Don't Cry for Me Argentina!

We arrived in Buenos Aires a bit travel weary from our hiking and traveling through Patagonia. We had intended to spend our first couple days in the area in Montevideo, Uruguay. But upon arrival in Buenos Aires, we quickly figured out that a taxi to a ferry to a bus was not only unfeasible time-wise, it was also very expensive. So we canceled our AirBnB in Montevideo and scrambled to find another in Buenos Aires. Luckily, we found one without too much hassle that would take us for our first two nights in Buenos Aires, and we crashed. I mean we literally didn't leave that place for an entire day. It was a much needed rest day (and finally some good wifi!).

Bill getting friendly with the locals

After two nights at our crash pad, we moved to our more permanent AirBnB in Buenos Aires where we spent the next five nights. We met our host Matias, a super friendly, incredibly resourceful guy who helped us with all kinds of things. He spent many minutes orienting us on the map and showing us the local highlights as well as the more mundane stuff like ATMs and laundry places. If only we'd had Matias in every major city we'd visited! Our AirBnB was great too, and this might be part of the reason I really liked Buenos Aires (that, and the cheap transportation, the all-gluten-free bakery, and delicious gluten free restaurant).

Our nice AirBnB in Buenos Aires

Our first full day in BA was a Sunday, so we went to the Sunday San Telmo market. It was basically a narrow street with vendors on both sides of the street. The booths were mostly filled with textiles, leather goods, art, and trinkets, but there was an incredible variety in the goods and the street went on forever! There were also some restaurants and food vendors along the way. The Sunday market was a really nice introduction to Buenos Aires.

San Telmo Street Market

Bill negotiating for a chocolate churro - yum! 

Then we wandered down to the waterfront, where we saw the famous "Puente de la Mujer", Bridge of the Woman, designed by Santiago Calatrava, whose bridges are distinct. We've seen and admired them in Milwaukee, WI and Redding, CA as well. This waterfront area is an old shipbuilding area that has now been converted to condos and nice restaurants. It's an excellent place for people watching, especially on a Sunday afternoon. They have an 1890s ship on the waterfront that you can tour for free. It is the ARA Presidente Sarmiento, named after Argentina's 7th president, Domingo Sarmiento, and it was very interesting to see the inner workings and historical photos, some included shots of our portly past president Taft on board for a state visit.

Puente de la Mujer (Bridge of the Woman) in front of Buenos Aires high rises

Bad picture of the Sarmiento ship 

I believe I wrote in my post on Santiago, Chile that Santiago felt very European. I was wrong. Buenos Aires is VERY European. The people look European, and the architecture is European. It felt like a blend of Barcelona, Rome and Paris. Lots of Europeans emigrated to Buenos Aires (BA) in the late 1800s, early 1900s. It has strong influences from Germany and Britain as well. But of course, everyone speaks Spanish and BA has the tango! Also, BA has lots of incredibly beautiful parks, with giant shade trees and lots of grass. It is a park-goers delight.

The next day we did a tour of the Teatro Colón, the opera house, which opened in 1908 and is well known for its operas, symphonies, and ballets. We were pleasantly surprised by its magnificence. It is one of the most highly ranked theaters in the world for beauty and acoustics, and we could see why. All the building materials were brought from Europe: the various colored marbles, the stained glass, etc. The main theater was incredible. It has eight layers of suites and boxes around the edges of the horseshoe shaped theater. We contemplated seeing a show, however, since we are at the end of our trip, and a bit over our annual travel budget, the only seats we could justify were the cheapest, which meant we would be standing at the top balcony for the 4-hour opera. To make up for not getting to go, Bill did some opera singing for me... just imagine that!

Teatro Colon from the outside

Teatro Colon from the inside (pictures really don't do it justice)

We learned that the above ground theater building itself is just one small part of the Colón Theater. The building extends underground several levels and the underground area is much deeper and wider than the building itself. This is because they need a place to store all the sets, the costumes, etc. And not just store them, they make all their sets, costumes, wigs, etc. onsite, so they have lots of workshops below ground as well.

There was also an art/music exhibit going on in one of the smaller galleries in the theater. It was a Italian pianist, Marino Formenti, playing a piano for 12-hours a day for 26 days in a row. Yowza! Admittedly, when we stopped to see him, he looked a bit tired of playing the piano, and we could understand why.

Marino Formenti, playing the piano all day for a month. Crazy!

Next, we visited the famous La Recolata Cemetery, an opulent cemetery where every gravesite has an elaborately decorated mausoleum. It seems clear that this is where all the wealthy people were buried. It included Evita's gravesite (more on her later). We also visited the charming little Japanese Garden and called it a day.

La Recoleta Cemetery

Evita's mausoleum at La Recoleta Cemetery

Japanese Garden

The next day started with a visit to Buenos Aires' main cathedral, the Metropolitan Cathedral, Pope Francis's home cathedral. It was really beautiful, but looked strangely like a Grecian temple from the outside (Neoclassical facade). It apparently has had to be rebuilt several times since it's original founding in the late 1500s. It is on the famous square, Plaza de Mayo. At the other end of the Plaza de Mayo is the Casa Rosada, the (red) presidential palace. We had hoped to tour it, but one day the tours weren't happening and another day, there was a large protest in the area.

