Buenos Aires(Argentina): 5N/4D

December 2019      itinerary link

We arrived in Buenos Aires late in the evening, but the sky didn’t seem fully dark from the airplane. This city of 3 million people seemed to spread out quite a bit – the metropolitan area has a total population of over 15 million, a third of the total population of the country.

Our home for the first 4 nights in Buenos Aires was arranged through HomeExchange.com, and it was a spacious, artsy, comfortable place near the city center. We had to find something to eat at 10:30 at night & had Argentina style pizza (lots of onions on top) and empanadas just a couple of blocks down from the apartment.

A bench in an elevator! We really liked it whenever we were returning home from an outing.

Buenos Aires(BA) has 48 distinctive barrios (neighborhoods.) There’s a famous song that goes something like: every barrio holds its own memory; every barrio stirs an emotion. Each person is supposedly strongly tied to his/her own barrio. Our apartment was located about half way between “barrio norte” and “centro” on this map. The photo below shows the immediate neighborhood of our home.

The first morning, we walked around to get to know the neighborhood. There were cafes, markets, shops, restaurants – a very convenient location! We had a satisfying breakfast special ($2.50 – 3) at a place called La Continental.

We walked 10-15 minutes to San Martin Plaza in Retiro barrio to meet with our guide, Esteban. We often join a free walking tour wherever that is offered, but, this time, I decided to go with a private guide to get to know the place a bit more in depth. He was a geologist by training, and he was passionate about the history of the city he lived in, mate tea drinking, and tango. We instantly became experts in these areas after spending 2.5 hours with him.(Yes, that is a bit exaggerated.)  Silver, San Martin, immigrants, Paris, Evita, mate, tango – we can summarize our tour in these words.

This is the view from San Martin Plaza toward the river(Rio de la Plata,) and the history of the city began here. All had to do with the location of Buenos Aires on the map below. Spanish explorers were looking for silver(the country name Argentina comes from the Latin word argentum which means silver,) and they turned into this wide mouth of the river from the Atlantic Ocean. Back then, the riverbank came up to this area in front of the clock tower. They did not find any silver here, but they did find it much further away inland, and Buenos Aires became a port to load up the bounty to take back to Spain. This is a concise version of the beginning of the city in 1500’s according to Esteban. The longer version included Indian attacks, international power struggles, and other spicy stuff.

One guy’s statue we encountered everywhere in South America: San Martin. He was born in old Buenos Aires in 1778 as a son of a Spanish government official, and his family moved back to Spain when he was 6. He became successful as a soldier in Spain, but his love of his childhood home, Buenos Aires, prompted his return to Buenos Aires and fighting for the independence of South American people from Spanish rule. This this the version that Argentinians believe in. He’s a national hero in Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, and, of course, Argentina.

Across the street from the clock tower is one of the main train stations in the city. Argentina is a land of immigrants invited to fill the abundant land far away from the major population centers of the world. In 19th & early 20th century, Argentina welcomed 6.6 million people, mostly from Italy and Spain, and this is second only to the U.S.(27 million) in number of immigrants in a country. This is why high quality Italian food is everywhere in Buenos Aires. These immigrants arrived at the port and hopped on the train at the station next door to get to their destinations. Thus, this train station figures big in the development of the nation.

Buenos Aires aspired to be the Paris of Latin America, said Esteban. People with means built mansions copying exacting details of beautiful buildings in Paris.

We encountered many artsy shops as we walked around in Retiro and Recoleta, two older high end residential barrios.

One of the trends in Buenos Aires today is the popularity of speakeasies hiding behind or under a different storefront, such as a florist like this one.

We arrived at another must visit site in the city: Recoleta Cemetery. This is where well-to-do families rest in the end. They show off their taste and money by decorating their family mausoleum as best as they can.

The most famous citizen of Argentina doesn’t even have her own cemetery somewhere in the city. She is just one of the family members buried in the Duarte Family mausoleum, which was donated by a friend because the family could not afford it.

