Buenos Aires

I arrived in Buenos Aires in late afternoon, missing a day of pouring rain.  The next day was sunny and hot.   I was in BA five years ago for a few days so have seen most of the sights, including the fantastic Recoleta Cemetery and the Eva Peron museum, so set off to see a couple of things that were closed last time.  I walked to the Casa Rosada, the president’s office, so named for its pink colour, possibly originally because the paint was mixed with cow’s blood, in the Plaza de Mayo. 

This time I was allowed inside part of the palace, with pictures of the country’s most famous politicos, including Juan and Eva Peron.  The balcony of the Casa Rosada was allowed to be used in the film Evita, starring Madonna.  Evita was the wife of the president Juan Peron, and became an icon for her generous spending of the taxpayers’ money, and for her death from cancer at 33.  She came to BA from the countryside to be a singer and actress, but was not good at either.  This is probably why Madonna was chosen to portray her (just kidding, I like Madonna).  So she turned to an older profession to make a living, but met Peron at a charity event and the rest is history.  After her death, her body was stolen and reburied a few places including Spain before being reclaimed and buried in the Recoleta Cemetery under 27 feet of concrete so her body cannot be dug up again.

 I carried on to the Teatro Colon, a theatre that was under a five year reconstruction on my last visit.

Pavarotti  was asked what he thought of the theatre after performing there, and replied it was

wonderful but there was a big problem with the acoustics.  They were so perfect that any tiny mistake

he made could be heard!  Included is a room with golden gilding and chandeliers like the Palace of Versailles in France, and staircases with marble from all over Europe.  The city was known as the Paris of South America, and attracted the rich and famous from Europe.

I ended my tour on the Calle Florida, a nearby shopping street, filled with leather stores and guys offering pesos at 10 to $1.  The official rate is about 8 to $1, but the currency just devalued since the country isn’t doing well with their new presidente, the widow of the former presidente.

My roommate from Germany arrived in the afternoon, and I met the rest of the group that night.  11 people from 9 different countries, including Brazil, Denmark, Austria, Australia, Holland, England, Ireland, Germany, late 20’s up to a retired couple from Toronto, with various working backgrounds including Amnesty International, Google, and a software entrepreneur who decided to sell to his partners and take a year to travel the world.

We went for dinner, in the Argentine tradition around 10 pm, to a steakhouse in the San Telmo district.  Argentina is renowned for its beef, which is simply laid on the grill and seasoned by the consumer with chimichanga sauce if you like spicy.  I had a bad experience with it last time with a 20 ounce slab so was dubious, but now I know why it’s so famous.

The next day we hopped on a plane from the local airport 3 hours south to the windswept town of El Calafate, where we enter the region of Patagonia, with the third largest ice cap area in world, after Antarctica and Greenland.