Argentina Day 3

Today we decided to do the Buenos Aires Walking Tour. We went down to the Congressional area of Buenos Aires and had a great tour with Victoria. She talked to us about Congress, the fountains, historical buildings along the way including the Dante’s Inferno building, the Casa Rosada, the National Cathedral, Plaza de Mayo, and the Obelisco. I really enjoyed the tour as I had studied and heard about lots of these places. We especially liked hearing about and being in the Plaza de Mayo. That place has held a lot of Argentine history, from the marching mothers to daily protests. They were blaring some loud music while we were there, and our tour guide asked them to pause it for 15 minutes while we did our stop on the tour. They did! Thanks, guys!

The tour concluded on the Avenida 9 de Julio, the proclaimed widest street in the world (of course it was) ((it was like 22 lanes wide!)) (((apparently there is a wider one in Brazil))), and we went to check out the Teatro Colon. We decided not to go in as it was a bit pricey to do the tour, but Mama and Dad went back later and said it was awesome. We then went back to explore further some of the sights we saw on the tour. The National Cathedral was really interesting to visit. The new Pope had lived and ministered there for years, so the Argentines were obviously swollen with pride for the new Pope. We saw several unique murals of the Savior, as well as San Martin’s burial tomb. It was neat to be there and see such a strong part of the Argentine culture.

As we were leaving the Cathedral, we heard loud bangs outside. We were a little nervous of what it was, and we soon found out that a huge protest had started. They had blocked off numerous streets and were marching on in. There were lots of loud fireworks being shot off, and various unions and groups had joined together to launch a one day strike and protest. Large fences had been set up in the Plaza de Mayo to prevent protesters from getting closer to the Casa Rosada. There were plenty of police presence and SWAT cars, but the protest was a peaceful and entertaining ones. The huge speakers that were playing music earlier were now amplifying the voice of the passionate speaker who was rallying the crowd. There were helicopters and lots of news coverage. It was definitely an experience, and I’m glad we got to see it!

We then walked south through the San Telmo neighborhood. It is a very quaint, historic neighborhood with cobblestone streets. Unfortunately, we were not there on a weekend or else we could have gone to their famous “Feria” (street market). We did, however, find a DELICIOUS ice cream store. One our taste buds were satisfied, we caught a remis to go down to Caminitos—a very famous tourist site in La Boca neighborhood. This site featured brightly painted houses, street performers, artists, and anything a tourist could imagine buying. La Boca was famously an immigrant neighborhood. There are harbors and such there, so immigrants used leftover paint to spice up their houses. The neighborhood is now super touristy, and we were happy to not miss this one! While we were there, we walked through some downtrodden neighborhoods to the Bombanera, the stadium for the famous Boca Juniors soccer team. They are like the Yankees of Argentina. The stadium was not anything like our glamorous American stadiums—it was fairly crudely made, not very accessible, and pretty old. The place is legendary though, so we were sure to get some good pictures with it.

In the evening, we went back to San Telmo to go to a Tango show. We went to a show at a place called “La Ventana” (The window). It was an AWESOME experience. We were picked up and brought to the place and greeted by some fancily dressed people. We went down into the basement of this building where they had several layers of dinner tables. Luckily, we got one of the best seats in the house—towards the front and center! It was quite the place. We all chose our food and were delighted with tasty dinners. When dinner was over, the show began. We saw some very talented Tango dancers perform, followed by an entertaining Gaucho performer. They had a full band backing them up—a great pianist, accordions, and other instruments. We saw a piece from Evita!, and much more. It was a good sampling of many of the famous Argentine cultural traditions and arts. This was definitely the highlight of Buenos Aires for me!