Buenos Aires, Argentina

Cabildo de Buenos Aires was a government building in the 1800s, it is now a museum. It is across the Plaza de Colon from the current government building.

6 Mar 2014

We had two days at sea before we reached our next port of call, Buenos Aires. The captain has been coming on the PA system every day for the past ten days or so to update us on the Norovirus that has invaded the ship. They have continued with the heightened levels of sanitary measures – we don’t serve ourselves in the buffet restaurant, there are no condiments, including salt and pepper, on the tables and there are lots of reminders to wash our hands. Even so, I got hit with the virus the day we were in Ilhabela. So I was confined to our stateroom for 3 days. I was released the night before we docked in Buenos Aires, so I guess if I was going to get sick, I timed it right. Fortunately, Russ was not affected. I was well taken care of by the ship’s medical staff and room crews.

The second day of cruising was on the river Rio de la Plata. We were actually on the estuary portion of the river which separates Argentina from Uruguay. We will be going to Buenos Aires which is on the northwest corner of the estuary and then we cruise across the river and head a bit south to go to Montevideo. It is a very shallow river in this area and the ship must use a river pilot to negotiate the narrow channels.  There is lots of boat traffic in the region, but not the fishing boats we saw near Rio and Recife. Here we mostly see cargo and petroleum ships.

The temperatures are cooling off; we are now in the 70s, down from the high 80s of Rio and the Caribbean. Our plans for Buenos Aires include a city drive and Tango show.

Buenos Aires is often called the Paris of South America and I could see the resemblance. There are many Baroque style homes and buildings, most of which are well taken care of. In addition, there are modern sections that look to be very prosperous and there are wide streets. Large parks are in the town and they are well used by the population since hardly any of the residences have their own gardens. Hard not to contrast this to the squalid, poorly built areas of Rio.

That isn’t to say that Buenos Aires does not have its poor sections. The tour guide took us through an area near the harbor and talked about the evolution of these poor areas and their historical significance as the source of the tango dance. We drove through the La Boca neighborhood which was the birthplace of the Tango. This area was where immigrants, primarily from Italy, settled at the beginning of the 20^th century. Housing is unique; people scavenged the local harbor areas for materials left behind and used these materials to build their dwellings. There is a lot of galvanized steel sheeting used for siding on the houses and odd paint colors abound. The Tango originated in the brothels which permeated the area and was developed as a diversion while the many men waited for the services of the few women. Even though it was popular with the poor people in Buenos Aires, it did not gain respectability amongst the more well-to-do until it had been introduced to Spain and became a sensation there. Tango is currently undergoing a new resurgence with some modern variations.  It was certainly popular on our ship; there is a Tango quintet that performs in the Atrium several times a day with dancing demonstrations of an excellent Latin dance team. Lessons for beginners and intermediate dancers are offered and we saw folks taking private lessons from the professional pair.

We stopped at the La Recolete cemetery, where people buy very expensive lots and build mausoleums to hold generations of their families. Many Argentinian rich and famous and notorious are buried here.  The lots are quite small, but the crypts can go down 15 to 20 feet. Some of the crypts have glass doors so that people can look in and see the quality of the caskets. One spot is particularly famous as it is the resting place for Eva Peron. Argentinians still venerate this woman who rose from poverty to become the wife of the president of the country. The tour guide, who is about 26, gave a spirited and entertaining description of the political history of the country while we were traveling around. I got a good introduction to the volatility of the governments over the past 50 years or so and her perspective. I came away with a sense of optimism for the future of the country if it is populated with people like our guide – smart, informed, somewhat cynical and irreverent, with a sense of activism. She gave quite a detailed and somewhat gruesome description of what happened to Eva Peron’s body after she passed away from cancer at the age of 33. Her comment – “We Argentinians can’t seem to leave dead bodies alone.” For all the controversy surrounding Eva, I still feel that she was a positive force for workers, especially women’s rights.  They have what is called “Eva’s law” which gave women the right to get an identification card. Simple enough, but very powerful, as having this identification card then allowed women the right to vote and to own property.

We had a mishap with my scooter at our second stop. As it was being taken off the bus, the key was bent so badly it would not turn in the lock. It was a 30 minute stop, but Russ and I spent the whole time trying to get the key to work, and then when we had to give up on that, figuring out how to hot wire the lock. Russ turned into a regular McGyver and with the use of a paperclip was able to bypass the lock and get the scooter powered. I was SO relieved. Thank you God, when we got back to our room, Russ found that he had indeed brought a spare key, so we were back in business.

