Buenos Aires whirlwind tour
Trip Start
Oct 18, 2006
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81
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Trip End
Oct 19, 2007
Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Arriving into BA airport at 8.45am after spending the night wide awake at Sao Paulo airport surrounded by Brazilian guys eyeing off my luggage all night and already more tired than l have been in my entire life, l exited customs and was met by my friendly personal tour guide Graciela and our driver Emilio who showed me around the city for the next five hours. People had told me that it would be impossible to see BA in a day, yet once again l stepped up to the challenge and think l might have proved them wrong! It was never my intention to spend only a day in Buenos Aires but due to changes of flights and dates it was either that or nothing at all! So l decided to do the craziest 48hrs of my life sleeping (or should l say sitting) at Sao Paulo airport, spending the day in BA and then sleeping at Santiago airport that night before flying out to La Paz Bolivia the following morning! Yes that means l had over 4 flights and two nights without sleep plus seeing a huge city in one day all within less than 48 hours!
I tried to absorb all the history and information lovely Graciela was providing me throughout the tour with through tired eyes and continuous yawns.
San Telmos cathedral Iglesia San Ignacio
Buenos Aires is primarily a city of barrios (neighborhoods) and more important than the divisions between barrios is the one that exists between the north, where you will find BAs moneyed classes, and the south, which is largely working class. The south is where we first stopped features the cultivated charm of San Telmo, setting for the city's popular Sunday antique market Feria de San Pedro Telmo located in the tiny Plaza Dorrego. Almost theatrically set up and overflowing with antique mates, jewel colored soda syphons the stalls offered fascinating browsing whilst listening to live tango music and being impossibly seduced by the crumbling decorative facades and cobbled streets of San Telmo, one of BAs most atmospheric neighborhoods. We then passed Parque Lezanna, one of BAs most beautiful and underrated parks and where supposedly BA was founded and where many public concerts are held on its surrounding circular stairs. Opposite the park we passed a mural representing the La Boca district where we were about to head into. So l said goodbye to Bohemian and old San Telmo and area which as fashionable until he 19th century yellow fever epidemic drove the porteno elite to higher ground and after saw much street fighting from 1806-1807. That was the fascinating thing about Argentina and BAs incredible history, it has so much and still is creating more even up until today where in only 2002 the city suffered and economic catastrophe when the banks took the peoples savings from under their noses.
Inside the cathedral
I has just finished reading a fantastic Argentinian love story called Meet Me Under The Ombu Tree, which had introduced me to this country's fascinating and complex past which this tour cemented in my mind. The city and each of the barrios we visited was as different from one to the next and each revealed a certain charm that makes BA the renowned city that it is. Next we drove further into the southeast corner to La Boca- an area renowned for its colored wood and corrugated iron houses and its football team, Boca Juniors- who are the most legendary Argentine team abroad, partly thanks to Diego Maradona. So of course we visited the renowned La Bombonera stadium (La Boca Juniors stadium) where even the coke advertisements had to have their colors changed as not to represent the opponents colors! I feel like l have gotten my football fix for a lifetime after Brazil and Argentina combined! We then headed through the streets of La Boca which l was told was built by the Italian immigrants along Ria chudo, a narrow waterway lined by meat packers and warehouses. Part of its color comes from the brightly painted houses along the Caminito, a former railway siding now transformed into a pedestrian street and open air museum and named after the popular and famous tango song. It was here that l saw and heared about the barrios famous artist, Benito Quinquela Martin, who painted epic and expressive scenes of daily life in the neighborhood and who encouraged the immigrants tradition of painting their homes in bright colors and took the name of the street from the 1926 tango.
I also learnt looking up at the caricature like sculptures hanging out and off the buildings windows and balcony's that the area was once full of brothels and most of the sculptures were supposed to represent the prostitutes inviting the men upstairs.
Street in San Telmo
I then learnt the tango was actually formed and created here on the very street l was standing on and surprisingly it was created and danced only by men in its beginnings on the streets below the brothels as a form of entertainment between the men who were waiting their turn. The dance then became its more seductive self when the prostitutes started dancing it in their streets with their clients. Therefore for many years no respectable woman would ever dance the tango due to the suggestive connotations it held! Also surprisingly l learnt that the tango was not just a dance of passion but of heartbreak and many of the original tango lyrics are about heartbreak. La Boca is a fascinating barrio to visit and although there's something of the pastiche about Caminito these days- its houses seem almost too colorful, too perfectly photogenic- but these bold blocks of rainbow colored walls set off with contrasting window frames and iron-railed balconies are absolutely stunning.
