Buenos Aires: European Elegance with a Latin Soul

If someone asked me which city in South America I would love to revisit, my answer would be: “Buenos Aires.” Rio de Janeiro is a fairytale, a jewel, a pearl in an exquisite setting—a backdrop for carnival. Buenos Aires, on the other hand, is a city—not just a city, but a City. Majestic, vast, beautiful, and flawed… as a true city should be. It is also the most European city in South America. You might say, “So it’s a European city, so what?” But the blend of European sophistication with the charm of colonial architecture, spiced up with Latin spirit, has resulted in something truly unique.

I was lucky: on my first day in Buenos Aires, it was Sunday, the day of street markets, and I set out early in the morning for the San Telmo market (Feria de San Telmo), the city’s most famous street market, held since the early 1970s. From 10 a.m. until sunset, it takes place on Defensa Street (Calle Defensa) from Plaza Dorrego to Plaza de Mayo. In hundreds of stalls, you can find a wide variety of items: antiques, shoes, musical instruments, collectibles, furs, and all sorts of knick-knacks. But it is the atmosphere which makes it so special: in one spot, music plays; in another, an elderly dancer with a young, beautiful partner delights the eye with a brilliant tango performance; elsewhere, there’s yet another surprise. I didn’t buy anything there, but I soaked in the sights. Then I wandered a bit further, to Lezama Park (Parque Lezama) and rested in a lovely gazebo styled like a Greek temple, complete with appropriate sculptures.

From the park, it’s just over a kilometer to the infamous neighborhood of La Boca (the mouth), a former port district where the heavily polluted, nearly black Matanza River meets the Río de la Plata. This is also where the nickname for Buenos Aires residents, porteños (port people), originates. However, the area has earned a bad reputation: outsiders venturing there have a high chance of not returning—or, if they do, they do that stripped of their belongings. Public transportation to La Boca from the city center stops around 4 p.m., after which the police leave the neighborhood, and the residents are left to their own devices until morning. It’s a free-for-all! From where I stood I saw a line of pedestrians on their way to La Boca, and remembered being told at my hostel that doing this on a Sunday was safe. But I had other plans, and La Boca was left for another time.

I took a bus to the center, to the long pedestrian Florida Street, where a street market is also held on Sundays. It was interesting to look at what was being sold on mats spread on the ground. I even bought a calabash, a vessel Argentines use to drink, often right on the go, their favorite bitter and invigorating drink, mate, rich in caffeine. I also bought some mate tea and received instructions on how to prepare it, but that was the end of it, and the calabash turned into just a regular souvenir.

The second day was dedicated to two excursions, the first by bus and the second by car; the latter seemed to show more. We were shown all the “must” things including the famous Teatro Colón and Eva Perón’s tomb at the Recoleta Cemetery. The bus also took us to La Boca, where restored and brightly painted houses on several streets form a safe enclave for tourists, who are strongly advised not to venture beyond its limits. It was charming, and I wished to stay longer, maybe sit in a restaurant where tango dancers performed, but the bus wouldn’t wait. So, it’s better to go there by taxi or city bus. Later, I met a traveler from Moscow who toured Buenos Aires on the “deck” of a tourist bus and saw everything perfectly (and for less money than I spent). Keep this in mind if you’re planning a visit.

In my free time, I walked around the city, crossed the Dársena River on the 170-meter-long Women’s Bridge (El puente de la Mujer) by Santiago Calatrava, reminiscent of his bridge in Seville, to the island where the former port has been transformed into the Puerto Madero business district with skyscrapers housing renowned companies, upscale restaurants, and exclusive residences. This bridge is said to symbolize a tango-dancing couple, where the console represents the man and the curve of the bridge the woman, hence its name. I also visited the site of the 1992 Israeli Embassy bombing with the monument to its victims.

On the third day, I went out of town to the Tigre River delta, using two trains: first a regular one, then a special (and expensive) tourist train, Tren de la Costa, which was very comfortable and featured panoramic windows. The boat ride through the delta was disappointing—it’s far from Giethoorn or even Empuriabrava. I should have spent more time exploring Buenos Aires instead. The return trip was drawn out because of the bad choice to do it by bus, which ended up taking an incredibly long time. I returned to my hostel at about 4 p.m., utterly exhausted, and the rest of the day was lost.

But I didn’t let the circumstances stop me. On the day of departure, I went to the city center on the very first metro train at six in the morning, if not earlier, and had an enjoyable stroll along Avenida 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the world, from the Don Quixote monument to the 70-meter-tall Obelisk commemorating the 400th anniversary of Buenos Aires, and a couple of adjacent streets. I also went to see the French Embassy building, considered an architectural masterpiece (Cerrito 1399).

In a rush to catch my flight, I couldn’t continue to Plaza de Mayo, a historic square with an 18th-century city hall (Cabildo), the government building known as the Pink House (Casa Rosada), and the May Pyramid, erected in honor of the first anniversary of the May Revolution, which brought Argentina independence. I didn’t walk the Avenida de Mayo to the grand building of the Congress, modeled after its American counterpart, and had only a glimpse at Palacio Barolo, a huge office building designed by the same architect as Palacio Salvo in Montevideo and resembling it in style. A couple of extra days would have been great!