One interesting thing the tour guide pointed out to us was the use of dog walkers. Even though the vast majority of people live in small apartments, she said that most people own dogs and these dogs are generally medium to large in size. People work, of course, and don’t have time to exercise the dogs as needed, so there are people who will go to your apartment, pick up your dog and take it to the park to run around for 4 to 5 hours. Then they take the dog back to the apartment and do it again the next day. The dog walkers are supposed to be limited to five dogs at a time, but we saw people surrounded by 8 to 9 dogs. You would think it would be total chaos, but the animals form a pack, with the dog walker the alpha dog and they calmly walk with the person to and from the park. And, get this, at the park, the walker releases the dogs and they wander around free with no fencing or anything. The park becomes a huge playground for the animals for the several hours they are there and when it is time to go home, they all are there to be leashed by the walker and walked home. I found that amazing. There are problems with the situation though. The walkers are not required to pick up after the dogs and the park becomes a minefield for those wishing to picnic or just to take a walk.

We had a delicious lunch and Tango show somewhere downtown. I didn’t eat much because my tummy is still a bit sensitive, but the meat empanada I had for an appetizer was delicious and Russ said his steak was very good. They served Malbec wine with the meal, I am going to try and find some at home. It is a bit like a Merlot and very tasty.

The Tango show was just excellent. We got music from a tango quintet, dancing from 3 different couples, two excellent singers and a gaucho drummer/dancer. Just terrific. The show ended with the troupe singing Evita from the musical. Of course, that got quite a reaction from the largely American audience. Later I asked our guide if that song was popular with the Argentinians. She said that everyone knows the song, but no, it is not popular.

We got back to the ship with no further mishaps.  All in all, I really enjoyed Buenos Aires and I would like to come back and see more of the sights.

 

We had nice weather on the sailing down to Buenos Aires.

Lots of cargo ships moored out in the River de la Plata, waiting to enter one of the ports and get their cargo vans.



There are lots and lots of these smallish oilers and cargo ships in the port of Buenos Aires. This one moored next to our ship to fuel it.



This is a statue of Martin who is a hero of several South American countries. This statue is unique because it is one of the few that does not have him on a horse or leading a military charge.



La Recolete cemetery is organized like a small city with paved streets and lights



The crypts were very elaborate with many sporting statuary and domes.

 

 



Many had elaborate doors.

Some of the elaborate iron grillwork found on the crypts.

Some of the crypts are deteriorating quite badly.

 

This is Eva Peron’s brother’s family crypt. After many years of being moved around in and out of the country, her body was finally placed here, at the very bottom on the crypt making it very difficult for anyone to steal her body.

Some crypts are better taken care of than others. If a family dies out and the cemetery cannot find a member who is willing to pay to maintain the crypt, they can then empty the crypt and resell the land after 60 years of waiting. In the meantime, the crypt can crumble to dust.



On the widest boulevard in the city.



We drove through some of the immigrant neighborhoods. This is a Russian church in the midst of an area that includes Italians and Spanish.

La Boca, a former shantytown, still has many immigrants making their home there. But it has become more upscale and is a Bohemian like artist colony.

The buildings were painted with whatever paint was free.



The street art popularizes the history of La Boca.

 



Casa Rosada (Pink House). This is the housing for the executive branch of the government. Most will recognize it for the balcony from which Eva Peron gave her speeches.

The tour guide said that Argentinians consider the central area of this balcony as a sacred site because it is where Eva gave her speeches. There are other speeches that have been given, but they are given from the left or right balconies, never the center one. That is, until Madonna came to film Evita. The film people asked the then current dictator for permission to film Madonna singing the Evita song from the balcony and he let her sing it from the central balcony. This enraged many people. The tour guide was not too keen on this guy – he was the same one that led the country into the battle over the Falkland Islands which Argentina lost badly. She said that he is so reviled that even saying his name is considered bad luck. So she would only call him “He who must not be named.”

The church that Pope Francis presided over before he became pope.

 

A plaque indicating this church is the home church of the pope.



The inside of the church was beautiful classic style.

 

One of many French inspired features in the city.



A view from the main plaza down to the obelisk. This street is the street typically used by groups that are demonstrating.  They meet at the obelisk and march to this plaza which is where the Casa Rosada is.



The Opera House which the tour guide says is one of only 3 buildings in the world with perfect sound.



The Opera House.



Artwork dedicated to Eva Peron.



One of several soccer stadiums. This one is the home of our bus driver’s favorite team.



A mural on the side of the stadium. The player on the right side is modeled after the greatest soccer player in Argentina, Diego Maradona. He is considered a national hero.



A bridge in the modern section of town.

Our lunch and Tango show were in a narrow long room with layered floors, so everyone had a good view.



One of the free government universities in the country. This is for engineering. The tour guide was quite positive about the public universities as opposed to private schools. She implied that grades in private schools are just as much a function of who your family is as your performance in class.

There are a lot of public sculptures throughout the city. This is a metal flower that has sensors causing it to open and close its petals depending on the amount of sun. She said though, that the sculpture has been broken for several years and there does not seem to be any plan to fix it.