Argentina: Buenos Aires

Saturday, February 25, 2023 Buenos Aires, Argentina

The ship docked about 8 am and when we opened our curtains there was another ship right below us fueling our ship. 

How our ship got fueled in Buenos Aires

After breakfast we decided to take a free shuttle bus to Florida Street, a shopping area in downtown Buenos Aires. To catch it, another bus first picked us up dockside and followed a serpentine route past two other cruise ships and many stacked shipping containers, dropping us at the customs building. This was one busy building with security screening, vendors, people getting off cruise ships, people getting on cruise ships. The shuttle bus to downtown left every 30 minutes from the street entry to the building, with many dozens of taxis lined up as alternative transportation.


One of our neighbors—3 times the size of our ship

Just a few of the taxis



The downtown shuttle bus dropped us off in Buenos Aires. We made our way toward Florida Street and took some photos, then sat outside at a coffee shop. I was starting to notice a communication problem & found out later there are a couple of basic pronunciation differences in Argentina. They have an easier time understanding Italians.

 

Gorgeous doorway

More Florida Street

Shopping mall - look familiar?

We  tired of the area pretty quickly and started looking for ‘the obelisk,” a historical monument and icon of the city. On the way, we found a possible lunch place that didn’t open for a couple of hours. Thinking we would return later, we continued in the general direction of the obelisk.

During the huge city-wide celebration of winning the World Cup, thousands of Argentinian soccer fans spent hours in the obelisk plaza and some drunken fans forced open the doors of the obelisk with a sledge hammer and tried to climb to the top. The ladder apparently collapsed, but not before one fellow made it to the top and hung from the tip to take a selfie.

Obelisk from a distance

We came across the Theatro Colon, the main opera house in Buenos Aires (it’s considered one of the top 10 in the world). It is said that Pavarotti confessed to being nervous singing in this venue. He said the acoustics were so good if he made a mistake everyone would hear it. 

From here we took a taxi to the National museum of fine arts. I loved the museum, which had a wonderful collection of South American art, as well as a decent amount of French impressionist pieces.





Later that afternoon we took a bus to the Palermo district to attend a big extravaganza that involved dinner, dancing (including tango), music, gauchos, you name it. The venue was La Rural, and it was large enough for dining and several performance stages. Outside was a large horse arena and stands. 


There were a lot of tables for 6



Charlie dancing the tango

Greeted upon arrival with drinks and canapés

Me with the gauchos




Sunday, February 26, 2023

Today, we did what we should have done yesterday—took a tour of Buenos Aires. Our tour guide was pretty good. She explained that there are some differences with Spanish in Argentina from any other Spanish-speaking country. One example: the “ll” in most Spanish-speaking countries is pronounced like “ye.” “Calle” is pronounced “caye.” In Argentina “ll” is pronounced “sh” - thus “Calle” becomes “cashe.” This information would have been helpful yesterday. There are other differences, and it made for a lot of confusion.


The Generic Flower sculpture - famous sculpture made to open & close

We started in the Palermo district again, one of the pricier areas in the city. A lot of old mansions from wealthy landowners of years past, many of them foreign embassies now.




Our next stop was the cemetery in the Recoleta district. Think New Orleans cemetery, only on steroids. You could easily get lost here and I made sure I didn’t get separated from the group!

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From here we went went downtown to the plaza de Mayo. We visited the magnificent Metropolitan cathedral, with Sunday mass in full swing. The square is full of monuments, the governor’s house, an ongoing indigenous protest, and many government buildings. The Grandmothers of the Plaza, a human rights organization, still meet in the square every Wednesday in their efforts to continue to locate missing grandchildren from the military dictatorship 1976-1983 when an estimated 30,000 people disappeared.

Charlie with one of the guards at the cathedral


Our last stop was La Boca barrio, my favorite, with it’s colorful Caminita Street.







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