Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 2

Sunday, March 5, 2023

New week, new city! Today, we woke up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. We’re staying in the Palermo neighborhood, known for its many restaurants, cafes, and shopping. City life is so different than ours at home in Wisconsin, and it’s thrilling to experience in small doses. The noise, the people, and the flurry of activity are exciting to be swept up into for a few days. The sky’s the limit when it comes to food and entertainment.

A local porteños (which is a nickname for someone who lives in Buenos Aires) told us that this is the hottest summer on record for the city. The heat has been relentless — in the 90’s every single day without much rain. Therefore, the weather will play a part in how we plan our adventures this week; it’s not very fun to wander around the city streets when we’re overheating.

It’s always nice getting a lay of the land when arriving to a new city, so Andi hired a tour guide to show us around this afternoon. Until then, we hung around our condo apartment. Andi and I watched church online, then he and Tory walked in the neighborhood to buy a few groceries. After breakfast, the kids called their friends on FaceTime and played Roblox with them on their phones. Thankfully, there’s fast internet in this condo unit because after a week without it, Tory and Aden were getting twitchy. It’s a fine balance traveling with tweens who are willing and excited to adventure with their parents 24/7, but also need time to be social.

There are a multitude of tour guides in Buenos Aires. Andi got the name of the one he booked today from someone he met in a Facebook group about Argentina travel. The tour guide, Marcela, text Andi at 3:00pm to say the van was waiting for us outside our condo building. We rode the elevator down to the building entrance and approached the tour van parked outside. Except, it wasn’t Marcela standing there. An older woman shouted “Edward!” and rushed toward our family, aggressively kissing each one of us on our cheeks. The look on the kids’ faces was pure shock, especially Tory who is not a physical touch person in the least. Wide-eyed, Andi and I exchanged glances with one another, like, “oh boy, what did we just get ourselves into?” The woman introduced herself as Victoria and said she would be taking Marcela’s place in touring us around the city today. Marcela had been called away to help another traveler at the airport who had lost their luggage.

Oh my gosh, was Victoria a trip! She is the spunkiest 72-year-old woman I’ve ever met. Full of personality, she began to ramble on about Buenos Aires. Her love for this city was evident. Victoria spoke English, but not clearly, and began to pepper the kids with questions about the city’s population, how many neighborhoods it has, etc. I could tell they were having a hard time understanding her, so Andi and I did our best to re-phrase all the information Victoria was spewing out to the kids. “I just love my city so much,” Victoria stated over and again, “and I want you to enjoy your time with me today. Are you enjoying it?” We repeatedly assured her that we were, in fact, having fun. Victoria’s interest in pleasing us was endearing.

Since we’re staying in the Palermo neighborhood this week, that’s where our tour began. We drove about 10 minutes away from our condo to Bosque de Palermo. This is a huge green space located in the heart of the city — much like the Central Park of Buenos Aires. On a Sunday afternoon, the park was filled with locals and visitors alike. Victoria led us through the Rosedal which is a rose garden filled with 93 different species of roses. Most of the flowers were wilted given the time of year, but the sheer size of the grounds and manicured gardens were beautiful to see.

Next, we walked over “the bridge of love” and watched people paddle boating in one of the park’s lakes. The entire scene was gorgeous with lots of flowers and trees, people lounging around in the shade, and families playing together in the grass. It was a beautiful place to be, albeit very hot in the afternoon summer sun.

Aden has coined this all-to-familiar Argentinian scene as a “mate moment” — one of many locals enjoying mate together in the park. Hot tea in 90-degree weather doesn’t sound particularly appealing to me, but to Argentinians it’s a ritual no matter the weather.

Next, we hopped back in the van and drove to Buenos Aires’ Recoleta neighborhood. Recoleta is one of the wealthiest areas of Buenos Aires with no shortage of luxury hotels, mansions, and boutiques. This is also where the embassy buildings are located. We drove along some of the poshest streets in the city, then stopped near the famous La Recoleta cemetery. The vibe of this neighborhood was so upscale and electric; it felt like walking around Beverly Hills, CA. We didn’t hang around much longer than to snap a picture and grab a cold beverage at a kiosko on the street, but I’d definitely like to come back later this week to wander around here.

Also in the Recoleta neighborhood, we stopped by the Floralis Generica sculpture which was a gift to the city from a famous architect in Buenos Aires. The flower is supposed to open and close with the sunrise & sunset, but Victoria said it’s broken.

Victoria questioning Aden on the dimensions of the metal flower.

