Firstly there is La Boca, one of the city´s many neighbourhoods. The pedestrian street of Caminito is a beautiful sight with its buildings painted in a variety of bright colours. The area is buzzing with street footballers and tango dancers, one of whom tried her utmost to get me to dance with her. When I asked her would this privilege be provided free of charge she shook her head in disgust. A serious chancer, trying to squeeze money from a vulnerable tourist! Caminito also gave me a glimpse of the popularity of a certain Diego Armando Maradona. Everywhere you walk in the Caminito area of La Boca there are statues and paintings devoted to the great man. It is often said that he is seen as a god like figure in Argentina and after wandering through this neighbourhood I can say that there is 100% truth to that. Caminito however is incredibly touristy, with many restaurants charging double that of other parts of the city and even other parts of La Boca. But it is inadvisable to go to a different part of this neighbourhood in search of a cheap deal. It really isn´t the most delightful side of town and on too many occasions tourists have been robbed at knifepoint, because they wandered away from the safe Caminito area. Some people are too stupid to follow advice I guess!
Another impressive part of the city is the Centre, and Avenida 9 de Julio in particular, supposedly the widest avenue in the World, with seven lanes in each direction and an approximate width of 100 metres. This road is absolute mayhem and it takes a fair bit of time to get from one side to the other in a safe manner. Then there is Recoleta, with its impressive cemetery. This is a place where the rich splash their cash on a fancy place to rest. Hardly the best way to spend ones money I would have thought. This isn´t your usual graveyard. In this cemetery each family has their own little building where they will be laid to rest, and the architecture of most of these are very impressive. One of the most famous inhabitants of Recoleta cemetery is Eva (Evita) Peron, Argentina’s First Lady from 1946 until her death in 1952. After Evita’s body was recovered from an Italian graveyard where it was under a false name and traveled almost through half of Europe it was finally deposited in the Duarte family’s grave, where it still rests, in a simple dark marble burial vault.
There are three things that every visitor to Buenos Aires needs to experience: Football, Tango and Steak.
Football: After seeing a football game in Rio de Janeiro I had a good idea of what to expect when I visited La Bombonera to see Boca Juniors play. The Argentines are every bit as passionate and as crazy about the sport as their Brazilian counterparts. The people behind one of the goals literally did not stop singing for the entire game. Even when the opposition team scored they did not pause, not even for a few seconds. It makes you wonder are they even watching the game at all, and do they even care about the result, or do they just show up to sing and chant really loudly and just in general be all round lunatics. At one point the entire stand behind the goal were jumping up and down simultaneously. It really was a sight to behold. Some people were covered by large flags for the entire game. They didn't seem to care. If I paid to go to a football match and my view of the action was hindered for the entire 90 minutes I would be well pissed off. I am convinced that some of these people do not go to the stadium to watch the game! In any case the fans left the ground unhappy as the visiting team (who´s name escapes me) scored an injury time penalty to take the win. It was an enjoyable experience, but I cannot help thinking I was ripped off. 270 pesos for a 40 peso ticket. This city has a habit at times of ripping tourists off!
Tango: If the football game was a bit on the expensive side, my experience of Tango was on the opposite end of the spectrum. For 200 pesos (40 euro), I got a 45 minute lesson in basic tango (VERY VERY basic stuff), a 3 course meal incorporating a delicious steak, and all the wine you can drink, along with an impressive tango show. I wouldn´t be the biggest dance enthusiast but couldn´t help but be impressed by the style, grace and romance of one of Argentina´s favourite pastimes.
Steak: Four days in Buenos Aires, four steaks. Argentinian steak in my opinion has completely lived up to its reputation of being the finest in the world. I have never eaten in Shanahans restaurant in Dublin, but after my experience in the Federal Capital, I don´t think I ever could. In fact I just don´t think I could look at Irish Steak in the same way again. Nothing has ever compared to what they have here.
However Buenos Aires also has its dark side. South America gets a lot of bad publicity about muggings and pickpocketers. However, it is not humans who have robbed me in Buenos Aires, but in fact ATM machines! Yes, these evil pieces of technology provided me with counterfeit money. Upon realising that I was being had I marched straight over to the bank (HSBC would you believe, not just any oul bank!!) and showed them my receipt of my transaction and told the lady about my unfortunate experience. Well she was having none of it. She insisted that it was "not possible" for fake notes to come out of their ATM machines. This of course led to a 5 minute argument, but she stood her ground. Eventually after resigning myself to the fact that nothing was going to come of my efforts I stormed off out of the bank. Afterwards I was told by one of the locals that the banks know that their machines give out the occasional artificial bill, but play innocent and refuse to ever take responsibility. A bunch of serious scam artists. In addition I was charged for two transactions worth 118 euro each when in fact I only made one, and now will have to go through an annoying long process to get that money back off my bank back in Ireland.
That experience has somewhat soured my opinion of the city, but in spite of that I very much enjoyed my time in the capital of Argentina.
My next destination is El Calafate, in Patagonia, down towards the very south of the nation, where I will check out one of the world´s great glaciers.
Until then, take it handy.
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