South America, Days 125 to 129 - Stage 24: A week in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Us with the famous Pepe Lopez, maker of fine Argentine tango shoes

Day 125 Wednesday 

Morning was spent doing the blog while I talked to one of our fellow guests who appears to be one of the many ridiculously keen tango dancers who come for 2 or 3 weeks at a time, every year. He has three lots of lessons a day, with different teachers and asks them all to teach him the same thing!

Inside the classic Cafe Tortoni ordering lunch

Anyway we finished our jobs and went to collect our new dance shoes via Cafe Tortoni that had just been recommended by my new friend. It was an interesting place, firmly dated in the 30's, looked amazing, but shouldn't have gone for the burger which wasn't the best, but was enough that we didn't need dinner. Despite eating and drinking far too much on the ship we have dropped back to our usual habits remarkably quickly, which is a relief.

A mural of Evita Peron on the side of the Ministerios de Salud y Desarollo Social building. We are in the 'poor' side of Buenos Aires in the San Telmo area where Evita is shown smiling to the people. On the other side (photo below) is a more aggressive image on the less popular 'rich' side. The building was the only one to survive the development of the Avenida 9 de Julio (named after Argentinas independence day), which is said to be the widest boulevard in the  world at 140m. Others dispute this, but if an Argentinian says so, you agree!

Got to the show shop to find no one home. We knew Pepe wasn't going to be there, but did expect his daughter. Fortunately we will still be here tomorrow!

Followed a bit of Jackie and Phil's walking tour to the Casa Rosada officially the office of the president on the Plaza de Mayo where we also stopped to look at the Cabildo, now a museum, used to be seat of the council and the Belgrano statue that has a collection of rocks around it with names on, and no explanation. Turns out these were all people who died in COVID. A pint on the way back to the hotel rounded off what had felt like a bitty day!

Here's the mural on the other side giving a quite different perspective on Argentinas most well known first lady 

Day 126 Thursday 

To make up for yesterday we seemed to go a bit mad. Went to collect our dance shoes from the lovely Pepe, and bought our open top bus tickets for Friday. Went to the theatre where he couldn't sell us tickets for March!

The obelisco in the middle of Avenida 9 de Julio, the place  where crowds gather to celebrate anything. See that avenue? We are told its 140m wide and we found it impossible to cross in one change of pedestrian lights. You might be able to if you run, but not walking, even very fast. I timed the lights, they are on 'walk' for 53 seconds. It means you would have to walk at 9.5km/h - no chance to walk at that speed. You can call me sad for working that out if you want! 

Then dashed back to the hotel for 12.30 class. Stretching and balance as well as some footwork, so a little chance to put my new shoes on.

This is Carolina's dancing school with a male professional dancer on the floor. Carolina Bonaventura is just walking off on the right. We had no idea who she was when we booked, but she's quite a celebrity and very well regarded. She helped develop the dance, has competed extensively and is now a judge. She has owned the hotel and ballroom we are staying in for the past 18 years after retiring from competitive dancing. Our room is just above this. Reading on Google an interview she gave in 2017 it appears the traditional Argentine tango, of being passed from father to son and men dancing together and occasionally with women, almost died out during the years of the Junta between 1976 and 1983 as groups of people of more than 2 were banned. It was resurrected as mainly dance school based learning and only developed since then. Carolina was in at the start of this rejuvenation and helped shape it 

We followed this with grabbing a couple of empanadas on the way to a free guided tour which was very popular. We even met a couple from the cruise also signed up. There were a lot of people but Martin coped very well and was very interesting. He didn't shy away from any topic. Told us that the people hadn't wanted to fight for the Falklands and that the soldiers hadn't really been an army but the 18 and 19 year old boys on national service. He gave us a potted history of the financial state of the country and told us our timing was really bad, which we knew. Inflation has risen 200% in the last year, so everything is now much more expensive for us, as well as the locals. We have seen many people sleeping on the streets and going through the bins so it's pretty obvious they are having a really hard time.