We next headed to the stark and contrasting industrial and brick warehouse yuppie filled Puetro Madero- once the part and warehouse filled district which has now become the nightclub, bar and waterside restaurant scene. Walking along the waterside in my Havianas passers by dressed like winter style Russians looked at me like l was half crazy- yes it was cold and l realized that my last three months of Summer living was officially over. Freezing we headed to the city center where the cold and overcast atmosphere suited the stories l was being told about Argentina's history and the events that had and still took place within the famous Plaza de Mayo- where most of BAs historical monuments and moments have taken place.
Street lamps against old buidings in San Telmo
The plazas been bombed, filled by Evita's descamisados (manual workers) and is still the site of the Madres de Plaza de Mayos weekly demonstration (on Thursdays) where you can see the mothers still organizing their silent weekly demonstrations to know the where abouts of missing family members (desaparecidos) who disappeared from 1976 onwards during the Guerra Sucia- known as the Dirty War, where hit squads where sent to make people disappear. Over 30,000 people simply disappeared and most of them died having being taken to secret detention camps where they were subjected to torture, rape and usually execution. Madres de Plaza Mayo were the ones who brought the issue of the desparecides to the attention of the international media and the white headscarf graffiti symbol surrounding the plaza represents their morning. Surrounded by the plazas stupendous towering palm trees and pigeons swarming around my feet we looked across to the balcony of the Casa Rosada, the pink government building that occupies the eastern end of the square and l learnt how Evita, Maradona (no not Madonna!), Galtieri and Peron have all addressed the crowds from its balcony. We then headed to the columned facade of the Cathedral Metropolitana- the largest church in BA where we witnessed Mass taking place. We then headed to the Recoleta- a barrio synonymous with its world famous cemetery and its prestigious Barro Norte. Once the city's most aristocratic neighborhood and where the upper class portenos relocated after the San Telmo yellow fever epidemic in the 1870s we headed foward to the stark white silhouette of the Basilica Nuestra Senora del Pilar- where l was wowed by the magnificent Baroque silver altarpiece- embellished with an Inca sun and other pre-Hispanic details.
San Telmo antique market
We then headed through the gates of the La Recoleta Cemetery into quite seriously the most elaborate and amazing cemetery l have ever visited. Created in 1822, the necropolis features great monuments of dark granite, white marble and gleaming bronze, decorated with countless stone angels and statues of the Virgin Mary. A haven of peace and quiet within its high walls, it was a great place to wander through exploring its narrow streets and wide avenues where dozens of feral cats prowl amongst the graves. Evita's grave among many other notable Argentineans is contained within the cemetery's high walls, and the poor actress who married Perons body finally came to rest within the cemetery after being hidden under a synonym in Milan for many years. But strolling through the cemetery and learning the stories behind some of the other graves and walls was fascinating, but many stories will simply rest in the open air caskets known only to the family's descendent's or perhaps the deseased themselves. Leaving behind the cemetery we passed the famous Obelisco which is a magnet for the car loads of celebrating fans after a major football victory. We then finished the tour by visiting the famous Cafe Tortoni- which has been going for over 150 years and is famous for its artistic and literacy connections and where tango dancers grace its heavy brown columns and art nouveau mirrored walls.
Leaving behind fascinating BA and all its diverse barrios behind it was back to the airport for me where l parted with my new friend, my guide Graciela and it was another flight for me to Santiago Chile where l situated myself on a comfortable couch for the next 8 hours that l was in transit waiting for my early morning flight to La Paz. I didn't move from that couch despite the envious glares of the surrounding tired passengers, and l met three American guys who had been snowboarding in Chile at 1am who provided me with two hours of entertainments as they manged to drink a few too many beers between them and then plug their Ipod speakers in and pump out the most inappropriate music to be playing in the early morning hours at the airport! Ohh the joys of traveling!!
My day in Buenos Aires was rushed and tiring but l was glad that l got to experience its beauty and diversity, walk through its numerous barrios which each held for me more history and beauty than many city's combined.
