Buenos Aires!
ARGENTINA | Wednesday, 26 January 2011 | Views [375] | Comments [1]
Hello from Buenos Aires! I flew from Portland to Houston and Houston
to Buenos Aires, arriving here on the morning of 1/24. My hostel is
right on the Avenida 9 de Julio which is the 10 lane street through the
center of Buenos Aires. This is the street with the famous obelisk.
I'm right in the middle of everything sand close to 3 metro lines so
its a great location.
After checking into my hostel and
getting situated, I decided to go exploring. I first went down Avenida
de Mayo towards the Palacio del Congreso, a huge domed building
apparently built in the style of the capitol building in D.C. This one
was much darker though and the domed roof was made of bronze I think so
it was greenish. There is a huge park in front with a massive monument
to the national congress. Strolling down Av de Mayo I was surprised to
see lots of French looking architecture. In fact, this is really
common in the city from what I've seen so far. Some streets really
look like what I would imagine Paris to look like, but with a bit of a
gritty Latin American edge. The streets with the best architecture
also happen to be lined with huge trees- some of the streets are really
beautiful. After the palacio, I wondered back in the other direction
towards the Plaza de Mayo, the cathedral and the neighborhood of San
Telmo, Buenos Aires' tango capitol. Unfortunately, no one broke out
into a spontaneous tango in the street like I hoped, but it was an
interested area none the less. It is much more of a working class area
and a haven for artists and other liberal minded folks with little
money. It also has a number of bars and pubs popular with young
tourists and porteños (BA locals) alike. It was really really hot (35
C which is 100 degrees I think and 70% humidity) so I didn't end up
exploring for longer than a few hours. Even so, I ended up getting
sunburned! It's not too bad though. The hostel has a kitchen so I
found a grocery store and got some veggies, pasta, bread, and tomato
sauce and had a cheap yummy dinner (and I have leftovers!!!) on the
rooftop terrace of the hostel. I read up there for a bit after and met
a really fun Israeli couple Nemy and Adi. After it got dark I walked
around Av 9 de Julio to see the obelisk at night and then I ended up
going to bed pretty early since I was feeling some jet lag.
On
1/25 I got up nice and early to get a start before it got too hot. I
decided to forgo the subway in favor of walking through BA's fancy
Recoleta neighborhood to the huge Cemeterio de la Recoleta. This
cemetery is incredible. It's not what you think of as a normal
headstone and grassy mound type, but a place where BA's finest and
wealthiest were laid to rest in style. It is three by one city block
and is row after row after row of huge mausoleums and memorials to some
of BA and Argentina's most important people. It was interesting to see
fresh flowers through the glass doors of some mausoleums, while others
were almost completely eroded, unreadable and open to the air given
that the glass plates in the metal doors had broken and fallen down
long ago. I suppose these people have been forgotten or the grieving
relatives have long since died themselves. For those that could not
afford a lavish memorial, there were slots in the outer wall just big
enough for a coffin. Some had metal plaques identifying the
inhabitant, but most had nothing. For some reason this cemetery was
also a haven for BA's stray cats and before too long I had a train of
mewing friends following me all around.
After
the cemetery, I walked to the Palermo neighborhood and strolled around
the lakes and rose garden in the Parque 3 Febrero. By this point it
was really really hot and walking anywhere in the sun was almost
unbearable. I couldn't believe the number of people jogging around the
park in the full sun. None of them were moving very fast, but still!
Yuck! From the park I walked further into the neighborhood to it's
sub-part Palermo Viejo, were I stopped at a little restaurant and had
amazing ginger lemonade and a yummy Indian vegetarian concoction.
During lunch I was lucky enough to witness a number of professional dog
walkers being lead around the neighborhood by huge packs of dogs. Each
would have probably 6 or 7 dogs! And of course all the dogs are trying
to fight while the poor walker is attempting to force them to behave.