Metropolitan Cathedral (Pope Francis's home church)

Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo

Speaking of protests, there were protests happening in BA pretty much the whole time we were there. We'd be walking down the street and run into a massive group of people with signs and matching T-shirts, yelling or pounding on drums, and sometimes setting off some loud firecrackers. During our visit, there was a large, multi-day teacher's union protest. Argentina has had some serious recent inflation problems, and the current president has tried to reign things in, but lots of people are unhappy with the changes.

The teacher's union protest (one of many protests) in Buenos Aires

We visited the Congress building and got to see inside the House of Representatives (the Congress side was closed for renovations). Argentina's government structure is very similar to the US's. Also, if you're a member of the House, when you vote, you have to submit your fingerprint to prove that you're really who they think you are. Each seat has an electronic fingerprint reader.

Argentinian Congress Building

Inside the House of Representatives

We went to an evening Tango show, which was really fun. The dancers were really incredible, of course, but the musicians were also incredibly talented. Tango music has accordions, which I was kind of surprised by.

Tango!

One of the highlights in BA was our visit to the Palacio Barolo, which when it was finished in 1923 was the tallest building in all of South America (it has 22 floors). The architect built around the theme of Dante's Divine Comedy, so the basement and ground floor represent hell, floors 1-14 are purgatory, and floors 15-22 represent heaven. You can see the theme in the building's decor. It also has its original elevators, the kind where you have to pull open two gates to enter and exit. But the best part is the view from the old lighthouse at the top. It is a fantastic view of the city, and we got lucky enough to see it at the prettiest time of day, dusk. Apparently, the building has a twin built by the same architect across the La Plata river in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Looking down on the "Hell" level of Palacio Barolo

View of the Congress Buildings from the top of Palacio Barolo

Finally, we visited the Evita museum, a tribute to the famous Eva Perón, wife of Argentine President, Juan Perón. We didn't know much about her, but learned quite a bit. She had a bit of murky childhood, but moved from her small village to Buenos Aires at age 15 to become an actress on stage, radio, and film. She wasn't particularly successful as an actress, but soon caught the eye of Juan Perón, who was a controversial political figure. She was loved by the people for her work with the poor and the workers, her advocacy for women and children, and her work for women's suffrage. She was even nominated to serve as Vice President, however, she had to decline because of her advanced cervical cancer. She died at the young age of 33 and is an icon of Argentinian culture. Bill and I wondered if part of the reason that Argentina has elected a female president (former President Christina Kirchner) and has a large proportion of female Congresspeople (>30%) is because of Eva Peron's strong political influence.

The Evita Museum

Photo of Evita waving to the crowds from a train

After a really nice week in Buenos Aires, we boarded a bus in the early afternoon for an 18-hour overnight bus ride (yes, you read that right...) to Puerto Iguazu, in the north of Argentina. Our ultimate destination was Iguazu Falls, an incredible system of waterfalls, the largest in the world. The super-wide Iguazu River, crashes over huge, numerous waterfalls and then becomes a much deeper, narrower river. It is very hard to describe how cool this place is. We actually spent three days there exploring the waterfalls from both the Brazil and Argentina sides of the river.

Bill is excited to start our 18-hour overnight bus from the front row of the double decker bus. 

Panorama of Iguazu Falls (not all of it) from the Brazil side  

Some of the smaller Iguazu falls as seen from Brazil 

Panorama of the largest section of the falls, The Devil's Throat

Admiring a very cool place

Panorama of the Devil's Throat from the Argentine side 

We walked on metal walkways over the giant Iguazu River to get to the falls on the Argentinian side

Some of the smaller falls that are in included in Iguazu Falls

Pictures don't really do Iguazu Falls justice, so here's a video of the Devil's Throat section, then another section, both from the Argentina side. 

Apparently, when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited Iguazu, she said, "Poor Niagara!".  Niagara has a bit more average flow, but Iguazu is taller. Depending on the level of flow which varies according to the season and rainfall, Iguazu can have as many as 275 discrete waterfalls.

The biggest, with about half of the water flow is called the Devil's Throat. We visited the Brazilian side on Day 1, and it provides a nice overview of the whole stretch of waterfalls. Days 2 and 3 were on the Argentinian side, where you can walk along metal sidewalks and get near and above the falls, so it's a closer look. We saw lots of rainbows, and even some colorful toucans in the wild.

We didn't get a picture of the wild toucans, but we saw many at the Bird Park we visited in Brazil. 

Tough to see, but there's a caiman in the Iguazu River. His nose is peeking above the surface of the water. 

Once again, we boarded a bus for an 18-hour ride back to Buenos Aires, where we started our long 3-day journey home through Santiago, Bogata, Mexico City, and Tijuana.

Next Up: One final blog - a his and hers perspective on our year of travel.