It was my first time in Buenos Aires and my hotel was located quite conveniently near the Obelisco of Buenos Aires. I therefore spent the first day touring the downtown by myself, until I decided the next day to take a one-day pass for one of those hop-on/hop-off buses to get me in areas outside of the downtown, like for instance the district of the “La Boca”, famous for its football team.
I was very lucky with the weather, as it was sunny most of the time with enjoyable weather and temperatures…
Day 1: February, 20th 2019
“God created a perfect country called Argentina… And after he realized it was too perfect to be true, he created the Argentinians to populate this land”. This is basically, at least per my understanding, the translation of a famous Argentinian saying !
Argentina is quite famous for the gorgeous landscapes (which are btw, so different depending on the region; given the size of the country), the juicy meat, the football, its writers and artists, the tango and unfortunately also for... the crazy inflation rates and unstable governments !
Despite the fact the dollar blue (name given to the unofficial and local Peso/USD exchange rate which was more favorable to the American Dollar for years) was not really in place anymore at the time of my visit, the inflation was easily exceeding double digits. One of the first things I did in the morning was to go to a local casa de cambio to exchange some crisp Dollar and Euro bills to Argentinian Pesos as the cash rate is usually better than the credit card/ATM one. Finding a more or less official exchange office is an easy task downtown...
At first sight, Buenos Aires looks like a very nice and historical south European city, with some architecture, squares and avenues reminding you some districts of Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome or even Paris.
Plaza Lavalle
The Obelisco
Catedral Metropolitana next to Plaza de Mayo
Work in progress... :-)
San Martin mausoleum
An old pharmacy
Buenos Aires cabildo museum
Plaza de Mayo
Plaza de Mayo
The Casa Rosada, hope to the Argentinian president and also many former president escapes...
I enjoyed visiting the interesting museum located right behind the casa Rosada, especially at the warmest hours of the afternoon. The museum summarized the history of the presidential palace, and the many different eras of the country and its presidency.
Casa Rosada museum
Unfortunately, it was impossible to visit the palace (well you don't really get to visit the White house or the Elysée palace on a random basis right...), but the hour-ish I spent in the museum was quite insightful.
Right outside the casa Rosada were some demonstration from local teachers. In a country where the inflation rate was 53% in 2019, and more than 25% the previous years, I am pretty sure that the wages of the government and private sector employees sadly did not follow..
Teacher's strike
I continued by urban walk towards the river Darsena...
Former president Juan Domingo Perron (Let's say some did like him and others not so much...)
Little soft icecream on my way... :-)
The modern district of Puerto Madero
Monument to the taxi drivers (That was before Uber times I guess !)
On the right the costanera sur natural reserve and behind it, the estuary of the Rio de la plata going to the Ocean
Walking back to downtown...
Galerias Pacifico, you would think you're in Vegas :-)
I finished my walking day by walking in the Retiro district where I took the metro back to my hotel
Torre Monumental
Monument to the Islas Malvinas (also known as Falkland islands depending on your point of view). Those islands are on my bucket list - hopefully during a future trip to Antartica...
Torre monumental
Obelisco
One of the things I enjoy during my trips abroad are visiting ... supermarkets, as you get to find some local specialties which you can taste in your hotel room or bring back home. I visited the one right next to my hotel which appeared to be a Carrefour (A French brand). Here you could see that the prices of some of the products is "guaranteed" to remain the same for 3 months. I guess that 3 months later, the price could have surged of at least 20%, especially for imported products... Having the chance of living in Europe, I just find this shocking really... The only positive side to this is that a lot of products are stamped as "made in Argentina" so unlike some other countries in a poor economic state, there is a domestic production, especially in agriculture.
I was exhausted after this day and just had a quick to go dinner in one of the local restaurants in front of the hotel.
Day 2 : This time, I decided to leave the downtown area and book a day pass with one of those hop on / hop off buses. I don't tend to do this frequently but find the concept useful in some cities, especially when lacking time. I did this in the past in Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and Cape Town.
The benefit is that you can cover a lot of hotspots in limited amounts of time and also go to places not easily accessible with public transport. The disadvantage is that you don't always get enough time to snap good pictures of some of the buildings or landscape, hence the limited quality of the pictures I am including in this TR...
Enough walking ! Today will be a double decker bus day ! (to some extent...)
On Avenida de Mayo, Palacio Barolo I think
Evita Peron, on the Ministery of health buiding
Usina del Arte
I decided to make my first stop in the district of La Boca, home to one of the most famous football teams in latin America : Boca Junior.
"La bombonera" is Boca Junior stadium, right in the middle of the district !
I walked a bit in the district, which is considered as safe during daytime.
Riverside in la Boca
Lots of colorful street art in this part of town, I love it !
Another teacher's demonstration
So colorful !
La Bombonera
Football is a religion over there!
La Bombonera. I cannot imagine the mess for the residents of this district during games !
As the local police was starting to close-off some streets due to the demonstrations, I rushed to the bus stop to catch one of the last ones operating and it brought us back towards Puerto Madero along the natural reserve of Costanera Sur.
The bus brought me to the Northern district of Palermo where I enjoyed a late, but good lunch in a place called Farinelli.
Late lunch
Followed by chocolate mint icecream !
Monumento a Urquiza
This part of town is home to numerous parks and gardens which I got to discover a bit that afternoon, before catching the next tour bus which brought us along the River de la plata and the Aeroparque airport...
Fisherman's club of Buenos Aires, or River de la plata
Aeroparque domestic airport #avgeek
LATAM Argentina A320 taking off
The other football club of Buenos Aires : Atletico River Plate, rival team of Boca junior
Monumento a la Carta Magna and the Argentinian regions
Monument to Bartolome Mitre
I remained in the evening in the neighbourhood of my hotel and had an Argentinian style pizza for dinner. This country is culturally a mix between Spanish and Italian influences so why not :-)
Back to the Obelisco, with Opposum this time !
You could understand that social climate was not great.
The Argentinian congress
Argentinian pizza. Yummy !
Buenos Aires was a great city to visit, very green, with lots of culture (although I did not visit many museums), architecture and history, i just wished I was not there alone. But I am sure there will be a next time, hopefully soon ! :-)
Next: Flying from Aeroparque to Ushuaia on Aerolineas Argentinas