Buenos Aires - January 30th

Being in our own apartment allows us to set our own times for breakfast, and last night’s shopping meant all we have to do is run to the bakery to get some medialunas (croissants) – which are almost compulsory breakfast items in Argentina.  After that we go out for our first day in BA.  We start by going to the post office to get our SUBE (subway) cards.  However we have come at a bad time.  In two weeks the prices will raise for all non-SUBE fares so everyone in BA is getting the cards at the moment.  And the system has crashed.  So we just have to go the subway and get normal tickets.  They are fairly cheap, only about 40p per trip anywhere on the system.

We are only 5 stops from the city centre, so it isn’t long before we are in town.  If our part of town looks like the Upper East side, then this looks so much like midtown Manhattan it is spooky.  Our first task is to buy tickets for a concert which takes place only on Mondays, so tonight is our only chance to catch it.  But getting the tickets isn’t too difficult from a Ticketmaster type kiosk outside a theatre.  After a quick visit to the tourist information office (and a Starbucks to wait while the tourist people were on a coffee break) we begin our sightseeing.

The first sight is the big plaza de Mayo at the heart of the city.  This plaza contains the cathedral, which isn’t that interesting, and at one end the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, which is of course famously where Eva Peron (and Madonna) made appearances on the balcony.  After that we did a fair amount of walking, going to see various statues, churches, and some shops all in the city centre.  Then we walked up to Avenue 9 de Julio, which is the widest street in the world.  8 lanes each way, with another 3 lanes each way on adjoining side streets, it is an amazing sight.  And there is a big famous obelisk in the centre.  It is also the site of the Teatro Colon, a beautiful opera house, which unfortunately had road works outside of it interfering with our photos.  The far side of the avenue, centred around the Congress building, had a much more European feel than the American centre, it but it is also a lot more run down.

We didn’t stay that late in the centre of town because we were going to the concert.  So we got the subway back and ate a late lunch (early dinner) at 17:00 before getting a taxi to the concert location, which started at 20:00.  The venue was an old factory, and the band we were there to see are a percussion band called Bomba De Tiempo.  It’s an 18 piece band and it was very good.  The venue wasn’t that crowded so we were able to sit down on kerbs outside and listen to them with a beer, so it was perfect.  I thought it could be more crowded so we didn’t risk bringing cameras, so we don’t have any photos.  As it turned out to be so close we decided to walk home after the concert, which ended at 22:00, a nice enough 14 block walk.  Despite the fact that the concert area wasn’t the most affluent area it didn’t feel that unsafe, and by the time we get back to our area, the place is hopping with locals all out enjoying their usual late dinner, so it feels very safe.