Brett and Emily in South America: Buenos Aires: Toto I don't think we are in South America anymore

As we got off our 20 hour bus ride from Iguazu Falls to Buenos Aires, which was in an amazing ride with English movies, hot dinner, breakfast, comfortable air condition, free wine, beer, and champaign. It was basically per hour half the price of the busses in Brazil and way nicer. We constantly read about how much Buenos Aires gets so many reviews that it is like Europe. And they were all correct. The city really makes you feel like you are in a European city full with avenues, coffee shops, etc...and the best part is it is half the price. Overall my impression of Buenos Aires is that it really reminds me of the European cities I have been in. And people from Buenos Aires really do think they are basically Parisian, including their hours of operations for business, dress, croissants, and their love for mass protests. However, at the same time when you do really feel like you are in Europe, there is still that feeling the country has had its fair share of political and economic problems. There is reminders throughout the city of political struggles through the past 60 years and even though everything is very European it seems like nothing has been improved since the 1970s. Sidewalks are in major disrepear, the subway (though it works great) still uses cars from the 1940s, and grafittee litters many buildings throughout the city.

View of the old Spanish Town Hall in Avenue de Mayo Plaza, with a great view of the European Architecture and wide avenues in the background

The Congreso Building, modeled after the US Capital Building in Washington. A magnificant building although in a major need of a cleaning.

We spent most of our days in Buenos Aires (once it finished raining most mornings) just walking around checking out the sites as you would in most cities. The first day we walked around the city just to get a feel of everything. We visited and took a free tour of the President's offices, Casa Rosada, which is famous for the famous picture of Evita Peron talking to a large crowd. The house's name translates to the Pink House, which it was named because it was originally painted with cow's blood to protect the building from mold because the main river going through Buenos Aires use to pass through its backyard basically. Even though the river has been moved about 2km they still paint the house pink (now with paint) to keep up tradition. Additionally, we also stumbled upon the main national memorial for soldiers who fell during the Falkland Islands' War. As mentioned in the previous post Emily also finally got to enjoy an Argentinian steak as we headed down to the main Jewish neighborhood of Buenos Aires (which numbers around a quarter of a million people) for dinner.

Picture of Emily and I outside of La Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo (in Argentinian Spanish the 'y' is pronounced as a 'j')

Emily looking out from La Casa Rosada from the porch where Evita gave her famous speech to the Buenos Aires crowd in Plaza de Mayo

Memorial to the fallen soldiers of the Falkland Islands War. Really Argentina what were you thinking attacking a British stronghold. Evidently Britain again is pissing off Argentina by doing more then regulated oil drilling off the coast of the Falklands

Our second day in Buenos Aires was dampened as we waited for it to stop raining. As that really wasn't until the evening we decided to do something productive with our day and headed to a Tango Show. We researched online, read a bit about them in Lonely Planet, and asked the hostel staff about them. Our general impression we got was that the shows are for the most part for the tourists. But there are two main types: Small more personal ones that are given in special theatres in Coffee Shops and large ''Vegas-like'' shows given in much larger theatres. We decided to take the some what more authentic route and go to a cafe and watch the less glamerous show. We decided to head to the cafe early and grab some food before moving downstairs to the small stage with tables (about 40 people total could watch). We later learned the one we went to, Cafe Tortoni, was the oldest cafe that is styled like this in Buenos Aires. The show was very nice to watch and was not exactly what we expected, but more of a small/short musical lasting a bit over an hour and including a nice little plot (which we didn't completely follow because it was all in Spanish), live musicians, and an excellent bartone singer.

Tango Show (flash photos were not allowed so most the pictures didn't come out so great)

Our third day we decided to take a free tour of part of the city (the entire tour was going to cost a little bit) provided by the hostel. The guide gave us a nice general history of both Argentina and Buenos Aires going back from the Spanish colonial period all the way until today and showed us some nice sites and small things we would have never known. He mentioned the influence of the Jesuits on Argentinian culture, which is something we also learned about at Iguazu which was the region, Misiones, most of the Jesuits lived. He also gave us a short history of Argentinian independence from Spain which began in 1810 but did not fully concluded until 1816, and mentioned a slightly humerous story about how Argentina's founding father, San Martin (who is also considered the founding father of Chile and Peru), is buried next to the main Cathedral in Buenos Aires and not inside because he was not a Catholic. However, because the Catholic Church wanted to still have a connection with him they decided to build a small building in the courtyard of the Cathedral to bury him. The tour guide also talked about the Peron's, the reoccuring theme of military dictatorships, the repressive regime through the 1970s and and until 1983 (including talking about a movement started by the Mother's of missing Argentinians who were killed by the regime), the Falkland Islands War, and the 2001 Economic Crash and the resulting protests and police reaction which killed several dozen protesters. Overall, the tour which lasted 90 minutes was quiet informative and really gave us a grasp of the politics in Argentina. After the tour we visited the historic distric of San Telmo and walked around looking in a few antique shops, checking out the menus at street cafes, and watching tango dancers outside the cafes give performances.

One of many tributes in Plaza de Mayo to the 'Mothers of Plaza de Mayo' who all had sons kidnapped and later murdered by the former Military Regime (which fell in 1983 after the Falkland War). The white scarf was a sign of mothers whose sons went missing (the Spanish is easily translated). Still to this day people come once a week to protest other issues, including the prosecution of the former generals of the Military Junta.

Outdoor Tango dancing in San Telmo

Wednesday, we decided to head over to the large amounts of parks, gardens, zoo, etc. in the city. We strolled around the cities Botanical Gardens and a large park, before stumbling upon a very beautiful Japanese Garden which was built by the local Japanese population a still well mantained including a sushi resturant. When we were there the resturant was only serving tea and sweets but we enjoyed the view and walked around the gardens.