on another tour which took us to a part of the province of Buenos Aires known as Ciudad Tigre. This area named for the puma-like wildcats that live in the area is located on the Río Plata delta. The Río Plata is an immense river which is the termination of the Pirana river from Brazil. It´s also incredibly wide, being a three hour boat ride from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, Uruguay. Upon arrival, we got on a big tour boat and took a tour through the delta. About 5000 people live in the delta permanently, with many thousands more owning seasonal homes. There are no roads connecting the hundreds of islands, so to get to and from you either use your own boat or hail down one of the cooperative "bus" boats.

After leaving the river tour, we went to a small village called San Isidro where they had an artesian fair and also sold antiques. It was rather boring and can´t reasonably recommend it to anyone visiting Buenos Aires. After San Isidro we went back towards downtown Buenos Aires where we were dropped off at the main shopping center downtown, Galleria del Pacifico. Normally I would not mentioned any shopping centers, but this one was built into an old galleria and was actually very beautiful inside, with stained glass domes and wall murals painted by famous Argentine artists. There is something to be said for shopping in Buenos Aires, though. It´s easily the latin fashion capital. Argentines are very concerned with style and also generally take care of their bodies and worry about their appearance. There´s great shopping to be had in Buenos Aires, with very unique designers and stores carrying things that you would not find in the US, especially at such low prices.

In the evening we went to a bar and then to a dance club. The nightlife in Buenos Aires is also known as the best in Latin America, and the bars and clubs in the city reflect that. We had a great time dancing and "carreteando," and generally found the Argentines to be friendly and attractive (they also really like gringos!)

Well those were the first two days. I´ll cover the rest of the trip later this weekend, and finish my Argentina posts with a posting about Argentine cuisine. Thanks for reading and hopefully I will get to see the majority of you in the next couple of weeks. Thanks and talk to you soon!