Everything in Buenos Aires was a great pleasure for Yvon and I when we went in 2003. The people were open, vivacious, polite and lovely, the city itself is entrancing. I've rarely been anywhere that I enjoyed more. In some ways, it is a sad town, because so clearly it's best days are behind it. Until the 1930's Argentina was one of the world's ten richest countries, and Buenos Aires shows ample proof of that era in its built environment. Since then, however, times have not been kind to this country, and the city is full of stately old buildings that are falling apart. Nonetheless, they had some of the best looking restaurants I have seen anywhere, and offered up surprises around each corner.
Photo List - (Total 180 Photos) Click bolded headers below to view, or click "just the best" for quick tour
-
Centro (86 photos) - Photos of all the central city of Buenos Aires, including its tall buildings, major squares, the Colon Theatre, massive railway stations, and a large nature preserve just off the downtown area.
-
Palermo (6 photos) - We stayed in Palermo, in a small gay hotel. There are not a lot of photos of this neighbourhood, because it was quite unphotogenic. Oddly, though, it had some of the best looking restaurants I've seen in my life, and we ate like kings here. I only have seven photos of this area, and one of them is the beautifully packaged and delicious cookies I bought near our hotel.
-
Recoleta (14 photos) - This neighbourhood is close to the central city and is famous for its art centre and cemetery (see below for this latter).
-
San Telmo (20 photos) - This neighbourhood in the south (but not so far south as La Boca) is home to galleries, markets and shops. We enjoyed wandering through its small alleyways selling whatnots a lot, and I bought a small artwork in a park there.
-
La Boca (13 photos) - La Boca is one of Buenos Aires' most well known neighbourhoods, home to the tango and and the Boca Juniors Football Stadium. It is known for it's colourful buildings. We had the loveliest meal and service in a small cafe there.
-
Once (11 photos) - This district in the west of the city is famous for a large shopping centre in a former industrial building, and is a working class neighbourhood.
-
Cemeteries (20 photos) - We visited two cemeteries, one sort of by accident, that was near our hotel, the Cementerio de la Chacarita, and a second, much more famous one, the Cementerio de la Recoleta. As in New Orleans, the graves are aboveground and the cemeteries have a distinguished squalor to them which is both beautiful and sad.
-
Transit shots (10 photos) - Buenos Aires had a small, very entertaining subway system. It's three lines all radiate out from a single point near the centre of the city, and do not go nearly far enough. I had hoped to find one of the original cars I had heard about, wooden affairs that have been in operation since the 1930's, unchanged, with windows that open. We did find one of these, an dit was just about the noisiest thing I have ever heard in my life.
