Buenos Aires - Day 1 and 2

Yesterday our plan was to travel to Buenos Aires on an approx. 3-hour flight which would leave at 10:00am leaving us plenty of time to relax in our hotel. What turned out happening was we got up, went to the airport after breakfast at 8.30am, returned “El Death Trap” to Avis, got our tickets etc. got on the plane, took off. Then, we reached Buenos Aires after 3 hours, couldn’t land due to bad weather conditions, after circling for about half an hour flew to Cordoba (a province in slightly northern Argentina, like flying to Auckland from Wellington) for an hour, landed, sat on the tarmac for 3 more hours, refuelled, some people got off (because they would have transferred to Cordoba anyway), waited for nearly 40 more minutes, then took off back to Buenos Aires AGAIN, flew for another hour, circled for another half an hour, finally bumpily landed and collected our bags - almost 10 hours since we left El Calafate.

The highlight of this experience was getting off the plane to walk down the tarmac when it was mid sunset so the sky was pink, looking over and seeing a plane take off into that sunset. Other than that, though, not a fun day which I am still recovering from and still getting waves of that wavy feeling like I’m on a turbulent plane ride (which I had only just got rid of from my flight to Argentina on Friday).

Moving on, later that night we arrived at the Duhau Palace (Palacio Duhau) Park Hyatt hotel where we had dinner (which was incredible - especially the desserts) at Gioia, the in-house restaurant.

Today we woke up and again headed down to Gioia for breakfast which was yet again, very nice. We went back to the room for our bags and headed down to meet our guide, Oliver, for a full day walking tour.

We started off by catching a taxi down to the barrio of Le Boca (home of the Tango),where we saw the local football(soccer) stadium where the Boca Juniors train and play. He then went on to explain the history of Le Boca and then Argentina before wandering around the barrio and going down one of Buenos Aires’ most famous streets, Caminito, a very short colorful street painted by the locals using any spare paint they could get their hands on from the shipyards, and learning about its promoter, Benito Quinela Martin. We made our way to the port where we saw the Puente Transbordador a bridge which became a signal to incoming immigrants their month-long trip was almost over (Buenos Aires' version of the statue of liberty).

The main stadium.

Street art.

El Camanito street.

The Pope welcoming us to La Boca.

The colourful houses of La Boca.

Maradonna, Evita and the inventor of the tango waving from the balcony.

Café in La Boca.

tenement square where the tango originated -

now the rooms are converted to Artisan and souvenir shops.

 

 Benito Quinquela Martin was a painter who loved la Boca, loved colour and wanted to be not normal with the bridge in the background that was a famous landmark for immigrants that they were nearly here.

 

 From the port, we caught a bus to San Telmo where we saw how Paris-like Buenos Aires can be, we say old street lights, open squares in-between blocks, many antique shops selling chandaliers, silverware and artwork.  We then we went into a local food market where we saw all these old family run businesses and the locals buying their meat for their dinner. We then made our way through churches on almost every street corner, popped in to the oldest pharmacy in Buenos Aires, and oldest bookshop in Buenos Aires.
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San Telmo Market

Home of the writer of the satirist cartoonist Mathilde

 Churches galore.

 The oldest Farmacia in Buenos Aires.

Another church - Santa Domingo Church where General Manual Belgrano's mausoleum.

We then were in the city centre which was a lot like the Champs Elysees in Paris, lined with shops and coffee houses.  We stopped in at Cafe Tortoni (a coffee house which reminded me of Astoria at home)

 

 Main street of Buenos Aires - very Parisian.

 

lunch at Café Tortoni.

 After lunch we moved on to our next stop the Pink Presidential House. The President’s Office or the Pink House was difficult to get to due to protests happening around teachers’ rights in Argentina. Despite the gates blocking the view of the Pink House, typically famous for Juan and Eva Peron’s speeches, we could get a few good photos of it by me sitting my Dad’s shoulders, while I was up there we got a customer wanting me to take one for her. In the square opposite the Pink House there were teach ins, that means there were university lectures operating in protest in the open.

Teachers protesting down to the Presidential palace.

The Presidential Palace.

Next to the Presidential Palace was the Metropolitan Cathedral where paid a visit.  This is the Pope’s Church, with the typically beautiful gold altar, detailed marble and side chapels devoted to Jesus and Mary .

 

Buenos Aires metropolitan cathedral - Pope Frances' home church. Also in the Cathedral is the guarded tomb of General Saint-Martin

We then caught the metro to our next stop, the very wealthy suburb of Retiro.  We crossed the park and were told some stories about how the famous people’s houses and buildings were sold off to the government yet stayed in that preserved state of antiquity.  

 

  

 

  Wealthy family residences.

We then crossed the 9 de Julio avenue, the biggest avenue in the world, and again were told funny and sad stories of how buildings had to be destroyed to make the avenue happen, although one family sold their house to the French so it could become sovereign French land which could not be bulldozed.

After we crossed the avenue we looked the avenue to see the building where Eva Peron gave her famous speech which inspired the song “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” It was not from the Pink House despite what many tourists believe (which would make sense as the presidential square was not big enough to fit the 2 million people that were there).

After seeing the building, we made our way through what seemed a collection of embassies including the Vatican’s, Romanian, French etc. before continuing on to our second break, Empanadas at El Sanjuanino a great place for empanadas which a lot of locals love.  

Then came the most famous site in the whole tour, Eva “Evita” Peron’s mausoleum. We made our way down to the cemetery and instantly there were masses of wealthy mausoleums all over the place, marble, iron busts, glass doors all of these were frequently seen. We walked around looking at some of the more elaborate and more modest mausoleums in detail, then came Evita’s. It was a lot more modest than some of the others but unlike most of the others there was a collection of flowers at the doors put there by locals and tourists to remember and remind the people’s woman, Eva Peron.

 

The mausoleum of an Irish man who founded the Argentinian navy and the mausoleum of a very rich Argentine who funded a church in the city. 

 

 Coffins inside a family mausaleum with even more underground.

 

We walked around looking at some of the more elaborate and more modest mausoleums in detail, then came Evita’s. It was a lot more modest than some of the others but unlike most of the others there was a collection of flowers at the doors put there by locals and tourists to remember and remind the people’s woman, Eva Peron.

  

 

Evita's tomb where she is with her birth family the Duartes

On the way out the bell tolled and we made our way down the streets before finally saying goodbye to Oliver (our guide) before looking for toothpaste, which we were running out of.  We found the toothpaste in a disco (an Argentinian supermarket) and headed back to the hotel.  After some recuperation we headed back out to find dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe where we had burgers and fajitas. All in all it was a fantastic day and if you are ever in Buenos Aires and looking for a tour guide go to http://www.buenostours.com/ and ask for Oliver, he is the best. 

Tomorrow will be more relaxed as we have now visited all the main sites and now we get to pick and choose, go for a swim, plus a sleep in.

Joseph Hewson