Argentina, part 1: Buenos Aires

Hello again everyone~

I hope everyone is doing well out there. I have been hearing from some of my Midwest friends & family members that fall has arrived in all its beautiful colors back home and I must admit to a bit of homesickness for my favorite season. However, our recent vacation to Argentina was good medicine, as we had a wonderful time. We split our week between Buenos Aires, Argentina´s capital city, and Iguazu Falls, an incredible waterfalls which serve as a natural border between Argentina and Brazil. I´m going to the Argentina trip in two sections, covering Buenos Aires today and in a couple days telling you all about Iguazu Falls.

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires at night:

Marianella and I at Cafe Tortoni, the oldest restaurant in the city (1858):

A bike race along the main avenue, with the Obelisk in the background:

Move over Richland Center, Wisconsin, I do believe I have a new favorite world city! My travels have not extended over to Europe, Asia, or Australia yet, but Buenos Aires set a standard that will be tough for other cities to match. According to wikipedia, Buenos Aires is the 17th largest metropolitan area in the world (New York City comes in 4th), but we certainly didn´t feel like we were in an overpopulated city. We stayed in the downtown area of Buenos Aires, a central corridor to everything you need to do in the area. While Buenos Aires may not match NYC for museums or sites to see, it gained a lot of points for the overall feel of the city. With sidewalks so wide that cars could drive down them, it offered ample opportunities for dining and relaxing outside. Our visit coincided with the perfect weather to do so also-it is spring in Argentina and I would compare the climate we experienced to those nice May days that we get in Minnesota.

Look at these sidewalks!:

The people of Argentina have a reputation in South America for being arrogant, but what Marianella and I found was a friendly, welcoming population that is very proud of its country and city. You can see this pride manifested in the way their public areas are taken care of and how clean Buenos Aires feels. At the restaurants, shops, and bars we stopped into, we always felt welcome, with an open invitation to spend as many hours there as we wanted, no matter how long ago we had finished our food or drink. For those readers of the blog who have travelled to Europe, one of the comments I overheard on a city tour was "it reminds me of Paris if the Italians had taken over"; the desk clerk at the place we stayed the first night said that he has been told it feels like Barcelona, Spain.

At this point, I´ll give you a few of our highlights from Buenos Aires. I´m going to work on figuring out how to post more pictures for your viewing pleasure, but here´s a start:

Tango

Buenos Aires is reputed to be the birthplace of the tango, an incredibly athletic and complicated dance that anyone who visits the city would have to avoid not to see. Everywhere you turn there are different bars and nightclubs offering tango, and on our first night in the city, we caught a dinner and tango show at one of the more traditional establishments. I can´t really do justice with words for this dance, let´s just say, it´s a bit more involved than what we displayed at our wedding in June. As you can see in the pictures below, I was pulled into the aisles by one of the tango dancers and I´m just trying not to embarrass myself (Marianella claims I took on a purple shade of skin color during this time).

Before the dancing begins:

My wife approved this tango:

The professionals take over:

San Telmo Market

After our night of tango, we awoke the next day and headed out to Buenos Aires famous San Telmo Market. Situated in a historic district of B.A., where the streets are still made of cobblestone, the largest street market I have ever seen stretched from the San Telmo square to blocks and blocks beyond. The actual items being sold make it feel like a flea market, but in addition to the sales on the street was so much more. Tango dancing, free hugs, a variety of bands, painters, other street artists. . .it was incredible. If the night before I had taken a liking to Buenos Aires, this day sealed my love for the city. It was one of the most enjoyable days I have ever had, and the great thing about the experience was how much fun everyone was having. You couldn´t find a downturned face in the crowd and the market was absent of the pushing, jostling, and aggression that you often find elsewhere. Just a wonderful day and experience.

Tango in the Square:

Marianella receiving her free hug:

A sample of the street artists and bands:
Recoleta Cemetary

When I was researching the various websites about what to see in Buenos Aires, I kept coming across this cemetary at the top of the list, which seemed strange as a tourist destination. After spending our Friday morning at this place, Marianella and I both understood why it as the top of B.A.´s tourist destinations (and also the final destination for the elite of B.A.) This cemetary houses the mausoleums of Buenos Aires elite since the 19th century. What makes it incredible is the size and grandeur of these mausoleums-some are big enough to have a Church service inside of them. Strolling through the cat-laden walkways, we soon agreed that we were simultaneously viewing an art museum of fine sculptures and stained glass windows.
Buenos Aires Zoo & Botanical Garden
On our final day in Buenos Aires, we decided to relax a bit and enjoy the city zoo and main park. We weren´t originally planning on going to the zoo, but we are glad we decided to, as the B.A. zoo was a pretty unique experience, offering close up looks at elephants, white tigers, giraffes, and cheetahs (among others) and really close up looks at muskrats, geese, and other furry creatures. After finishing at the zoo, we walked across the street and strolled through the Botanical Gardens, which serves as B.A.´s most common public green space. It was a great ending to a great week, and we felt like Cinderella-the perfect weather we had experienced all week ended with rain moving into the area on Saturday night, just as we were boarding the airplane.

Marianella´s muskrat love:
I´ll be back again in a couple days to give you the rundown and pictures on Iguaza Falls. I promise, you´ll get a lot less words in the next post, as I will let the pictures do the talking. Take care everyone and talk to you later~Tim & Marianella