Our next stop was to Argentina's 'nerve centre' - Buenos Aires. The majority of the people live here, there's so much going on, and as the Argies themselves say: "God is everywhere, but his office is in Buenos Aires."
I loved this city, though
I had already decided I was going to! How can you not be sucked in by the architecture, history, tango and red meat?! Even Jared liked it and he is always telling me he doesn't like cities and only wants to be in the country.
We stayed here for a bit over a week, doing a Spanish school in the mornings and touring the city in the afternoons. More on the Spanish classes next blog.
One of the first touristy sites we saw was the Plaza San Martin.
There's the Argentinian flag, getting to be a pretty familiar sight, as we haven't left the country in over a month. Time flies!
The old buildings in Buenos Aires (BA) were absolutely everywhere. This was just a random snap from the sidewalk. Everywhere you look, especially in the neighborhood of Recoleta, you see beautiful things like this. Jared said I can't post this many pictures of buildings, so I already cut it down from what it was. I just really want you to see all the beauty!
That's the obelisk, which can be found in the middle of their widest street- 9 de Julio. It's also the widest street in the world, with 7 lanes each direction. It takes 2 traffic lights to cross, if you walk fast.
And of course, tango! This couple was dancing down by the main Plaza, trying to entice people to take their classes.
Here I am standing in front of the Casa Rosada, which is the executive mansion and house for the President of Argentina. It's also famous for being the place where Evita (Eva Perón) gave her speeches from the balcony to her millions of followers. Eva Peron was the First Lady of Argentina from 1946-1952. Her husband, Juan Peron was the President. She was very charismatic (though controversial) during her short time on this earth. She was running for Vice President in 1951, though had to withdraw her candidacy due to declining health, and died of cancer at only 33. While alive, she championed worker's unions, social benefit programs, women's suffrage and support for the poor. Like any politician, it wasn't all roses and her and Juan have been accused of censoring their critics and not always being totally democratic in their ideals. But that's a whole other blog...
This is from inside the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires, which is the seat of the Archdiocese in BA. From 1998 until March of 2013, this position was held by then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio. The world now knows him better as Pope Francis.
Here is the mausoleum of General José de San Martin (1778-1850), a famous liberator for Argentina, Chilé and Peru. The three life size marble figures you can see represent those three countries, that he helped liberate from the Spanish Crown.
On Sunday we went to the San Telmo fair, a fun little crafts and art fair lining the cobblestoned streets of the San Telmo neighbourhood.
One major bonus was the delicious choripan we ate. It's like Mennonite sausage grilled on the BBQ, cut lengthwise. Then you smother it in chimmichurri and criollo sauce and eat it in a bun. Delicious!
The amount of antiques, knick knacks and general oddities for sale was staggering. You could spend an hour in each shop. By the end I was totally overloaded. We went to a café and drank tea to recharge.
More tango!
That afternoon we headed to a museum of fine art
a Jackson Pollock
Jared and I were struggling to understand this painting, a canvas with 5 vertical cuts in it.......
Here I am standing with my first Picasso!
Another Picasso
One afternoon after class we headed to the neighbourhood of La Boca, famous for tango and music. It's very colourful, with houses being patched together with different slabs of painted corrugated tin.
Here we sat and watched tango while drinking red wine and beer with some classmates.....tough day, that one.
To be continued.........
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