What a great city! Every day we’ve walked for hours starting out in temperatures around 18 degrees Celsius at 10am and back between 4-5pm when temperatures were in the mid twenties…..just perfect! On our first day we looked at the hop on, hop off buses as we have enjoyed that in other cities but quickly decided ‘nah’ as we had six full days here and thought we could do it on foot and really cover the territory…….and we have! Don’t want to bore you silly so I will give you a quick run down on daily events and places visited with a few pics from the many barrios, ie. districts of Buenos Aries.  Let’s start with Recoleta cemetery, otherwise known as City of the Dead, also referred to as a ‘silent theatre’ because Argentina’s most powerful citizens are buried here and it is imagined that they are all still characters in a theatre(google for more details).  Artists of all sorts, generals and presidents are all buried here but most tourists, including us, come to visit the resting place of Eva Perron, better known as Evita.  There are more than 6400 tombs and it is said to be a symbol of Buenos Aries golden age, 1880-1930, when BA was one of the world’s richest cities.  It took us quite a while to find Eva Perron’s family vault (Duarte) and once we did it was one of a few that were covered in flowers.

Next stop, San Thelmo which is one of the oldest districts in Buenos Aries and is known mainly for its Sunday market………which would take a month of Sundays to cover because it is massive.  There are sections with nothing but antiques, sections with clothes, modern day creations, wine, food etc. and whatever you’re looking for you’ll find it here.  Plaza Doreigo has many eateries, cafes and bars and it is here that Jim had his first ‘choripan’ which is basically a chorizo sausage on bread and even though it was Jim’s I can tell you it was fabulous as I had the first bite!   It was also here we experienced our first taste of tango as we watched an older couple gracefully dance to live music – quite beautiful!

Marilyn and I bought new hats at the market in San Thelmo

Jim meets new friend in San Thelmo – hope he’s not getting tired of female company because we have quite a journey ahead

From San Thelmo we head to La Boca which is known as the working class area and can be quite noisy on ‘match days’ and today is one of those days but not until quite later.  This is the home ground of La Bombonera, the Bocca junior soccer team, and is also known for its colorful houses and tango.   We had not planned to go to a football game, as that’s what soccer is called here, and were somewhat relieved when I heard from our nephew Ian about his experience.  He was here several years ago, went to a game and said he became a little anxious as it became very rambunctious in the stands and fans were throwing stuff around and shouting…….don’t need that on my vacation!

Colorful houses in La Boca

M Tango in La Boca

The next barrio we decide to visit is Puerto Madero on the Rio de la Plata riverbank.  Construction of this port began in 1887, took a decade to complete and although it was considered an engineering feat at the time it quickly became obsolete as cargo ships grew in size.  As a result a new port was built in 1926 and Puerto Madero became one of Buenos Aries most degraded areas and remained that way for  most of the 20th century.  However in the 1990’s a massive regeneration project began and today it houses offices, restaurants, private universities and fancy hotels(where we are not staying as our budget does not allow!). All of the streets in Puerto Madero are named after famous Argentinian women and the main walking bridge connecting both docks is called Puerte de la Mujer(women’s bridge).  It is a rotating footbridge, also a swing bridge, was completed in 2001 and is a homage to women – pretty neat, eh!  Apparently Puerte Madero is considered to be one of the most successful water front renewal projects in the world and we totally loved the area.  From here we headed to the Sur Ecological Reserve and had a fabulous walk with many Argentinian families and of course tourists, like us.

Sur ecological reserve

Puerte de la Mujer….which in English means women’s bridge

Next day on to Tigre, about 28 km north of BA, population approx. 31,000 and gateway to the Parana Delta.  Tigre gets its name from days gone by when tigers/jaguars were hunted in the area and fortunately for us we didn’t even get a glimpse.  It is truly quite a tourist trap but so worth the train trip from BA, the boat ride on the Delta as we viewed many mansions and houses on stilts(ready for the next flood.) It is also worth noting that I am not the first Madonna to visit the area…….you can google the other Madonna for more boring details if you’re interested!

Parana Delta…Tigre

Our last day in BA was spent visiting its largest barrio , Palermo, home to the Japanese Gardens which is one of the largest of its type in the world.  One word describes it – spectacular!

Beautiful Japanese Gardens

Next stop in Palermo was the Evita Museum which is housed in a 1923 mansion and is totally devoted to Eva Peron, formerly Duarte.  I will not go into great detail as you can google all that and I need to go to bed!  But it is worth noting what an incredible job she did in social work as she fought not only for the rights of women, seniors, the  homeless but also for a health care plan, minimum  wage, paid vacations and pensions for the working class.  When she died at the age of 33 of cervical cancer millions attended her state funeral although tragedy followed………go to google!

An amazing woman!

They were quite a team!

So we’re done with Buenos Aries and what a great city it is.   We totally enjoyed are week here, walked more miles than we thought possible on these aging bodies, drank some great wine and have to admit that the beef is definitely the best.   On our first night here we were so exhausted we went just around the corner from our air bnb for a bite to eat and as I mentioned earlier in the blog had the best steak in years.   We thought we would go again on our last night but it was nowhere to be found……..walked and walked and walked but no luck.   So made do with one of the oldest restaurants in Buenos Aries, El Greco.

Good bye Buenos Aries and thanks for the great week!