We finished up a week on Argentina's central coast with a stopover in Buenos Aires.
For us, it was the most convenient to drop off our rental car at the Ezeiza Airport and take a shuttle bus into the city. We had previously booked three nights at the Best Western Embassy, which turned out to be an optimum choice. The hotel's central location on Avenida Cordoba allowed easy access to shopping, dining, and the city's main sightseeing attractions.
The time was mid-December, and the close-by Galerias Pacifico had put up holiday decorations, and the merchants were promoting their Christmas merchandise. These last days of the Argentinian spring had Florida and Lavalle streets packed with shoppers, night clubbers, and tango dancers. Little was visible, on the surface, of Argentina's looming financial crisis, as the country prepared to default on its $132 billion foreign debt and plunge headlong into economic and civil chaos.
For the time being, the order of the day was to see the sights and sample the atmosphere.
The neighborhoods, barrios, of central Buenos Aires each afforded their own separate styles and tones of life.
La Recoleta
La Recoleta, to the north, is decidedly uptown, with foreign embassies, spacious parks, and park-like estates. Eva Peron's tomb is there in the Recoleta Cemetery, and there is also a statue of her in a local park. When we visited the tomb, admirers had only recently left flowers, but the statue in the park showed signs of vandalism. After more than 50 years, this icon of the Argentinian populist movement continues to tug both ways at the hearts of the population. The neighborhood also features the historic Basilica del Pilar and an adjacent park that hosts a weekend craft fair.
La Boca
Farthest to the south, and opposite La Recoleta in all ways possible, is the port district known as La Boca. A hundred years ago, immigrant dock workers from Italy used batches of leftover paint for their shacks, and the tradition has carried on. Today there is a thriving artist community, and tourists flock to sample the atmosphere, shop for art, test the local dining, and view the colorful patchwork paint schemes on the buildings.
San Telmo
I have seen the claim that La Boca is the home of the tango and also that the tango had its origins in San Telmo, just to the north. In any event, the tango lives in San Telmo, where professional dancers give exhibitions in the Plaza Dorrego. The plaza also hosts a thriving flea market and some excellent dining.
City Center
Avenida de Mayo runs from the Government Palace west to the Congreso (the Congress Building). The Government Palace is the Casa Rosada (Pink House), where Madonna sang, "Don't Cry for me, Argentina," in her Academy Award movie roll. In front is the Plaza de Mayo, a traditional site for protests and where police used force to disperse rioters following the economic collapse in December 2001.
Calle Florida and Calle Lavelle cross at right angles and are closed to all but foot traffic.
They are the shopping and dining centers of central Buenos Aires. The fabulous Galerias Pacifico shopping mall occupies the corner of Florida and Avenida Cordoba, and sets a standard impossible to match in the rest of the district. Dining along Calle Florida is anchored at the low end by one or more McDonald's restaurants, although we think we saw one of these being torched by rioters on TV after we returned home.
At the northern end of Calle Florida is the beautiful Plaza San Martin, where we rounded out our last day waiting for our evening flight home. The park's footpaths wind among a variety of exotic trees, and there are many places to relax and read on a late spring afternoon.
Economics
At the time of our visit, the Argentinean peso was pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar, and the two were supposedly interchangeable. However, it was obvious that Argentineans never wanted to give dollars in change, so it was a constant struggle for us to try to leave the country with a minimum of pesos. As it was, we wound up back in Texas with a ten-peso note that quickly sank out of sight and became a combination conversation piece and book marker.
The people
For all their woes, the people of Buenos Aires, and Argentina in general, were darned friendly. Due to a significant shift in dialect, my Spanish was even less useful in Argentina than it is in Texas. However, Argentineans were helpful and eager to communicate in English whenever possible, which was often. It would be nice to think I will find another excuse in the future for going back.
More on Buenos Aires
The author of this Lonely Planet Web page provides some deeper insight into the history and culture of Buenos Aires.