tourdebuenosaires

I will start by admitting I am not actually going to write about all of the barrios we saw. There were a few (Almagro, Barracas, Chacarita, Colegiales and Villa Crespo) that we did not visit with intent and did not experience in any profound way. We simply walked through them on our way to somewhere else. In fact, in the case of Almagro, I’m not sure we even walked it, though we passed through it on the Subte often enough that I figure it counts.

Which brings me to the subject of transportation. While the greatest portion of our travel time was spent on foot, long hauls were generally done on the Subte (Subterráneo), as the B.A. subway system is known. Our travel guidebooks recommended the Subte as a quick and inexpensive way to get around; the first few people we met in B.A. did not. “It’s so hot and crowded.” “Cabs are so cheap.” “The workers are always striking, so you never know when trains will run.” All this is true. Nonetheless, we loved the Subte. It is fast, the trains run often and are very clean, as are the platforms, and you can travel anywhere the trains go for 90 centavos (about 30 cents). In addition to which, you learn so much about a city riding the subway. For example, B.A. is a city of readers. (Have you every seen a copy of The Communist Manifesto or Great Expectations at a subway newsstand in Toronto?) Also, there appears to be an engagement with humanity in B.Aires that North Americans lost decades ago. People unfailing offer their seats to the elderly, infirm or pregnant. Furthermore, peddlers and panhandlers are allowed on the train and are treated with respect by the riders. A vendor will walk through a car handing each rider the object being sold (a bracelet, say, or a pocket tool kit). A simple shake of the head will discourage the offering, but most people accept, consider and occasionally engage the seller in a conversation about the goods and generally one or two people per car will buy. What the mendicants offer are stories. They are expert declaimers, reciting their tales of woe loudly and dramatically as they walk through the car. We rarely understood these narratives, as the language of B.A. is not Spanish but Rio Platenese (more about that later!), but clearly some were more effective than others – one fatigue-clad, young man with a limp got money from pretty much everyone in the car – however, I never saw anyone leave a car empty-handed. In addition, it is not uncommon to see strangers strike up a conversation on the Subte (English speakers frequently engaged us), and personal listening devices of any sort are rare (the same is not true of cell phones). Riding the Subte was a huge part of our coming to know and love B.A.

So, here is a Subte map for you (did I mention I love maps?). Our principal lines were D, the green line, on which our stop, Ministro Carranza, is marked in black, and B, the red line with our Dorrego stop also marked. Our apartment was located pretty much halfway between these two stops, so we had a nice choice. In addition to the Subte, we sometimes traveled by train. There was a station right beside the Ministro Carranza Subte stop which took us on an interesting, above-ground ride (the gray line on the map) to the downtown neighbourhood of Retiro.

Towards the end of our stay (as we gained more confidence), we even took buses. Travel books advise the traveler against this; the locals also recommend against, as does common sense. But we are adventurous sorts, Ian and I. Something like 140 companies operate buses in B.A., running somewhere between (I am guesstimating here) 300 and 400 different routes; sorting it all out is a bit of a challenge. Happily, there is the handy Guia “T”. The Guia “T” is a bus route guide, about the size of a small pocket book, and this is how it works: you look up your current address in the index, which gives you a map page and grid number, you go to that page and locate your grid; on the page facing is a corresponding grid that lists all the buses that pass through that area. You make a note of these bus numbers. You repeat this process with the address to which you wish to travel, then compare bus numbers to see if there are any in common. Of course there are not. So you move to the surrounding grids to see if you can find a match somewhere, not too far away. Eventually you do. You look that route number up in the bus pages, where each bus is listed with the name of every street down which it travels, coming and going. As most of the streets in B.A. are one way, these are, for the most part, two completely different sets of streets. You then have to try to figure out which set of streets will take you the direction you want to go rather than out into the suburbs you have been warned never to enter. This is harder than it sounds. Eventually you make a somewhat educated guess as to where you might find the bus you want and you head for that street. Guia “”T” does not tell you where on the street the bus stops, only that it runs along Avenida Fitzroy, for example, between Cabrera and Nicaragua, so you must walk along the street until you find the stop. Sometimes the stops are not particularly well marked. A scrap of paper taped to a lamp post might do, or a rusted out plaque, long overgrown with vines. No matter. You do eventually find your stop, and get on your bus – with the most incredible sense of accomplishment – and are taken for an hour long ride through interesting parts of the city you have not previously seen, before ending up, almost miraculously, where you wanted to go. For this you generally pay 1 peso, though if you are traveling a distance it might be more, if you are paying for two people at once it could be less – this part of the system we never did figure out exactly. The peso coin is the important thing. There are no tickets or tokens and you need exact change. What this means is that everyone hoards 1 peso coins, so there are few in circulation and small merchants often have none. So if you buy flowers from a street stall for 3.50 pesos (yes, in Buenos Aires you can buy a beautiful bunch of lilies or roses or daisies or freesias for just over a dollar), and hand the vendor a $5 note, he/she then has to go to the neighbouring newsstand or café or phone center – sometimes all three – before coin enough is found to give you your change. Since you are on holiday and not in a hurry, you find it all charming. However, as I am not on holiday now, perhaps I should hurry up and get on with the Barrios.