Evita. Maria Eva Duarte(born in 1919) married Colonel Juan Peron at age 26, and he was elected president the next year. She died of cervical cancer 6 years later. Her life was short, but she is never forgotten. Why? Esteban said people identified with her. Even after her death, her resting places changed according to the political situation of the time, and that intensified people’s feelings toward her. In a word, people felt she really cared but she never got a fair deal.

We sat around in this park to hear about mate tea drinking and tango, Esteban’s favorite subjects. He said these are more of social activities that occupy Argentinian consciousness than mere means of pastime.  Mate is a communal bonding experience: it gets passed around clockwise in a group. Not everyone dances tango in Argentina, but, for those who do, it is a very important part of their daily life.

We noticed a lot of people hugging a thermos and drinking something from a cup using a metal straw in Ushuaia. What’s with that, we thought. In Buenos Aires, almost every other person in streets seemed to do that. According to Wikipedia, Mate is the national beverage in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay:

It is prepared by steeping dried leaves of yerba-maté (known in Portuguese as erva-mate) in hot water and is served with a metal straw from a shared hollow calabash gourd. The straw is called a bombilla in Spanish, a bomba in Portuguese, and a bombija or, more generally, a masassa (straw) in Arabic. The straw is traditionally made of silver. Modern, commercially available straws are typically made of nickel silver (called alpaca), stainless steel, or hollow-stemmed cane. The gourd is known as a mate or a guampa. Even if the water is supplied from a modern thermos, the infusion is traditionally drunk from mates.

Here’s what I remember about tango: tango may mean music or the dance. Tango music or a tango dance venue/event is called milonga, and Carlos Gardel is the king of tango. Tango was born in 18th century Argentina where European immigrants, South American natives and former African slaves mingled and socialized. It is a social phenomenon, and there are many spoken and unspoken rules even though more and more people forget the rules these days and just enjoy.

After saying good-bye to Esteban, we found a wonderful Italian restaurant pretty much right across the street from where we were sitting. Unfortunately, Google can’t find that restaurant for me now.

Steps away from the restaurant, we came across this famous cafe, La Biela, which has been there since 1850.

These two gentlemen are permanent fixtures, literally, in La Biela. Who are they?

Two famous writers, Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares, who were among the regulars here.

In the evening, we strolled over to El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore, considered to be one of the most beautiful bookshops in the world. Converted from an antique theater, it is fun to browse different floors and look at all the intricate details of the building.

Then we headed over to a tango club, Salon Canning, that Esteban had recommended. We thought we could go there, have dinner, and watch people dance while listening to music. Well, all they had were potato chips and wine. Dance classes started at 9 PM, then dancing started without live music. More than half of the tables were already reserved when we walked in around 9 PM, and these were to be occupied by the regulars who kept standing reservations, we learned later. Most tango dancers dance several nights a week.

Real serious tango dancing did not start till midnight, and live music started at 1 AM. When do they go home, Pat asked someone. Early in the morning. He wanted to ask how people can go to work after that, but his Spanish was not good enough. We lasted till about midnight and went home.

Locals swear their own city map app is much better than the Google version, though.

We used Uber a lot in Buenos Aires. I had bought a local SIM card(under $5 for 2 GB data) from a cell phone accessory store in Ushuaia, thus, calling Uber was no problem. Since we had limited ability in Spanish, it was easier to punch in the destination and wait for the ride rather than trying to catch a cab and then trying to explain where we wanted to go.

We were on our own on the second day in the city, and we first went to the old port area of La Boca. We wanted to go to Museum of Benito Quinquela Martin(MBQM), an art museum of the local artist who painted the area with bright colors. It was not open even though the sign indicated it should be.

The whole area had quirky, artsy, whimsical vibe, and there were tons of tourist pouring into it.

We had lunch at this restaurant. Food was fine. Prices were a bit high for Buenos Aires, but we were in a tourist hot spot.

Caminito and other streets around here had brightly colored houses and 3D artworks on the walls. It was quite interesting, but there were just too many people for our taste. We did not linger.

Later I read that Pasaje Lanin not too far from this area offered similar kind of colorful street experience without the crowd. We should’ve gone there instead.

