We were staying in the main business district of BA, known as Micro Centro, right around the corner from some of the most important landmarks in Beunos Aires. Including the plaza de Mayo (Plaza of May), where every Thursday afternoon, mothers from all over the city come to walk around the plaza in a circle, pleading in a peaceful protest for answer to the whereabouts of their children stolen during the ´dirty war´ of the early 80´s. It is unfortunate that quite a bit of BA´s history is marked by violence and bloodshed. Apparently there is a protest of one form or another pretty much everyday in one of the cities many plazas.
We visited the ´La Recoleta cemetery´, a massive place that started off as the main cemetery for the cities wealthy. The cemetery is actually more like a small town, where all of the buildings are made of crypts and mausoleums, all trying to be bigger and more impressive than the rest.
It was a little creepy, knowing that all of these incredibly beautiful structures were actually graves, but it was an amazing experience to see them.
Just around the corner from the cemetery was the Recoleta cultural centre - basically a large gallery and artspace. There was some amazing street art on the walls outside (commissioned of course!), and fantastic exhibitions inside. We discovered a show that we came back for about a week later, which was called Nocturna - a high flying tango show with added trapez and circus elements!! It was a pretty amazing show, and a great way to end our trip to Argentina.
We also did a tourist bus trip around Beunos Aires, on a open air, double decker bus. A fantastic way to see the city in a day! There were a few major stops along the way, where you could get off the bus, and then get on another one a little later and continue the tour. One of the most exciting places we went was possibly BA´s most famous barrio (neighbourhood) called La Bocha. All of the buildings (mainly peoples houses) are painted different colours, giving the whole neighbourhood a bright, vibrant feel. The story goes that the Italian imigrants who first populated the area were very poor (it still is a poor neighbourhood), could not afford to buy paint for their houses, so as they all worked down on the docks, the ´borrowed´ paint from the various international ships that docked there, and used that to paint their houses! now obviously they paint them just to keep up with the tradition, but it gives the area a great feel.
The rest of our time in BA was spent just wandering around the city, checking out its various parks and beautiful architecture. We found one park in the middle of the city that was inhabited by hundreds of cats! They were everywhere!!
All in all, Argentina was a pretty amazing, varied and beautiful country, but it was time to move on to the next part of the adventure - on to Peru!!
Click the link below for pictures of Beunos Aires:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=160001&id=553896164&l=3f8b93c7eb
It was a little creepy, knowing that all of these incredibly beautiful structures were actually graves, but it was an amazing experience to see them.
Just around the corner from the cemetery was the Recoleta cultural centre - basically a large gallery and artspace. There was some amazing street art on the walls outside (commissioned of course!), and fantastic exhibitions inside. We discovered a show that we came back for about a week later, which was called Nocturna - a high flying tango show with added trapez and circus elements!! It was a pretty amazing show, and a great way to end our trip to Argentina.
We also did a tourist bus trip around Beunos Aires, on a open air, double decker bus. A fantastic way to see the city in a day! There were a few major stops along the way, where you could get off the bus, and then get on another one a little later and continue the tour. One of the most exciting places we went was possibly BA´s most famous barrio (neighbourhood) called La Bocha. All of the buildings (mainly peoples houses) are painted different colours, giving the whole neighbourhood a bright, vibrant feel. The story goes that the Italian imigrants who first populated the area were very poor (it still is a poor neighbourhood), could not afford to buy paint for their houses, so as they all worked down on the docks, the ´borrowed´ paint from the various international ships that docked there, and used that to paint their houses! now obviously they paint them just to keep up with the tradition, but it gives the area a great feel.The rest of our time in BA was spent just wandering around the city, checking out its various parks and beautiful architecture. We found one park in the middle of the city that was inhabited by hundreds of cats! They were everywhere!!
All in all, Argentina was a pretty amazing, varied and beautiful country, but it was time to move on to the next part of the adventure - on to Peru!!
Click the link below for pictures of Beunos Aires:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=160001&id=553896164&l=3f8b93c7eb
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