Argentina 2008 - Buenos Aires

Argentina was always a place we wanted to visit and we jumped at the chance when friends invited us to go on a wine tour to Mendoza. The tour consisted primarily of friends we did a champagne wine tour with in France. It was a fantastic opportunity to hook up with friends scattered over California and Brazil as well as drink some great wines. Rick always dreamed of going to Patagonia so we decided to extend the trip and do just that. On this trip, we visited about 5 different areas of Argentina (Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Bariloche, El Calafate, and El Chalten) as well as Torres del Paine, Chile and Colonia, Uruguay. The trip was a mixture of sightseeing, wine tasting, horseback riding and hiking.

The first city on our month long trip was Buenos Aires. We allowed plenty of time to see this city since it is so large and there is much to see and do. Even with 5 days, there was much that we did see or do - for instance, we did not try to dance the tango at a milonga, but there is always next time. Buenos Aires is one rocking city. There are many different neighborhoods which are quite unique. Also because of its placement on the hemisphere, Argentina stays light until after 9pm and the Argentines don't even begin dinner until about 9 or 10 or 11pm. When we went to restaurants at 8:30 (quite late for us), they were quite empty and just beginning to get customers as we were finishing our meal. So what is there to love about Buenos Aires? Lots!

The Architecture - I know everyone says it, but it is like a grand European city. You have French, Italian and Spanish colonial designs. Because its heyday was in the Art Deco and Art Nouveau periods which both of us love, it seems to have more of this influence than other cities. The buildings are big and impressive as are the boulevards and statues which abound. Edith just loved all the balconies with the wrought iron. Also their 'White House' where the President, Cristina Kirchner (the first elected female president - her husband was the former president) is the 'Pink House' as shown in the photo on the right. It is said that the pink color is because of mixing red and white, the colors of the opposing political parties.

The Food, Especially Beef - We loved the beef though Rick says it is a myth that the steak can be cut with a spoon (remember Rick, we did see one restaurant do it for us on our last day in Argentina). Edith's favorite was the Bife de Costilla (t-bone) and Rick's was Ojo de Bife (rib eye). The portions were huge - one t-bone was off the plate and about 2 inches thick, but oh so yummy!! The beef is found in parrillas which are grills and they do grill anything including all parts (and I mean all parts) of the cow. Our favorite parrillas were Cabana Las Lilas (introduced by our food connoisseur friend, Joao who is Brazilian and the restaurant is actually owned by a Brazilian and is considered the best parrilla in Buenos Aires) and La Brigada, a small place in San Telmo owned by a fanatic sports fan.

The Prices - With the dollar fluctuating between 3.20 to 3.40 pesos, prices were reasonable on most everything, except when Edith went into Hermes to check on prices - the scarves were about $60 more expensive than NYC and the clerks were oh so snobby!

The Leather - With the abundance of cattle, leather is quite fine there. Purses, boots and belts, jackets, etc abound. We helped ourselves to these treasures and discovered 'carpincho' leather from the capybara which is like a huge (140lbs huge) guinea pig. These are raised domestically and the leather is like suede and is interesting in that it is waterproof. These animals live in the water (carpincho translates 'water pig). Also there were a lot of traditional gaucho and Marpuche Indian products. Besides the silver belt buckles, we both really liked the style of belt in which colorful string was braided through the leather. These were traditional Marpuche gaucho designs of the cross. By the way, we never wer able to stay up late enough to see the Southern Cross

The Fierce Independence And Ingenuity - You can see it in the protests they have, the lack of beggars, the independent street artists and of course, the tango dancers. The portenos (as Argentines who live in Buenos Aires are called) are very stylishly dressed, love the cafes and bars and sitting and talking late into the night. Why on the airplane going back, they were still up chatting away at 1:30 in the morning.


Fileteado - A decorative art form local to Buenos Aires. It is brightly colored scrollwork with vines, flowers, leaves and beautifully curved lines. It can include portraits, dragons, swans or other symbols. Originally it was used to decorate and bring life to horse carts, drawing attention and recognition. As the art evolved, it served social purposes, stating popular sayings or political beliefs. The letters are extremely stylized, originating from a gothic form and are rarely done in a straight line. In 1975, it was prohibited from buses, but the art form went underground, evolving to buildings, signs, newsstands and whatever one can imagine. Now fileteado is considered as much a symbol for Buenos Aires as the tango, intertwined since the start of both. Portenos are very proud of this unique art form.


The Old Cars - In other countries ordinary citizens do such a better job at keeping cars than we seem to do. We saw all sorts of cars that had been saved or at least used. One car was actually used as a planter if you can believe that. We especially loved the baby fiats and the old Citroens.