Next, the tour van drove us down Avenida 9 de Julio — the widest city street in the world. This avenue spans an entire city block, 22 lanes across. The number of cars zooming along Buenos Aires roadways is chaotic, but drivers seem to navigate the traffic with ease. I’m glad we passed on renting a car here, and opted for taxis as transportation.

Our city tour continued to Plaza de Mayo in downtown Buenos Aires. This is where all the government buildings are located such as the presidential Casa Rosada (Pink House), the Obelisco Monument, and the Metropolitan Cathedral. The president of Argentina doesn’t actually live in the Pink House, but he and his administration work here everyday.

The Metropolitan Cathedral is the largest Catholic church in Buenos Aires. General Jose de San Martin (known as the father of Argentina for leading the country to its independence in 1816) is buried in a side wing of the church. Military guards stand at attention beside his grave. We happened to catch the ‘changing of the guard‘ during our visit which was really neat to see.

The Obelisco National Historic Monument:

Next stop on our city tour was the San Telmo neighborhood. This is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, with deep traditions of tango dancing and the well-known Sunday street market. We happened to be there during the market, but unfortunately didn’t have the chance to wander around. I would have loved to do that! I was also hoping we’d see some tango dancing in the street, but we didn’t. This is on my Buenos Aires bucket list, so hopefully we’ll be lucky enough to see some dancing yet this week.

A long line of people formed along Chile Street to take their picture with a Mafalda statue. Mafalda is a children’s comic strip character who portrays life in Buenos Aires with humor. Quino, the character’s creator, lived steps from this street corner in San Telmo and created many of the famous comic strips while living here. The hype over this fictional character was lost on our family, but apparently hits a chord with Argentinians — there were so many pieces of Mafalda merchandise for sale around San Telmo. Andi said, “You know Mafalda’s a big deal when her face is featured on a mate cup.”

From San Telmo, we ventured onward to La Boca neighborhood. This is another of Buenos Aires’ oldest neighborhoods with a colorful past. La Boca translates to “the mouth” in Spanish, named so because the port in this part of the city is where thousands of European immigrants came to Argentina in the 1800’s. Without much money to live, many of the immigrant families lived and worked in La Boca. Conventillos (apartment buildings with many rooms, but only a few shared kitchens & bathrooms) housed the arriving immigrants. Many of the tenements are still visible in La Boca today. The colorful buildings brings so much life and character to the Caminito. Victoria told us the tradition of mixing paint colors on the sheet metal buildings comes from the original settlers who used leftover paint from the different ships that passed through the port.

In 1871, most city residents lived in the neighborhoods of San Telmo and La Boca near the Rio de la Plata. When a yellow fever outbreak spread throughout the city, the wealthiest porteños who could afford to escape the plague moved to their vacation homes in the Recoleta neighborhood. Those who couldn’t afford to leave San Telmo and La Boca stayed and suffered. The historical divide in neighborhood affluence is still evident in Buenos Aires today.

The old San Telmo neighborhood had a cool, bohemian vibe but La Boca felt much more seedy. It reminded Andi and I of New Orleans and wasn’t a place that we wished to spend a lot of time.

From La Boca, we traveled through the slums to the modern Puerto Madero neighborhood. This area was transformed in the 1990’s from an abandoned shipyard to the hip, affluent area it is today. There is clearly some dinero in Puerto Madero based on the white-linen restaurants and smartly-dressed people milling around the sidewalks. Victoria pointed out the beautiful Puente de la Mujer (Woman’s Bridge) and asked if we wanted to see it, but we were all tired by this point of the tour and ready to go home.

Back at our condo apartment, we thanked Victoria for her time and information. We covered A LOT of ground in Buenos Aires today. The beauty of the city clearly lies in its diverse neighborhoods & we’re excited to explore them in more depth throughout the week.

There was no way we were going to get Tory and Aden to leave the apartment again after we arrived home around 7:00pm. Andi offered to make them spaghetti for dinner, and suggested we go out to dinner by ourselves. There is no shortage of restaurants within walking distance of our condo building.

Andi chose a restaurant called To-ma-te for our meal. It was a beautiful evening, so we sat outside on a lovely patio lit with string lights. Our table and chairs were slanted at a 30-degree angle thanks to the garden wood chips below our feet, but our food, service, and the ambiance were excellent.

There was so much life happening around the Palermo Soho neighborhood on our short walk back to the apartment. Cities don’t sleep, but we definitely needed to! We had a full day in Buenos Aires, and our time exploring the city has just begun.