We arrived in Buenos Aires in unprecedented fashion for us. We were on a night bus, and by our count it was at least our eighth night of red eye transportation on the trip. However, the longest we had had so far had been about 12 hours. Our trip from Iguazu to Buenos Aires was 17. The bus trip even included a stop for a full service, albeit rushed, dinner at the bus company’s main office in Posada, Argentina at 11PM. Exhausted, we finally got off the bus at about 11AM in the giant main bus terminal in Buenos Aires. Since it was as much shopping mall as bus terminal, we decided to get a few things done before leaving the terminal. We found a cell phone SIM card, an ATM and took out some cash, and a tourist information office. Excited to get a map of the city, they had much more to offer us. On top of the best free city map we had in all our time in South America, they provided us with a lovely book of walking tours of the city. There were 12 in the booklet in total and we made it our mission to complete all of them before leaving for Cape Town a few weeks later.
Buenos Aires is the perfect city for a booklet of walking tours. It is a massive city and the neighborhoods are quite diverse. The subway makes it easy to get from place to place, but most of the interesting parts of the city seem to be down any old street that you may come across on foot. Our first tour was of Recoleta, the very wealthy neighborhood that is known for its amazing cemetery and great art museums. We loved the cemetery, where we had great fun seeing the enormous gravestones, especially those of famous Argentinians such as Evita. We also marveled at the enormous trees that shade entire parks.
Our next tour was one of the three available for the Palermo neighborhood, also the area where we were staying. Palermo used to be a very quiet neighborhood filled with housing and just about nothing else. In the last 10 years it has undergone a resurgence in popularity and is now filled with boutique shops, expensive restaurants and generally lots of activity. One of our favorite places in all of Buenos Aires was here, which we discovered on accident on our way to one of the Palermo walking tours. In a discreet location in the back of a building, facing the train tracks is the greatest little fruit and veggie shop we had ever seen. The place was simple, but the produce was very reasonably priced and tastes delicious. The oranges there are simply the best we have ever eaten. If we ever make it back to Buenos Aires, this will likely be our first stop.
Other walking tours took us through much of the rest of the city. One led us down Corrientes Avenue (photos 1, 2 and 3 below), past the famous obelisk and loads of theaters and shops. Another took us down Avenida de Mayo (4), one of the most important streets in the city, and where the congressional building is found. Another took us through the historical area (5 and 6), including the presidential palace, Casa Rosada. This is where Evita gave her famous speech many years ago. Another took us through San Telmo (7 and 8), near Casa Rosada and home to the fascinating Sunday antique market. Yet another took us to the new, hip, expensive Puerto Madero (9 and 10) where the old Buenos Aires port was and the Women’s bridge is now becoming an icon of the city. One of the least interesting was the Abasto (11), which took us through the famous tango neighborhood. With insignificant knowledge of the dance step, walking past the houses of famous and once-famous stars of the genre were not particularly exciting for us. Our favorite walking tour may have been through La Boca (12 and 13), the famous Italian/tango neighborhood with brightly colored houses the signature of the area. It is overly touristy for sure, but there is a magic in the neighborhood that is hard to find elsewhere.
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Our final walking tour took us through the neighborhood of Retiro, near the bus terminal and home to some fascinating old palaces and parks. As we finished the tour, our legs were tired and our stomachs were rumbling. With our 12th tour is 12 days completed, we felt that we had a chance to really know Buenos Aires as we saw most of the city on foot and adored its variety in neighborhoods and culture. It is not a place that we will soon forget. We will come back some day and next time, we will know where to walk.
I love the picture of the ginormous tree! I’ve never seen one before that needed supports to keep the limbs up.
Does your last line mean that you’ll know the neat places to see? Or that you’ll know not to step in dog poo????