Arriving at the start of our walking tour. This is the National Congress of Argentina, a very impressive building

By the end we had covered 10.5km, some of it at a great rate of knots, so we thought we deserved a nice dinner. Martin sent anyone who asked an email with all sorts of useful information in it, including a good recommendation for a parilla not far from home. Oh my goodness, we shared the chips and salad, and bottle of wine and we should really have shared the steak too. I really don't want a pound of meat! We both brought some home, which has made some great sandwiches!

Casa Rosada (pink house), the Federal Government building. It was from that balcony that Evita gave her impassioned speech 'don't cry for me Argentina...' to thousands of people not long before she died of cancer

The Cabildo on the opposite side of Plaza de Mayo to the Casa Rosada. It's gone through many alterations over the years, but the lower part is still original. It was much wider and the tower has been rebuilt. Today it is an interesting free museum that we walked round

Day 127 Friday 

Up bright and early for the first day of our open top bus ticket. Fortunately the driver stopped to pull the roof across as it poured with rain. Definitely the place to be, seeing all the sites of the city without getting too wet. It had stopped by the time we got to the stop for the Recoleta Cemetery so we got off. Stopped for a light lunch in a little cafe which suddenly had a couple dancing tango just outside. This is what we were hoping for. Went into the cemetery, where many people recommend a guided tour, but we just went for a wander around looking at the huge mausoleums some people have erected. There were also some not so grand, and some fallen into complete disrepair. We finished up at the Duarte family tomb, where Evita was finally buried more than 20 years after she died. In the intervening years she had been embalmed, kidnapped, abused, displayed, buried in Italy, been returned to Argentina, repaired and finally buried under 5m of concrete to ensure that she finally does get to rest in peace.

We stopped for lunch by the Recoleta cemetery and were treated to a tango show. There's a youtube video of it and the show at the Milonga below

We went back to the hotel for a siesta as we were due out for the evening. We were due out from 21.00, the show was at 00.30 and the dance on till 03.00. So after a nap and one of the worst meals I've ever eaten, we shared a cab with David, a fellow resident who I shouted at in the street to wait for us, to the Yira Yira Milonga. A Milonga is a social tango dance which has many rules. We knew about only going anticlockwise, not overtaking and forming circles within circles. We didn't know that no one asks anyone to dance, it's all eye contact and smiles and moving to the floor, so at this point the woman has the power. You also don't dance for just one dance, or just tango. There is tango played in 4's, Milonga (a faster tango) and Val's (waltz?) both played in 3's. These sets are called tanda and give you the chance to get to know one another and your strengths and weaknesses. A man should really only make eyes during the first dance, into the second it is just acceptable but into the third very rude as you are not having a fair go. Once on the floor to leave before the end of a tanda is definitely not on. Between records is a short gap for talking and between each tanda something completely random to clear the floor. David had to explain all of this to us!

Evita Peron's remains in the families Durante mausoleum in the Recoleta cemetery. They were interred here 20 years after her death (which was on 26th July 1952) after being abused and moved to Italy after General Peron was overthrown in a coup 

We had a little go, but having just about got to grips with a few figures it was almost impossible to use them there were so many people on the floor. So mostly we sat and watched. There was a lot of shuffling going on, interspersed with some interesting footwork. We were joined by others as Carolina had reserved 2 tables as it was her company putting on the show. They all turned up about 23.30, her dancers halving the average age and performed wonderfully. We left shortly after they finished as did many others.

If you speak Spanish you don't need a translation of part of her final 'don't cry for me Argentina' speech

Day 128 Saturday 

We still awoke at our usual time and hopped on for the second day of our bus. Today we went to the Eva Peron museum and the Eco park, both very interesting, but entirely different. The museum was small but told of Evita, her upbringing, meeting Peron and her getting involved in politics. She died at 32 of cervical cancer splitting the country. The poor loved her for her welfare reforms, but the rich didn't like the Peronist ideals.