And we loved the different neighborhoods. We didn't have time to visit all, but here are some highlights:

Recoleta - home of the famous cemetery. This is where Eva Peron and many famous and wealthy Argentines are buried. It is the wealthy part of the city and became that way when the yellow fever epidemic hit San Telmo in the 1800s. We found the cemetery fascinating, not only because of the avenues of monuments and the different periods evident in them, but also because each tomb has a huge, multi-level underground vault where many ancestors lie. In many you can see the steps leading down to many beautiful caskets below. We watched as a relative went downstairs with broom in hand to clean and also saw a procession where the casket was being lowered into the bottom chamber. Also at the Eva Peron tomb, we observed a woman placing flowers on the door of the tomb. When she saw us, she just started talking away to us. We told her that we could not understand her, but she kept on talking. Who knows what we missed about her own history and experience with Eva Peron!

Palermo - this neighborhood is like the Soho of Buenos Aires - up and coming with many artsy shops and restaurants. It was fun to walk around these streets because there are so many little shops with fascinating, unique and stylish goods as well as lots of young people living in and enjoying the neighborhood at the various sidewalk cafes and bars. How about this Nike store to the right! Palermo is an area where one needs to be careful, however. Our hotel was very specific about what streets we could and could not walk on. It does not seem that many Americans come to just walk the streets like we always enjoy doing.


La Boca - ahh, La Boca. Many say this neighborhood is too touristy, but we enjoyed walking around all the brightly colored buildings, seeing the paper mache figures on the balconies and watching talented tango dancers. When the original Italian owners could not afford paint, midnight requisitions would occur of paint used to maintain ships at the port. Therefore allowing those in the neighborhood to paint their shops and houses. When the absconded paint ran out, whatever other colors they had were used. Thus began all the colors on the buildings.


La Boca is the place where the tango first originated. Created by the poor European immigrants living near the port, tango's evolution is said to reflect the profound sense of loss and longing for the people and places these immigrants left behind. Note - we discovered the only time to visit La Boca is during the weekend - so plan accordingly. Then there is a craft market and street artists abound - otherwise it is pretty dead. Also the tango dancers are out in full regalia and we enjoyed sitting at an outdoor cafe and listening to the live music and watching the dancers. As well as dancing, the dancers seem to have a tradition where they try to get tourists to get their photos taken with the dancers. If accepted, the dancers put you in different sexy dance poses with them. It was quite amusing watching the people try to get in the proper positions with the dancers, such as the first photo above. This photo was actually taken in San Telmo, and believe me, the woman left nothing to the imagination when she hiked her leg. The men loved it. Also we had an opportunity thanks to Joao to see a tango show at Piazzolla Tango which is located in a beautiful restored Art Nouveau theatre designed by Italian architect Francisco Gianotti.

San Telmo - we visited this neighborhood with all our friends going on the wine tour. By Saturday, everyone had arrived into Buenos Aires. Luckily we were there on Sunday because that is when San Telmo has an antiques market with all sorts of European and Argentine goods, especially Gaucho traditional dress and gear. It is evident from the market the wealth that existed in Argentina in the 1920s - again we have never seen so many art nouveau and art deco silver, glass, etc. in one place. Edith got two silver tea strainers - one from Holland and the other from Peru and Lucinha bought a beautiful delicate antique silver bracelet.


Also craft artists had booths, the street artists were out in full regalia and around the edge of the square, there were a number of bonafide antique galleries. The artists are quite imaginative in how they try to attract your attention. The guy with the flying tie and the woman with the wind blown umbrella kept changing position. The coats had wires in them which made them look like they getting wind gusts. It was a grand way to spend a late Sunday morning, followed by an excellent lunch at Cabana Las Lilas.

Puerto Madero - this is the new port area that has been developed with restaurants and condos. It has a nice walking area that is like a boardwalk. Its focal point is the Bridge of Woman, designed by Santiago Calatrava, a great Spanish architect internationally known for his spectacular sculptural designs of bridges and building. Edith loved the cranes used at the ports - they look like giant, colorful toys. After a great walk there, we had lunch at one of the side walk cafes. As we were paying the waiter, 3 gorgeous well built shirtless men came jogging by. Edith's comment was 'Oh, My Goodness!!!' to which the waiter replied without missing a beat ' Beautiful, Beautiful!!!' in his melodic Spanish accent.


Colonia, Uruguay - one day we caught the ferry over to Colonia, Uruguay. It takes about an hour on the fast ferry to get there. Colonia is a sleepy old town with quaint buildings, cobblestone streets and the sea. Here we got to not only see the town, but to meet Patrick Waters, a friend of our friends, Dixie and Kady who live in Charleston. Patrick asked us to call him when we arrived. We found out where the telephone office was and made the call. No problem right? Wrong! We soon found out that we needed to pay with Uruguay pesos. Needless to say, we had no Uruguay pesos. No problem, they said, just go exchange some and then come back to pay us. Only in Uruguay After meeting and visiting with Patrick, he recommended a restaurant for lunch. After sightseeing we decided to break for lunch. It turned out to be great fun because there was a hilarious waiter with a million pins on his apron. Every 5 or 10 minutes, he changed hats and proceeded to entertain us in Spanish. It didn't matter that we couldn't understand him. He was still funny! Here you see two of his costume changes as well as making a bunny puppet out of a napkin. We thought students in their school jackets made them look like little artists! This must be a standard uniform as we saw it all over Argentina.