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 South America |
 "Mi Buenos Aires Querido" The many unique neighborhoods of Buenos Aires are the elements that give color and flare to this exciting city.
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 If you happen to be a Porteño (a person from Buenos Aires), then you are special and you wear the name Porteño like a badge of honor. To Porteños, Buenos Aires is Argentina even though few other counties have such a wide range of topography as Argentina does, from its great Northwest of wind blown desert and green river valleys to Patagonia in the extreme South with some of the hemisphere's highest peaks, untouched forests and notable glaciers. Bordered on one side by the majestic Andes mountain range and on the other by the Pacific Ocean, it has thousands of acres of golden grasses in the Pampas where some of the best beef in the world is grown. Argentina shares with Brazil, the cataracts of Iguazu, a natural attraction so mind-blowing in its size and majesty as to defy description. One can live in any one of these spectacular areas, ski in the Andes or play polo in the snow in Bariloche, the largest ski resort in South America, or horseback ride through the swaying grasses of the Pampas grasslands. One could call home its green and fertile, wine growing region with the ever present beacon, Acongagua (South America's highest peak at 22,831 feet) in sight, but to a Porteño, nothing is quite so perfect or special as Buenos Aires. You will find the words from "Mi Buenos Aires Querido" ("My Beloved Buenos Aires") which is a tango melody, practically interchangeable with the official national anthem. |
| Buenos Aires is often called the Paris of South America. It is a European City in Latin America with its strong Spanish, Italian, French and English ancestry and architectural influence. It is truly one of the exciting capitals of the world, a cosmopolitan city designed with people in mind, and Porteños possess it with great energy. Even though car traffic reminds one of Paris, Madrid, or Manhattan, there are many parks and plazas with sweeping lawns or benches for relaxing and outdoor cafés for easy dining and people watching. Cafés are central to their social life and there is literally one on every street corner. As this is written, the economy of Argentina is in a serious slump, but visitors would be hard pressed to notice it as they observe stylishishly dressed Porteños going about their normal routines or for the daily rituals of meetings with friends in favorite cafés.One of the reasons Buenos Aires has such an interesting flare is that it is made up of forty-six different barrios, or neighborhoods, each with its own special history, plus the downtown area or El Centro where all the elements come together. One will find in the city many museums of all types; however, exploring its barrios just might be as interesting and entertaining. |
 La Boca Neighborhood The La Boca neighborhood on the river Richuela is probably the most colorful--literally. Its corrugated tin and wood houses are painted in bright elementary colors of red, yellow, blue and green. Most of the first wave of immigrants that disembarked on docks at the mouth of the river was from Genoa, Italy, where a long history of ships and the sea was so much a part of Italian culture. The immigrants continued this tradition by staying at the port and making it their home while painting and repairing ships. Leftover paints in many colors and whatever materials they could salvage were used in the construction of their houses. The neighborhood, still a bit on the seedy side, retains the pubs, cafés and general stores that catered to the passing sailors for their stay in port, and good Italian meals can be found in the many cantinas. Its most famous street is El Caminito, also the name of a famous tango, of course. With its cobbled stone streets and French Baroque street lamps, it is a great backdrop for the painters, photographers, and sculptures displaying and selling their works of art. Artists in costumes imitate statues, and tango dancers invite onlookers to dance with them and have a photo taken for a mere peso, while street musicians play typical Argentine tangos about homesickness, suicide, and fallen women. |
 San Telmo Neighborhood San Telmo, where Argentine history began, is full of 19th century colonial buildings and cobbled stone streets where all landmarks are declared National Historic Monuments. Originally, it was home to aristocratic Spaniards until an epidemic of yellow fever swept the town. Spaniards moved out and immigrants moved in. This is the place where lonely immigrants sang and played songs of the sea and about yearnings for their homeland. At first, the men danced together and then they danced with prostitutes, as few respectable women wanted any part of it. Gradually, the dance changed and evolved into the one that everyone recognizes as the Tango. The most famous tango salon in Buenos Aires, Viejo Almacen, is here in one of the historically preserved buildings. This old building began as a general store under the Spaniards and then during the British rule as a Customs House, and now is the place to go for the continuing, popular, non show biz tango. If the whole idea of the Tango seduces you, then look for signs in the windows of tango salons offering lessons. You might even be able to learn the basics of this steamy and sensual dance before midnight when the Porteños began arriving for a night of dancing. Every Sunday, San Telmo has its famous Flea Market with antiques, leather and silver crafts, and really good junk. In addition, on Sundays, in the old Plaza Dorrego, neighborhood residents come to pass the afternoon and show off their skills as they dance the Tango and Milonga. |
