Don't Cry for Me. . .Well, You Know The Rest

While this post will seem like a whiny cranky gringo’s complaints, it pretty much is.  However, the afternoon went much better than the morning, so the curmudgeonly writing here gets much happier once we get past the part of the trip I “organized.”

The hotel concierge gave me a map and pointed to some general things of interest.  He also knowingly suggested we would get much more out of a tour.  I noted (still in a bit of a daze) that we had one in the afternoon.  I didn’t add that he clearly didn’t realize he was talking to the semi-famous Iron Tourist (okay, I’ve heard of me, but “semi-famous” is a stretch, no matter how much friends and family love the blog) and that we could certainly handle a walk around the city.

We started out by going by heading east, deeper into the Recoleta neighborhood.  It was pretty dead – very few people or cars, although it was early on a Saturday morning in the summer, which means a lot of people were out of town, either at the beach or in the mountains.  We joked that it was the “Christchurch of South America” – a cheap shot that, thankfully, later would prove to be unfair to Buenos Aires.

It got hot (over 90 degrees), but thankfully not very humid for the day.  The heat rose rapidly.  Our first stop was in a small cathedral on the side of a small square.  I can’t dig out the name, but it’s not very important.  We headed south and then doubled back to the west along the Avenue Del Liberator which, if your Spanish is even worse than mine, means “Avenue of the Liberator.”  (No charge for my translation service.)

We walked along, passing closed restaurants, shops, and offices (it was Saturday morning.)  Meanwhile the Ambien was slowly wearing off.  I felt a bit like Wesley in “The Princess Bride,” coming back from being “mostly dead.”  (“The Princess Bride” is another classic movie, and can be watched other times of the year than just Christmas!).

We walked past another building show large on our map, but it turns out just to be a fancy shopping mall in the old Bullrich building.  The architecture in Buenos Aires is quite interesting, but we were lacking context.  Carol noted we walked past some embassies, including the French Embassy.

Turning to the north, we headed through the Retiro and San Nicolas neighborhoods, past the Opera House, other interesting buildings, and the Obelisk.  In the shadow of the obelisk, we stopped for a snack, agua con gas for me, diet coke for Carol, and we split a small packet of cookies.

While nothing can compare to Tim-Tams in NZ and Australia, it is fun getting cookies (or biscuits in some countries) that are local and not found in the U.S.

As the heat rose, we slogged along to original square of Buenos Aires – around which sits the Cathedral, Town Hall, the original City Hall, and the Government House, which Carol correctly surmised included the balconies from which Eva Peron (aka “Evita”) spoke to the Argentinian masses below.

We didn’t even know what the Cathedral was, even with the dome sticking up from the middle (it was hard to see at first).  There was an eternal flame burning.  We did not go in, thinking it was something we should not have gone in.

There was also a protest site that I figured out were by veterans of the Falklands War (Malvinas).  We later learned that the protestors were men in the military at the time of the war who did not fight in it, and were upset that those who fought were receiving better pensions and benefits.

From there, we walked along part of the old port, past the English Clock Tower, which was given prior to the Falklands War.  Part of the way, we walked along Posadas Street, which as a Yankee fan gave me cheer, even though the street name has nothing to do with Jorge Posada.  (It’s my strange mind – I will make whatever associations I choose!).

By the time we got back to the hotel a little after noon, we had walked six miles and understood very little of what we had seen.  Since we were only in B.A. for a day, I had not done my usual Iron Tourist homework.  Fail.

So, as we had lunch at the hotel (not many restaurants were open for lunch on Saturday in Recoleta), we talked about how underwhelmed we were towards Buenos Aires.  After lunch, we relaxed for approximately 13.5 minutes before heading back downstairs to meet our guide.