Buenos Aires
“The Paris of South America”, and indeed it seemed so. Home of the sultry tango, it’s a stunning city, brimming with ostentatious architecture, flaunting the wealth of its past. And a pleasure to be in, as cities go. The people of Buenos Aires have the reputation of being a little aloof and not as friendly as other Argentinians, but I found them to be generous, friendly, relaxed and actively looking out for your safety. Oh, and so many of them are gorgeous! Don’t know how they do it when about all you can find to eat is meat! Easy to get around, and plenty to do – here’s some of it…
Casa Rosada
Or Presidential Palace, this is a pretty famous building. You may have seen footage of the likes of Eva Peron making speeches and waving to the masses from its front balcony, as well as the central place to gather and go wild following Argentina’s Soccer World Cup victories. We were lucky enough to go inside for a tour (in Spanish! Que?!), where remnants of it’s grand past could be seen, but now, it’s sad to see it in a bit of a state of disrepair. Nevertheless, it’s still where the president of Argentina has her office, and governing decisions are made. We saw she had a jar of jellybeans or something on her desk! We couldn’t believe how slack the security was in there – people taking pictures and videos willy-nilly (me included!) Anyone could have been taking serious notes of how to map the place for attack! Anyway, here’s how it looked…
The Architecture
BA is rather famous for this. It’s stunning! The Casa Rosada is at one end of Avenida de Mayo, which is a Parisian-style boulevarde with wide streets and some of BA’s oldest cafes, bookshops and bars. Lots of Art Nouveau and Deco facades to feast your eyes upon, or go into the buildings and try to imagine how the people lived 100+ years ago.
It didn’t seem to matter which suburb of BA I was in, there was always something interesting to look at. Some of the posher ‘burbs were Palermo and Recoleta, but San Telmo and La Boca were so evocative of times past with the latter in particular retaining a rougher edge – but more of that later, cos it was one of my faves! So yes, awesome buildings everywhere, and so much litter unfortunately!
A not so humble chemist.
Can’t remember the name of this church, but beautiful tiles I thought.
El Zanjon (in San Telmo)
We vaguely had this on the list of places to see, and boy am I glad we actually did. An incredible piece of BA’s history unfolded during a demolition project in the 1980’s of this 1840’s mansion. All the archaeological digs and findings have been privately funded by the guy that bought it in the ‘80’s. What has been found over the years reveals layers of BA’s history that could go as far back as 1536, where BA’s first settlement was, and hence, the city’s birthplace. The mansion, built for the Miguens family (later converted into a tenement house), was built over the top of colonial houses built by early settlers. Tunnels were built in the 19th Century also, to cover the creeks for hygiene reasons, and the way El Zanjon has been restored, you can walk through this underground labyrinth of hand made bricks, and still hear the trickling of the creeks that run under BA and fill the water wells that appear at various places in the tunnels. As each ‘layer’ was uncovered by archaeologists, it captured a different space in time, and gave clues to how people lived at those times in history. Not only is it fascinating, but it’s so beautiful. I think the owner now hires it out for top notch functions, but he still puts the money back into the ongoing restoration project. All in all, it’s another great example of wonderful BA grandeur and architecture. Check it out…
El Zanjon’s façade pre restoration (above) and post (below)
View from the front door to the first courtyard
View of the first courtyard looking back towards the front hallway/entrance. Look at those beautiful bricks!
You can see that what now looks like a string of banquet halls, was originally separate rooms, or even tenements. The owner toyed with the idea of turning this space into a kind of wine bar/restaurant/bistro kind of thing. Would be pretty cool place to hang out I think! Check out the beams! Fabulous.
The small tiled area just up from the centre of the photo shows where a kitchen might have been, and the different levels within the mansion/tenement.
I reckon this place would be an archaeologists’ dream!
Casa Minima
With all these underground tunnels and water channels, some of the buildings in adjacent blocks in San Telmo were linked. Casa Minima apparently can be accessed by more ways than just its front door. And when you look at it, its front door is just about the only feature of its façade. Casa Minima – yes, it’s tiny! It measures 2m by 8m, and was originally a carriage entrance to the mansion next door. It became a gift in 1813 from its owner to his freed slaves, and apparently, the recipients of his gift would have lived there with a number of family members. Yes, they were slaves, and not used to luxury, but check out the size!...
Casa Minima’s 2-ish metre frontage.
A view of Casa Minima’s tiled courtyard from the single room upstairs. There’s a tiny kitchen through that door, and that’s it.
It was a very pleasant surprise to end up on, what started as a tour of Casa Minima (if you can call it that!), over an hour of seeing more incredible old mansions undergoing restoration with archaeological finds, similar to that of El Zanjon. This is due to the linking passageways I’ve mentioned, and secret doorways. I found it all quite disorientating, but captivating due to what archaeologists had found, and consequentially, the highly tasteful restorations that are still in progress. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine the contrast between how the rich and the poor lived in BA, hundreds of years ago, and all of it seemingly lively and rich in culture. Here are a couple of pictures, including a fresco they uncovered, that was traced back to being part of an old tango hall. They’ve now turned a small corner of one of these mansions into how a tango hall in the 1800’s might have looked…
Again, these mansions in mid-restoration are so amazing that their spaces are hired out for big posh do-s to companies like Mercedez-Benz, for example, for product launches and the likes.
