Well, after our less than lovely experience in Montevideo, we were all more than stoked to hop on that ferry and get to Buenos Aires, or BA. (Note: The ferry experience was super cool! Our first time entering a country via water!) Anyways, we arrive in Buenos Aires and cab to our hostel on Avenida de Mayo, practically in the city center. And we immediately LOVE Buenos Aires. It is absolutely GORGEOUS. The architecture is all French, Spanish, and Italian colonial style, making it appear more like Europe than anything I have ever seen this side of the Atlantic. Many people say that it is the Paris of the Americas and that is absolutely FACT. Spoiler Alert: I fell in love. As beautiful and stunning as Paris is with her coffee shops, wide avenues, and city appeal, Buenos Aires does Paris one up for the very fact that it has everything Paris has (minus the Eiffel Tower) AND it has Spanish, making BA my dream city... literally. Plus, Parisians do get a bad rap for being rude and snobby, while Argentines are quite personable, helpful, and lovely. Now that I am in love, ya'll in the States have to worry about me skipping out on coming home in the spring and just up and moving to Buenos Aires. (You think I'm kidding... I'm not.)
Anywaysss... The details about when we arrived on Thursday can be skipped. Not too much happened. Just getting settled, eating, finding an ATM etc. However, the big day was Friday with our 8 hour personal walking tour with Alan, a Brit who has lived in BA for 6.5 years. We went EVERYWHERE and saw EVERYTHING. Where do I even begin? Well, we began in La Boca, the colorful neighborhood where El Tango was born. La Boca with all her colors, history, and crazy charm was a favorite of all of us seven girls on the tour. Then we moved to the San Telmo district, which was also precious with her coffee shops, cobblestone streets, and antique shops. Moreover, throughout the entire tour, Alan was heaping wonderful amounts of history on us, which made us appreciate what we were seeing so much more. A rich history of colonial conquest and revolution as well as dictatorships and civil unrest overflows from the city of Buenos Aires. From San Telmo we wandered into the city center to see beautiful churches (like the one built in the early 17th century by the Jesuits and named St. Ignatius de Loyola!!), Congreso Nacional, the Obelisk, la Casa Rosada (i.e. their version of the White House, yet pink), and so much more. We took a coffee break in the most famous coffee house in Buenos Aires, Cafe Tortoni. And unlike most coffee shops in Chile, they had REAL coffee.
Honestly, everything we saw was gorgeous and very European. Buenos Aires is absolutely beautiful. Avenida 9 de Julio (yes, my birthday and BA official day of independence in 1816 although May 25, 1810 is celebrated more as their day of declaring their independence) is one of the largest avenues I have ever seen, with over 18 lanes of traffic in some areas. It is pretty much the man street in BA. More with the history, all of us especially loved the history about Juan and Evita Peron. Perhaps you have heard of Evita? If not, in short, she is probably the most beloved Argentine in history. I don't have time to go into mini detail about everything I learned, but I would highly encourage you to pick up a history book about Argentine history if you are into history. It is fascinating. We also went to the Plaza de Mayo which is where the Mothers of the disappeared meet every Thursday for their disappeared family members from the dictatorship in the 1970s who "disappeared" (a euphemism for murdered) over 30.000 Argentines, mostly Peronists from the left. Horribly sad. The Mothers still meet in order to bring attention to the injustices. Plus, many of the bodies have not been found and some will never be due to the tactics used, like simply taking them up in planes and dumping them into the ocean. Furthermore, only a few of those involved have been held accountable and thus, the Mothers are asking for justice as well as for the truth to be unearthed.
Anyways, the tour was amazing and that evening we went out to a parrilla, which means MEAT, MEAT, MEAT. I, of course, was living on the edge and chose chorizo (type of sausage) and morcilla (aka blood sausage haha). Both are typical Spanish dishes of which I am quite fond. Delicioso!! However, definitely not as delicious as the place we went to in Mendoza, Argentina. Nothing can beat that place. Although we did drink some tasty wine from Mendoza with dinner.
The next day was another full one. We broke up into smaller groups, which was helpful and didn't cause as many headaches. Plus we moved a little faster. So Emily and I headed for Teatro Colon, the famous theater in the center of Buenos Aires. Although we didn't get to do the tour, we enjoyed seeing the outside as well as relaxing in the park for awhile with a Starbucks. Afterwards, we traveled to the Palermo district where we went to the Museo de Evita - i.e. Eva Peron museum. Very cool! She was such a classy lady. Next, we picked up Katie at the museum and headed for the ZOO, which was insane!! We were literally feeding animals out of our hands. And there were hundreds of these rabbit-deer animals running around. It was very South American. We saw all kinds of animals, of which our fav was probably the giraffes! We took some hilarious pictures with the animals and definitely had a good laugh. Next, we went back into the city center to do some shopping, which for me didn't amount to much. (I did buy a new hat to replace my pink Hawkeye hat for running! Not as cool but it will suffice.) Anyways, I will have plenty of time to shop if necessary (probably isn't necessary though.. haha). I mean, I will be coming back to Buenos Aires before I leave South America. I am kinda thinking about backpacking for the month of February down through the South of Chile to Patagonia and then up North through Argentina to Buenos Aires.... Just an idea! However, things did not turn out so well for our friend Katie, who was pick-pocketed on the metro. Thus, we had to call her mom in the States and go through that whole bit, canceling credit cards etc. How horrible! It could have been much worse but it is just frustrating, especially because we were just talking about pick-pocketers since Emily and I realized this other guy was trying to rob us on the way to the museum in the morning on the metro. It was crazy! We obviously gave this dude a dirty look and told him to skedaddle. But then, three hours later while back on the metro... Katie is robbed! Ugh.
Sunday was travel day. Woke up, headed to the airport, flew to Montevideo, had a five hour layover, then hopped on our plane to Santiago. We were exhausted by the end of the day. However, once we landed in Santiago and realized we were home, we suddenly had all the energy in the world! Hogar, dulce, hogar. All in all, Buenos Aires was a SUCCESS and I am definitely pumped to go back. But before that, I still have a month of school left and a bunch of papers, presentations, and projects to complete first... bummer! However, the girls and I definitely have some plans in progress in order to make our last month together in Santiago the best ever... so stay tuned :)
¡Hasta pronto!
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