After just having to get out of Colonia, Uruguay, it's not hard for things to take a turn for the better. I arrived without any trouble in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and got off the ferry, into a waiting cab to take me to the apartment of a friend of mine whom I had met in Salvador. My first day in Buenos Aires was Wednesday, March 5, and I was very lucky to be able to stay with Veronica, who lives in Buenos Aires. Once I got there, we hung out for a couple of hours before she had to go back to work (she works in the Congress), at which point I wandered around a bit by myself. At night, I went out with her and her husband, Lucas, and we went out to the Recoleta area.
Thursday, I hung out with Veronica a little bit in the morning before she had to go to work, and there was just enough time to eat breakfast and dulce de leche, an Argentine treat. What a way to start the day! Then I moved from her apartment into another apartment, as, since my parents were coming the following day to visit me for a week, we had an apartment already lined up. I spent the day taking care of various odds and ends that needed to get done. Sometimes, when you are traveling for a long period of time, you need a day here and there to take care of such things.
Friday, my parents arrived in not-so-sunny Buenos Aires! We spent the day walking around the neighborhood in the center of town and had a big lunch, which seems to be pretty common down here. We meandered some more the rest of the day as well, still getting acquainted with the area.
We kicked off Saturday morning with a trip to La Boca, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires whose early settlers came from Genoa, Italy. The houses in this barrio (neighborhood) are brightly colored, and we walked through the streets (starting with the main one, called Caminito), passing random shops and stalls along the way. We ended up at the soccer stadium called La Bombonera (''the chocolate box''), which is home to one of Argentina's most famous soccer teams, called Boca Juniors. Diego Maradona played for this team a long long time ago.
After La Boca, we grabbed a cab and went to Puerto Madero, the port area of Buenos Aires. We strolled along the promenade and ended up eating lunch at a place called Siga la vaca (''follow the cow''). (Yep, it was a meat place!) Following another multi-course meal, we continued walking around the port area, and eventually headed in the direction of Calle Florida, a pedestrian street that has a lot of stores and some street performers.
On Sunday, we started off the day by heading to Plaza de Mayo, a major square in Buenos Aires where a lot of demonstrations are held. From the plaza, we could see the Casa Rosada (''The Pink House''), on whose balcony has stood many political figures, such as Eva Peron and Pope John Paul II. Then we walked by the Cabildo, ''the only colonial-era civil edifice that managed to survive the rebuilding craze of the 1880s" (according to my guidebook). (It was closed; that's why we only walked by it.) Continuing along, we then made our way to the Catedral Metropolitana, the main Catholic Church in Buenos Aires. It was churchey, and after that, we went in search of another barrio.
Having heard that Sunday is ''the'' day to go to San Telmo, we walked along the recommended street (lined with vendors, of course) until we got to the Sunday market, also known as the Feria de San Telmo. It was crowded, and there were a lot of tourists out by this point, but there also happened to be a couple sets of tango dancers out at various points in the neighborhood doing their thing. One set featured an eighty-plus-year-old woman (read: however old she was, she looked way older than her age and she is not the kind of woman you want to envision in a red tango dress and heels). Other dancers were more suitable for the eyes.
Following our excursion to San Telmo, we jetted over to Recoleta, the neighborhood most known for its cemetery. For us, the first thing we did that day in Recoleta was eat lunch. After that, we went to La Recoleta Cemetery, where we walked the streets of the burial grounds and visited Evita and her family's mausoleum. The cemetery wasn't very happening (are they usually?), so when we left Recoleta, we walked back along Avenida Alvear (ritzy street) and toward the barrio of Retiro, where it was nice to just sit and relax for a bit in Plaza San Martin (where there is a lot of green space and several benches). Eventually, we called it a day and then went back to the apartment.
Since one of the largest Jewish communities in the world resides in Buenos Aires, on Monday, we spent the morning doing a tour of Jewish Buenos Aires. We went back to Plaza de Mayo to see the historical significance of the plaza relating to Judaism, we visited various synagogues, we walked around Once (a Jewish neighborhood), we saw the Israeli embassy from the outside, and we went into the Holocaust Museum. After lunch, we walked along Calle Santa Fe (a shopping street), where one of the more notable things we found was Freddo ice cream. (I got wildberry, raspberry, and passion fruit -- all in one cone...all of it delicious!)
At night, I met up with a friend from home, Guille(rmo), who is from Buenos Aires, and we went out in Palermo. Hooray for making plans with locals!