La Boca
Famous for many things, including where Diego Maradona grew up and developed his footballing career through its club, for its brightly painted buildings painted so by its poor immigrants who used up paint pot ends from the nearby port and ended up with patchwork-like exteriors, and as the ‘birthplace’ of Tango. This place, although still one of the cities poorest areas (you’re strongly advised not to stray off the tourist path) is so evocative of times past, and retains such vibrancy and a strong cultural scene. With its history, vibrancy and artists/designers everywhere, this was one of my BA highlights…
A tango dancer dancing with a tourist. My guidebook said that historians’ general consensus is that the Tango developed in the 1880’s, where Mediterranean, West African and Eastern European immigrants would dance, sing and ‘play’ in the neighbourhood’s bordellos. No surprise really with the Tango flavour being sexy, sultry, passionate and intense. Opportunities to view or do the Tango are peppered all over the city, but the oldest Tango halls are in La Boca and San Telmo. It’s very much part of BA’s culture with 120 years of history behind it.
Guess who!
I like the kitch cherubs holding up this classic architecture!
One of the many artisan market strips in La Boca.
Wonder if you could get away with this look in Sydney?!
And while we’re talking about Tango…
Kirsty and Neil treated me by taking me to see a Tango show at El Querandi. This is a fabulous and beautifully restored Tango hall in San Telmo dating from 1867. It now holds Tango dinner/shows which tell Tango’s history from bordellos to full embracement by the bourgeoisie in Europe (Paris particularly), through dance, costume and theatre. It was a wonderfully ‘posh’ night in BA!
‘City of the Dead’ – Cementerio de la Recoleta
This place got its very own double page spread in my guide book – the only ‘attraction’ that did! It’s been the place to be buried for Argentina’s elite since the mid 19th century. It’s a place teaming with tombs and mausoleums, all competing for the most eye catching show of wealth and social status. Like real estate, plots are held onto by families like a valuable family heirloom, but also sold for a fortune by families who are down on their luck, have started to opt for cremation, or whose young generation don’t value it as much or think the time and effort into keeping the place tidy and trim, just isn’t worth it. Amongst its labyrinth of narrow streets and passageways are tombs of aristocrats, presidents, military generals, artists, and the internationally famous Eva Peron (whose body was actually stolen, taken to Italy by a rival political movement (I think!) and eventually held up for ransom before her husband, who had remarried and moved to Spain since her death, paid up and transported her body back to BA some 10+ years later, where it now rests in her fairly understated tomb). With the cemetery spanning many decades, the architectural styles are reflected in its history. A truly remarkable and fascinating place that was made even better by our wonderful guide. The cemetery runs free tours in English twice a week. Yes, very touristy, but so worth it!
How’s this for Catholic opulence?! Real gold mosaic tiles in the ceiling to this dome.
Marble sculpture imported from Italy or France.
Raising controversy and heated debate in death, just as she did in life, there were even difficulties with Eva Peron being laid to rest in her family tomb (Duarte) due to her illegitimacy/child of first wife or divorcee (not sure which).
Meat – regular fare
Well they say that Argentina has some of the best beef in the world. Let me tell you, it’s everywhere!! It’s actually not the greatest place to be if you’re a vegetarian. Luckily, none of us were, and were happy to test the theory at a reputedly top steak house. We weren’t disappointed. We didn’t hold back, and we had wonderfully low key but professional service, more food and surprise ‘extras’ than we had room on the table for, beautiful Argentinian red, and shots at the end. When we translated the price into Australian dollars, it got even better – you could even say it was cheap!! The place was ‘La Cabrera’ – it rocked!!!
Neil, who grew up on a cattle station, got right into the explanations of cuts, feed and all things beef, and helped us navigate this diagram.
Kinda into it!
Kirsty, ironically, chose a ‘stuffed steak’ – no surprises, she couldn’t finish it, but got sooo close!! Great effort for someone who doesn’t really eat beef much. Look at the size of the thing!
Me making faces with my food (never ever grow up!!)
Bit blurry this pic, but this is what we were dealing with. Most of the little dishes were ‘extras’ that just arrived on the table. Total yum fest!!
Eating an assortment of yumminess we got from a beautiful deli back at the apartment. Check out the hand made knife Neil got at a market. One example of the many pieces from artists and designer-makers all over the city. Another awesome thing about BA!
Other bits
Ok, just to finish off, some pics that I wanted to include, but don’t really fit anywhere in particular…
Me enjoying a coldie on the balcony of the apartment we stayed at. Again SO lucky to have a colleague and friend who was more than happy for us to stay at her newly acquired place. Lovely to return to an apartment instead of a hotel. Thanks Ana!! Xxx
One of the many professional dog walkers in BA. It’s quite a sight! This guy’s regular route was past the apartment door. We stopped him for some photos, and as it turned out, he lived in Newcastle, Australia for quite a while, so we had a good ol’ chin wag! He takes two lots of about 15 dogs out per day, and walks with them for about 3 hours for each group. Tell you what, the dogs in this city are treated incredibly well, and that’s not including these more spoilt ones.
The Japanese Gardens in BA. Nice, but not as well kept and dirtier than a Japanese garden in Japan would be. They were OK…
Tigre – just a little north of BA, it’s still a playground for wealthy Portenos (BA-ers), and lovely. We arrived here on our return from Uruguay (next missive!)
The French embassy, typical of BA’s grandeur. This 1913 building was threatened with demolition some time ago when the plans for the enormous Avenida 9 de Julio proposed to cut a path through it. Sacrilege! Or should that be Sacre Bleu?!! Ha ha!
A fabulous city, that’s accessible, feels pretty safe, and is full of history, culture, awesome shops, art markets and plenty to do. Highly recommended! Go!!
