Home»South America Day 16

What a treat – we had booked a tour for the six of us and we got an English speaking guide (Natalia), a driver (Adrian) and a 12-seater Mercedes mini-bus.  We had a great tour of the city – its monuments (many donated by various countries to commemorate Argentina’s 100th anniversary of independence from Spain), its wide tree-lined boulevards (one with 14 lanes of traffic in each direction), and its fine buildings.

Many of the buildings, and much of the city itself, were designed by architects from France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries – wealthy families would visit Europe, like what they saw, and import the architect to replicate the buildings at home in Argentina.

Trees and parks, lots of green space, and an old port area reclaimed and rebuilt with fine apartment buildings, hotels, shops and restaurants (for those who know Vancouver, think Yaletown but with more water and more open green space).

Café Tortoni where we stopped mid morning was a heritage art-deco building with an art-deco interior – the Antiques Road Show would love it!

On to La Boca, the district where the tango was born and which was created as a locale for artists and writers (like Montmartre).  Today many artists still display their works, the buildings are brightly coloured, walls display various sculptures and the place is teeming with tourists – but fun nonetheless.

Lunch was in a local restaurant, small and cool in the lower level, and consisted of a selection of Empanadas – individual pasties or turnovers with various tasty fillings, some chicken, pork and the local Quilme beer – all shared among the six of us plus our guide.

The afternoon took us through the Palermo district of fine houses of which many now house various embassies, and on to our last stop in the Recoleto cemetery where Eva Peron is interred in her family (Duarte) tomb.  The cemetery is like a small town in itself with streets of above-ground family tombs, totalling 5,000 – all different from each other - in which many are interred – and all trying to be more ostentatious than their neighbours.  It would make a great setting for some dark gothic movie.

Then, after 8 hours, it was back to the ship.  It was a very satisfying day but at the same time it left us wishing for more time, for we all agreed that this was a place worth exploring in more detail.

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