Tuesday was a get-out-of-town kind of day. No, really. We got out of town. All of the guidebooks recommend that when you go to Argentina, you *must* visit an estancia (or, ranch). The estancia we went to was called La Cinacina and is located in a town called San Antonio de Areco. We started our day with a traffic-filled bus ride to the town. Once we got there, we grabbed a cab to the property and had a look around the ranch. We then went on a carriage ride, and when we returned, we were greeted with yummy empanadas. After more meandering around the property, we settled down to watch some gauchos playing music and a gaucho guy and gaucho girl dancing. Somehow I did not have a say in the matter when the audience participation portion of the show came around, so I had to get the Carnaval music out of my head to make way for gaucho guitar tunes. (And let me tell you, there were no camarotes, no blocos, and I suppose I could say there was a pipoca of about five people.) Fortunately, the lunch bell rang soon after.
Thursday, I hung out with Veronica a little bit in the morning before she had to go to work, and there was just enough time to eat breakfast and dulce de leche, an Argentine treat. What a way to start the day! Then I moved from her apartment into another apartment, as, since my parents were coming the following day to visit me for a week, we had an apartment already lined up. I spent the day taking care of various odds and ends that needed to get done. Sometimes, when you are traveling for a long period of time, you need a day here and there to take care of such things.
Friday, my parents arrived in not-so-sunny Buenos Aires! We spent the day walking around the neighborhood in the center of town and had a big lunch, which seems to be pretty common down here. We meandered some more the rest of the day as well, still getting acquainted with the area.
We kicked off Saturday morning with a trip to La Boca, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires whose early settlers came from Genoa, Italy. The houses in this barrio (neighborhood) are brightly colored, and we walked through the streets (starting with the main one, called Caminito), passing random shops and stalls along the way. We ended up at the soccer stadium called La Bombonera (''the chocolate box''), which is home to one of Argentina's most famous soccer teams, called Boca Juniors. Diego Maradona played for this team a long long time ago.
After La Boca, we grabbed a cab and went to Puerto Madero, the port area of Buenos Aires. We strolled along the promenade and ended up eating lunch at a place called Siga la vaca (''follow the cow''). (Yep, it was a meat place!) Following another multi-course meal, we continued walking around the port area, and eventually headed in the direction of Calle Florida, a pedestrian street that has a lot of stores and some street performers.
On Sunday, we started off the day by heading to Plaza de Mayo, a major square in Buenos Aires where a lot of demonstrations are held. From the plaza, we could see the Casa Rosada (''The Pink House''), on whose balcony has stood many political figures, such as Eva Peron and Pope John Paul II. Then we walked by the Cabildo, ''the only colonial-era civil edifice that managed to survive the rebuilding craze of the 1880s" (according to my guidebook). (It was closed; that's why we only walked by it.) Continuing along, we then made our way to the Catedral Metropolitana, the main Catholic Church in Buenos Aires. It was churchey, and after that, we went in search of another barrio.
Having heard that Sunday is ''the'' day to go to San Telmo, we walked along the recommended street (lined with vendors, of course) until we got to the Sunday market, also known as the Feria de San Telmo. It was crowded, and there were a lot of tourists out by this point, but there also happened to be a couple sets of tango dancers out at various points in the neighborhood doing their thing. One set featured an eighty-plus-year-old woman (read: however old she was, she looked way older than her age and she is not the kind of woman you want to envision in a red tango dress and heels). Other dancers were more suitable for the eyes.
Following our excursion to San Telmo, we jetted over to Recoleta, the neighborhood most known for its cemetery. For us, the first thing we did that day in Recoleta was eat lunch. After that, we went to La Recoleta Cemetery, where we walked the streets of the burial grounds and visited Evita and her family's mausoleum. The cemetery wasn't very happening (are they usually?), so when we left Recoleta, we walked back along Avenida Alvear (ritzy street) and toward the barrio of Retiro, where it was nice to just sit and relax for a bit in Plaza San Martin (where there is a lot of green space and several benches). Eventually, we called it a day and then went back to the apartment.
Since one of the largest Jewish communities in the world resides in Buenos Aires, on Monday, we spent the morning doing a tour of Jewish Buenos Aires. We went back to Plaza de Mayo to see the historical significance of the plaza relating to Judaism, we visited various synagogues, we walked around Once (a Jewish neighborhood), we saw the Israeli embassy from the outside, and we went into the Holocaust Museum. After lunch, we walked along Calle Santa Fe (a shopping street), where one of the more notable things we found was Freddo ice cream. (I got wildberry, raspberry, and passion fruit -- all in one cone...all of it delicious!)
