Only one of those adjectives turned out to be an accurate descriptor as we spent our 4 days in BA hankered under umbrellas, in every layer we brought with us all at once. It was cold, rainy, beautiful Buenos Aires.
Buenos Aires is a city full of stunning architecture, sing-song Italianesque Spanish, and meat. The plan was just to walk around and enjoy the city, eat, repeat.
Day One:
We walked from our apartment that we rented for our time there (shout out to AirBNB... brillance) through the neighborhood of Recoleta. It wasn't raining SOLID yet, but it was certainly cold.
We visited the Recoleta Cemetary, which probably seems slightly morbid and a strange choice for your first thing to see in a new city, but it was a stunning juxtaposition of new and old. This amazing cemetary with graves from 150 years ago is backed right up against a shopping mall with a Ruby Tuesday.
The grave of Eva Peron, AKA Evita was easy to spot because of the flowers and admirers. I had no idea that she died at 33. What a shame.
We continued to walk through the neighborhood of Recoleta through its wide and spacious parks that admittedly put the parks in Santiago to shame (more space without those pesky Andes I guess).
We saw the iconic Floralis Generica which is a giant steel flower that opens and closes with the sun, or at least goes to sleep at night and opens during the day (with or without sunshine, luckily).
We took a walk through the botanical garden, a gift from the Japanese population, adorned with signs of celebration for Tokyo 2020.
That day we also began to fulfill our commitment to meat and to pizza. We ate lunch at the popular El Cuartito pizza joint followed by a late dinner at Las Cabras, where we ate delicious meat, drank delicious wine, for a strangely cheap price. Afterwards we walked around the semi-hiphappenin Plaza Serrano (semi hip due to the cold and eminent rain).
Day Two:
We took the big yellow tourist bus around the town to all of the must see spots. A hop on/hop off tour of any city is an easy way to see a lot when you have a very limited amount of time. We still did our fair share of walking this day... in the rain... fighting with umbrellas the entire way.
Our first stop was the antique fair in San Telmo, full of people selling antiques and artesanal goods. Also, in true BA fashion, there were people dancing Tango on the street corners in the rain.
This lady has probably been a tango dancer for 60 years.
We worked our way to El Caminito and the neighborhood of La Boca which was full of bright colors, cobblestone streets and obnoxious Boca Junior fans. The stadium for BAs most popular soccer team is located in this area, but due to a game taking place that afternoon, you couldn't get too close. We ate more meat, saw some more street tango and watched the flood of blue and yellow begin to arrive.
We got back on our big yellow bus, which was double-decker, but unfortunately, the top floor had no cover of any kind, making a day in the cold and rain extra fun. We used our umbrella, and tried to make the best of if.
Seriously, the following pictures pretty much sum up the day and dealing with the unstoppable rain and wind.
The rest of the day was filled with more sight-seeing whilst stomping through puddles. Also, my umbrella died an overused death.
Casa Rosada: Argentina's La Moneda, except it is most definitely pink. Also where Madonna, errr Evita, made her famous speech in the form of song (I think I'm confused.... :)
Architecture beauty:
Puerto Madero:
At the end of the night, we had a few well-earned beers at the Microbrewery Andares.
The following day, our plans were thwarted by the rain that would continue until 11 that night. It was the perfect day to spend inside in museums, which of course, are all closed on Mondays. We managed to enjoy the day regardless, and planned to head to La Bomba del Tiempo, a percussion show that "doesn't stop on account of rain". Turns out, they do cancel on account of loss of power... so that was a bummer.
El Ateneo is an old theatre that has been turned into a beautiful book store. The stage is a cafe, and the old opera boxes are private reading rooms.
Our first three days in Argentina:
Our last day, we spent with the folks at Argentina Polo Day, which cool enough for its own post. More on that coming soon. :)
Great photos! Hope you are having as much fun as it looks!
ReplyDeleteI would not be able to walk around BA without singing Evita the entire time. I already have it stuck in my head from just reading your post! :) What an adventure!
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