Blend. Fusion. Old and new. Arty. Bohemia. Upmarket. Inflation. US dollars. Portenos. Friendly. Passionate. Tango shows. Asado bbqs. History. Fashion. Protests. Evita. Supermodels. Beauty. Plastic surgery.
These are all words I would use to describe Buenos Aires. There isn’t just one word that sums it up. It was a blend of so many things. It was also my last stop with mum.
I was excited to go to BA as everyone I had talked to loved it. As you know I’m now usually a fan of big cities, but BA seemed different. While it didn’t have the laid back relaxed feeling of Santiago, it had it’s own unique personality unlike any other city.
(The new trendy docklands area)
(The oldest tree in BA)
It isn’t had to be impressed by the architecture of the city. The buildings are incredible. And so old! We did a couple of walking tours around the city and got to see the old ‘palaces’ (aka mansions), parks and memorials. Honesty you could walk the city for a week and not see them all.
(The pink house, aka parliament. Also where Evita used to give her speeches from the balcony)
(A little rest stop!)
The main cathedral is located in an unassuming building in the centre of town. From the outside the building looks important and impressive, but not at all like a cathedral. Very strange for this part of they world.
(Guarding the tomb of Jose de San Martin, Liberator of Argentina)
The cemetery is also a great place to check out. Sounds weird but it’s actually not. It’s like a little city and all the mausoleums are like mini mansions themselves. Evita is in there too (Remember the old Madonna movie?) and the story of her death is fascinating. She now resides in her family grave after people STOLE HER BODY after it was embalmed. Ridiculous!
(Looking down one of the ‘streets’)
(Mum peaking inside. You can see the coffins inside most of them…)
(Evita’s plaque on her family burial site)
Our final couple of days in BA were spent shopping. I was excited to go shopping somewhere that wasn’t a stall on the side of a road and had clothes that didn’t have a South American destination written across the front. We spent mum’s birthday shopping up at storm before having the most incredible dinner with champagne.
We also checked out the San Telmo market, a narrow street with a market that extends for more than 1km. It had the usual suspects that you find at any South American market – shirts, bags, brightly coloured trinkets you buy then wonder why – but it also had tango music, mate accessories (for the essential drink) and antiques. Strange blend of old and new in the tango hotspot of BA. We also hit up a local tango club, where the lessons started at 11.30pm. We only lasted a little while, as it is very hard to learn the tango in Spanish!
A few other things you might not know about BA…
* Portenos (people from BA – ‘people of the port’) tend to exaggerate….a lot
* Apparently everyone in BA visits a psychologist (a weekly visit is free with your health insurance) and if you don’t there is something wrong with you
* If you have private health insurance, you are entitled to a free plastic surgery operation every 2 year
Keep reading if you are interested in the economic situation in Argentina….
Inflation here is crazy – around 30%. While the official exchange rate is 1$USD = 7 pesos, you can get almost 12 pesos on the black market. Every time an Argentinian takes money out of an ATM they are charged at 35% of the amount. The same applies for overseas credit card purchases. They are trying to keep the money in the country. However, given that they government in 2001 took all the peoples US dollar savings out of the bank and exchanged them for pesos, no one really trusts the banks. Lots of money hidden under beds around here.
Is the President trying to save money? Nope, she comes to work in a helicopter EVERY DAY. Add to that fact that she asked McDonalds to lower the price of a Big Mac so that it doesn’t affect the ‘Big Mac Index’ (look it up people, super interesting) and make inflation look waaay better than it is. Of course every other burger is twice the price. Taxes on foreign companies are insane, hence you won’t find a lot of big name brands here (Apple etc) as they refuse to pay the tax. But, just hop on the boat to Uruguay for an hour and buy there instead (and get your duty free fix on the way).