While we're at the cemetery, there's a few other tombs of note. This is Liliana Crociati's tomb. She died on her honeymoon in Austria in the 1970's. Her parents reconstructed her bedroom complete with piano within her tomb and at the entrance you can see they placed a bronze statue of Liliana in her wedding dress with her beloved pet dog at her side 

The Eco park is on the site of the old zoo, so although there are a few animals left, a couple of giraffe and hippo most of them have been moved to other zoos and the space taken over by walks among native plants and free roaming and enclosed animals with a few mechanical ones thrown in for good measure. It was a lovely place with a really nice feel about it.

And how about this for everyone's worst nightmare: this is the tomb of Rufina Cambaceres from the early 1900's. It was built  in Carrera marble by Rufinas mother after it was discovered that Rufina had mistakenly been buried alive. The tombs design bears all the hallmarks of her family's terrible grief. Local workers had heard screams a few days after her burial and when her coffin was disinterred, scratch marks were discovered on her face and on the insides of the coffin. It was later thought she had been in a coma

We hopped back on and off to buy tickets to see the theatre Colon on Monday and walked back to the hotel just in time for the last lesson and practice dance. I enjoyed the practice more than Brian as it is much easier for the lady, particularly as he has trained me to follow, so the two tandas I did with some of Carolinas company were a joy. Obviously it is so much harder for the man as not only do they have to have a repertoire they have to lead the lady. We left before the end, having managed about 3 hours, with fried brains. Again 

Looking through the glass inside the tomb of David Alleno. He worked for 30 years as a grave digger, carefully saving his money for his own plot and a statue of himself. It is said that as soon as the architect he had commissioned for the statue had finished his work Alleno went home and killed himself. Apparently you can still hear his keys jangling as his ghost walks the cemetery's narrow pathways at dawn

Day 129 Sunday 

Went out for breakfast and then onto the famous San Telmo Sunday open air market. We probably only covered half of it but it stretches for 2 miles, so someone told me yesterday. We got to one end of it and found ourselves at the Pink House again where he wanted to get a better picture. 

Unfortunately not all tombs are looked after. This one was completely overgrown

While there we became aware of the preparations going on for filming. Originally assuming it was just news, as lots of news vans have been in evidence, I guess for Carnaval, it became obvious it was more than that. A steady cam mounted on a quad bike, a road closure and diversion of the open top busses and cars and people from the 50's. We went to have a nose, via the cathedral as we were passing.

They are quite a few in a state of collapse, with coffins dangling precariously

I asked a random man, in my best Spanish if this was a movie. "No Spanish, only English", that's easier anyway. Yes, it's a post second world war movie in Serbian and Spanish called 'The Hand of Justice'. He was joined by a lady so we took their photos, with and without me and they wandered off. We then did the same with a couple of blokes, local extras who said they had also been filming in the Pink House. We then stood back as it was obvious things were about to happen, the quad bike was in position, the drone was up, the motorbike had been push started. Brian filmed as they came down the road, and that was it. So much time spent for seconds of movie.

And one we saw that looks like a shed with a bit of corrugated iron for a roof. A very interesting visit, but a bit disturbing too!

What Brian didn't spot was that leading the movement, was the motorbike, with the couple we had spoken to on it. I reckon they are the stars, in the front, not speaking Spanish etc. Brian obviously didn't believe me, but a quick Google search on our return proves that they are indeed Aleksandar Gavranic and Tamara Ristoska and are the stars of this movie. We don't think we will ever see it, and even if we did it was a blink and you miss it moment, but interesting all the same.

