Buenos Aires

Tango on the street!
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We arrived in Buenos Aires on a flight from Santiago.  Took the airport bus into the city and negotiated the Metro system to get to our hostel in Barrio Boedo, a tango district  a few Metro stops out of the city. By the time we arrived we were incredibly hot, from carrying our back packs and being on the Metro at rush hour and the Buenos Aires heat and humidity...about 35 degrees.

The next day we headed into the city to the main sqaure Plaza de Mayo, the site of some of the Government buildings including Casa Rosada, where Eva Peron made speeches from the balconies. We walked around so took in some of the sites such as Teatro Colon, the Obelisk and the new development of the port, where there are lots of restaurants and cafes. Also had a wander around the central shopping area, we visited the Galerias Pacifico, a shopping centre with murals painted on the ceiling and full of posh shops, although that was less of an interest for us.  Ivan has wanted to skydive since being in Australia so he organised that for the Saturday morning.  We were collected and driven an hour south of the city to Lobos.  After a short wait Ivan was up and away for a tandem parachute jump.  Thirty seconds of free-fall and then 5 minutes of descent with the parachute and he landed safely and on his feet.  The photos and DVD are testament to how much he enjoyed it as he has a big smile for them all!

Skydive
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On Sunday we visited La Boca, another area for tango and home of the Boca Stadium, one of the most followed Argentinian teams.  The streets are colourful and filled with traditional buildings painted a mulitude of colours. Historically it was an area inhabited by the first Italian immigrants, now it is more touristy in parts, with souvenir stalls and tango dancing in the streets. It is also quite a deprived district, so as a tourist you are advised not to stray from the central areas.  We then headed to San Telmo, another old district known for it´s Sunday antiques market.  The streets were thronged with people and lots of stalls selling everything from antique soda bottles, silver cutlery, gramaphones  and vintage clothing.  There were numerous street entertainers, from tango dancing to puppet shows.

Skydive
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We then met with Monica and Santiago, family of Argentinian friends, Karina and Gaston, who we had met in Dublin.  They drove us to Palermo where we enjoyed a few beers in one of the many bars and took a stroll through the market and past numerous cafes and restaurants.  We also visted Plaza Francia, for more markets and the site of the Recoleta Cemetery and Museo de Bellas Artes. Also saw the upmarket parts of the city with European style architecture and the exclusive hotels and designer shops. We passed the racecourse and the polo club and stopped for coffee in another area before they drove us back to our hostel.  It was good to meet them and we were able to talk about places to visit in Argentina, life for them in a huge city and the economy as well as touching on the Falklands/Malvinas.

Colourful Caminito, La Boca
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The next day we returned to the Recoleta Cemetery to see the mausoleums, particularly that of Eva Peron, Evita who is finally at peace in her family´s tomb, there were fresh flowers at the site too. We took a bit of respite from BA's heat and spent a few hours in an air conditioned cinema before heading back to the Puerto Madrero for dinner at an often recommended restaurant Siga la Vaca or  "follow the cow".  It is a "tenedor libre", which translates as free fork, basically an all you can eat buffet with the emphasis being on parrilla, which is grilled meats in vast quantities and varieties.  Well, when in Rome...or Buenos Aires! I decided I could not leave the country of beef without trying the steak so after trying a tiny piece of Ivan´s bife de chorizo, I plumped for my own piece.  After about 22 years of not eating meat I was chewing on prime Argentinian steak and whilst not an unpleasant taste or texture, it certainly was quite juicy and far more pink than any piece of meat I have ever eaten. I will not be giving up my usual meat free diet. It reconfirmed why I don´t eat meat which is  because I don´t really enjoy it.

Caminito street scene, La Boca
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The final sights for us in BA was an art gallery that featured some interesting modern Argentinian art and the large mechanised metal flower whose petals close at night.  We also visited Museo Evita, housed in one of the Eva Peron Foundation homes which provided social assistance to women and children in the 1950´s. We learnt more about her work and politics and saw quite a few of her beautiful clothes and shoes, preserved in glass cases.   Although we understood that she had both supporters and opponents the museum did not seem to explore the reasons why she was disliked by some so still in the dark about that one!  One of the interesting but sad facts was that her body was "kidnapped" by the military government of the time and buried in Milan for many years under a false name before being returned to her family.  Her grave is now completely sealed so that it can not happen again.  We will now have to watch Madonna´s attempt at playing Evita!  Also briefly visited the Japanese Gardens and saw lots of huge, colourful koi in the lakes. We also visited Cafe Tortoni for a tango show and witnessed some amazing tango dancing as a finale to our week in Buenos Aires.