Belgrano

So, right off the top I am not going clockwise as promised in the first installment, but counterclockwise, northwest to Belgrano. I am doing this because really, I should have covered Belgrano in the Palermo section. It is not a part of Palermo, but it did feel like a part of our neighbourhood, part of our living in (as opposed to traveling around) Buenos Aires. This is a primarily residential neighbourhood that gets little attention in travel mags, guide books, etc. (Frommer’s says “You will probably be on a very long trip to Buenos Aires before you venture out to Belgrano…”) and when it is mentioned, it is generally because this is where Buenos Aires’ small but vibrant Chinatown is found. We only learned about Belgrano because of our lovely landlady Alicia.

The difference, of course, is that you do not find fresh local strawberries, peaches, figs, plums, tomatoes, corn, etc., etc. at the St. Lawrence in January. We were in heaven. There were also fresh pasta stalls, a bakery, an empanada place, a fromagerie, fish and seafood stalls, butchers, delis, and, just down the street, one of the best wine stores in B.A. As it was only a couple of Subte stops from Ministro Carranza, we went there often to shop (Belgrano is also where I got my fabulous twenty dollar haircut), or to just hang out at one of great cafés, beside the Cathedral, overlooking the park (which, like so many B.A. plazas, hosts a craft fair every weekend).

Recoleta

Okay, now I am on my clockwise path. Recoleta is immediately southeast of Palermo and is famous for being home to the rich and famous, dead and alive. It is where you go if you want to spend European prices on European clothes and American prices on American food, if you want to stay in 5 star hotels, or find the English language edition of Time Out. Not really my kind of place. That said, there are some pretty amazing buildings in Recoleta, like the extraordinary Neo-Gothic folly, Residencia Maguire…

or the neighbouring Palacio Duhau,. Please note, this is not a Frank Gehry building; the Palacio is a block long and therefore almost impossible to photograph. This is a less than 100% effective stitched shot.

Here are a couple of detail shots to help you picture it a little better.

The Palacio is now a hotel – a Hyatt I think — so if you are inclined to spend, in one night, what we paid for a month’s accommodation, you could (briefly) call it home. In any event, these are but two examples of the dozens and dozens of Recoleta palaces and mansions that now house embassies, hotels, banks, boutiques, restaurants, and the very rich. What brings most tourists to Recoleta, though, is not the shopping on Avenida Alvear, or the streetscape, the food or even the people watching, it is the cemetery. Cementerio de la Recoleta is considered one of the world’s great necropoli. Unlike Pere Lachaise (and cemeteries of that ilk), Recoleta is known, not so much for who is interred here, but how they are interred. (Which is not to say there are no famous people buried here – you do not get into this place without being a somebody – it’s just that these somebody’s are – with one or two exceptions – only world famous in Argentina.) What makes this place so remarkable is that pretty much everyone is entombed in mausoleums. Covering 4 city blocks, the cemetery is a maze of narrow stone streets, running between marble and granite vaults (about 6,500 of them), with the occasional plazoleta, in which may be found a monument to some particular hero. Most of the tombs are very well maintained, though a few have fallen into terrible disrepair. Some are quite plain, but most are not. Highly adorned mini pyramids and Greek temples abound. Ian and I were fascinated by it all, but did come away with the impression that this was, sadly, all about trying to keep up with the Joneses (or, perhaps more accurately, the Alvears), even after death.

As you may be able to tell, the final shot is of the tomb of Recoleta’s most internationally famous and probably best-loved inhabitant, Maria Eva Duarte de Peron.

Right beside the cemetery is the Recoleta Cultural Centre. Built in the mid-18^th century as a Franciscan convent, it was converted to a poorhouse a hundred years later and continued as such until about 30 years ago, when it was reincarnated as a Cultural Centre. There are now more than two dozen exhibition rooms (where we saw some very interesting installations), plus a performance space (where we saw an odd comedy tango concert, which we did not understand at all, as it was all in Rio Platenese), a museum, a bookstore, restaurants and much more, all housed in this very beautiful building.

You have to leave the cemetery and the heart of Recoleta, and head for the (much less exclusive) Avenida Santa Fe (in a part of town also referred to as Barrio Norte), to find my favourite Recoleta destination: the wonderful El Ateneo Grand Splendid. This is a book store, but I suspect it is not like any you have ever seen before. It is located in an old theatre (The Grand Splendid) that has been beautifully converted, keeping much of the original décor – the gilt moldings, the hand painted ceiling, even the red velvet curtains remain. The theatre boxes are now small reading rooms, the stage is a café. Not content to get by on looks alone, the store has six floors of books (and CDs and DVDs), the largest selection in South America . Someone writing a column in the Guardian a couple of years ago named this the 2^nd best bookstore in the world (the first is in an 800 year old church in Holland) and it is easy to understand why.

And that is all I have to say about Recoleta so I think I’ll stop here for now, with a promise of more soon.