February 21 - Buenos Aires, Argentina

Buenos Dias from the home of the tango. I feel a real connection after my debut last night.

We practically drifted here overnight and when I awoke, much too early after a night of revelry, in order to make it to my tour, we were docked. (I have three days in a row with early morning tours and this burning the candle at both ends is getting harder every day.  I need some sea days!)

Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina and has a population of a little over 3 million with a metro area population of 15 million or roughly one-third of the country’s population. It was founded by a Spaniard named Pedro de Mendoza in 1536.  The city and country were under Spanish control until July 9, 1816, when the Argentine Declaration of Independence was formalized under the leadership of General José de San Martin.

My tour today took me to the highlights of Buenos Aires. I have been here twice before but it was a long time ago and I didn’t remember a great deal except for the Recoleta Cemetery (more about that later). Our first stop was at the Café Tortoni. This café is the oldest and best-preserved coffeehouse in the city. It was  founded in 1858 and over the years since, many of Argentina’s most famous artistic people have hung out there.  The interior is very ornate with lots of wood and stained glass.  We sat and had a coffee, croissant and little ham sandwiches.  I thought the latter were pretty funny because the bread was like Wonder bread with the crusts cut off, in other words very ordinary for such a historic place.

This table was the favorite one of a famous Argentine writer and these wax figures represent him and a couple of his friends

Next we went to the Plaza de Mayo, the main square in Buenos Aires.  In the middle of the square is the May Pyramid which commemorates the first revolution against Spanish rule in 1810.  At one end of the plaza is a statue of Manuel Belgrano on horseback carrying the Argentine flag which he created. The plaza is surrounded by the Casa Rosada (the Argentine White House), the Cabildo which was the Spanish colonial government building, and the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires.  The Cathedral was the seat of Pope Francis before he became the Pope.  On another corner is the old city hall of Buenos Aires.

May Pyramid topped by a statue of Liberty

The Cabildo, the old Spanish colonial government building

The old Buenos Aires City Hall

Metropolitan Cathedral façade

Casa Rosada

We had a little time to walk around the square and go into the cathedral.  I think it’s a very unusual design for a cathedral.  It looks more like a classical temple with a columned façade and a triangular pediment.  The interior was quite beautiful and more reminiscent of the cathedrals I’ve seen in European cities.  One unusual feature is that in one of the side chapels there is the tomb of General San Martin, the liberator of the country, and it’s evidently always guarded by two soldiers dressed in what looks like Napoleonic era uniforms.

The nave of the cathedral

The organ loft

On either side of the door stand the two guards of the tomb inside

From the Plaza de Mayo we drove on to La Boca, one of the oldest neighborhoods in BA.  As we drove there our guide Soledad proudly told us about Argentina’s recent victory in the World Cup.  The Argentines love their football! The La Bombonera Stadium is in the La Boca section of the city and all the buildings around it and the stadium itself are painted in blue and yellow, the team colors. After the win by Argentina in December more than 6 million people gathered in the Plaza de Mayo and surrounding streets to celebrate, and they didn’t even burn anything down.

All the houses in La Boca are brightly painted in a kaleidoscope of colors. Some of them have windows with life size papier-mâché figures hanging out windows or standing in front. The pedestrian street running through the neighborhood, El Caminito, is a favorite place to see street tango dancers and it’s lined with shops to but tango memorabilia and clothing.  Sadly, we were there in the fairly early morning and as in Spain people are not out and about much then so I didn’t have an opportunity to try my newly learned tango skills (LOL).

Our last stop was the Recoleta Cemetery. The cemetery was built around a convent, the Convento de la Recoleta, and it is recognized by UNESCO as one of the world’s most beautiful cemeteries along with one in Paris and one in New Orleans.  The place is full of ornate and very beautiful mausoleums made of granite and marble with sometimes very elaborate sculptures all positioned along avenues.  Interestingly the caskets and bodies are not interred at the “street” level. Instead they are one and two levels below the mausoleums that we visitors can see.  Entombed in La Recoleta are Argentine generals, artists, Nobel prize winners and very wealthy people.  But the most famous is Evita, Eva Perón who was the first lady of Argentina during her husband’s presidency.  I won’t tell you the story about the Peróns who are either revered or despised depending on which Argentines you talk to, but Evita was an interesting character who evidently did a lot to augment the role of women in the country.  Of course, most of us know her because of the musical Evita.

An avenue in the Recoleta Cemetery

Sculpture on a tomb

Isn't that an elaborate mausoleum?

Evita's family tomb

When we left the Recoleta it was time to return to the ship.  I remembered the port as being chaotic from prior visits and it hasn’t changed.  Traffic to get there was horrendous and it was a holiday, Shrove Tuesday, the last day of Carnival.  It was a good day. We lost 193 passengers who ended their cruise here and only picked up 80 something.  Plus 32 passengers left to take an overland tour to Iguazú Falls and they’ll rejoin us in Rio in a few days.  That’s the tour I hemmed and hawed about taking and by the time I decided to try it, it was sold out.  I suppose that’s an excuse to come back to this part of the world.