BUENOS AIRES

Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, is the largest and in many ways the least typical of the South American urban centers.  Its population is almost entirely of European descent and many languages are heard in the city, including –besides Spanish– Italian, French, Yiddish, Russian and German.   

Buenos Aires has been called the Paris of South America and we can testify to the fairness of that title. It looks indeed like a beautiful European city, pulsating with heavy vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

The quality of the beef and wine has created for Argentina a special place in world gastronomy. Popular and folklore music is another distinctive asset of this proud nation.  The most outstanding of these is, without doubt, the tango.  Its foremost idol, Carlos Gardel, became a legend for millions of fans. Both the tango and Gardel are still immensely popular today. I kept singing tangos during the whole tour and the other travelers kept asking me how I could know so many, not being an Argentinean.  Frankly, I had not sung these tangos for almost 50 years, but I still remembered them.

Our hotel in Buenos Aires is centrally located in Recoleta, an old neighborhood that has been firmly established as the most cultured in Buenos Aires and a lot of the city’s finest hotels are located on its broad avenues.  It wears a distinctly European face.

Our first visit was to a leather factory, another specialty for which the country is famous for, where we bought two jackets and a bag.   From there we walked a short distance to Florida, a pedestrian street where all the finest shops are located, intended for the tourists, of course.   

The following morning, Saturday, we were given a tour of the city that lasted about 4 hours.     The first stop was at “Caminito”, the site made famous by Carlos Gardel’s tango. Caminito is located in the La Boca neighborhood.  It is the cradle of the tango and traditionally home to some of Buenos Aires poorer citizens.  

We got off the bus near the monument to José de San Martín, the liberator of Argentina.  Nearby is the memorial honoring the heroes of the Malvinas War and just a few steps from there we saw the Torre de los Ingleses, a tower donated by the Englishmen that lived in the city to commemorate the independence of Argentina.   

That afternoon, a bus picked us up at the hotel and we joined a nice group for dinner and a tango show. The dinner, meat (of course) with all the trimmings and all the wine you wanted to drink was excellent and the show was spectacular.  It gave me great pleasure to watch one of my favorite orchestras that was famous in Cuba when I was a youngster, the Luis D’Arienzo Orchestra

The following morning we went to the Pampas, which is something that I always wanted to see and wasn’t sure that we were going to have time to do.   Estancia Santa Susana is a tourist destination with several gauchos and their wives dressed with their typical attire.  When we arrived, a campesina treated us to delicious meat empanadas and freshly squeezed orange juice.  The view of the grill is amazing. It must be about 40 by 10 feet and has enough meat, chicken and chorizos to feed the visitors that this day were about 500. At the sound of a bell, we all sat in long benches where the gaucho’s wives proceeded to serve all this food, together with bottles after bottles of delicious wine.

After the dinner, the gaucho show started, with different bands and dancers, all very professional acts, especially the gaucho with his boleadoras. Then we all went outside and sat at a long stadium, where we were treated to a horse show, another gaucho specialty.   

Next morning, Sunday, we were taken to Tigre Delta, a charming town about one hour from Buenos Aires, to go on a boat ride along the Parana River, which flows into the Rio del Plata.  This used to be the summer place for wealthy city people, but now people live there all year long, although the only transportation is by boat.   

After this nice tour, they delivered us at the San Telmo neighborhood where every Sunday a fair is held.  It is centered on the Plaza Dorrego, where there are several antique shops. San Telmo district is disputed as the birthplace of the tango. Many typical tango groups were playing on the streets, most of them composed of young people that play very well.  The singers are also excellent.  When I heard one of them singing one of my favorite tangos, “Niebla Del Riachuelo”, I couldn’t help it and joined him in the song. It is not necessary to say that we were effusively applauded.

From here we walked to the Plaza de Mayo, in front of the Casa Rosada, (the Government Palace) the Cabildo and the majestic roman-style cathedral. The decidedly French-style Casa Rosada was built in 1580 and is one of Buenos Aires main attractions.   Right on the front is the balcony from which Evita Perón used to address the masses.

We stopped at restaurant La Estancia in Lavalle St. (pronounced Lavashe by the Porteños), which is also another pedestrian street. They served us two large pieces of roast pork and a very thick steak on top of a small grill. We kept cutting pieces of meat and warming them, alternating with the pork, salad and bread.  The lechón asado was the most delicious we had tasted in a long time (it even had a crispy skin). For much that we tried, we couldn’t finish all of it.  This fantastic, splendid meal, with beers, cost us about $20.00. I stopped at a music store and kept asking for CDs of old tangos.  They had everything that I asked for and I finished buying about 8 of them. 