At night, I met up with a friend from home, Guille(rmo), who is from Buenos Aires, and we went out in Palermo. Hooray for making plans with locals!
Tuesday was a get-out-of-town kind of day. No, really. We got out of town. All of the guidebooks recommend that when you go to Argentina, you *must* visit an estancia (or, ranch). The estancia we went to was called La Cinacina and is located in a town called San Antonio de Areco. We started our day with a traffic-filled bus ride to the town. Once we got there, we grabbed a cab to the property and had a look around the ranch. We then went on a carriage ride, and when we returned, we were greeted with yummy empanadas. After more meandering around the property, we settled down to watch some gauchos playing music and a gaucho guy and gaucho girl dancing. Somehow I did not have a say in the matter when the audience participation portion of the show came around, so I had to get the Carnaval music out of my head to make way for gaucho guitar tunes. (And let me tell you, there were no camarotes, no blocos, and I suppose I could say there was a pipoca of about five people.) Fortunately, the lunch bell rang soon after.
Lunch consisted of salad, parrilla (lots of meat cooked on a grill, like asado), and ice cream. During lunch, some of the gauchos put on a show for all of the tourists, exhibiting different gaucho dances from all over Argentina. After lunch, the gauchos put on another show for the tourists, but this time they were on horseback. The three participating gauchos showed us the game called ''carrera de sortija" (essentially, they were ring races). Basically, the gaucho goes really fast on his horse and tries to take down this little ring that is suspended by string. After those games, we wandered the grounds some more, had some pasteles de dulce (quince pastries), and we eventually headed out of there, checking out the town and (obviously) the town's main church (Iglesia Parroquial San Antonio de Padua) before buying our bus tickets and heading on back to Buenos Aires on the top row of a double-decker bus. Hasta luego, gauchos!
Wednesday proved to be another day-trip kind of day. For less than a dollar each, we took the train about an hour outside of the city to a town called Tigre, a place that was named for the jaguars that used to inhabit the Parana Delta region until the beginning of the 1900s. Upon our arrival here, we walked up and down a few main streets. Before long, it was time to catch the boat to Tres Bocas, a forty-five minute boat trip away from Tigre. The boat that we took was more like a bus in that it made local stops along the way, picking up and dropping off passengers at various piers. At our stop, a fair number of people disembarked. Once we got onto this little island, we found that maybe it really was comprised of only ''tres bocas'' (three mouths) as we really didn't see any locals around. There was a significant amount of ground to walk, and houses to see, but not much in the way of ''doing'' or ''checking out.'' Thus, after a mosquito-happy walk and lunch (both for the mosquitoes and for us) on the island, we caught the boat-bus back to Tigre, where we walked around some more, spending time at the Puerto de Frutos (the fruit and crafts market) before leaving jaguar-town. When we left Tigre, we decided to make another stop along the way before going back to Buenos Aires, so we stopped at another town called San Isidro, a suburb of Buenos Aires seemingly known for luxurious residences and elegance. When we got there, the guy selling tickets for the train didn't have a map of the town, didn't know if there was an information center, and didn't know how to get to the old city from the train station. How telling...Fortunately for us, once you walk out of the train station, it is easy enough to figure out for oneself. We ended up seeing the cathedral as well as a viewpoint from which one can see the Rio de la Plata in the distance. We walked through the main plaza, Plaza Mitre, on the way back to the train. Once we made it back to Buenos Aires, we walked to a place known for its empanadas, so for dinner, we opted to have...empanadas. (When in Buenos Aires...)
Friday being our last full day in Buenos Aires, we took the opportunity to stroll the streets one last time. We walked along some pedestrian streets we hadn't been to before and basically took it easy. We also went back to the Holocaust Museum, since the first time we didn't have much time there during our tour. We finished off the week with -- what else?! -- dinner at a parilla place. Gotta have your meat.
And so ends my stay in Buenos Aires. It has been a week and a half staying put (and yet not staying put at all) and now it is time to get back on the road. One thing I've learned from being here (though I figured as much beforehand) is that all Spanish-speaking places are *not* the same. The vocabulary is not the same, the pronunciation is not the same, the culture is not the same, etc. I've tried to pick up some of the Argentine ways, and with the two weeks that I have left in Argentina, we'll see how well I do.
Tomorrow morning, I depart for Ushuaia, (arguably) the world's southernmost city. It's the jumping off point to get to Antarctica. To answer some questions that might arise with that statement, 1) No, I will not be jumping off of Ushuaia, and 2) I have no current plans (or time) to make it to Antarctica (this trip).
