After breakfast, we go out to find an internet café. We find one… and see a message from Tamara on the completion of her marathon in under 5 hours! Respond and do a short message to the Antarctica distribution list. Joan returns to the hotel early, as her back is starting to hurt her. A quick check on the internet of the Bellingshausen weather yielded the following: Today, 34 deg F, 35 MPH winds. Forecast for Friday: High 35, Low 33, Winds 24 MPH, skies partly cloudy. Amazing how meaningful the weather at that remote research station has suddenly become! Then Mike returns to hotel, gets a bag of ice from a waitress in the breakfast room, and ices his knee.
After resting a bit, we go out with the intent of booking a boat tour to Uruguay tomorrow. Want to go to an historic colonial town right across the river from Buenos Aires. However, the times of the boats are not right for our schedule, and are kind of expensive. It would have been interesting, but we decide to pass it by.
After a quick lunch at the MacDonalds down the road from the hotel (chosen only because we needed truly FAST food), we take a city tour at 1:30 pm that has been arranged by Marathon Tours for anyone interested. We make 3 stops.
-The first is the Plaza de Mayo and the Pink House (Casa Rosada). This is in the main government area. The Pink House is the equivalent of the White House in the U.S., except it is a presidential palace, not the actual residence. Fences and barriers block the house from the rest of the square, I guess for security reasons, but you can see 2 guards standing at attention in the front portal area. Across the street from the building, a single protester has chained himself to a light pole, with a sign saying he is on a hunger strike protesting discrimination (I think in housing). Looks like he’s been there for a while and is not attracting attention from the authorities, only the tourists.
El obelisco on Avenida de 9th de Julio
Casa Rosada (Pink House), the Presidential Palace. Located on one side of the Plaza de Mayo.
Views of the Plaza de Mayo:
The Plaza de Mayo is the political heart of Buenos Aires, the gathering point for political demonstrations and protests over the years, large and small. Here we saw a one-man protest -- he had chained himself to a light pole. His sign said he was on a hunger strike.
-Second stop is in a very touristy, artsy/craftsy area near the docks, where the neighborhood houses have been painted bright colors. The entire area I think has some historical significance, but it appeared the main purpose today was to be attractive to the people on the tour busses that made sure to stop there.
-Third stop was at the famous city cemetery (Cementerio de la Recoleta), which was started in the 1820’s as a pauper’s cemetery, but which over time has become THE place to be buried, so that only the rich and famous can get a spot in there now. Very strange, as the crypts are all above ground, and along with the various memorials and mausoleums, form what amounts to a massive network of streets in a true “city of the dead”. Big attraction is seeing Evita Peron’s tomb, in the Duarte family vault. Interesting sidelight: the hundreds of cats that live, protected either by law or tradition, amongst the graves.
On the way back to the hotel, we pass this sculpture which catches my interest, and I snap this from the bus. Buenos Aires, we are told, may have more public sculptures than any other city. To me, this looks symbolic of a diety directing the motions of the Sun and Moon, but I have no idea what the real story is.
Back to the hotel, we take a few more pictures around Plaza San Martin.
This, we were told, is a replica of London's Big Ben.
The plan for tonight is to see a Tango show (Tango, the dance that was invented in Buenos Aires and still makes up the heart and soul of the place, we are told), and to get a good Argentinean steak dinner. We get several recommendations for a good Tango place, and finally decide to take the hotel concierge’s advice to go to a small one within walking distance to the hotel. He suggested we go at 8 pm… as things tend to get kicked off at these places kind of late. We do, and find the place on a pretty dingy-looking, dark side street. The sort of place we would not venture in if not for a trusted reco, one in which we are a little extra cautious in watching our backs. It proves to be fine and safe, but when we enter the establishment we find quickly: 1) Tango activities don’t start here until at least 9:30 pm; 2) the place IS very small; 3) we are likely the only non-local people who will be in the place (normally a selling point, except for point #4); and 4) Entry price is for dinner AND Tango lessons! In other words, it is expected to be a participative event, not a spectator sport! We could see the writing on the wall. Can you spell “Chicken Out”? We decided we were just not up for being the entertainment for the locals, vs. the original plan of doing it the other way around! So we thank them, say we “may” be back at 9:30, and then head out on a walk to find a good steak place.
So, we head out walking. We find Florida St., the pedestrian road that starts near our hotel, and we walk. We see a Tango demonstration in the middle of the road that has attracted quite a crowd, and gives us a little view of the dance. We drop some money in their jar and keep going. Eventually, we run into another pedestrian street perpendicular to Florida and we turned right on it. Think it was Lavalle St., not sure. We are looking for a good steak place, something that is supposed to be a commodity in Argentina. We see lots of pizzerias and cafes, but nothing with any real steak. Would have expected steak places to be coming out of the woodwork, but they sure weren’t around here. Eventually, we find that we have run into the Avenida de 9th de Julio. This is one of the main streets of Buenos Aires, described as the widest avenue in South America. We had had it pointed out to us both on the bus when we came in from the airport and on the City Tour earlier today. Now we were standing on it, in full view of the Obelisk, a Washington Monument-like structure that is one of the well-known landmarks here. We go down Ave 9 Julio for a block, turn the corner, and find a restaurant that will do. No steak. Joan has spaghetti, Mike has chicken. We are hungry and don’t care. The food is fine. After dinner, we go back along the pedestrian streets again, and stop at a little ice cream place where we each get ice cream cones and sit outside and people-watch. We finish the cones, cross the street to an internet parlor and do a little email, and then head back to the hotel. We are back by 11 pm.
This day was a bit frustrating, with what seemed like lots of disappointments. No Uruguay plan. No Tango. No steak. But in retrospect, it was fine. We saw the streets of BA and interestingly, although we would have expected that the pedestrian streets would be for tourists, they were clearly filled with locals tonight. We’d spent the evening with more authentic local experiences then we’d thought. But we also decided that tomorrow, we would make a reservation for a real Tango show tomorrow night. We cannot leave BA without seeing one.
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