 La Recoleta Neighborhood La Recoleta barrio with tree-lined streets and grassy park areas was named after the barefoot Franciscan Recoleta Friars in the early 1700's. It later became home to brothels and that vulgar dance, the Tango. Now it is the upscale home for Parisian style cafés and designer boutiques where the chic shop for leather goods, china, linens, chocolate, and jewels, and young Porteños dressed in the latest Paris fashions stroll the avenue,. Looking like a sculpture garden in the center of Recoleta is its famous and unusual cemetery. Here--on some of the most expensive and exclusive real estate in Buenos Aires--can be found the crowded and imposing tombstones of Argentina's rich and famous. There is a long waiting list to get in, unless the deceased is lucky enough to have inherited a space. It is a place where marble angels fly overhead, sepulchres have chandeliers, and there are street maps to help you find your way. Eva Peron is buried here in the Duarte family tomb, and she is remembered with fresh flowers every day. Juan Peron, alas, is buried in the middle-class cemetery Chacarita that is considered a notch or two down on the social scale.Next door to the cemetery in the pared down style of Spanish colonial architecture of 1732 is the Basilica del Pilar. Its unadorned white exterior contrasts with the splendid ornate interior. The spectacular Baroque altar is decorated with a symbolic Inca sun overlaid with Peruvian silver and a crucifix given to the basilica by King Carlos III of Spain. The Franciscan's cells have been turned into side chapels with elaborate displays of religious statues and reredos. Across the park from the Basilica is the fashionable Café Biela where the elite of Recoleta go to see and be seen. Its sidewalk café beneath the shade of an ancient giant rubber tree is an inviting place to have a snack and read a local newspaper. |
 El Centro In El Centro is the heartbeat of the country, the Plaza Cinco de Mayo, which is the star attraction of Buenos Aires. This famous plaza is the oldest one in the country and has been the center stage for most of the important events in the nation's history. Revolutions were started and soccer world cups were celebrated here, and it was in this plaza that the saint of Argentina, Eva Peron, spoke from the ornate balcony of the Casa Rosada and stirred thousands of her descamisados to an adoring frenzy. It is hard to imagine such waves of passion on a quiet day in the plaza with children feeding pigeons and swallows flitting around the central obelisk Piramide de Mayo. The Madres de la Plaza (mothers of the plaza) still march every Thursday at three in the afternoon in front of the Casa Rosada as a reminder that none should forget the loved ones that disappeared in the dark days of Argentine history. A short walk from the plaza is one of the premier opera houses in the world, the Teatro Colon. It opened in 1908 to the music of Verdi's Aida. Since then, it has drawn many of the world's leading artists, such as Maria Callas, Richard Strauss, Arturo Toscanini, Enrico Caruso. Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Luciano Pavarotti. Great music combined with the building's grand staircase of marble, seven-thousand-bulb chandler, and its great hall of red velvet seats and red and gold brocade draped luxury boxes, project one into a world of past elegance. If rubbing elbows with the international literati is of interest, then the 150-year-old Café Tortoni is a must. Serving as backdrop to the passionate discussions of plays, poetry and politics, and the more mundane scene of waiters in starched white jackets serving drinks and snacks are elegant stained glass Art Nouveau windows and panels by the well-known Catalonian artist Antoni Estruch. The atmosphere alone is worth a stop in Bohemian Tortoni and it is congenial enough that a by-stander is able to feel in a small way, a part of this great stew of creative energy.Shopping 
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 El Tigre On the outskirts of Buenos Aires, about one half-hour by car, is the very unusual district of the Tigre Islands, in the Delta of Parana, where three thousand inhabitants live. These are the people that live amidst the lush flora of a small portion of the 5,000 waterways comprising the Delta. All of the landscape is covered with sub-tropical vegetation and maintains a large ecology reserve. Scattered along the banks of the various canals are colorful houses built on stilts to ensure them against the rise and fall of the water where the only avenues are waterways and the only highways are canals. For a quick look into the lives of the river people, one may take a commuter launch or go on a guided boat tour starting at the Tigre Estacion Fluvial. The Commuter launch stops at the residential neighborhood of Tres Bocas where you may leave the launch and walk around until the next launch arrives. There are restaurants along the main canal and an amusement park that receives a lot of activity during the Argentine summer, November to February. Most of the time, however, the river trip is a good place to unwind from the energy of Buenos Aires. |
Buenos Aires is a city of many tastes with every neighborhood a cosmos unto itself. The fun of it all is taking one's time to enjoy and become absorbed in the personality of each one. |
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PHOTO CREDITS: Mary Ashcraft, Rod Lopez-Fabrega, Argentina Secretaria De Turismo, Courtesy of Argentina 54 Photos |
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© 2002 ROMAR TRAVEL GUIDES
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