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| First view of Buenos Aires |
After a nice little 9 hour bus ride (no sarcasm-it was nice. The seats were semi-bed and they played a movie for the first hour or so), We woke up in Buenos Aires. When we got off the bus, we started walking to the hotel- and we found it after walking 20 steps! One letter really does make a difference though. The Ritz Hotel and the Ritz Hostel are different places! Still, it's a pretty good place. We had time before breakfast, so the girls went up to change clothes, and us guys (Weston, Franklin, our travel agent Santi and me) stayed in the reception lobby drinking mate. We are breakfast and began our busy day. We took a three hour city tour of Buenos Aires. This city is enormous, and so amazing. In the center of the city there's an enormous obelisk. The obelisk in Buenos Aires is analogous to the Statue of Liberty in New York. Except more accessible. People come here to meet up with others, to visit (tourists), to protest, etc. It's an important landmark.
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| The Obelisk |
Then there's a stark contrast dividing the city in half. The north side is richer than the south side, and it shows. The building in the north side are big and fancy, with European architecture. The south side has smaller and less attractive buildings. We went through la Recoleta and Palermo, two of the top areas in the north side, and then to Boca, an old port town in the south side. Then we went to Puerto Madero, a newer and more beautiful port on the north side. The city is so amazing!
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European Architecture of the
rich, north side |
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| Architecture of the south side |
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| Plaza de Mayo |
We got off to see the presidential house, or La Casa Rosa (The Pink House), the Cathedral, and Boca. La Casa Rosada is where the president works. Unlike the White House, this is not where the president lives. We'll be taking a tour of the Pink House on Sunday, so I'll talk about it then. We also saw the Plaza de Mayo, a plaza in front of la Casa Rosada. There are "headscarves" on the ground as homage to the Mothers and Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo (History lesson in a future post). The women actually march on Thursdays, so I we missed them. Oh well.
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| Casa Rosada |
Then we crossed the street to go to the Cathedral. The current pope was/is the archbishop of this
cathedral. Not only that, but this cathedral houses the tomb of José de San Martín, the liberator of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. The Cathedral is beautiful, but as you can imagine, the
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| The Cathedral |
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| San Martín's tomb |
Tomb is a little bit more popular to visit! There are even guards stationed there. It's impressive. San Martín's coffin is on a pedestal adorned with four sculptures, with plaques underneath commemorating his victories and the gratitude towards him. On the walls around the chamber are lamps over plaques that commemorate his important military victories. The Argentine flag is draped over his coffin and hangs over the edge of the pedestal. Just wow.
Every hour, there would be a changing of the guards, We got to witness this. It was fantastic! Here's a video:
As mentioned, Boca is a port on the poor south side of Buenos Aires. Well,
was a port. The water in Boca is completely contaminated; no one drinks it because of the chrome and lead in it. The buildings are smaller, the smell is pretty bad, and the people are poorer, but Boca is very lively even so. There's a path called El Caminito (the little path) where people sell things and Tango dancers dance in the streets. The buildings are all painted in different colors. This is because originally, the people would use the leftover paint from the ships to paint their houses.
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| Lulu and I "dance" Tango in Boca! |
After the city tour, we had lunch and returned to the hotel. After some free time, we went to El Museo de Bellas Artes (The Museum of Fine Arts) and El Museo Malba for Latin American artists of the 20th century. The first one is what you would imagine a museum to be- paintings and sculptures from the Classic era and also from Argentina's own history.
The other museum was really abstract. Really abstract. The top floor was art made from light and mirrors, and the art was...interesting... I did see some more notable pieces from artists like Diego Rivera, Frida Khalo and Botero, but that was it for me.
After that museum we went back to Puerto Madero and walked to the restaurant we would eat dinner at. Puerto Madero, as I mentioned before, is on the north side. It is also the safest and most expensive area in Buenos Aires, because of all the police. Since the Casa Rosada (presidential Pink House" is very close, The Federal Police are nearby. Since it's one of the top ports, The Naval Police are stationed there. And since it's in the city of Buenos Aires, the Municipal Police are there too.
One thing that stands out in Puerto Madero is el Puente de La Mujer (Bridge of the Woman). It's an impressive bridge with a spire that juts up in the center. It is said that it represents a couple dancing Tango. The roads in this area are also all named after women in Argentina's history. It's a lovely stroll for couples. We finally got to the restaurant. It was a Parilla- I thought the Asado was meat party, but this was a diente libre, all you can eat meat restaurant! Bwah! So much meat!
Afterwards, we should have walked again!!! But we took cabs back to the hostel, and from there, I went to sleep. What a day! I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!
Today we got on a train and went to a port town called Tigre. From there we took a boat tour of the Paraná River, a river that leads to the enormous Rio de la Plata. It was interesting because there is an entire community that lives on this river- There are houses, churches, schools, parks and recreation spots along the river, and people navigate to and fro on their boats. There's a gas station, grocery boats that you can buy groceries from if you don't want to go to the mainland, boat "buses" that function just like the buses in the city, except for the fact that it's a boat. I was very impressed by this culture of these river people.
