Welcome to Buenos Aires, the city with the tango in its soul.
I caught an early bus to the tiny Bariloche airport this morning for my last internal flight within South America, this one a two-hour jump to Buenos Aires. I was really sorry to leave Bariloche; it’s such a beautiful spot with a great atmosphere. But I was really looking forward to this final stop on my trip. Buenos Aires has so much history, culture and legend that it seemed impossible I wouldn’t enjoy my time here.
Arriving early afternoon, I checked in to my hostel in San Telmo. Unfortunately, this hostel is a bit institutional, and lacks the charm and chill vibe of the last few places I’ve stayed. But it’ll be okay for a couple of days. I booked a couple of activities for the next few days. Unfortunately, my timing is off as far as futbol is concerned: The big Argentina-Venezuela match on Saturday is too late in the day for me to attend, since I’m flying out Saturday night. But I’m sure it’ll be on every TV screen in the city, so I’ll probably catch it somewhere.
I set out on foot to explore the city a bit this afternoon. I walked up to Calle Florida, which is a long, famous pedestrian shopping street crowded with people, stores, restaurants, street vendors and performers, hawkers, and pretty much everything else you can think of. It goes on for blocks on end. I spent some time browsing in the shops, picked up a few souvenirs, and finally made it to Plaza San Martin at the end of the street. The square was full of what looked like giant decorative teddy bears. Upon closer examination, I realised that it was actually a UNICEF exhibit called the United Buddy Bears, which has traveled around the world for the last number of years to represent peace between nations. There were 140 bears on display, each decorated by a different country. I spotted Argentina, of course, as well as Chile, the US, the UK, Ireland, Israel, but alas, no Canada. I asked why not, and the answer was that Canada was having trouble finding a sponsor. Boo.
On my way back to the hostel, I got to see something I’d heard a lot about: An impromptu tango show on the street. The street performers did a few numbers for the crowd right in the middle of Florida Street. It was great!
A few observations, now that I’ve been in Argentina a few days: The Spanish is much tougher to understand than the Spanish spoken in Chile. It’s faster, and the accent is weird. My Spanish isn’t nearly as good as I thought it was, and I think it’s getting worse by the day. (On the other hand, my Hebrew keeps improving by leaps and bounds, thanks to all the Israeli travellers I keep meeting everywhere I go.) Argentina also isn’t as rich a country as Chile, a fact that is evident from the buildings and the services, though not from the prices – both Chile and Argentina are very expensive countries. And the people are even more futbol-obsessed in Argentina than they are in Chile, if that’s even possible.
All in all, this seems like a great city. Crowded, noisy and busy, to be sure, but full of culture and charm.
More from Buenos Aires tomorrow!