A City Cloned from Paris

Buenos Aires seems about as different from Antarctica as you can get, but it was our first stop on our way south. It would be unfair to pass through one of the world's great cities for the first time without giving our impressions. We spent two days here which was barely enough time to get some idea of what the city has to offer. The food was good, the prices were reasonable, the people were friendly, and they make a lot of very good wine!

From the air Le Petit Paris Buenos Aires is a modern capital city of over 3 million inhabitants. Add in the surrounding metropolitan area, and the population swells to 13 million, almost a third of the population of the country.

Buenos Aires is located on the south side of the broad estuary of the Rio de la Plata. Thirty miles of muddy water separate it from Uruguay.

Argentina is a country of immigrants. The Spanish first colonized the land, but it has had an influx of Poles, Russians, French, Germans, Austrians, Swiss, Portuguese, Ukrainians, Yugoslavians, Czechs, Irish, Dutch, Scandinavians, and more. French architects were used in the 19th century to lay out a city modeled on Paris, and the broad, tree-lined boulevards and period buildings do remind me of the City of Light. The only thing missing is the ubiquitous neighborhood boulangerie.

Around our hotel there were a number of international boutiques, but where people really shopped was on the bustling via Florida and its enormous Gallerias Pacifico mall.
Shopping in Via Florida Street scene
El Viejo Almacen  Tango show  Buenos Aires is the birthplace of the Tango, so we took in a Tango show. It was fiery, sensual, lush and well done, but it was obviously something repeated night after night for large groups of visitors.
Casa Rosada  Monument to San Martin  We visited the Plaza de Mayo, where the Casa Rosada, the  presidential office building stands. Our guide told us that the flags indicated that the president was actually in her office that day, the first time since she was elected.

But the strongest memory we have of Buenos Aires is of the public parks, the monuments, the works of art, and the beautiful flowering trees. 
Le Doute  Public park 

Recoleta

Neustra Senora del Pilar Recoleta Cemetary Having some time free, we walked across the city from our hotel into the Recoleta neighborhood, named after a Franciscan friary founded in the early 18th century. The old Basilica Nuestra Señora Del Pilar is next to the Recoleta Cemetary where many of Argentina's most important people are buried.

EvitaWe teamed up with a couple of other tourists and sought out the mausoleum of the most famous resident of the cemetery: Eva Peron. Evita is entombed in her family's site, that of Familia Duarte.
Eva Peron's Grave Recoleta cemetary

Caminito

Caminito  La Boca  Our guide took us to the southeastern corner of Buenos Aires, a district known as La Boca. A century ago the houses of the poor had been built from one of the cheapest available materials: corrugated steel, and painted with random leftover colors from the nearby shipyard.

The colors along the main street, Caminito, have been restored and the area has become an artist's colony and tourist destination.
Caminito  La Boca 

The Delta

Delta launch  Delta house  It was summer in Buenos Aires, and while the days we were there were pleasant, it held the promise of high heat and humidity. We learned that many people escaped from Buenos Aires by moving to the waterways of the Parana river delta, either on weekends, for the summer, or permanently.

We went to the town of Tigre, an hour north of the city and boarded a launch for a tour of this placid getaway region. There are hundreds of islands in this unusual delta: it is the only large delta formed where one river, the Parana, flows into another, the Rio de la Plata.

The canals are the only streets here, and there is a complete community including not only houses, but gas stations, cafes, churches, clinics, and barges that serve as floating markets.
Delta market  Delta gas station