Buenos Aires, Argentina: the Paris of South America
June 25, 2009 – 8:08 pmArgentina’s capital city of Buenos Aires is known as the Paris of South America. Having been fortunate enough to visit both cities, I tend to agree and disagree with that label.
Buenos Aires does have a European ambience with its magnificent Old World architecture, wide sidewalks, outdoor cafes and bountiful city parks. But it has its own style, with a population primarily of descendants from Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Poland and, most recently, North America.
It’s a city of superlatives: Unique barrios (neighborhoods), 30,000 taxicabs, wide tree-lined streets, numerous theaters, museums and art galleries, shopping facilities that equal the best in this country, the world’s widest street, longest continuous street, largest theater with the best acoustics and the biggest bookstore with four floors and an interior design that looks and feels like Memphis’ Orpheum theater.
I see the city as a collage of Paris, New York and Barcelona. Buenos Aires, like other big cities, is one of contrasts, with a stormy history and present economic woes and inequalities, much like the rest of the world.
Argentines are some of the warmest, friendliest people I’ve ever met. They love North Americans and have graciously welcomed us from the beginning. Many are proficient in English.
My husband and I have spent four of the last five Februarys in Argentina. We keep saying we’ll vacation another place next time, but we find ourselves returning year after year. Buenos Aires has become our vacation home. It’s great to exchange Memphis’ freezing February for a month of 80-degree sunshine.
For a safe and rewarding vacation, we suggest tourists stay in certain areas. We highly recommend the Recoleta area, with its wide, tree-lined streets, beautiful French mansions, plentiful restaurants, good shopping facilities, theaters, museums, art galleries, expansive parks, outdoor entertainment and clubs for tango.
Recoleta is the city’s most elegant and distinguished area and also the barrio with some of Buenos Aires’ finest hotels, including the famous five-star Alvear Palace Hotel, with its pricey (up to $3,000 per night) rooms that come with their own private butlers.
We don’t stay there, but have visited its L’Orangerie conservatory for lunch and high tea a few times. Since the dollar is strong (about 3.71 pesos to a dollar), there are many bargains to be found, but inflation does keep increasing. The first three years, we rented a four-room/one-bath suite in the Leonardo Da Vinci, a small French hotel that was once a family mansion. There are five floors, three swimming pools, hardwood floors, 15-foot ceilings, French doors, arched windows, balconies, original oil paintings, a formal dining room, crystal chandeliers, a doorman and six-days-a-week maid service. The first year we paid $50 a day, $60 the second year and $70 the third.
This year we stayed in a seven-room, three-bath condo with two elevators and a maid’s room and bath, that belongs to a couple we met on our second trip there.
We often frequent the Recoleta Cemetery area for dining and entertainment. This has created much curiosity and teasing among our family and friends, whom we e-mail daily. It does seem a bit strange, I’ll admit.
Recoleta is built around the Cementario de Recoleta, where Argentina’s rich and famous, including Eva Peron, are interred in a high-walled, small city with paved streets of mini-mansion mausoleums, complete with expensive statuary, storm doors and even lace curtains.
Nearby, former family manors have been converted into fine hotels, five-star restaurants, nightspots and outdoor cafes. Gourmet and ethnic restaurants compete with the Hard Rock Café, McDonald’s, pizza places, outdoor cafes and heladerias (ice cream shops). There are also chain hotels and Patio Bulrich, an upscale boutique shopping mall in a glass-domed, restored 19th century three-story building.
The mall hosts a food court, where steaks, salmon, gourmet salads and pasta dishes are served on china plates and leather place mats. Local entertainment, including tango dancing, music, mimes and living statues perform nightly and especially on weekends. Saturdays and Sundays bring on arts and crafts bazaars, fortunetellers, caricaturists, and other local and professional performers.
Other interesting Buenos Aires neighborhoods include Zono Centro, the downtown area that includes the Casa Rosada (where Evita sang from the balcony), Plaza de Mayo, where the madres (mothers and grandmothers) march on Thursdays to memorialize their loved ones who disappeared during the last political upheaval, and all the federal buildings. The architecture is a mixture of European, modern and retro, with glass and mirrored skyscrapers interspersed with granite cathedrals.
La Boca is the picture-postcard barrio of all the colorfully painted houses and businesses that has become an Argentine symbol. San Telmo barrio is also home of fabulous European architecture and famous Sunday bazaars, featuring arts, crafts, antiques, tango dancing, musical and other street entertainment.
Palermo is another upscale neighborhood with good restaurants, shopping, green plazas, zoo, botanic gardens, museums and a colorful nightlife. Alto Palermo, a three-story mall that caters to the younger set.
Palermo Viejo is similar to Memphis’ Midtown, and contains Buenos Aires’ creative and bohemian spirit. It is full of last century’s big, old houses and antiques shops that coexist with modern designs.
Puerto Madero is the Buenos Aires shipping port, where the Rio de la Plata, Rio de la Pirana, and other major tributaries empty into the Atlantic. The thriving port area, where all the streets are named for women, contains a Sydney-type opera house, international chain hotels, great restaurants, shopping and entertainment, including two riverboat casinos and dozens of modern high-rise glass and mirrored luxury condominiums. The bustling construction activity seems incongruent with the present world economic situation.
South America is one of the few places we eat beef regularly, because it is some of the best in the world. In both Argentina and Uruguay, when we ordered steaks (minus all the antibiotics and hormones), we usually were served an oversize plate with two or three full-size filets, rib-eyes or T-bones. They have some of the best wine we’ve tasted, and very reasonably priced, with a full bottle usually costing no more than a single glass would cost here. Much of it comes from the excellent wine country area of Mendoza.
Argentine dining is a more relaxed and social experience. Diners sometimes spend long intervals sipping, eating and chatting. And even though obesity is slowly creeping southward, you rarely see an overweight Argentine. They are very health and fitness conscious and almost vain in appearance, with cosmetic surgery available and popular.
Buenos Aires is a wonderful city for strolling and sightseeing. It’s easy to walk 50 blocks a day exploring all the shops and sights. I was worried that I might miss my wheels, but never needed a car, except for driving in the country.
Lee and Roy Williams have lived in Germantown for 37 years. He is a semi-retired University of Memphis and Christian Brothers University professor of business administration. Lee is a retired teacher, university administrator, college communications instructor and former businesswoman. She is a writer, artist and wedding photographer.
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SOURCE:
“Reader Travelogue: BUENOS AIRES”
By Lee Morris Williams Special to The Commercial Appeal
Sunday, June 14, 2009
http://www.commercialappeal.com
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jun/14/reader-travelogue-buenos-aires/
