Buenos Aires - The Good Stuff

We spent a week in Buenos Aires around Christmas. It was swelteringly hot almost everyday, and was honsetly one of the strangest Christmases I have ever experienced. Timb and I both agreed that Christmas lights and decorations in 30 degree heat and bright sunshine felt unnatural. We enjoyed ourselves exploring the city, which is that largest we have encountered on our journey thus far. Here are some highlights from our experiences...

Puerto Madero:
We arrived in Buenos Aires in the morning of a bright sunny day and decided immediately that we had to be out exploring the city on foot. We directed ourselves towards the waterfront and headed out into the warm morning. Puerto Madero is a newly revived area, running alongside the old dikes of the port on the Rio Plata. There are four dikes, filled with murky brown water, surroundedby old warehouses that have been transformed into upscale apartments and restauraunts. It rather reminded us of Yaletown. We wandered in the hot sun along the side of the dikes, pausing on shady benches, and to take a photo in front of a rather magnificent footbridge. We crossed the foot bridge and wandered through the neighbourhood towards the waterfront. We strolled along a long footpath running alongside a salt marsh. The whole waterfront area has been revitalized and is now an Ecological Reserve. We intended to explore the reserve, but it was just too hot, so we headed into the Plaza de Mayo for lunch. The plaza is surrounded by some important historical buildings, including the Cathedral and the Casa Rosada, the residence of the president. It is also the site of regular protests, so it is gated across the middle, and around the key buildings. We headed back to our hostel along the pedestrian thoroughfare, called Florida. It is a busy mall, lined with shops and people passing out flyers advertising everything from leather goods to strippers. It was packed with people commuting to and from their jobs in the downtown core around Plaza de Mayo.

Recoletta Cemetary and the Museo de Bellas Artes:

On the second day of our time in Buenos Aires we headed to Recoletta Cemetary, a famously elaborate burial grounds filled with the tombs of the Argentinian elite. It was an amazing experience, like walking through a city of the dead. The tombs were all intricate constructions, some of which still fared well due to continuing maintenace, and others which were crumbling into disrepair. Some of the coffins actually hung out of their stone receptacles, like something out of a Halloween movie. We took some amazing photos of the crypts and enjoyed exploring the cemetary to find my ultimate goal, the grave of famed Evita, Eva Peron. We discovered it at last, as we suspected, surrounded by a group of tourists snapping photos and paying tribute to the sweetheart of Argentina.

Following our trip into Recoletta Cemetary, Timb and I headed to the Museo de Bellas Artes. This museum was quite large, containing a vast collection of Argentinian art, as well as several travelling exhibitions. It took a couple of hours to explore the whole thing, but was well worth it for me to see a couple of pieces by Monet, Velasquez, Goya and Picasso.

Parks and Palermo:

On our third day we headed to Palermo and it´s praised parks. We took the Subte, or subway, which was an adventure in itself, as we had to work out how the system worked, and arrived at Plaza Italia in hot sunshine. We wandered from their through the botanical gardens, which had lovely sculptures, but had fallen into a decaying state with the collapse of the Argentinian economy. It was nevertheless a lovely green space, oddly filled with stray cats, a lot of stray cats. They seemed to be congregating there, in liu of other spaces to live. After the botanical garden we headed up to the Japanese Garden, which was well maintained due to the entry fee charged. It had large ponds, bridges low green hillocks and rock statues, with the biggest coy fish I have ever seen inhabiting the ponds. They honestly looked as if they could take off your hand if you were to dip it into the water. The children would feed them, and they would crowd together under the bridges when you went to cross them.

Finally that day we went to do a little shopping, or rather I went to do some shopping while Timb patiently waited for me to make up my mind. We headed to an area called Palermo Viejo, or Palermo Soho, which is home to a number of trendy boutiques. This area of Palermo was absolutely gorgeous, with cobbled streets and big trees over hanging the sidewalks. Ladies, I am telling you, it was fantastic! It was like shopping in New York with all of the fabby designer clothes, shoes and bags, but better because the prices were so low. I was in heaven, but had to control my spending as I didn´t have a lot of room to bring things back. I would love to go back with an empty suitcase and fill it up, but until that time I will have to be content with my gorgy, green suede bag that Timb bought me for Christmas :) We wandered around Palermo for a while, admiring the boutiques and trendy cafes before treading back to the Subte station and the hostel.

San Telmo:

San Telmo is a wonderfully unique area of Buenos Aires, and we were lucky enough to be able to explore it on Sunday when the streets are lined with bohemian and antique markets. The building here are lower and older thn in other parts of the city, and the main street is linded with antique shops filled with some really unique objects. When the economy crashed, people began to sell off their possessions to make some money. They sold everything with value, and therefor the antique shops are packed full of everything you can imagine. The whole thing is incredible, and also rather sad, as these people sold their family heirlooms to survive. We wandered down to the main plaza, which turns into an antique market on Sundays, and explored the stalls. It was fun and interesting, but Timb and I both decided that there is a fine line between antique and junk. We ate lunch at a notable restaraunt called Desnivel, an Italian place famous for its delicious steaks. And they really were amazing. The most tender steak I have ever had, though they need to work on their sauces and marinades. We left the restaurant absolutely stuffed, and wandered back, through the rather empty Sunday streets of the rest of Buenos Airies, to our hostel to digest.

Christmas Day and the day that followed:

This year was my first Christmas away from home, and as a result I was rather homesick on Christmas Day. Timb did a great job of trying to cheer me up. He made me a stocking out of one of his socks, with candy and an orange inside, and bought me a rose. We exchanged a couple of presents and went down to have coffee and breakfast. We made a huge breakfast omlet, and checked our e-mails for Christmas greetings. Then we headed out into Buenos Aires to make some phone calls and explore the Congresso area, which we had yet to see. It was a long walk, but worth it, as the archtecture around the plaza is rather spectacular. The government house is massive, and the plaza contains a wonderful large sculpture and fountain. We walked back to the hostel, where we spent the rest of the day hanging out with others in the hostel and watching movies on TV. We made a huge Christmas dinner that night, and all ate and drank together. It was nice to spend the day with new people, and I ended up really enjoying myself on my first hot and sunny Christmas day.

The next day was our last in Buenos Aires, so Timb and I decided to cross off the last few activities we had on our list. We had to check out of our room rather early, afterwhich we walked down through Puerto Madero again to reach the Ecological Reserve. This time we headed into the reserve and walked out to view the Rio Plata, the closest point we could get to the Atlantic Ocean. We have now been from coast to coast on the South American continent. The reserve was large, full of low, flowering trees and marsh land grasses. It was nice to feel a bit like we were out of the city. It was a hot day, and we both got rather sunburned walking around in the open.

Later in the afternoon we headed to the Buenos Aires Zoo, which we had heard contained amazing animal houses. They were quite amazing, as they were old, and architecturally elaborate, but they were not the ideal homes for these animals, and as usual the zoo was a bit depressing. Some of the animals had lovely large habitats, but others were not so fortunate. I particularly felt for the polar bear, who must´ve been boiling hot. The zoo was large and it took us a while to make it all the way round to all of the exhibits. I think that the best thing we got out of our zoo visit was a feeling of accomplishment of our trip in general; of having been able to see many of these animals in their wild habitats, something that many of the other zoo visitors hadn´t done and possible would never see. We had been to the jungle, desert and high altiplane, and those experiences stood out especially with our zoo visit.

Later that day we left Buenos Aires for Mendoza, and further adventures...