Argentina

Buenos Aires - capital city of Argentina

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08/03/2015

Trip to Buenos Aires

We finally reached Buenos Aires after 17 hour journey from Puerto Iguazu. The journey was long but at least adventurous. We heard a lot about the bus transportation in Argentina and therefore we decided to experience something extraordinary. We chose a “business” class bus by Vía Bariloche. Buses offer mainly a comfort. The seats are really big, comfortable and can be reclined to super cama = couchette. The number of seats is limited of course. Czech carriers offering bus connection around Europe could follow this example. 😉 A part of the on-board service was refreshments. The ticket price is not much expensive comparing to the standard line. And to the adventure, somebody broke the window so we stayed for more than hour in the depo and had to wait for guys there to fix it. We also contributed in a wrong way because we accidentally clogged the toilette. Do not really splash the toilette paper where forbidden.

The city and its surroundings

Buenos Aires is a beautiful city with population around 12 million inhabitants, official numbers are lower. At first sight you can see the European influence in development of the city. During our strolling around the town we felt more like in Europe, specifically Paris. Many styles intermingle here like Italian, French and of course Spanish. Comparing to Rio de Janeiro we felt more safe here. People are very nice and always kind to help in case you don’t know where to go. The public transportation works perfectly. We were a bit worried because of the population but we always got to any place within a few minutes. Maybe it was thanks to Porteños. They are locals just and only in Buenos Aires and they have to be born here. The meaning of the word is the “people of the port”.

La Boca – colorful and cheerful

If you say Buenos Aires many people just think about the La Boca district. It is beautiful historical neighborhood where you can find a temperament mixture of many countries. It is a place to find colorful houses and mainly the cultural symbol of Argentina, tango dance. You can see people dancing on every corner. This place is often visited by politicians but there was also a pope. We were mesmerized by its colors.

San Telmo – magic neighborhood with a touch of Italy

In this district the Italian influence is very obvious. There are many restaurants that remind you the Italian style and a beautiful square to visit. If you want to have a delicious but still cheap lunch then San Telmo is the right place where to enjoy this occasion. And it is not such a touristy place. What we truly appreciated the most here was the flea market. There are several little stores offering historical goods for example many year old unopened bottle of Coca-Cola of photos of people from the 19th century. But there is also a fruit and vegetable market, nicer and fresher pieces cannot be found any other place in the town.

Recoleta – the green area of the town

Recoleta is known basically for its cemetery where are buried the richest and most famous people of Argentina. You can find here the tombs of several presidents, Napoleon’s granddaughter and paradoxically the tomb of Evita who is buried here between the people she despised and who did not like her. Eva Perón aka is an important historical persona for Argentinians. She made many things better, especially for women. The proof of this is that their funeral was accompanied by 4 million people! The cemetery is literally littered with thousands of graves where every of them is really original and looks like a small mausoleum. Nowadays it is basically impossible to find a peace of mind in this place. You can buy a place for about 85.000 USD. Recoleta offers more than this nice cemetery. There are many beautiful places to rest as there are many beautiful green parks offering the fitness equipment for very active persons. And you can also have a great ice-cream here.

Palermo – street art

This neighborhood is interesting mainly for its paintings on the houses. We were lucky to stay at friend of ours who is coincidentally a very talented artist. She is known as Dibujantis and we had the honor to meet earlier back in Prague. Antonela gave us a tip where to see her paintings and we photographed them. But you may find paintings from many other artists here too. It is definitely worth visiting this neighborhood.

Puerto Madero – modern and rich

This district is a shelter for the the upper class. There are many skyscrypers, expensive hotels and a large park. Among that you can visit a historical boat Fragata Sarmiento. The boat was part of the plan of the president at the edge of the last century. He wanted young people to travel, gain information and summary about life in different cultures – basically the same thing we are doing within our trip around the world 😉 Argentinian government endowed about 35 cruises around the world.

Downtown

This part of the town is of course the center of all happenings. It’s a location of the government, central bank, cathedral, lookout building and many other interesting places. We also found out that Argentina has their own White House but because of its color they call it the Pink House. Nevertheless the president doesn not live there. She flies every day to work by a helicopter. And at the Pink house is also the famous balcony where were held the most important speeches in Argentinian history, people listened to Evita or Maradona, the famous footballer, after Argentina won the World Cup.

Buenos Aires je is for sure beautiful and interesting city, worth visiting. For better orientation we can again recommend Free Tours. There are 2 companies, we have experience only with that one. We did not like the morning tour that much. Maybe it was because we saw most of the places the other day. But the afternoon tour was really cool.