It's actually really surprising how many people own dogs here. I even
saw a husky (the poor guy was about to die of heatstroke with all the
fur)! After lunch, I decided it was time to come back to hostel and
sit in the air-conditioned common room (I was sweating sitting down in
the shade at lunch). I decided to take the subway this time. One stop
after I got on the subway, these two guys got on yelling at each
other. One of the guys put a bunch of people between himself and the
man he was having the argument with. I looked around at the other
passengers for clues as to what I should be doing and everyone had
these tense looks on their faces like they thought it might come to a
fist fight or something. The guy by me said one more thing really loud
and then everyone on the subway started clapping. I thought maybe he
had thrown out a really good insult or something, but then the other
passengers the took out their wallets and gave the two guys money. I
guess is was a performance of some kind? It was weird- I was ready to
dash out at the next stop if I had too! I thought they were going to
fight! I was so confused by the whole I didn't even think to ask
anybody what had just happened. Right when I got back to the hostel,
the sky got really really dark and it started POURING like tropical
pouring with giant lakes filling the streets! Every one outside was
caught off guard and were scurrying around like little ants. Some
people had umbrellas, but it got really windy and then there was a huge
thunderstorm so all the umbrellas were turning inside out. People were
coming back into the hostel looking like they had just showered. The
roof of the hostel even started leaking. But, as with most storms in
hot tropical areas, it was over only after about an hour. It was cool
though! After relaxing in the hostel for a bit, I went out with Sarah
from Luxembourg, Erika from Sweden and some of Sarah's BA friends. We
just went to a bar in San Telmo and had a couple beers. It was pretty
relaxed, but fun. We got back to the hostel around 1:30 and most of
the people staying at the hostel were just then preparing to go out!
Dinner is usually served around ten or eleven, dessert is at about
midnight. Most of the restaurants that only serve dinner aren't even
open until 9:30. Most people end their nights at about 5 or 6 in the
morning! Most people reading this blog will know that there is almost
no way I could stay up that late! It was fun to go out the way we did
just at a bar with beer!
On
1/26 Erika, the Israeli couple and a guy from England decided to stroll
down the shopping street called Avenida Florida. It is a pedestrian
walk and is definitely where all the tourists are! There were lots of
vendors trying to suck us into their shop and send us to a crappy
"Tango show", but luckily they were nearly as aggressive as in the
Middle east. After Av Florida, we strolled over to Teatro Colon, the
opera and symphony hall of BA. Unfortunately, it is closed to the
public until February so we couldn't go inside, but we ended up
wandering over to the Supreme Court building and were able to go in
there. It was pretty new, but built in a French and also Roman style.
The upstairs floor was covered with beautiful mosaics and the column
caps were so ornate! The sculpted leaves coming off them looked just
like ferns curling up. It was beautiful, but we were allowed to take
any photos of the inside. After that we walked down to Av de Mayo to
see the Palacio del Congreso again since the Israeli couple hadn't seen
it yet. Luckily today was much much cooler, although more humid. But
it is cloudy and about 20 degrees cooler! It is soooo much better for
walking around! After a break at the hostel, Sarah, Erika, Sarah's BA
friends, and myself went back to Palermo for a tango lesson. It was so
much fun! It was held in the basement of the Palermo cultural center
and was really really cheap. The instructors divided us into three
groups: beginners, intermediates and really good people. The
"beginner" lesson was pretty straightforward and lasted about an hour
and a half. There was a study abroad class from a university in
Maryland there and their professor made them come to the tango lesson.
You could just tell all the boys in the class hated the lesson. They
would dance a few steps with someone and then get all embarrassed and
go over to the bar and try to look busy so the instructor wouldn't pick
on them. And there were porteños, young and old, there as well. It was
great. Now I can try to teach Matt when I come home! I am so glad I
did the lesson though and it is not something I would have done on my
own so I'm happy Sarah suggested it! After the lesson, Erika and I
walked back up to the metro and headed back to the hostel.
Well that's it for the first few days of my trip! Tomorrow I take a
ferry across the Rio de Plata to Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay for a
few days before coming back to BA and flying down to Tierra del Fuego.
So far so good! Thanks for reading!
Love,
Megan
