tourdebuenosaires

I have chosen to start with Palermo for a number of reasons. It is the largest of the barrios; it is conveniently located on the map (at about three o’clock) allowing me to lead you through the rest of the barrios by moving in a clockwise direction; and (most importantly) it was our home for the month. Because of its size, Palermo is generally subdivided into five or six smaller neighbouthoods: Palermo Alto, Palermo Chico, Barrio Parque (which may or may not be the same place as Palermo Botanico), Las Cañitas and Palermo Viejo, which is further divided into Palermo Soho and Palermo Hollywood.

It is this last (and most recently established) neighbourhood in which we resided. This is our apartment, by the way, which we loved (rented online through a very good agency called ByT Argentina ).

Palermo Hollywood is so called because, during the nineties, many film and television producers moved into the neighbourhood to take advantage of cheap, abandoned warehouse space (sound familiar?). As is often the case, the moviemakers were followed by restaurateurs, who were in turn followed by real estate developers, so that, at the moment, Palermo Hollywood can only be described as area in transition.

It is home to many of the best restaurants in the city (we did not end up there by accident), a few interesting art galleries, clothing and furniture stores, but it is also an area of warehouses, car repair shops, flea markets, blue collar bars, and, most obviously, construction. It is a district that does not yet have that calm hum of a well established, well populated and served community. Still, we liked it. A lot. We liked the mix of old and new, of elderly and youthful, of working class and soon-to-be chic. We enjoyed watching the buildings go up (23 on an 8 block stretch of our street) and the sense that we were (in our minds, anyhow) pioneers.

Our tree-lined and cobbled street (Arévalo) – which was typical of the neighbourhood – was an engaging combo of early 19th century buildings being used for any sort of business, and those same buildings being beautifully renovated (as private homes, boutiques, restaurants or hotels) or being torn down (sigh) to make way for new, low-rise condos such as ours.

What we most especially liked about our neighbourhood, however, were the restaurants and the fact that we could walk to these places most people had to drive 45 minutes or an hour to get to.

I could go on for pages and pages about the restaurants and the food and wine in Buenos Aires in general and our neighbourhood in particular, but I won’t. (Not here anyhow. Perhaps I will write a restaurant appendix when and if I ever finish dealing with the barrios.)

It was, for us, the perfect home base and I am glad we experienced it in its somewhat original, more or less unfinished state. I suspect, in another couple of years it will have lost its rough edges, be sleek and sanitized, cool and beautiful, like its eastern neighbour Palermo Soho.

Palermo Soho is probably, currently, the trendiest neighbourhood in B.A. It is the centre of Argentina’s burgeoning fashion and design industry, with street upon street of chic boutiques, interspersed with oh-so-hip restaurants and bars. At its heart is Plazoleta Cortázar (inexplicably, it is commonly called as Plaza Serrano), a small, undistinguished square where a “craft” market is held every weekend and where the beautiful people loiter at all times. Soho is hyped as “alternative”, but it didn’t feel that alternative to me. It felt like a scene, overrun by backpacking tourists and young, wealthy trendoid porteños (as residents of Buenos Aires are called).

That said, the streets are very beautiful and we did eat some great meals there.

The other direction Hollywood might head is towards Las Cañitas, its tiny neighbour to the north. More honestly (in my opinion) middle class than Soho, Las Cañitas is a quiet residential neighbourhood of upscale, high(ish)rise apartments, food and wine shops, spas, pure-bred dogs and, yes, more excellent restaurants. Because this is, historically, a military neighbourhood (there is a big military training base here) it is, apparently, one of the safest neighbourhoods in B.A. It is also home to the Campo Argentino de Polo. Do you know about Argentina and polo? (I didn’t.)

Argentina has won more international polo tournaments than any other country in the world. In addition, it hosts the world’s most important polo event (at the C.A.P. mentioned above) in the late fall every year. A good reason to visit B.A. in November, I think.

Alto Palermo runs along Avenida Santa Fe (one of B.A.’s main thoroughfares and our most traveled road) towards the downtown and is mostly a commercial/shopping district. Barrio Parque and Palermo Chico (like Recoleta, the barrio they abut) are very exclusive, residential areas of interest (in my opinion) only to those who enjoy looking at embassies and mansions, security guards, chauffeurs, etc. etc. There is also a small corner of Palermo known as Villa Freud because it has the highest concentration of psychiatrists and psychoanalysts in the city, which is saying something, given B.A. has the highest ratio of psychoanalysts to population (1:30) in the world.

And then there is Palermo Botanico, about which I am a little confused. It may just be another name for Barrio Parque or it may refer to the broad greenbelt that runs along pretty much the entire northern edge of Palermo. What ever it is called, this vast area (over 100 hectares) of interconnected parks and gardens was, for me, one of the highlights of B. Aires.

The largest of the parks is the Parque Tres de Febrero, which was inspired by either Hyde Park or the Bois de Bologne, depending on who you are reading. It is a place of vast lawns and enormous trees. It was here I first saw the rufous-bellied thrush – a bird easily mistaken for a Robin – flitting about the same branches as a small, lime-popsicle-green parrot. It was quite a startling and entirely thrilling sight and it got me thinking about how Buenos Aires combines much of the best of both temperate and tropical climates.

In addition to the enormous February the 3rd, there are also beautifully laid out Botanical Gardens with stone walkways, fountains, trellises, benches, statuary and some 8,000 (mostly) well-labeled plants from around the world; a Japanese Garden, a Rose Garden and a network of artificial lakes.

It was across from these lakes that, desperate for lunch and a bit of cool air (it was one of a very few unpleasantly hot and humid days), we found the Museo Eduardo Sivori, a perfect little museum of 20 and 21st century Argentinian art, with a beautiful sculpture garden and a charming café (where we first tasted Torrontes, a lovely, aromatic, white wine produced only in Argentina) .

I confess, I knew nothing about Argentinian art, but immediately fell in love with a half a dozen painters, in particular, Antonio Berni and Benito Quinquela. Though it is not a particularly well-known museum, it is definitely well up on my B.A. must-see list. Another great Palermo museum is the (much more renowned) MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamerican de Buenos Aires).

This is another collection of art of the 20 and 21st centuries but from all over Latin American, not just Argentina, and includes major works by the likes of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Fernando Botero. What we really loved about this place, however, was the building, which was, like so much of the architecture in Buenos Aires, heart-stoppingly beautiful.

(Pictured above, Ian at El Andén, our local café) There is plenty more I could write about Palermo (and may, at some future point) but there are still 14 barrios left to cover, so… Soon to come, Recoleta, Retiro, San Nicolas, Puerto Madero and La Boca.

If you want to continue visiting Buenos Aires you can try going to Belgrano and Recoleta.