It felt as though we reallt had to make the most of our final few days, so we got straight to it when we arrived. We spent the first day exploring a part of the city we hadn't been to before: Palermo. This pretty neighbourhood is the centre for good restaurants, bars and shops and is also home to some of the best parks in the city. It was a warm day, bright and sunny day and so it was perfect to be able to wander around the busy green spaces, which were packed with families also enjoying the lovely weather. There were a couple of places of interest in the parks, such as a art museum and a Japanese garden which kept us quite busy.
That evening we headed out to a music night which had even recommended to us by many people called Bomba el Tiempo. Its a performance every Monday night by a percussion band, which turned out to be just as good as we had been told. The whole crowd is drawn into the rhythm created by the fantastic performers and the atmosphere was excellent. As we left, more artists were performing outside the venue, who then set off for the after party. This lead to a line of people following them through the streets, dancing and cheering until we reached the chosen bar! It was great fun!
The following day we devoted to leather shopping, one of the most important activities when visiting Buenos Aires. There is a particular street in Palmero called Calle Murillo, which is filled with leather outlet shops. While at first we felt as though we were being rather unsuccessful, just as I was ready to give up any hope of finding anything I particularly liked, we walked into a shop selling leather biker jackets. It was not really the place I thought I would find the simple design I was searching for, but the leather was incredibly soft, and the styles fitted very well. In fact, Tanya and I fell in love with the same jacket and I ended up buying it, with Tanya placing an order for another one to be made for her for the end of the week! This just shows how local and small scale the production is, and we now the lucky owners of beautiful Argentinan leather jackets.
We decided to celebrate our purchases and headed out that evening. Firstly, we went to a restaurant which we had heard has a "happy hour", which entitles you to 40% off the bill, between 7 and 8 which is aimed at tourists as locals would never eat so early. It was perhaps one of the first steaks we'd had here which we were really happy with, although the speed at which you have to eat it is a little off putting. The discount made the meal very reasonable for a reataurant with such excellent food and reputation. After leaving the restaurant, we stumbled across an excellent wine shop, whose owner was extremely chatty. We ended up staying there for nearly an hour, learning about wine and their makers. This is really one of the things which I love about this city: the friendliness of the people and their ability to chat endlessly. We then carried on the evening when we arrived back at the hostel after meeting two travellers from Luxembourg who, it transpired, went to the European School there!
Predictably, as Argentinan nights start late and end late, we needed a short lie in the next day. We were out by late morning however, Tanya with sketch book in hand. She wanted to go back to the cemetery in Recoleta which we ha visited on our last stop in the city, in order to make some sketches of the stunning architecture. Meanwhile, I took the time to visit a few museums, including the church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar museum, which features some interesting religious art, and the Palais de Glace for the second time (it was there that the war photo journalist photos were up which I mentioned in a previous post) where the exhibitions had changed. One of the exhibitions was particularly interesting. Supported by Amnesty International, it displayed photos of various Argentinian women who had had an abortion (which remains illegal here), along with a brief story. Additionally, I learnt of the history of the building which, as its name suggests, was once an ice rink, followed by a theatre, before finally an exhibition centre. I also had ample time to explore the fine art museum which includes woks by Monet, Van Gogh and Goya.
That evening we had tickets for the Marriage of Figaro at Teatro Colon, voted one of the best theatres for its acoustics in the world. We somehow managed to use the few last pieces of decent clothes we had left to make ourselves vaguely presentable and set out for what was to be a fantastic evening. We had excellent seats, high up but with a great view and the performance was top class. We went to bed that night tired, but happy.
It was back to sightseeing the next day, and we were intent on fitting in as much as possible of the areas of the city we had not yet visited. With this is in mind, we set out on a long walk, starting with a wander down the prett cobbled streets of San Telmo, which are teeming with antique shops and bars famous for impromptu tango nights. From there we walked over to one of the most well known areas internationally thanks to it being home to the most famous Argentinian football team: Boca. We walked past the stadium and carried on towards what we were far more interested in seeing, a little street called La Caminata. This street became famous when it inspired a famous tango writer to use it as the setting for a tango. The reason for his fascination with the street is due to the incredible bright colours of the houses. The story goes that the residents of the street, although very poor, used to beg paint off the boats which pulled into the nearby port to brighten up their houses. Nowadays it is purely a tourist destination, with tango dancers posing or photos and figurines of characters in the tango hanging out of balconies but its definitely a sight to behold.
We then carried on our tour of the port area, heading down to the equivalent of the City in London. Here we had one of the best lunches, in an excellent all-you-can-eat place were you can choose food off an incredible salad bar, including cold meats and cheese, the grill, included the best steak I had in Argentina (so tender!), a bottle of wine each and a dessert. We could barely move afterwards and only just about managed to roll ourselves home!
The following day we headed out of the city for a getaway to a nearby town on the Delta, the river networks in the surrounding area. Tigre can be described as Argentina's Henley. Most of the property down along the river seems to be owned by the Buenos Airwa Rowing Club, and the rest are holiday homes for the wealthy city folk. Many of the pretty riverside houses are on stilts, to prevent damage from flooding. We started the day with a visit to the Museum of Mate, the tea which is drunk in incredible quantities in Argentina. It is drunk out of a single mate gourd, shared around the group and filled up from a thermos of hot water over the Yerba (herb or tea). The gourd has a metal straw with a filter on the end which keeps the leaves out as you drink it. Wherever an Argentinan travels, chances are he will have a little shoulder bag with a thermos, a mate gourd and some Yerba, ready for when he needs a pick me up!
We then wandered down past the naval museum and the beautiful building which houses the fine art museum before heading off to find some lunch in the Puerto de Frutos market. After lunch, we took a boat down the river, hopping off to have a walk around a little neighbourhood on the delta. The houses were enchanting, and you can see why this is a favourite holiday destination for Porteños.
It was back to the leather shopping street the next day to pick up Tanya's jacket and a few last souvenirs. We had an excellent lunch in a little restaurant in the area, where I had my pasta and cheese cravings cured with an enormous plate of gnocchi (spelt ñoquis here!) in a cheese sauce. Not needing dinner that evening after that, we set out for the city's exhibition centre to catch a show at the Tango World Cup and Festival, which was on the week we were in the city. Unfortunately, that night's show was cancelled due to a force majeur, however we were happy to browse the stalls selling beautiful tango shoes and dresses and watch the large group of people dancing impromptu dances on the large dancefloor in the centre. We vowed that we would come again the next night for the show as the atmosphere was so good.
Our final day in Buenos Aires, and indeed in South America, was a Sunday. We spent it as Sundays should be spent: wandering around the antique market in San Telmo, having a last steak lunch and walking through the ecological reserve on the edge of town. We returned to the tango festival that evening and saw a fantastic show which told the history of tango in various scenes. The dancers included on of tango's great modern heroes: Juan Carlos Cepos who was instrumental in creating the modern tango show concept and the worldwide revival of the dance. It was a truly special night and we could not have planned a better way to end our trip than being present at such an iconic Buenos Aries event.
I am currently sitting at the international airport in Buenos Aires. I cannot quite believe I am going home, but I'm sure it'll sink in when I board the plane. I hope you have enjoyed my updates as much as I have enjoyed writing them. Perhaps I will carry on posting when I am lucky enough to travel again. I just hope it's not in the too distant future as I have many places in mind which I wish to visit! Here's to planning and to future posts! Thank you for reading.
Lots of love,
Emma
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