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City breaks – Buenos Aires
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Buenos Aires by night
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Buenos Aires is a gem in the Argentine landscape, with its diverse culture and vibrant atmosphere. Experience the exotic passions of the tango, seek out antique treasures, or visit world-renowned museums and galleries.
The moment you set foot in Buenos Aires, its buzz courses through your veins – and that’s before you’ve even started on the city’s coffee houses. To soak up the atmosphere, stroll among the elegant stone buildings, dropping into exhibitions and shops as you go. Cultural aficionados in Buenos Aires will find themselves as children in the proverbial chocolate shop!
This is a city jam-packed with art galleries and museums alongside theatres, bookshops, and dance venues. Head to the more touristy areas, and you’ll find people performing tango in the street. This vibrancy and passion is all part of the Buenos Aires experience and spearheads the city’s appeal.
Modern masterpieces
The Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires, is one of the city’s unmissables for culturally minded visitors. It opened in 2001 and showcases Argentine and Latin American art from the start of the 20th century to the present day.
The permanent exhibition includes works by Diego Rivera, Tarsila do Amaral, Wifredo Lam and Frida Kahlo.
There is also a fabulous arthouse cinema within the MALBA complex, plus the museum organises literary events such as seminars and writers’ talks. For a glimpse ahead of the curve, go to ProyectArte’s new gallery, Galería Prima. ProyectArte is Argentina’s premier youth arts institution, which invites a diverse group of youngsters to study with the country’s top artists.
Dance fever
In the second half of the nineteenth century Argentina’s growing wealth attracted thousands of male immigrants who streamed here eager for work. From 1880-90, the population of Buenos Aires almost doubled. These men found their new lives were hard and the women were few.
Legend has it they sought solace in the city’s brothels and, within those walls, they struck the first chords of the Argentine music of sorrow, loneliness and unrequited love: the tango.Though the tango was discouraged by the military regime that ruled Argentina for most of the period from 1955-83, it is now more popular than ever. Buenos Aires abounds with tango shows, classes and milongas (dance evenings).
Catch a show at Esquina Carlos Gardel or the newly opened Bandola at Gorriti 4918 in Palermo. It’s a chic and intimate space with live shows every Friday and Saturday night. If you are inspired by the whirling, twirling and plunging of the dance, then why not try a class or milonga at La Confitería Ideal or La Viruta in the Palermo district; both these venues also host shows.
Whispers in the trees
While you’re in the Recoleta area, be sure to visit the beautiful Basilica Nuestra Señora Del Pilar, and then take time to sip an espresso beneath the boughs of the great gum tree on the terrace of La Biela Café. The gum tree was planted in 1878, just a few years after the founding of the café itself (it opened in 1850). Now its great branches are so long they have to be supported by crutches. The tree could tell some breathtaking stories if only it could talk. Kings, presidents and Argentine writers such as Borges and Ernesto Sábato have enjoyed an espresso or a glass of Argentine Malbec beneath its branches.
During the late 1960s and 70s, when Buenos Aires descended into political violence, kidnappings and murder, La Biela was a popular meeting place for young activists of both left- and right-wing sympathies. As a result, both sides bombed the café frequently. Today, this is one of Buenos Aires’s most exclusive neighbourhoods and intellectuals, politicians and tourists vie for tables on La Biela’s ample terrace.
Don’t cry for me
Love her or hate her, Eva Perón (Evita) was probably one of the most glamorous women Argentina has ever known. She was controversial in life, but the drama that surrounded her in death was far more extraordinary. Evita died of cancer in 1952 aged 33. Her body was embalmed – but before the mausoleum to house her was complete, her husband and Argentine president Juan was overthrown and fled into exile.
The new military regime hated the Peróns. They shipped Evita’s body out of the country and buried it under a false name in Milan. There she stayed until 1970, when the incumbent president ordered that she be dug up and delivered to her husband, who was living in exile with his third wife, Isabelita, in Madrid.
Perón returned to government in Argentina in 1973 but Evita’s corpse didn’t follow him until after his death the following year. There were plans for another mausoleum in which the two could lie in state together, but the Perónists were overthrown once more. Finally Evita’s body was given to her family who buried her in the elite Recoleta cemetery.
Even if you’re not an Evita enthusiast, the Recoleta cemetery is a wonderful place to walk for an hour – it’s one of my personal must-sees of Buenos Aires. It’s like a tiny, incredibly ornate city whose highly decorated mini-buildings have for the last two hundred years housed the corporeal remains of the city’s most prestigious deceased.
The path to Evita’s tomb is, needless to say, well trodden. For further Evita paraphernalia, go to the Museo Evita on Calle Lafinur, which displays photos, books, films and a selection of her glittering gowns.
Page turners
Buenos Aires is awash with good bookshops. If you only have time for one, make sure you visit the Ateneo Grand Splendid at Avenida Santa Fe 1860, between Riobamba and Callao. The building used to be a theatre and it oozes personality through its gilt stucco and red-velvet curtains. The books – in Spanish, English and French – are arranged over three floors, with shelves tucked into balconies and boxes. The store also stocks CDs and DVDs. The old stage houses a café (complete with piano player at weekends) for a well-earned break between browsing sessions.
Where to stay
For the perfect blend of comfort and convenience, look no further than Park Twoer, just by the Plaza San Martín in the Retiro district. The galleries of Recoleta, the Avenida de Mayo’s Café Tortoni, the Teatro Colón and the Museo Nacionale de Bellas Artes are each just 1km away; the quirky charms of San Telmo are only 2km to the south and the Palermo district 2km to the northwest.
COMMENTS
I currently live Buenos Aires and would suggest that you check out.Des Nivel,La Cabrera and Siga La Vaca.If you are also looking to party then you should come hang out with us on The Buenos Aires Pub Crawl.
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