HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing some more of Buenos Aires
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Trying to get credit on my UK sim card
WORD OF THE DAY: Its hot, hot hot today......
We had to be ready by 9am this morning in reception for our pickup for the half day city tour. We were feeling great that we were getting out and about more and looking forward to seeing all the colorful buildings at La Boca.
Our first stop was Floralis Genérica is a sculpture made of steel and aluminum located in Plaza de las Naciones Unidas. It was a gift to the city by the Argentine architect Eduardo Catalano. Catalano once said that the flower "is a synthesis of all the flowers and is both a hope that is reborn every day to open." It was created in 2002. The sculpture moves closing its petals in the evening and opening them in the morning. The sculpture is located in the center of a park of four acres of wooded boundaries, surrounded by paths that get closer and provide different perspectives of the monument, and placed above a reflecting pool, which apart from fulfilling its aesthetic function, protects it. It represents a large flower made of stainless steel with aluminum skeleton and reinforced concrete, which looks at the sky, extending to it its six petals. It weighs eighteen tons and is 23 meters high. One of the characteristics of the flower is an electrical system that automatically opens and closes the petals depending on the time of the day. At night the flower closes, emanating a red glow from inside, and reopens ("...is reborn...") the following morning. This mechanism also closes the flower if strong winds blow. It opens every morning at 8 and closes at sunset, on a schedule that changes according to season. When its petals were inaugurated, they didn't close due to technical problems which were solved two months later. There are four special nights in which the petals are open: May 25, September 21, December 24 and December 31. It was pretty cool but apparently the opening and closing function is broken again it stay permanently open at the current minute.
We got a drive through the Recoleta, which is a downtown residential neighborhood in the city. It is an area of great historical and architectural interest, due, particularly to the Recoleta Cemetery located there. It is also an important tourist destination and cultural center of the city. It is also considered one of the more affluent neighborhoods, and the cost per square meter/foot of real estate is one of the highest in the city.
From here we drove through Palermo. It is located in the northeast of the city with a total area of 17.4 km2; Palermo is the largest neighborhood in Buenos Aires. As of 1991 it had a population of 256,927 inhabitants. The "Bosques de Palermo" (Palermo Woods) as is popularly known, on the north-east side of Palermo was inspired by the "Bois de Boulogne" in Paris and the Prater (or Vienna Meadow) in Vienna. It is the largest green area in the city of Buenos Aires.
We travelled along Avenida del Libertador, which is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires and it points north, extending 25 km from the Retiro District of Buenos Aires to the northern suburb of San Fernando. It is one of the longest streets in the world. We then arrived at The Plaza de Mayo which is the main square in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since being the scene of the 25 May 1810 revolution that led to independence, the plaza has been a hub of political life in Argentina. Several of the city's major landmarks are located around the Plaza: the Cabildo (the city council during the colonial era), the Casa Rosada(home of the executive branch of the federal government), the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires, the May Pyramid, the Equestrian monument to General Manuel Belgrano, the current city hall or municipalidad, and the headquarters of the Nación Bank. The Buenos Aires financial district (microcentro), affectionately known as la City (sic) also lies besides the Plaza. We got 20 minutes here to have a quick walk around and the most famous building being the pink Casa Rosada when Eva Peron did her famous waves from one of the balconies facing into the square.
Our next stop was at La Boca which is another neighborhood, or barrio of Buenos Aires. It retains a strong European flavor, with many of its early settlers being from the Italian city of Genoa. In fact the name has a strong assonance with the Genoese neighborhood of Boccadasse, and some people believe that the Buenos Aires barrio was indeed named after it. The conventional explanation is that the neighborhood sits at the mouth ("boca" in Spanish) of the Riachuelo. In 1882, after a lengthy general strike, La Boca seceded from Argentina, and the rebels raised the Genoese flag, which was immediately torn down personally by then President Julio Argentino Roca.
The first stop in la Boca was at La Bombonera Stadium. People on the tour got a chance to go inside if they wanted at an additional cost for 15 minutes, but we decided we didn’t love football that much and just walked around some of the shops they had outside the gates that were obviously geared for their teams colours. It is known among sports fans that La Bombonera is the home of Boca Juniors, one of the world's best known football clubs. Club Atlético Boca Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Boca. Although many activities are hosted by the club, Boca Juniors is mostly known for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División. Boca Juniors is the current champion of football in Argentina, and is historically considered one of the greatest football clubs in the world. Boca Juniors is the most successful football team in Argentina and one of the most in the world, having won 51 official titles at the national and international level. Internationally, the team has won eighteen international titles, a record shared with A.C. Milan.
We then travelled 4 blocks, still in the La Boca neighborhood to see all the colorful houses and Pedestrian Street, and the most famous, the Caminito, where tango artists perform and tango-related memorabilia is sold. It was quite busy here, with a lot of tourist’s busses coming and going, but we got 30 minutes to walk around and get some great photos with all the colours of the buildings it was like a photographer’s paradise. So of the buildings are a little worse for wear and the area reminded me of a travelling show long forgotten or the streets of New Orleans. There were markets, and tango dancers all vying for a photo opportunity, restaurants and shops all selling ‘tango’ related merchandise and lots and lots of local artesian selling all sorts of paintings, from oil, paint, 3D to framed and chalk. It was a lively area but I am not sure I would want to be down here after dark. As one of Buenos Aires's 48 barrios, La Boca is located in the city's south-east near its old port. In La Boca many of the residents are of mixed European descent. Mainly Italian, Spanish, German, French, Arab and Basque.
