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Tango City
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2/11 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Miles travelled: 46590 Whew! After driving almost two thousand miles from the tip of South America, we have arrived in Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, nicknamed the "Paris of South America." It's a fitting name, as there is a lot of French and European influence in the layout of the city and the architecture, with grand boulevards, lots of parks and monuments, ornate wrought iron railings, decorative columns and capitals, etc. The "Ave of the 9th of July" is reputed to be the widest avenue in the world, with 14 lanes of traffic on the main boulevard and 6 more lanes on adjacent feeder streets. The city was founded in 1516 and about a third of the population of Argentina lives in the metro area. We're in a prime location in the center of town; it's great being in a "real" hotel with a bathroom, air conditioning, and cable TV, and to have the room all to ourselves.
There is much to do and see here, and we have 3-1/2 days to do it. In addition to steak dinners every night (Argentine beef is fabulous) and shopping for incredibly inexpensive and high-quality leather goods, we've also visited the presidential building, the national congress, the historic first section of town (San Telmo) as well as the newest redeveloped area with trendy bars, restaurants, and clubs. The Teatro Colon is one of the most acoustically perfect opera houses in the world, on par with the Met in New York, La Scala in Milan, and the Staatsoper in Vienna -- we took a tour and saw that the workshops, rehearsal rooms, and storage of costumes, shoes, sets, etc. is even bigger than the auditorium itself. Unfortunately, it is now summer break so no shows are playing at the moment. We also visited a number of sites keyed to the life of Eva Peron (dramatized in the musical and movie "Evita"). Eva was (and still is) a very popular personality because of her advocacy for women and the underprivileged; she was instrumental in helping her husband Juan Peron win the presidency in 1946, when she was just 27 years old. She died of uterine cancer at the age of 33, and we visited her tomb in the ornate Recoleta Cemetery.
The other main thing famous from Buenos Aires is of course, the Tango. The dance was first popularized in the poor neighborhoods and brothels of San Telmo and La Boca in the 1870s, and then mainstreamed and exported to Europe and the U.S. in the 1910s. In Buenos Aires, there are dancers performing on the sidewalk, tons of tourist-type tango shows, "tanguerias" where the locals go to dance, and even a Tango museum. We went to a fun tango show, seeing some amazing steps, kicks, and choreography, accompanied by a traditional tango orchestra. We also wanted to track down some tango lessons, and we picked up a flyer advertising lessons by "Maestro Victor Bruno". So... we went to the address, and it was a record store -- walking in, we then found a set of phone booths, then further back a billiards hall, then a small bar, and then finally upstairs, a small balcony with tango music playing, one other couple, and Victor. Not exactly the Starlite Ballroom, but hey, we got private lessons from good instructors and learned eight steps of the dance -- despite the fact that none of the instructors spoke any English at all. Now we just have to try to remember what we learned....
Overall, Buenos Aires is a very appealing place -- very European, first-world, with plenty to see and do, lots of fine restaurants, reasonable prices, and the Tango. Also, it's a lot warmer and less windy than we've been for the past 3 weeks! Our time here ends tomorrow as we leave for the wetlands of Esteros del Ibera, where we will hopefully see some interesting wildlife such as caymans, anacondas, various birds, and maybe some monkeys. More thumbnails ...
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