One of the “must-see” things in Buenos Aires is the Recoleta Cemetery. Like you, we made a face at that and thought why on earth is that an attraction in its own right? It turns out that the famous former First Lady Evita Peron and many past presidents and famous people of Argentina have their graves there. Tourists visit this cemetery mainly to see the tomb of the country’s number one heroine that is Evita Peron (real name is Eva Peron). So we made our way to the exclusive neighborhood of Recoleta just to have a quick look at the cemetery. Yes, we find it weird that it is right in the middle of the high-end neighborhood!

One of the residential buildings in Recoleta

Recoleta Cemetery

Once inside the cemetery, we found that it was unlike a cemetery. It is laid out in sections and the walkways are lined with trees. There are many ornate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues of angels. The atmosphere wasn’t that eerie although the presence of dozens of cats, some of which were having real cat fights, didn’t give a soothing feeling!

This part looks like a small town, doesn’t it?

We had enough of the cemetery, so we went to explore other parts of the city. The above pic is of the Torre de los Ingleses (the British Tower) at the Plaza Fuerza Aérea Argentina (Argentine Air Force Square) located in the Retiro district, which is beside the Recoleta district.

The Retiro Train Terminal

A demonstration in downtown in front of the Casa Rosada (Pink House), which is the presidential palace

You are looking at just half of the widest avenue in the whole world - the Avenida 9 de Julio (The Avenue of 9 of July) - according to Argentina. We aren’t sure if that’s true, but it seems to be so. The avenue has six seven lanes in each direction. When crossing this insanely wide avenue, we often have to wait for at least 2-3 green lights in order to cross from one side to another!

Argentines are really into enjoying their food…and snacks. Quite unlike Chile and Mexico, Argentina has cultivated a strong taste for sweet pastries and cakes (tortas), and these delights can be found almost anywhere you go. Cafes are everywhere. Dulce de leche, which is literally “sweet of milk” or “milk candy” in Spanish, is especially popular in Argentina. It is actually cooked condensed milk. They make cakes, cookies, pastries, desserts from this caramel-like syrup. In Chile, it’s called manjar (pronounced as ‘maan har’); in Peru, it’s called manjarblanco.

Having cake and tea in Buenos Aires

This yummy cake above that we had is called Porteño, a classic local cake made with thick meringue on top of a chocolate sponge base and a slab of dulce de leche in between the layers.

The naval building near our apartment

Well-dressed locals go for their shoe shine

Paraguay Street

The massive but empty Harrods Building (the famed British department store) was once the place for porteños to shop, but it has been sitting dark and abandoned on Florida Street for years. In 1997, the British court issued an injunction to restrain the Buenos Aires Harrods store from trading under the Harrods name since the store became independent of Harrods since the late 1940s.

You can find many newspaper/magazine kiosks along the streets. Our favorite daily paper is the Buenos Aires Herald, the only English newspaper here.

Having an extended stay in Buenos Aires means that we can have more time to explore the “non-touristic” parts of the city, in addition to catching a breather from hopping onto planes all the time. Abasto is one such district of Buenos Aires where we visited and it is where many ordinary Argentines live and work. It is one of the city’s commercial districts where you can find wholesale and retail outlets. Abasto is also historically associated with the city’s large Jewish population and is also home to Korean, Middle Eastern and Peruvian immigrant communities.

We actually went to Abasto to see the Abasto Shopping Mall (Mercado de Abasto), which was formerly a central wholesale market serving the entire city from 1893 to 1984. Now, it’s not that we wanted to go shopping, but rather, to see this art deco masterpiece built between 1930 and 1984. After decades of being abandoned, the building was transformed into a shopping mall that also has 12 cinema screens. One other thing which we noticed around this neighborhood is the presence of tango dance venues, tango apparel shops and several painting murals of this guy called Carlos Gardel on some buildings. Carlos Gardel was a very famous tango singer (perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of Tango) who lived most of his life in Abasto.

Jewish family living around Abasto

There’s even a Kosher McDonald’s catering to the Jewish population

A painting mural of Carlos Gardel

Another painting of him

Another one too

Old vehicles are a common sight here

The modern foodcourt inside the Abasto Shopping Mall. See the working ferris wheel at the top?

Ferris Wheel for the kids

We have been in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina, for a month now, but haven’t got time to update because we’ve been swamped with work all the time. Let us sum up Buenos Aires very quickly here: Tango, dance culture, beautiful building architecture, smoke and cigars, very sweet pastries, cafes, steak, old cars and buses.

Buenos Aires has an odd feel about it: On one hand, it is fondly called the ‘Paris of South America’, on the other hand, poverty level is high outside of the main capital city. This was a country which went bankrupt in 2001 due to record debt defaults and currency devaluation. During the 2001 crisis, many Argentines queued up at banks to withdraw pesos before their money lost even more value, and there were also many who tried to get visas to leave the country. At the time, more than half the population were living below the poverty line. Today, Argentina has bounced back a lot and much of its recovery has to do with rising prices of commodities like corn, wheat, beef, soy etc as it is one of the world’s most major agriculture producer and exporter. Many Argentines still have a deep mistrust of banks and prefer to accept cash instead of credit cards or bank transfers for even business transactions. We even had to pay our apartment landlord in cash for the rental, which seems to be the norm if you wish to rent a place to stay here. Many restaurants don’t accept credit cards either.

Much of the country’s population is descended from 20th century immigrants from Europe, especially from the north of Spain and Italy. Porteños (people from Buenos Aires) are crazy about football; you can see some fans wearing football jerseys down the street, and watch football matches in cafes and eating places, screaming when a popular team wins. Indeed, many people outside of Latin America associate Argentina with Diego Maradona, a former football player who played in four World Cups. We are tempted to go watch a football match played by the popular Boca Juniors team.

In the past month of our stay, we’ve experienced the terrible haze that shrouded the Argentine capital and that made international headlines around the world. The foul-smelling thick haze, caused by farmers burning land in a rural province near the delta of the Parana River, was so bad that you could smell it inside the apartment and shopping centers, and some highways had to be closed. Just when the haze was subsiding two weeks ago, there came news of a volcanic eruption in neighboring Chile. Volcano Chaitén erupted in the Patagonian (southern) part of Chile on May 2nd, forcing the evacuation of more than 4,000 people from the town of Chaitén. Patagonia? We were just there barely a month ago, absorbing the picturesque beauty of glaciers and snow-capped mountains!

The eruption was so powerful that ashes reached as far away as Argentina, covering some Argentine towns with ashes. Satellite images showed that the volcanic ashes have reached even Buenos Aires. Scientists are warning things could get worse as the volcano still continues to rumble and spew out glowing-hot rocks from its crater. We are still hoping for the haze and the ashes to clear. It’s ironic that Buenos Aires, which means ‘good air’ in Spanish, is deprived of good air. Even without the haze and ashes, you are likely to be suffocated by the black exhaust fumes from 30-year-old buses and cars and cigarette smoke from everywhere. Luckily (for us) for a country where everyone smokes, most eating places prohibit smoking, unlike many countries in Europe.

Below are some pictures taken at Florida Street, which is the main shopping street in Buenos Aires. If you are claustrophobic or afraid of massive crowds, avoid the maddening weekdays when you’d see hundreds of porteños rushing to and fro in their suits. This street is the only completely pedestrianised street in the city. As we stay just down the street, we have to jostle with the crowd on a daily basis, but that’s the fun of staying in such a vibrant city!

Tango Away -Buenos Aires is the Tango capital of the world!

A Street Performer

Puppet Dancing In Florida Street