Forrest here. I am going to take a turn and give you my perspective of some of the sights, sounds, and smells we have come across in BA. This posting will be more of a rambling rather than a chronological account. So, for those of you who enjoyed the polished post of Nicole's previously, I hope you won't be disappointed. Also, as requested we have included more pictures of us this time, too. This was originally intended for a late December posting. We are currently in the Mendoza province, not in Buenos Aires, so don't get confused.
We are still doing well here. My sister and her husband visited, allowing us to share some of our experiences. For example, as many of you know I am a big tennis fan. We were able to attend a couple of evening matches over the weekend of
some professional players at the Argentina Cup which was a real treat. I've included a picture of Juan Monaco, a charismatic Argentinian, who went on to lose in the final to David Nalbandian.
In addition, Guillermo Vilas attended, he is a legend here in Argentina and a Tennis Hall of Fame inductee, winning many titles during his career in the 70s and 80s including the Australian, French, and US Opens. You can learn more about him
here if you are interested. Okay, no more tennis for now.
We definitely stepped up the tourist activities while family was here, which has been a nice change in routine for us. We went to the San Telmo district, known for its resident artists, antique shops, tango halls, and the Sunday street fair centered around Plaza Dorrego. You can see in the pictures and video some of the samplings available. The musicians were a lot of fun to watch, and a few of the guita
rists were quite good. This is one of the dirtier barrios in the city, in my opinion, with broken and missing tiles on the walkway common place, making for an adventurous outing when you add in the dog excrement the owners must have forgotten to pick up. But I digress.
On a similar theme of dirty barrios, La Boca is the other that probably takes the cake. It draws a lot of tourists for the soccer stadium of the Boca Juniors, as well as the colorful houses along Caminito street seen in the pictures. Other attractions include tango halls (we happened to see a couple of very good dancers the day we were out), some Italian restaurants/taverns, and the little port area that butts up
against Caminito street. Nicole and I walked around quite a few of the streets off the beaten path for a couple of hours and needless to say it failed to spark an appetite despite no food for several hours.
As we all noted when we joined my sister and her husband following their tour of the Boca Junior stadium, a lot of neighborhoods that immediately surround sports stadiums in major cities are pretty sketchy, this being no exception. Aside from the slum-like conditions and lean-tos, the port that I mentioned previously looks and smells more like some of the initial holding ponds for wastewater treatment plants rather than a healthier ecosystem. The bacteria must be happy, though. I have included a picture of this as well. I hope this hasn't turned you off to visiting Buenos Aires, but all is not a bed of roses as you can see.
Moving onward and upward we had a very pleasant visit to Recoleta Cemetery. I have seen several cemeteries in different parts of the world and found this one to have a much different feel than the others, for the better. It is very clean, bright, has some trees in it, though mainly in the center of the cemetery, and of course some amazing monuments to the deceased. Here are some samples.
Taking a moment to discuss some of the restaurants and food, we have had our share of good and mediocre meals, with only a few downright bad. We have sampled traditional plates, to the Argentines takes on Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Asian Fusion, and other more gourmet dishes that we have grown to love in the Northwest. Again, the pictures may not do justice, but the taste was magnificent and makes me hungry. The photo below is Patagonian lamb.
Buenos Aires and Argentina are very interesting in many respects. On the one hand you can find a great variety of things, from food to clothing, sporting goods, electronics, etc. But, finding organic and natural foods has been a little more difficult than we anticipated. One barrio that was a surprise in its cleanliness, nice shops, architecture, and natural/organic food options was Belgrano. In search of a particular health food store/restaurant, we stumbled upon a beautiful and immense church that you can see below, called Inmaculada Concepción or more commonly La Redonda, the round one.
Venturing out of the city on a quick day trip, we took the ferry over to Colonia del Sacramento, the oldest town in Uruguay (pop. ~22,000), dating back to 1680. After a 60 minute ferry ride we landed and met up with our tour guide. The following experience was a little like being in a strange movie. Let me explain. With "extra" time on our hands since we arrived on the first ferry from Buenos Aires, we proceeded to a local farm.
On the one hand it was quite interesting, as they made all natural marmalades from fruit grown on their farm, even filling a niche out there for the greatly demanded onion marmalade. True,
they made it. No, I imagine it's not a huge seller. On the other hand it was a little surprising. A larger building was converted to a museum for the owner's various collections, several of them holding Guinness Book Records including the largest pencil collection (8,000+), largest number of key chains (27,000+), largest matchbox collection (9.100+), etc. The woman who led us through the museum was the wife of the collector. She was very sweet and beaming with pride. Though certainly not for me, I could appreciate the effort that went into the collections. There were also items that I did find very interesting such as one of the first china sets made for a hotel in Colonia from the early 1900s. Also, various antiques were scattered around.
After a very quick and unsatisfying tour of the city via bus with our tour guide, we walked around on our own, looking at the old city gate and wooden drawbridge (1745), church, lighthouse, and plaza.
Most of the buildings are quaint and in the image of Portuguese and Spanish architecture, while the streets are very irregular cobblestone. This helps keep your balance sharp, but doesn't make for a happy pregnant wife or family members when driving. After lunch, I rented a golf cart and we took off to a beach and visited the dilapidated bull ring. It was built in 1910 and only hosted eight fights before bullfighting was prohibited in 1912. There is a movement to restore the stadium for concerts and such. I'm sure it would be quite a nice venue.
After a sufficient amount of time in Colonia, we caught our return ferry to BA. Nicole and I are looking forward to going back to Uruguay in February when we will be in Punta del Este and Montevideo, the capital.
That about wraps things up for now. Thanks to my sister and her husband for making the trip down to Buenos Aires. We had a great time!
Thanks for reading.
Forrest
El Bolson was about the farthest south we ventured on our entire trip. It lies just past the 42nd parallel (equivilant to going as far North of the equator as Chicago). We drove a little south of the town to visit another lake, Lago Puelo and then to an incredible lookout properly named Cabeza del Indio (Indian's Head). This was a big hike for me at 5.5 months pregnant, but was so worth the effort! Look at the photo closely and you can see Lago Puelo in the far background at the base of the Andes.
