Day 58: Buenos Aires
For our second day in Buenos Aires, we decided to do the morning tour offered by Buenos Aires Free Walks. On our way to the meeting point, we passed the other side of the Evita Mural.
We headed towards Retiro first, to the Plaza San Martín. Below is a statue of San Martín, an Argentine general who led the country during the war of independence from Spain, and who is admired by plenty Argentines. The Plaza is located at the base of Calle Florida, a famous pedestrian street in Buenos Aires. Our guide also spoke about the black market that happens along Calle Florida. It's incredibly common to exchange dollars and pesos at the black market where you usually get a rate of 12 pesos to 1 dollar, instead of the 8 pesos to 1 dollar from the bank.
From the Plaza he showed us the Torre Monumental, a clock tower and a gift from the English, also sometimes called "Little Ben."
We continued towards the wealthier barrios in Recoleta, and you can really see the difference between the North and the South — the streets are even wider and the houses are humongous.
La Recoleta Cemetery (Cementerio de la Recoleta) is a famous cemetery where several notable Argentine figures are buried. Entrance is free, but I'm not sure about the guided tours. We just walked around and looked for Evita's grave on our own.
It's a really interesting cemetery with many different architectural styles.
We found the greave of Evita. We walked around a bit, but we really just wanted to see the architecture and Evita's mausoleum.
Walking to the museum. More wide tree-lined roads in Palermo.
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| Evita smiling to the people of the South |
While yesterday’s tour covered Centro and San Telmo, the tour today would cover Retiro and Recoleta. We had another great tour guide who was really knowledgeable, but he spoke a tad bit too fast and mumbly so I didn't understand him a lot. Our other tour guide was funnier too, but this one was still good.
Passing through Avenida 9 de julio, the widest avenue in the world. It gets it's name from Argentina's Independence Day. I'm not sure exactly how many lanes it has, but I counted at least 12.
We headed towards Retiro first, to the Plaza San Martín. Below is a statue of San Martín, an Argentine general who led the country during the war of independence from Spain, and who is admired by plenty Argentines. The Plaza is located at the base of Calle Florida, a famous pedestrian street in Buenos Aires. Our guide also spoke about the black market that happens along Calle Florida. It's incredibly common to exchange dollars and pesos at the black market where you usually get a rate of 12 pesos to 1 dollar, instead of the 8 pesos to 1 dollar from the bank.
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| Plaza San Martín |
While we were at the Plaza, we saw a dog park, which was really cute! Both our tour guides mentioned that in Buenos Aires, they LOVE dogs. (They even have professional dog walkers here). We saw so many cute dogs and a few dog walkers. The only downside is that there is dog poop all over the sidewalk. You really have to look where you’re walking.
The wealthy immigrants built huge houses and palaces in this barrio to copy the lifestyle of the French.
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| French style house |
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| Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento |
The name Recoleta comes from the religious order, the Recollects, which was established in that area in the 18th century. They founded a monastery and a church (seen in the picture below), as well as the famous cemetery.
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| Basílica Nuestra Señora del Pilar in the back |
We ended the tour outside the Recoleta Cemetery and posed for a group picture. It was a little after 1 so Ange and I decided to have lunch nearby and then visit the cemetery after.
La Recoleta Cemetery (Cementerio de la Recoleta) is a famous cemetery where several notable Argentine figures are buried. Entrance is free, but I'm not sure about the guided tours. We just walked around and looked for Evita's grave on our own.
It's a really interesting cemetery with many different architectural styles.
We found the greave of Evita. We walked around a bit, but we really just wanted to see the architecture and Evita's mausoleum.
From there, we decided to walk to the Latin American Museum in Palermo, about a 20 minute walk from Recoleta. We saw some small street markets…
...and even some statues of Maradona and Messi (I had to pose for a picture, of course).
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| This is a university. So pretty. |
We spent some time at the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA). It's a small museum, but the permanent collection of Latin American art was really nice (ARS 25 half price for students). The temporary exhibit was a sort of light show, which was pretty cool.
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| Frida Kahlo's self portrait |
After visiting MALBA, we looked for El Ateneo. This time around we had the correct address, and with the help of google maps, we found it. The entrance is small and simple...
...but the inside so beautiful.
El Ateneo is a beautiful bookstore located in an old theatre, Teatro Grand Splendid. (It was actually converted into a movie house before it became a bookstore.) It was really cool how they preserved the balconies and the stage, and transformed it into a bookstore. Behind the curtains, on the stage is a small café, and the box seats are now reading nooks.
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| The central dome still retains the original Italian frescos |
We ended the night with some delicious Argentine empanadas, at La Americana, a restaurant that Angela’s friend recommended we try.
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