After a fascinating visit to Easter Island, our tour group arrived back in Santiago, Chile, just to spend the night, before flying on to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Easter Island had been an optional pre-trip; Buenos Aires was our staging area for the main tour covering Patagonia. While Buenos Aires is not in Patagonia, we couldn’t miss an opportunity to experience this bustling city and urban Argentine culture.
In case you need a refresher on Patagonia, here is a map provided by OAT, our tour agency:
Our tour would take us around the indicated path, counterclockwise; dotted lines are flights, solid lines are bus trips. Buenos Aires is at the upper right, and served as both our starting and ending points. The first stop after Buenos Aires (CCW), is Bariloche. All of South America from Bariloche southward is considered Patagonia, both the Argentine and Chilean sides. Interesting fact: Argentines, and I believe Chileans, too, and perhaps all South Americans, are taught that there are only six continents. North and South America are a single continent for them.
We arrived at Buenos Aires in midafternoon. I found it interesting that the international airport where we arrived is many miles away (45 minute drive?) from the domestic airport where we would be departing the city. After a little time to freshen up, we all met for an orientation session and were treated to - guess what? - Pisco Sours. Five new people joined us for this main part of the tour, so we totaled 16, plus Sebastian, our trip leader, who would continue with us throughout the tour. A great feature of OAT tours is that they never exceed 16 travelers. You’ll be seeing some new faces in the photos below, but I’ll postpone introducing the newcomers until the next post when I have a good group photo.
Our one activity this arrival day was to have dinner together, but that was very special. It was in an historic building, Antigua Tasca de Cuchilleros.
Google Translate tells me that means “old drunk knife maker”, but I may have that wrong. In any case, it was originally built as a residence in 1730, is one of the few surviving buildings in the city from the colonial period, and is now used as a restaurant. It is a beautiful setting and has a very authentic feel:
We were the only group there that night (opened just for us, we were told), and were allowed to sample several quintessential Argentine dishes. After dinner, we had the special treat of touring the tunnels beneath the restaurant:
These tunnels at one point connected many buildings in the old city and were used in its defense. Later, trash was dumped into them, and the walls are lined now with display cases holding historical artifacts recovered from the trash:
This lady is the owner of the restaurant and the tunnels below, and was so excited and proud to show off what she had:
The next morning we started our tour of the city with what I thought was an odd choice: a cemetery. However, upon entering, you see this is no ordinary cemetery:
All of the graves here are marked by mausoleums, most of them very large and ornate:
Below is a particularly famous piece of statuary known as the sleeping angel:
These mausoleums are treated as real estate, and if a family falls on hard times, they can sell theirs to someone else. The primary attraction here is this, the only one we saw festooned with flowers:
(That’s Claudio, our local guide for Buenos Aires, on the right.) The reason for this grave’s popularity? It is the resting place of Evita Peron (as in Don’t Cry for Me Argentina), who is still a beloved cult figure in the country:
Walking from the cemetery back to our bus, we stopped by a typical Buenos Aires bakery and got to pick out a treat for each of us.
We also passed this mural:
Notice the word “Malvinas” beneath the globe, and the unflattering depiction of the British flag at the upper right? Malvinas, of course, is how Argentines know the Falkland Islands, and the psychological wounds from that war still have not healed. There is also a small amount of lingering enmity between Argentina and Chile because the latter supported, and provided bases for, Britain in that war. Our guide, Claudio, trying to be even-handed, acknowledges that at least one reason the Falklands became such a hot issue is that it served as a distraction from the repressive and abusive policies of the military junta in power at the time.
Our next stop was an artsy district in Buenos Aires. It was here that we bought Argentine pesos. The government has decreed an “official” exchange rate of nine to an American dollar. However, this has created a thriving gray market in which the available rate is more like 15 to the dollar. The neighborhood is very colorful, and exhibits many pieces of informal statuary representing popular figures:
On the balcony are Eva Peron, center, the Argentine equivalent of Frank Sinatra on the right, and the most popular Argentine soccer player on the left. Here are some other examples:
In the photo immediately above, on the balcony, is the current Pope Francis, who hails from Buenos Aires. Being a man of the people, he also comes down to mingle:
I assume the rather unflattering likeness is unintentional. It is a lively area; there is color and art everywhere you look:
On one corner, there are numerous professional tango dancers, male and female, waiting; you can pay to have your picture taken with one ( I did not ):
This may make lovers of vinyl cringe, but I thought it was a clever use of old, probably redundant, records:
The next photo is to remind me of a quest for our tour group that sadly went unfulfilled.
One of us, Jaye, had heard that Duff Beer, made famous on The Simpsons, is actually for sale in South America. Many locals, including some of our guides, confirmed this, but we were unable to find a single can.
We then went to the center of Buenos Aires. Our first stop was the national Presidential Palace, sometimes called The Pink House:
At the time we visited Argentina, the president was a woman. Though termed out since then, she had ruled for a long time and our trip leader was somewhat tired of her; he called her “The Queen”. Opposite the palace is this statue commemorating national independence:
Fronting the same square is the cathedral where Francis presided before he was elected Pope:
The President and Francis had a bit of a feud going before he was elected Pope; though Catholic, she refused to attend any service at which he presided. However, after he was elected Pope, she was the first head of state to visit him. There is a changing of the guard ceremony that takes place between the cathedral and the Presidential Palace:
On our way back to the hotel, we saw an obelisk in the center of town:
Why does Buenos Aires have an obelisk? According to our guide, fine European cities all have obelisks, so Buenos Aires must also have an obelisk. Notice that the top is square, not pointed as are most obelisks. The square end actually was an art installation; by the time we returned from Patagonia, the point was back. We also saw this impressive representation of Eva Peron on a prominent downtown building:
In this depiction she is giving a fiery speech. On the other side of the building is another in which she is giving a friendly wave. The fiery speech points toward the wealthy side of the city; the friendly wave is directed toward the poor side.
We were on our own for lunch and a group of us, on the recommendation of our trip leader, decided to try Argentine pizza. The place we chose had a real brick oven:
and a grand mural above the staircase to the dining room:
It was unclear to me if all these celebrities had actually visited here, but it’s possible since the national theater is nearby. The menu was in Spanish, so ordering was a bit of a gamble. When my beer came, everyone at the table was amused by its size:
As Crocodile Dundee would say, “Now THAT’s a beah!” The pizza was delicious. The Argentine approach is to use large chunks of the toppings:
After lunch, we had some free time, so I wandered around the neighborhood of our hotel. I thought this art installation of music stands in a park was interesting:
(Yes, they are permanent, not left over from a concert.) I believe the building in the background is a court, possible the national supreme court. Nearby is the national theater:
Tours of the interior are offered, but the timing didn’t work for me. A central plaza in town has many of these odd, bulbous trees:
Our evening was occupied by two activities. First, we were all given a tango lesson. Here are our instructors, with Sebastian on the right:
We paired up and tried to follow their directions. I was with Francis, and we did decently, though at a very rudimentary level. Tom and Kathy really shone; they take dance lessons back in the States.
Downstairs from the lessons is a tango dance club, where couples come several nights a week:
I was surprised that a number of couples were in their twenties and thirties. Afterward, we went to a tango show that included a dinner beforehand:
The dancing and singing were truly spectacular. The show lasted two hours and our interest never flagged.
That was the end of our limited time in Buenos Aires, but we were excited for our flight the next day that would take us to Bariloche in Patagonia.
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