May 3-6:

We would be remiss in not acknowledging the good weather that has followed us so far throughout South America. It is late fall down here, after all. We celebrated the beginning of what is our November (May in the northern hemisphere) with 27 C weather in Mendoza and arrived to temperatures in the low 20s in Buenos Aires. All the locals have commented on the unusual weather. One of our guides even swam in the Atlantic a few weeks back, unheard of a decade ago. We are not complaining and fear writing this will jinx a good thing. Touring is made much easier with mild, dry weather. Our good fortune may run because of sheer geography. Later in the week we head to the southern tip of Argentina, the last stop on the continent before Antarctica. Forecasts show temperatures near zero and maybe even some snow.
Here we are in Buenos Aires, the “Paris of South America.” Tonight we hit a tango club. The last few days have been a dance through this fantastic city. Today we visited the actual birthplace of the tango. It is a community in BA called San Telmo, one of the oldest areas. For the uninitiated, tango was a dance performed by prostitutes originally in the 19th Century. High society types initially snubbed the activity due to the early participants. It now helps define the city – for the poor and the rich. Tango clubs flourish.
Bordering San Telmo is La Boca, which is a rough area housing many of the recent immigrants to the city. The community does feature Carminito Street, a little Italy of sorts where immigrants from the European country first arrived more than 100 years ago. During the day Carminito is alive with restaurants, bars and shops. Tango is also on public display. At night it closes and tourists are advised not to even make the trip in a taxi. We all found it delightful.
Puerto Madero is BA’s second port after La Boca. Its old warehouses have now been converted to restaurants and apartments. New highrises shine down a few blocks away, making this one of the most expensive place to live with apartments costing about USD $6500 sq/metre. BA is filled with expensive real estate, despite the sketchy political and economic history of the country. The Palermo and Recoleta areas are also highly desirable.
Recoleta features a must-see in BA. The cemetery off the central plaza is like a town of dead people. Excuse my description but it features acres of the most extraordinary mausoleums you’ll see in the world. I understand only Paris and Milan have something that might resemble the Cementerio de la Recoleta.
You look down the “streets” of the cemetery and it looks like one of the finest streets of Rome or Paris in miniature. On each side are the mausoleums, all individually designed and built – usually in Europe – and outfitted with fine marble, travertine, wood, iron and concrete. The sculptures, murals and stained glass are extraordinary.
There is still active trade of the mausoleums. You can buy one for between $30,000 and $1-million. The selling family will unearth the coffins and cremate them, making room for the new family to move in as they die off.
It is here that the infamous Evita lies, among many other famous residents.
Can we write any further without mentioning food?
We sat down yesterday for lunch in Puerto Madero. Even before we ordered, a selection of breads was laid before us, along with six types of appetizers. The portions here are massive and too much even for the biggest eaters. Tony’s ribe-eye steak looked like a pound of beef on the plain white plate. They brought Alana a whole chicken and Ruth’s pescado looked the size of a small tuna. It was our only meal of the day as we had no room in our stomachs for dinner.
Portions aside, the food is astounding, along with the vino.
Meat was on the menu again today with a visit to ranch north of the city to experience life as a “gaucho”, the famed Argentine cowboys of the Pampas. We enjoyed a barbecue of beef, chicken, chorizo and blood sausage. We found the Pampas to look much like Olds or Crossfield. We spent some time riding horses and watching tango. Tony skepticism about the trip proved out. He would have preferred more time in the city. Alana loved being on a horse and it got her excited about the summer and her horse camp in the Rockies with friend Hayley.
We took a second trip to San Telmo, this one at night, to enjoy a tango show and dinner at El Querandi, which has been entertaining customers since 1920. The tango is provocative indeed, and despite the late hour kept our interest.