So, for now, bundle up and stay warm (oh wait, that's me), and let's see what this Beagle Channel is all about.
hasta luego,
missy
http://andsmilestogobeforeisleep.blogspot.com
Wednesday proved to be another day-trip kind of day. For less than a dollar each, we took the train about an hour outside of the city to a town called Tigre, a place that was named for the jaguars that used to inhabit the Parana Delta region until the beginning of the 1900s. Upon our arrival here, we walked up and down a few main streets. Before long, it was time to catch the boat to Tres Bocas, a forty-five minute boat trip away from Tigre. The boat that we took was more like a bus in that it made local stops along the way, picking up and dropping off passengers at various piers. At our stop, a fair number of people disembarked. Once we got onto this little island, we found that maybe it really was comprised of only ''tres bocas'' (three mouths) as we really didn't see any locals around. There was a significant amount of ground to walk, and houses to see, but not much in the way of ''doing'' or ''checking out.'' Thus, after a mosquito-happy walk and lunch (both for the mosquitoes and for us) on the island, we caught the boat-bus back to Tigre, where we walked around some more, spending time at the Puerto de Frutos (the fruit and crafts market) before leaving jaguar-town. When we left Tigre, we decided to make another stop along the way before going back to Buenos Aires, so we stopped at another town called San Isidro, a suburb of Buenos Aires seemingly known for luxurious residences and elegance. When we got there, the guy selling tickets for the train didn't have a map of the town, didn't know if there was an information center, and didn't know how to get to the old city from the train station. How telling...Fortunately for us, once you walk out of the train station, it is easy enough to figure out for oneself. We ended up seeing the cathedral as well as a viewpoint from which one can see the Rio de la Plata in the distance. We walked through the main plaza, Plaza Mitre, on the way back to the train. Once we made it back to Buenos Aires, we walked to a place known for its empanadas, so for dinner, we opted to have...empanadas. (When in Buenos Aires...)
Thursday we stayed in Buenos Aires, and after a week of being in the city, we still had not yet run out of things to do. We opened the day with a trip to the barrio of Palermo, where we started with the Japanese Garden. There was greenery, koi , stones, bridges -- it seemed like a little piece of Japan was right there in Argentina! After the garden, we walked to the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires), where we saw Latin American art. It was.... arty. Some of it was your typical art museum stuff, and other work was contemporary. And that contemporary stuff...well, I never really much got that anyway. Following our highly intellectual run-down of each piece of artwork, we headed toward Plaza Serrano, a small plaza in Buenos Aires' largest barrio. Just like in every place we ever go, we walked around the plaza a fair bit. After having lunch by the plaza, we went to Plaza de Mayo (yes, *again*) because every Thursday afternoon from 3:30-4pm, the mothers of the desaparecidos march around the plaza. Today, there were men, too (as I imagine there are every week), and everyone was chanting: "Plaza es de las madres y no de los cobardes" ["Plaza is of the mothers and not of the cowards."] I asked one of the chanters what was meant by the phrase and who the word ''cowards'' refers to, specifically, and he told me that it refers to the military with respect to the 30,000 desaparecidos as well as the genocide that took place during the end of the 1970s; he then added that they are trying to get democracy back. Some women who were marching had signs around their necks with pictures of their loved ones whom they are still hoping will turn up someday. When the marching ended at 4pm, the leaders rolled up their banners, and as people were clapping, the whole spectacle came to its weekly end. At this point, we left and went to visit the Museo Judio de Buenos Aires (Jewish Museum of Buenos Aires), which was founded in 1967, and its accompanying synagogue. Lots of historical facts later, we exhaustedly walked back to the apartment after a full day of activities all around town.
And so ends my stay in Buenos Aires. It has been a week and a half staying put (and yet not staying put at all) and now it is time to get back on the road. One thing I've learned from being here (though I figured as much beforehand) is that all Spanish-speaking places are *not* the same. The vocabulary is not the same, the pronunciation is not the same, the culture is not the same, etc. I've tried to pick up some of the Argentine ways, and with the two weeks that I have left in Argentina, we'll see how well I do.
Tomorrow morning, I depart for Ushuaia, (arguably) the world's southernmost city. It's the jumping off point to get to Antarctica. To answer some questions that might arise with that statement, 1) No, I will not be jumping off of Ushuaia, and 2) I have no current plans (or time) to make it to Antarctica (this trip).
So, for now, bundle up and stay warm (oh wait, that's me), and let's see what this Beagle Channel is all about.
hasta luego,
missy
http://andsmilestogobeforeislee
No comments:
Post a Comment