Buenos Aires Is NOT My Favorite City!

The start of my trip got off to a slight rocky start as I began the 17 hour journey from San Jose, CA to Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the continuation of a already two day old migraine. In order to help appease the jackhammers in my head, I brought along a bottle of herbal medicine I had picked up in India last year (something green and with similar effects to Vipor Rub, but the added benefit of making the migraine lay down and relent for a bit), not realizing until my layover in Houston why I originally hadn't planned on taking the bottle; it has a tendency to semi explode when the pressure changes. So by Houston, my head was feeling a bit better, but I'm pretty sure everyone one sitting around me was wondering why their eyes were burning and it smelled like mint car freshner on crack. I guess there are worse thing to smell on a tin can hurtling through the clouds.

In Houston I picked Em up at her gate (she arrived from LA), we wandered a bit and then continued on the final leg of our journey.

So I may have given Em a bunch of crap before the trip for her incessant planing and preorganization of most of our schedule, but I do have to say it was lovely exiting the airport to be greeted by a man holding a sign with our name, who then handed us nice refreshing cold waters and said "Please follow me", before preceding to take us to an air-conditioned station wagon that drove us into the city and to our hostel.

Since we created our trip ala carte style, we only have certain preplanned events, the rest we are left to our own devices for. Em and I decided that we would be capable of exploring Buenos Aires on our own and as such, we didn't book anything through the tour company.

 So now we get to the reason that I am pretty sure I will never be returning to the lovely capital of Argentina. While the city is pretty interesting historically and architecturally, it is super dirty and full of evil people (that or we just had the super misfourtune of meeting many of them).  Before our trip Em was going on and on about the crime in the city and how we have to be careful and so forth. I brushed most of her paranoia off as I've been traveling consistently for a decade now and felt that as long as we just were aware and such, we would be fine. Well, it seems that two single women walking around the avenues and streets here is a giant billboard advertising "Mark!" 

Twice in two days we've had people try the "throw something on you and then attempt to help while really they're trying to either get your backpack off to steal it or trying to pick pocket you under the guise of helping clean up the "bird shit" that apparently dropped from the clean blue skies" scheme.The first guy got us as we were checking a city map on the street corner of 9 de Julio, the largest and most known avenue in the whole city (and teeming with people) and the second crew was comprised of two men and at least one woman. After the second time (we were sitting under a tree in a crowded public square) we almost thought maybe it was a bird and they were really trying to help. But, when three people just happen to have Kleenex ready and are trying to offer it to you at the same time that they're trying to get you to unhook your sternum strap on your bag to better clean it, something's hinky. Luckily they didn't get anything except frustrated cause we wouldn't do anything but take their Kleenex and then try to move away (I wanted to punch the first guy, but Em would only let me give home a death glare as she yanked us in the opposite direction).

 I'm most upset over the fact that whatever they throw on you, wreaks. Em and I were running for the nearest restroom to try and wash the gunk off; it smelled like Tabacco chew and dead fish mixed. It also stains if you don't get it off fast enough. So anyone else thinking of venturing here, either have a larger group than two, have a male in your group (as much as this pains me to say), or never look down/up/sideways/or into space. Of all the other people we've met or talked to here, except for one lady that said she was mugged after exchanging money, everyone else has been having a perfectly good time, free of unpleasant attempted crime, so you should all be fine.

So now you know the bad, here's some of the good:

In typical fashion for us, on day one, we stopped at our hostel just long enough to dump our heavier packs and lighten the small ones enough before heading out to explore the city. Since we arrived on a Saturday, the banks weren't open to exchange money, but we were informed by many (both previous travelers and locals) that the place to exchange is Calle Florida. Back in 2001/02, there was an economic meltdown in the country and as a result the government laid down some super harsh regulations with some seriously terrible exchange rates. To counteract this, a black market of sorts developed where one could go through unofficial channels and acquire the "blue dollar"; with an exchange rate upwards of 1.5x to double the government rate. 