Back on the bus again, and we then travelled down Avenida 9 de Julio. It is a wide avenue in the city and its name honors Argentina's Independence Day, July 9, 1816. The avenue runs roughly 1 km to the west of the Río de la Plata Waterfront, from the Retiro district in the north to Constitución station in the south. The avenue has up to seven lanes in each direction and is flanked on either side by parallel streets of two lanes each. The avenue's unusual width is because it spans an entire city block, the distance between two streets in the checkerboard pattern used in Buenos Aires. The distance between adjacent streets is roughly 110 m, greater than the equivalent distance in Manhattan, New York, USA. The avenue was first planned in 1888, with the name of Ayohuma; but the road was long opposed by affected landlords and residents, so work did not start until 1935. The initial phase was inaugurated on 9 July 1937 and the main stretch of the avenue was completed in the 1960s. The southern connections were completed after 1980, when the downtown portion of the toll way system was completed. Clearing the right-of-way for these intersections required massive condemnations in the Constitución area.
Crossing the avenue at street level often requires a few minutes, as all intersections have traffic lights. Under normal walking speed, it takes pedestrians normally two to three green lights to cross it. Some urban planners have submitted projects to move the central part of the avenue underground to alleviate the perceived "chasm" between the two sides of the avenue. Kate and I are going to see if we can make it over in one cross, which means we will have to run and also jaywalk across some of the lights. Stay tuned and we will let you know if we can do it or not! It is a damn bus road that is for sure.
It is on Avenida 9 de Julio that you can see and find The Obelisk of Buenos Aires. It is a national historic monument and icon of the city. Located in the Plaza de la República, in the intersection of avenues Corrientes and 9 de Julio, it was built to commemorate the fourth centenary of the first foundation of the city. Construction began on March 20, 1936 and was inaugurated on May 23 of the same year. It was designed by architect Alberto Prebisch (one of the main architects of the Argentine modernism who also designed the Teatro Gran Rex, in Corrientes and Suipacha) at the request of the mayor Mariano de Vedia y Mitre. For its construction, which cost 200,000 pesos, 680 m³ of concrete and 1360 m² of Olaen white stone from Córdoba were used. The obelisk was built by the German company Siemens Bauunion - Grün & Bilfinger, which completed its work in a record time of 31 days, with 157 workers. The rapid hardening Incor cement was used and was built in sections of 2 meters to facilitate the dumping of concrete. Its height is 67.5 m, and 63 m of these are up to the initiation of the apex, which is 3.5 m by 3.5 m. The tip is blunt, measuring 40 cm and ends in a lightning rod that cannot be seen because of the height, whose cables run through the interior of the obelisk. It has only one entrance (in its west side) and on its top there are four windows, that can only be reached by a straight staircase of 206 steps with 7 breaks every 8–6 m.
So this pretty much concluded the city tour at 1.30pm. We got dropped off at the Obelisk, as we had to may hay to the Paraguay Consulate before they closed at 3pm. With another 20 minute walk under our cap, we made it to the consulate and only after a 20 minute wait we had our passports and our Paraguay visa tucked safely in our bags. That is the last visa I need to pre-get, besides my US visa waiver when I head to the States in May and I believe we need a visa for Venezuela, but this can be done on the border as we enter. Goodbye Consulates. I WILL not miss dealing with you. Oh my next dealings will be with the Ethiopian Consulate in Melbourne in July, but they seemed quite helpful and I am hoping things will be pretty straight forward there, but knowing consulates this may not always be the case but I do have a god vibe about them.
Since I made the call back home a few days ago to the girls it sucked all my credit out of my UK sim account. As Paul and Liz are still currently travelling on the truck, I have lost my ‘credit line’ of getting money onto my account. So I messaged Em and Paps in the UK and also Dave in Ireland to see if they could pop some credit onto my card for me, which I got replies back from both of them that the system wouldn’t let them do it. Oh for God’s sake. Thanks for trying guys, and I still have Paps on the case for me but how hard can it be to get some bloody credit onto a mobile phone? So I am credit less at the moment and not liking the feeling of not being able to send text messages. I checked at a few phone shops here on the way back and there are only certain shops that sell the pre-paid sims here and with only another week in Argentina I need to weight up if it is worth the bother. Damn UK sim card.
The afternoon was spent blogging and I am happy to say I am now UP TO DATE! The Wi-Fi at the hostel is amazing, considering they have 20 computers that always seem to be busy and a damn lot of people all on the Wi-Fi, they must have some sized account is all I can say. I was able to load today’s photos, punch out a few messages, emails and generally just have a play around on the internet which is a luxury when you are travelling as most sites are not this good. I still rekon the internet access I had in Vic Falls and Cape Town have been the best and fastest on my whole trip. This is the way of the world now.
So another day down and we have some cruisy days ahead, with a little shopping, a visit to the San Telmo markets on Sunday and the group arriving Monday afternoon, we are now in chill mode as we have seen just about all the sites that BA has to offer. Barr the museums of course, but we really aren’t museum goers, so this isn’t on our hit list. I am thinking of getting my haircut as I am getting a little bushy and maybe my eyebrows waxed, but otherwise we were talking about seeing another movie and just chillaxing.
Its buenos nachos from me and buenos nachos from Kate in Buenos Aires.
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