Saying Goodbye to Argentina

It was hard to believe that the final leg of our adventure was over.  Our fourth week was filled with visits to see more sights in the city, although it was quieter thanks to the combination of holiday days and religious celebrations (Easter).

We visited the Palacio Borolo.  This building was built in the 1930's and is filled with symbols related to Dante's Divine Comedy.  At the top of its 22 floors there is a lighthouse...which felt so bizarre as it is in the middle of such a huge city.  We climbed to the top and took advantage of the height to snap some photos.

 

 

Next we took a walk through the Plaza Congesso where there are a number of very lovely statues, with the Congress building dominating the view.

 



 

We also took advantage of a couple of museums including the bicentennial museum and the National History Museum, both giving a retrospective of the very early days of Buenos Aires and of Argentina itself.  We topped off our visits with a trip to Palacio Aguas Corrientes.  This building houses the water tower which served the city for 20 years.  The interior of the building is unremarkable, but the exterior is incredible.  It is clad with tiles produced by Royal Doulton and overall it looks like a palace.  We learned that this is the case because the building was intended to be a showpiece and, as it sits in an upscale neighbourhood, it was made to "blend in" and to reduce the fears of leakage.  In the end it is a huge metal building clad with a beautiful façade.





The museum is devoted to plumbing and water management in general.  The prototypes of various plumbing fixtures are on display:

We also visited The Museum of History which is housed in an old home on beautiful grounds which have been turned into the park at the end of our street...

 

We continued our efforts to visit interesting restaurants...


 

We also visited the places nearby which have become our regular haunts.

We topped off the week with our visit to the symphony in Teatro Colon.  This theatre is enormous, with room for more than 3,000 spectators and we were on the fifth balcony looking down at a huge stage which accommodated the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela including more than 150 musicians under the direction of G. Dudamel.  The orchestra consisted of Venezuelan youths between the ages of 18 and 28 and they were wonderful.  At the end the applause was thunderous and they played 6 encores to everyone's delight.

So, after a trip of over 100 days, all that remained was the packing and the flight home.  This proved to be arduous as we had to get all of our stuff together, say goodbye to Katie and Manuel and take three flights, including one overnight flight back to Ottawa.  In many ways we were looking forward to the familiarity of home, but in others we were sad that our big adventure had come to an end.   However, the next adventure can't begin until this one ended...and we knew that we would soon start our plans for future adventures!

Third Week-Buenos Aires

Our third week in BA was packed full of activities.  We made it our goal to visit different areas of the city and also to do some shopping.  Being a great place to buy leather goods, many of us bought leather jackets and/or purses.  Janice continued to enjoy the very active night life and she and her friend took a side trip to Montevideo and Colonia in Uruguay.  They left part way through the week after many adventures.

We were coming to the end of our trip...the last week.   The time had flown by and we could hardly believe that it was almost over.   We were both looking forward to coming home, more than we had expected to.  Our last week would be spent taking in some last minute sightseeing and preparing for the trip home.

 

Calle Florida...the shopping district is full of people, restaurants, leather shops, buskers and souvenir  shops

 

 

We took a day to go and visit the Japanese Gardens where, in addition to the gardens themselves there was a special orchid show.

 

 

On another excursion we went to see a professional tango show.  

We topped off the week with a visit to the El Zanjon which is a restored colonial used for corporate events.  This home is notable because during the renovations tunnels were discovered below it.  These tunnels were built as a means to control water in a creek and to prevent flooding in the 1700's dating back to the beginnings of the city itself. .  These have also been excavated and now form a type of museum with a number of exhibits showing life in Buenos Aires at the time of the building of the brick tunnels.  The adjoining homes also built tunnels and these all joined together to form a continuous aqueduct to control the creek running through them.   During our guided tour we travelled under adjoining buildings through restored tunnels.

Just up the street from this building is the narrowest home in Buenos Aires.  This is only 2 meters wide and was part of an old colonial home which was given to slaves who were freed when their owners fled to the country to avoid a yellow-fever outbreak.  This building has also been restored, but is not yet open to the public.

A Night Of Soccer

Manuel and Katie have become avid soccer fans and thanks to Manuel's persistent efforts we were able to get tickets to a qualifying match between Argentina and Venezuela.  This gave us an exciting night with the local fans and gave us a chance to go into a huge stadium (seating more than 70,000) and to experience the exuberance of the fans. We had the opportunity to see Messi, one of the best soccer players in the world.  It was also interesting to see that the Venezuelan fans were sequestered in their own section, separated from other fans by barbed wire and rows of police officers.  They were required to stay in their seats for a full hour after all of the other fans had left the stadiums to avoid confrontations.

 

 

 

 

 



 

From Catederal Metropolitana to Milonga Salon

Our next week was quieter in many ways.  Buenos Aries is huge and offers many interesting things to see and do so we explored some of the recommended sites and enjoyed the atmosphere of the city. 

We continued our adventure with a visit to the Catederal Metropolitana which is the main Catholic church in Buenos Aires.  It is in the centre of the city on the Plaza de Mayo.  This was a particularly interesting time to visit this church as the new pope had just recently been announced and the catholic community was very excited that the choice had fallen to an Argentinean.  We arrived to find that the front of the church was hidden behind huge televisions and a stage and associated equipment  in preparation for the pope's first service from the Vatican.  The cathedral itself was also abuzz with excitement, but there were many people involved in their devotions before various religious statues.  The cathedral is beautifully decorated throughout and is huge.

 

 

 

 

One evening we decided to explore the world of tango and visited a dancing club (Milonga) where many go to practice their tango skills on a crowded dance floor.  As most nightlife begins around midnight in this city, we arrived at 1130 pm and waited for the professionals to arrive to put on a short show.  Just as we were getting impatient they arrived - at 0130!!  their show was short but wonderful and despite the loveliness, we simply couldn't stay awake for any more of the show we left.

 

 

On another sunny day we visited a bookstore which has been located in an old theatre.  It is impressive to see the books in what used to be the balconies and to have lunch at the café which is located on the old stage.