To acquire this "blue dollar" all one has to do is walk down to Calle Florida and listen for the calls of "cambio [exchange]". Now in days the blue dollar and bank exchange rates are almost equivalent, so the main advantage to the street changers is that you don't have to pay extra commission fees and that they're open all the time. The disadvantages are that you need to exchange larger amounts of big bills to get the best rates and that you also need to be more vigilant to make sure that whomever you deal with is legit (check their card...as they should have an ID card authorizing them to exchange) and make sure when you're following them that they take you to a official looking place (don't go to exchange down any dark alleys). You should also be aware that you could potentially be given counterfeit currency, but if you going to the more reputable black marketeers you should be fine.

Local currency in hand, Em and I began our exploring, which essentially entailed a lot of walking and realizing that we're great with directions in cities with twists and turns and weird round abouts, but we're apparently shit at figuring out how to head straight; we ended up a ways from our target destination multiple times when the directions were "just head straight that way".

Our jaunt for the day eventually took us to the neighborhood of Recoleta, and the cemetery where Eva Peron (better known as Evita) is buried. Recoleta is one of the more affluent neighborhoods in Buenos Aires mainly due to the yellow fever epidemic in the 1870's, where the population of the city decentralized, with the lower classes moving to the south-east and the higher classes moving to Recoleta.

The area was founded by a Franciscan order that created a church dedicated to The Lady of Pilar. When the Order was disbanded in 1822, its gardens were turned into the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. The cemetery was the attraction we set out to see.

In keeping with the idealogies of many wealthy families, being dead doesn't mean you have to spend your afterlife in squalor, when you can spend it in extravagant tombs and mausoleums. Recoleta Cemetery boast more than 4600 tombs designed with a large variety of architectural styles (if you've ever been to New Orleans, it is similar to Saint Louis Cemetery) and some very popular residents; including Eva Peron.

Eva started with humble beginnings, moved to the big city to get into music and pictures and ended up marrying Juan Peron, who would go on to become the President of Argentina. Eva took to politics like a fish to water and became loved by the Argentinan people (especially the working class). She even attempted to run (and probably would have been elected) as the country's Vice President, but her declining healthy caused her to withdrawl from the race.

Day one ended with a jaunt through the neighborhood of Palermo Soho. Palermo is a barrio of Buenos Aires, that is further subdivided into smaller sections. Palermo Soho is an up and coming section of the city with trendy shops, bars, and restaurants. There are even semi secret speakeasies hidden within the different alley ways.

Day two started with Em and I attempting to find a free walking tour that was supposed to meet at the square next to the National Congress building. Since it was a Sunday, we didn't find the original tour, but we did get sprayed with foul crap by would be thieves. After extracting ourselves from the thieves wandering hands, we saw a group of people gathered around a central figure and wandered over to find that this was a different walking tour that had started about an hour previous, but was more than happy to have us join then for the rest of the tour. Safely ensconced in a group of other clueless tourists, we learned about the history of the main sites downtown. Of particular interest were the following:

The longest and widest street in the city is Avenida 9 de Julio (July 9th Avenue); named for Argentina's Independence Day in 1916. The Avenue has up to seven lanes in each direction and parallel sides streets containing an additional two lanes each. Add to that the metro buses traveling on their own two lane roads in the center and you get the world's widest street.

Besides being so large that it takes pedestrians at least two light cycles to cross, it's entertaining to know that the buses that run down the center lanes of the Avenue, run counter-directional to the cars. This is due to poor planning. The architects who designed the bus roads forgot to take into account which side of the bus contained the door and as a result, on the first day of testing out the new stations, it was seen that the doors and the platforms were not on the same side of the road. So the choice became, redesign and rebuild all of the city buses to have their doors on the opposite sides or just have the buses run the wrong direction down the Avenue.

One of the other salient pieces of history we learned on the walking tour was about the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (Mother's of May Plaza). The groups was comprised of the Mother's of the children that disappeared between 1976 and 1983 due to the dictatorship that was active in the country during that time. The government would steal children from people that disapproved with the current government and with the reign of terror that was thrust upon the Nation's people. Some of these children were taken and given to military families to "raise properly" and others were killed. Every Wednesday, the Mother's of these missing children would meet in the Plaza de Mayo and walk in pairs (because anything more than groups of two was a congregation and illegal), demanding the government return their children or at least tell them where they were. While the women never got an official answer from the Argentinean government, they gained international attention and other groups have sprung up to help the now grown children reconnect with their mothers.