Another Uber ride got us to Congressional Plaza, and we walked along their main street, Avenue de Mayo, to Casa Rosada(Pink Palace), 2 KM away.

Evita supposedly waved to the people out of the window here.

Buenos Aires Cathedral is on the same square as the Pink Palace, Plaza de Mayo.

The church is quite beautiful but not overly showy or decadent as some of the churches in Europe. This is where Pope Francis served before he moved to the Vatican. General San Martin, the national hero of Argentina, is entombed in this church. 65% of the population are Catholics, and Article 2 of the Argentine Constitution established that “the federal Government supports the Roman Catholic religion,” which has been taken to mean that the State will directly finance the Church. This has been a thorny issue in the country of today where people want more democratic practices.

Walking out of the cathedral, we took a right turn and walked a few blocks and entered a pedestrian only street named Florida Street, a major shopping street filled with shops, restaurants, department stores, aggressive money changers and tourists.

Dinner was at a grill restaurant on our street that was recommended by our host. We were not disappointed. Beef, wine, pizza, empanadas – we’d done ok so far for trying out local foods.

On the third day in Buenos Aires, we flew to Iguazu Falls. That warrants a separate write-up for sure.

Our apartment was not available to us for the last night, thus, we moved to an Airbnb place in hipster Palermo neighborhood. After lunch at a restaurant around the corner from us, we explored the area. Someone very kindly put this step guide for tango dancing on a street, and a couple of people were trying it out.

I had heard of this cool art gallery in Palermo area, Union Gallery, and I wanted to go there. But we had made a wrong turn coming out of the lunch restaurant apparently, and we just could not find it. After wandering around for an hour or so, we grabbed a cab and went to the address. There was no sign, and the door was locked. I asked someone drinking coffee at a cafe nearby, and he took us back there and rang the bell. A lady came out and opened the door. We didn’t know it was open by appointment only, but the lady welcomed us and let us browse. According to her, many of the artists and collectives whose works feature in the gallery share a background in graffiti and street art.

Palermo is well known for street arts, and we did see some. But we had a plan to go downtown to witness a demonstration, thus, we had to leave the area.

Mothers and grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo has been holding a demonstration every Thursday at 3:30 PM at Plaza de Mayo since 1977 to protest the disappearance of up to 30,000 young people under the military dictatorship. They want to know what happened to their children and grandchildren. We saw the group marching around the square, some in wheelchairs, under scorching sun.

Plaza de Mayo is a gathering place for demonstrations, and we experienced it first hand that same day. After taking a break at a cafe nearby, we tried to get a cab to explore more of Palermo. However, there was not a single cab in sight. Turned out, all the streets were closed because of a big demonstration. We wanted to get on the bus, but buses didn’t take cash & there was no way for us to get their transportation card. So we walked and walked. By the time we came back home, we were too exhausted to go out.

Palermo had a real old time neighborhood feel. Right on our block, there were two tiny bakeries where the owner was the baker and the sales clerk, a little mom & pop grocer, a beauty shop. People were friendly. We walked a few blocks to a very popular restaurant. “Would you like to be on the waiting list? It will be a 90 minute wait,” a nice young hostess said in English very cheerfully. No, gracias!

We went around in a circle and found this restaurant, Las Pizarras Bistro, off of our street. Excellent food, great service with a nice smile. We were happy.

We only had 3 full days in Buenos Aires, and that was not even close to enough time to see the things I wanted to see. A week would have worked better. Those places that I may want to visit next time are marked in light purple on the map above, and you can see how long that list is! We want to hear some music, we want to see a soccer game, and we want to see other areas around the city.  Shall we come back?

It was raining when we woke up the next morning, but we could not linger because we had to catch a ferry going to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. Colonia Express ferry port area, south of the centro, showed lots of newly developed high rise condominiums. After all, BA is a bustling modern city.

Need more things to do in BA? Check it out.

Our journey: Puelo -> Puerto Varas -> Puerto Natales -> Torres del Paine National Park –> El Calafate –> Perito Moreno Glacier –> Ushuaia –> the Beagle Channel –> Buenos Aires –>Iguazu Falls