We continued to walk towards the Puerto Maduro and the puente de las mujeres, an iconic bridge, in theory with tango dancers around and about. It had looked like a nice area, reminiscent of Bristol as we passed on the bus, and so it was. We stopped for a quick snack when sadly the forecast rain arrived. There is no point in going to La Boca and el Caminito, an open air museum and general ambling area, in the rain, so we came back to start the blog and check in for our next flight, to Santiago, on Tuesday 

Our visit to the Evita museum. A small museum, but very interesting. She lived only 33 years, made one film and changed the history of Argentina forever in her own very humble way. When she died on 26th July 1952 and it was written that 'she transcended to be Eva, immortal. Although her name was forbidden and her body was kidnapped and assaulted, throughout seven decades her memory could not be erased. She is present and multiplies in thousands of images that evoke her'

At our Friday night Milonga. Jackie's written about it so I'll not go into detail. It was fun, social and great to just people watch. We did get up there and have a go but, without realising it, commited the gravest of sins: we left the floor after one dance! What would people be thinking? Ah well, we'll never see them again!

There is Carolina Bonaventura, our teacher (very hard on me and my posture - for which I was very grateful), along with the very able lady to her left, who I danced with a bit in class. Carolina had choreographed the dance all these professionals performed. There's a youtube below of a bit of it along with the couple who performed outside the cafe at the Recoleta cemetery earlier

Free roaming peacocks and the young at the Eco Park

These are Mara. Not deer at all, as I thought but a Patagonian hare. There were lots of them roaming freely in the ex zoo of the Eco Park

This little chap I thought was a beaver, but Google Lens tells us its a Nutria or Coypu, a semiaquatic rodent of South America. He was really enjoying what looked like cabbage thrown there for him. There were also still giraffe, hippo's and other animals still there that I didn't take photos of as we've seen them in their natural habitat's. They have yet to be found homes, but there were also a lot of abandoned cages amongst the greenery showing the progress they are making

This is the San Telmo indoor market, occupying a whole block. It's a great place to walk round with a great vibe and lots of places to eat. In the end we ate elsewhere as it was quite hot in there

This is the Sunday outdoor market. There's two miles of street stalls to wander round making it a great stroll on a Sunday

After our wander through the stalls we found ourselves at Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada again. This is the Cathedral, where the current pope used to be a bishop

Inside the cathedral

Close by we came upon the police closing the main Avenida Presidente Roque Saenz Pena and saw some old cars and people dressed in 1940/50's clothing

We were going to walk away but Jackie saw this 'steady cam' on a quad bike and decided filming must be taking place. She's the ex BBC engineer, who am I to argue, lets go back and have a look

There's more cameras and a drone, this is proper filming

Lets ask this couple, which we did in our best Spanish. Turns out he doesn't speak Spanish so asked us to speak in English. Think he must be Serbian. Turns out they are the stars of this Serbian film being made, the Hand of Justice

Here's some locals hired as extras. We had a chat to them and they posed for this photo. Actually the guy reading the newspaper now lives in Germany with his girlfriend but was back in BA at the time this job came up. The pay was worth it he told us

We had to hang around for the action and here it is with our heroes out front on the motorcycle...

On our way to the docks going past the Casa Rosada again

Past a Malvinas sculpture. Malvinas Nos Une: 'Malvinas Unites Us'

Round the back of the Casa Rosada

To  the very impressive Puente de la Mujer (womens bridge). The centre swings to allow shipping in and out of the old enclosed docks. We'd heard tango dancers often perform on the bridge, but not today, it had started spitting with rain and the afternoon forecast was not good

From the bridge a nice view of the ARA Presidente Sarmiento, formerly a naval training  ship, now a museum

Other forms  of artwork on the bridge. The man with no head is a real human, he waved to us as we went past

The vibe was very good round here, it reminded us very much of Bristol in the UK with lots of restaurants, good humour and life. That's a floating restaurant

Cormorants on the steps of the dock

Nice tail feathers! We have one more day in Buenos Aires tomorrow and we hope to go to the very colourful Caminito in La Boca after our booked tour of the Colon Theatre. We intended going to La Boca today but rain stopped play so we came back to our room to write the blog. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow, so we'll write about that next time. We're flying out to Santiago and on to Valpariso on Tuesday, we have an overnight there then on to Easter Island. It might be a few days before the next one....