After the walking tour, we explored a small museum (used to be the carriage house for the Pink house (Casa Rosada), which is where the President of Argentina conducts business) where we ran into an English couple headed to San Tempo, and tagged along with then, as that was our destination as well. San Tempo is the oldest part of Buenos Aires, and as such it was considered the "first Industrial" section, and later the "first residential" section. The barrio went through different phases like the rest of the city, with various religious orders coming in and making their mark, only to close up shop down the line, then the yellow fever epidemic caused a mass exodus of the middle and upper class residents and lead to lots of vacant lots. The result of the empty properties became two fold in that many were torn down and converted into parks and open spaces and others were converted into crowded tenements to house the multicultural work force that was coming into the city in between 1875 and 1930. The tenements eventually dissolved as they were deemed unsafe and the city welcomed it's new wave of residents; Bohemian artists. Now the area is a funky eclectic mix of shops, studios, and antique stores.

We made sure to go to San Tempo on a Sunday, as in addition to the area's normal fanfare, there is also a huge artist market, BBQs off the street, and Tango/music acts in the square at night. While we explored the artist market, the antiques market, tried a coffee shop Em heard good things about (she got a cold brew and hated it), we didn't end up staying to watch the evening activities as we found a street vendor that sold us on a dinner and Tango show for that evening.

The dinner show we went to was held at Esquina Homero Manzi, a small restaurant with a 1920's vibe, attentive waiters, and a great ambiance. The dinner was adequate (you pick from a preset menu) and the free wine was terrible, but the show itself was amazing. There was a combination of different Tango numbers (complete with costume changes and themes), singing, and a live band. This was by far a highlight for the trip and since our show was such a small venue it had a more intimate feel and I think was over all better. It didn't hurt either that we saved about 50% by going through the street vendor.

Day three was our last day in Buenos Aires and due to it being a Monday, we were seriously handicapped in going to see cultural places such as museums. Since we couldn't explore indoors, we decided to get the most out of the outdoors and booked a bicycle tour of the southern part of the city. Turned out that we were the only people booked and as such got a private tour. Our guide, Barbara (a temporary transplant from Brazil) led us along the relatively new bike paths that transverse the various barrios. Our tour went through the neighborhoods of San Tempo (although further out from the center that we'd visited the day before), through La Boca, across to Puerto Madero, and then back through the main city center (with Plaza de Mayo, Congress Square, Avenida de 9 Julio), where we'd ventured on the walking tour the previous day.

La Boca was on our list of must see places for two reasons: the graffiti ( which we only got to see in passing unfortunately), and the colorful houses and Tango paraphernalia scattered along the few blocks of the downtown and port area. Because the area, like all the rest in Buenos Aires, under went changes overtime, at one point the main Street (Caminito) was a land fill dump and an eyesore. Argentine artist Benito Quinquela Marin, spent three years trying to remedy the situation by painting the buildings and adding some flaire. This movement caught on, and fellow artists joined in, helping make the area the tourists trap that it is.

Tourists typically stick to the few main streets in La Boca, as the neighborhood is relatively poor and those that venture outside this "safe zone" are more likely to be the victims of crime. By riding bikes through the area, I felt we were able to see more of it than most tourist typically see. Also, on our way to the main square, we stopped to admire the Bombonera, the home of the Boca Juniors Futbol team. The team is so popular that only club members can buy tickets to the games and there are often times riots between the fans of the Boca Juniors and their rivals, River Plate.

The other area that Em and I were keen on seeing was Puerto Madero, the newest, up and coming neighborhood in Buenos Aires. In the last decade, the warehouses and older buildings of this failed port (it was built too small and therefore not functional) have been converted into sprawling parkways, elegant skyscrapers, and a lovely waterfront area. It's weird to cross the street and end up in this area that looks like the latest trendy hip city in a dozen countries around the world. Here everything was cleaner and had a different vibe to it (which is exactly what it's creators wanted).

The last thing of note in Em and my's time in Buenos Aires, is that we went to go see a performance of La Bomba de Tiempo. This is a percussion ensamble that performs every Monday night in this super funky industrial space. Their performances are completely different every time as they practice improvisation through signs. The conductor, designs and moves each song each time, so you never hear the same thing twice. It's a pretty surreal experience and I recommend it for all those that visit the city.

For those that made it this far, congratulations. Next installment will be on Igazu Falls and the north.