We had to walk a little to help digest this meal, and the Avenida 9 de Julio was just a couple of blocks away. This avenue is the widest street in the world. Each side consists of seven lanes, an area with trees and then another three lanes.  A total of 20 lanes!  The Obelisk, in the middle of the wide avenue, is the symbol of Buenos Aires.  It has an altitude of almost 200 feet and it was erected to honor the 400^th  anniversary of the founding of the city in 1536.

We now had to walk about 8 blocks to see the most famous address in Buenos Aires, Corrientes 348, which is the address mentioned in another tango that describes a place of ill repute.  The fact is that this kind of establishment never existed there, just in the imagination of the song writer.  But a nicely painted sign proclaims its right to fame.  Another five blocks and we arrived at Puerto Madero.  By this time it was getting dark and the view of the canals and the lights reflecting on it was awesome.

Monday is our last day, but the plane doesn’t leave until 10 PM, so we went early to visit the Recoleta cemetery, one of the oldest in the country.  It is located in the middle of the busiest, noisiest and most animated area, across the street from dozens of fancy outdoor restaurants and cafes.  It is a small place jammed with enormous mausoleums and statues (including some by Rodin). In its intricate, above and below ground burial chambers, are buried many of Argentina’s luminary and historical figures –from the Independence heroes to the most outstanding presidents– including Maria Eva Duarte de Perón, the famous Evita.

I hope you enjoyed this trip with me.

IGUAZU FALLS

The Iguazu Falls are taller than the Niagara Falls and twice as wide with 275 cascades spread in a horseshoe shape over nearly two miles of the Iguazu River, a tributary of the Parana River.  During the rainy season (November thru March) the rate of flow of water going over the falls may reach 450,000 cubic feet per second!

These statistics do not faithfully describe the grandeur of the falls. This is one of Mother Nature super extravaganzas and it is something that you have to see to believe.  If you do, you might come to the same conclusion of Eleanor Roosevelt when she saw it and exclaimed in awe: “Poor Niagara”.  

We visited the site in March 2007, on our way from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires.   Iguazu Falls, called Foz do Iguaçu in Portuguese, and Cataratas de Iguazú in Spanish, lie on the Argentina-Brazil border and are a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site.

We were welcomed at the airport by our young guide Fabio da Silva.  He took us first to the Itaupu dam, the largest hydroelectric operation of this kind in the world. (Not for long, because the dam that they are finishing right now in China is going to be double the size.) This electric plant consists of 18 turbines that are 21 feet in diameter.  It has a production capacity of 12,000 Mega Watts, enough to supply 25% of Paraguay’s electric need and 78% of Brazil’s.  The plant was finished in 1991 and now competes with the falls as a major tourist attraction.  The immensity of the project can be explained better by comparisons.  For example, the iron and steel used in Itaupu would be enough to build 380 Eiffel Towers; the total volume of concrete could be used to construct 210 Maracaná stadiums.

A bus picked us at night and took us to a nice restaurant-theater, the Raffain, where we had a wonderful steak dinner (of course) and enjoyed a fantastic samba show.

On Wednesday, after our succulent breakfast at our Five-Star hotel, the Recanto, Fabio took us on a whole day excursion to the falls. The largest one, called the Devil’s Throat is located in Argentina and we visited it first.  There is a one-mile long path over the river that takes you very close to the thunderous fall, which is 210 feet tall. Then we walked through other paths to see different falls, each one different and every one amazing.  Hundreds of colorful butterflies were flying along the paths and we also saw crocodiles and turtles.

Most of these falls are seen from behind or from the top.  It is said that the Argentine side is the stage and the Brazilian side is the audience.  When we went to the Brazilian side of the falls we could see the difference, as you can admire all the falls now from the front and the view is awe inspiring.  We stood there for a long time, absorbing the full splendor of this wonder of the world. 

On the way back, we stopped at the Bird Garden, a jungle with many paths that take you to quite a few large cages full of birds.  There were pheasants, ibises, flamingos, eagles, condors, partridges and many other colorful birds, and dozens of loud parrots and macaws. We could even pet the toucans.

Isn't this a great place?