Our South America Adventure - Day 7 & 8 - Buenos Aires

On day 7 in South America, we flew from Cusco to Buenos Aires. I slept for many hours the night before - I was exhausted probably due to altitude (spoiler alert - within 24 hours of being at Sea Level in Buenos Aires I was feeling much more energized. Altitude sucks, but Peru is incredible and worth it). A day of travel was exactly what I needed to continue to rest my body. We headed to the airport at 5:30 for a flight to Lima and then transferred to our flight to Buenos Aires. 

We arrived in Buenos Aires at 5:30 and quickly cleared customs. Our driver, Daniel, was waiting for us. He was fantastic. He drove us to our hotel and showed us a few things along the way like the Opera House, 9th of July Avenue (recognizing their independence day), and the Pink House. Our initial impression of Buenos Aires is that it's an incredibly modern city. Eric and I both commented that it reminded us distinctly of New York. There are tall buildings, bright lights, and energy that buzzes throughout the city. We instantly fell in love. 

After arriving at our hotel, we took a few minutes to relax and then took showers and prepared for an evening at a Tango Show. We had arranged transportation through the show, so they picked us up around 8:30pm. People in Argentina tend to eat dinner very late, so this was not at all unusual. We had a 3-course meal, which was excellent, and then the show started around 10:00. The show was about the history of tango beginning in the early 20th century through the current day. We learned throughout the rest of our time in Buenos Aires how much the tango is a part of this city - there are murals depicting the dancing and music all over. The dancing and singing in the show were fantastic. We loved it! After the show, we went back to our hotel and went to sleep. 

On Saturday morning we slept in a little bit and then started our tour around 9:30am. Eric arranged this tour with a woman named Elizabet and she was fantastic. We started the tour at the Plaza de Mayo. We saw the Pink House which is the office of the president, similar to the White House but without the residence. Evita gave speeches from the balcony here. We learned a lot about Evita during our day in Buenos Aires. She is a fascinating woman. 

In the middle of the plaza is a pyramid, which was made famous by the Mothers of those who disappeared. Following the Peron presidency, there were dictators who were running the country who were disappearing people who disagreed with them. At the time it was illegal to gather with a group and stand in place because it was viewed as conspiring against the government. However, people could walk in groups so the mothers would come to the square and walk around the pyramid sharing news to try to find their children. Even today a group of mothers meets at the square every Thursday to represent those that disappeared. There was also a really touching tribute to people who died of COVID during the pandemic. 

The most interesting part of the square was the Cathedral. The outside of the cathedral looks like a courthouse, it's very Greco-Roman in appearance. However, the inside looks exactly like a church. One of the main features was the tomb of San Martin. He is essentially the "George Washington" of Argentina. He was born in Buenos Aires and educated in Spain. However, he organized the revolution/liberation of Argentina, Chile, and Peru from Spanish Rule. His tomb was exquisite. 

The altar of the church was made from silver from the San Telmo neighborhood. There was also a tribute to a Priest who helped the Jewish population following some terrorist attacks in Buenos Aires in the 1970s. However, Elizabet told us that no people are perfect and this priest also said that gay people should be sent to an island to recover from their "illness". Buenos Aires definitely has a way of showing nuance in all things - no one is all good or all bad. And certainly, no one is perfect. 

Following the church, we continued our drive to the newer area of Buenos Aires. Here we saw the Women's Bridge along with some silos that were painted with words of women empowerment (power, pleasure, freedom, etc). This area of town was previously warehouses for the ports, so on one side of the river are still old buildings that have been primarily transformed into restaurants and cafes. On the other side of the river, there are some old buildings that cannot be removed, so they have been remodeled, however, most of the buildings are new.     

Our next stop was La Boca. This was primarily an immigrant community in the early 20th century. The city of Buenos Aires, and Argentina as a whole, are primarily European immigrants. Between the early conquistadors and more recent policy, the indigenous people of Argentina have been mostly killed (similar to the United States). As a result, most Argentinians look European and have European ancestry. La Boca was originally built by Italian immigrants who lived with multiple families in tenement housing sharing kitchens with other families. They used leftover paint from the ships they arrived on to paint their homes, which is why this district is so colorful. They are also the creators of the Tango. This area had a very vibrant art scene with artists painting and selling their wares. We bought two small postcards from an artist who was so kind when we walked by. He turned both my name and Eric's name into tango dancers on the back of our postcards. We also visited an old bar that is still in the condition it was in 1882. 

