Argentina/Antarctica: Day 2: Buenos Aires

My first full day in Buenos Aires was spent doing the must see tour of the city: Plaza de Mayo, Avenida de Mayo, and 9 de Julio. We started out at the Catedral Metropolitana, BA's main cathedral, and what I realized is that I'm Catholic churched out. I've been to so many that they're starting to all blend together. The big draw to this church, however, is the tomb of José de San Martín, the country's liberator. I read in a book that he was so disgusted with the post liberation turmoil that he actually spent the last years of his life in France, but about 30 years after his death, his remains were brought back to Argentina after they had constructed his tomb. It's a bit grand, but I thought it was quite nice. I especially liked the flag draped across it, basically reminding the audience that the country wouldn't be there without him. The tomb was also the only place, except for the government buildings, were I saw guards posted. I thought that was interesting, and perhaps symbolic of Argentina's political situation. Who knows who will attack the tomb, so we better guard it. Columbus's tomb in Sevilla, in comparison, has no guards; you could basically climb on top of it if you wanted to.

The Catedral is on the Plaza de Mayo, so this is where we went next. I was underwhelmed by the Plaza; there are many more beautiful plazas in Argentina. It was hot, and there's hardly any trees. However, it's right next to the Casa Rosada, the Presidential offices, and so one can see why all political events happen there. We missed the Madres of the Plaza de Mayo, who still have a silent protest every Thursday afternoon, but there are still plenty of protests going on, which I thought was the most interesting part of the Plaza. There seemed to be permanent fixtures about the soldiers who fought in the Malvinas War (the Falklands War for all us English speakers). Greg didn't know what the specifics are, but it was clear from the signs that it had something to do with recompensing the soldiers for their sacrifice. The Casa Rosada, itself, is also a little underwhelming. In fact, I found it hard to imagine big rallies happening here, like the speeches of the Perons. It is a pretty building, though. The building was closed when we were there, so we couldn't go in, unfortunately.

The Avenida de Mayo begins opposite the Plaza, so we strolled down there. It was Christmas time, and so I had the very strange experience of watching people go Christmas shopping in blazing heat. It was funny to me to see Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and other typical Christmas paraphernalia while I was so freaking hot. The whole time I was there I had this weird feeling of time disconnect: How can they be celebrating Christmas when they should be going to the beach? But, of course, in Argentina that's exactly what they do. They all go to the beach for Christmas and New Year's.

The grandest cafe of all, Cafe Tortoni, is located on Avenida de Mayo, so we went to it for a coffee and a sandwich. It was pretty grand, lots of wood, and snooty waiters. It was filled with tourists, and I think that's why the waiters were snooty. But it was a nice respite in a really comfortable spot. Everyone should go to Tortoni if they travel to Buenos Aires.

After that, we continued our stroll around downtown Buenos Aires, stopping at stores to do some shopping, strolling down Calle Florida, their pedestrian street, and ending up on 9 de Julio, the widest street I've ever seen. It takes 2-3 lights to get across. We got to Teatro Colon, but it was closed for December and January (a real problem with going to BA in the summer is that a lot of things close down). We did eat at this amazing old cafe on Calle Florida, the name to follow. It's supposedly one of the grand cafes, and it lived up to its reputation.

After a quick nap, we met up again, and went to the Museo Evita. Now, some of my Argentine friends might be completely disgusted with our going there, but it had to be done. It was completely propagandist, obviously, but it was interesting to see the propaganda. She kind of blends fascism with populism; it's really interesting. In fact, I was a little surprised how the museum doesn't really try to hide the fascist element.

We then took a stroll back to my hotel and had a drink. The weather was changing, and it was getting kind of windy, very refreshing. The Craft hotel is near a lot of cafes, so it was pretty easy to find a drink. We went back to my hotel to ask for a dinner spot, and they recommended this place called Guido's on Calle de India, an Italian place. So we went to the restaurant, they found us a table in the basement, and we had some of the best food with the most unusual service. Basically, we sat down and they just started bringing us food. It was kind of like a parilla (a BBQ), but with Italian food. They just brought food; we didn't order it, but we ate it. We never really figured out what was going on, and the price ultimately ended up perfectly normal, but we had no control over what we were served. The food was fantastic, however.

All in all, another successful day, and the next we were going to el fin del mundo.