Elizabet went into a store and purchased some alfajores for us to try. These are chocolate cookies with dulce de leche in the middle. We have learned that Argentinians love their dulce de leche and it's easy to see why! We ate many alfajores during our time in Argentina. 

Our next stop was an old restaurant with a very eclectic decor scheme. There were old cars, sculptures, and barber chairs among other items. We then went to a local place for lunch, Alamos, where we both had New York strip steaks with french fries. They were delicious! Argentina loves its beef. We ate a lot of beef while we were in town. Next door to the restaurant was a bookstore that was built in an old theater. I absolutely LOVED it. They had a very small English section, so we didn't buy anything. But I did want to buy everything. It was so awesome how they turned the stage into a cafe and the boxes into little reading rooms. We were able to see the old switches on the wall that they used to manage the theater previously. There was also a small tribute to the artist who wrote the Tango Song. He died very young in a plane crash but had done some radio shows in the theater prior to his death. 

Our next stop was Recoleta, which is the most exclusive neighborhood in Buenos Aires. We happened upon a classic car show, which was really fun to see. We also walked through the church, which is one of the oldest in Buenos Aires. It was much more simple than the church we saw earlier in the day, but still really pretty. Elizabet then gave us some free time to walk through a local market. We had so much fun exploring for a few minutes on our own, and Eric bought a ship in a bottle. He's always looked at these when we've traveled and this one is fun because the sails on the ship look like the Argentina flag. This will be a great addition to our curio. 

We then visited the Recoleta Cemetery. This cemetery started in the late 19th century and is the most exclusive cemetery in Buenos Aires. Families can purchase a plot that can hold up to 14 caskets and many more ashes. People are still being buried in this cemetery. We saw so many different styles of mausoleums. Some were in better shape than others and you could tell that families still tended to these graves. Others were in disrepair. We also learned that families can treat their plots like real estate since this is such a popular place to be buried. If a family member chooses to remove their family's remains, they can then resell their mausoleum to someone else who can remodel and begin placing their family in the cemetery. It was fascinating. 

The most interesting grave was Evita Peron. Her body is in her family's vault separate from her husband. Following her death, her body was moved to Europe for protection after a coup exiled her husband. After 20 years she was returned to Argentina, but her family wanted her placed in their family grave so she wouldn't be disturbed again. Evita is an incredibly fascinating person. She worked hard for the poor and was adored by them. However, she also enjoyed her wealth and high fashion. It's interesting to see her in the most exclusive cemetery in Buenos Aires and it made me wonder if she would have wanted to be there or somewhere more resembling her humble beginnings. She did do a lot of good work for the poor in her country though and should be commended. 

After the cemetery, we drove through the Palermo District. This area is so green with parks stretching for miles. It also houses the embassies of many countries including the United States. There are also a lot of museums. If we had more time in Buenos Aires, I would have loved to spend some time walking through the parks and museums in this area, especially the art museums. I find that I can learn so much about a culture through learning about their art. Unfortunately, we had limited time in Buenos Aires and after Palermo, we drove back to San Telmo. 

Daniel dropped us off and Elizabet then walked us around this neighborhood. It's a very old neighborhood with a lot of charm. There are a lot of antique shops that we walked through and I admired the old goblets and tea sets. I don't like most antiques, but I do have a thing for gorgeous glasses, tea sets, and iconic blue/white tableware sets. It was really fun to walk through these shops. Elizabet also showed us a local market that had antique shops, dulce de leche shops, and lots of food. She made some recommendations for dinner and then our time was up.  We walked back to our hotel with Elizabet. She was easily one of the best tour guides we've ever had, and we were sad to say goodbye. 

At this point, we were getting a little hungry so we went to Volta for ice cream. This was a shop that Elizabet recommended and it did not disappoint. The ice cream was so creamy and delicious. I had dulce de leche brownie and cappuccino caramel. Eric had dulce de leche and vanilla. We were both satisfied with our choices and commented it was some of the best ice creams we had ever had. Our next stop was back to the market where we both had beef from one of the places Elizabet recommended. Buenos Aires is one of the few places that we've visited where most people don't know English. However, using google translate and pointing at the menu we were able to communicate effectively. When the waiters came to check on us they would ask us a question using a "thumbs up" to make sure we were good, and we would give them a thumbs-up back. It was a really fun way to become buried in their culture. Ultimately, we didn't have any trouble because of the language barrier. 

After dinner, we decided to call it a night. We are headed to Iguazu falls in the morning!