Spring Break in the Fall, Part III: Buenos Aires

On our first day in Buenos Aires, we took a little walking tour that was organized by our hostel. The main attraction was the Casa Rosada (Pink House), which is the Argentinean equivalent of the White House—but more colorful, obviously. Among other things, the Casa Rosada is famous for being the place where Evita gave her speech (you know, “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina”). Oh, and here’s a fun fact: they say the building is pink because it was originally painted with cows’ blood, which apparently protected it from the humidity.

Plaza de Mayo, with the Casa Rosada in the background

The next day we visited the Palermo neighborhood, which has lots of nice parks. In particular, the botanical garden was quite lovely… assuming you’re able to ignore all the stray cats.

Botanical garden

May 1 was International Workers Day, so just about everything was closed. But the Socialists were having a demonstration in front of the capitol building, so that was fun to watch.

Workers of the world, unite!

In the Recoleta neighborhood, there’s a big cemetery where Argentina’s rich and famous are buried. It’s a really beautiful place, but it’s basically a game of one-upmanship among dead people: “my tomb is bigger than your tomb!”

Recoleta Cemetery

One night we took a stroll to Puerto Madero. A few decades ago, it was one of the city’s worst neighborhoods, with decaying docks and abandoned warehouses. But these days it’s one of the trendiest spots in town, and it’s filled with art galleries, high-rise condos, and expensive restaurants.

On the docks in Puerto Madero

The most colorful spot in Buenos Aires is the Boca neighborhood. The buildings are painted in bright hues, and there are lots of narrow pedestrian streets. These days it’s completely overrun by tourists (like us), but it’s fun to imagine what it would’ve been like a hundred years ago.

Colorful houses in Boca

Argentina is pretty famous for its meat, so we made a point of going out for steak one night. I’m sure we didn’t go to the city’s best restaurant, but still… we were a little underwhelmed. It was fine, but it wasn’t any better than the meat in Brazil or the United States. I guess meat is meat.

There are plenty of shopping opportunities in Buenos Aires. I can’t tolerate more than a few minutes in most stores, but I make a couple exceptions: bookstores and record shops. Buenos Aires didn’t have many of the latter, but it did have the most amazing bookstore I’ve ever seen. The building used to be a fancy theater, but now it’s filled with books. The luxury boxes—you know, the places on the side where rich people sit—have been converted to reading areas with big cushy chairs. And the stage has been converted to a café. However, despite the fact that it’s the best bookstore ever, there was one significant drawback: I couldn’t read any of the books, because they were all in Spanish! (Can you believe the nerve of those Argentineans?) Unfortunately, the children’s section was the only place where I could find a book at my reading level.

Best bookstore ever!

And of course we couldn’t visit Buenos Aires without seeing a tango show. In fact, I think all tourists are legally obligated to attend one. Before the show, everyone in the audience got a free tango lesson. After making fools of ourselves for an hour, it was time to watch the pros. Somehow we got seats directly in front of the stage, so the view couldn’t have been much better. To be honest, I’m generally not a big fan of watching people dance, but the tango show was really incredible to watch.

Tango

After a week in Buenos Aires, we took a plane back to Brazil. We figured that was a better option than a 24-hour bus ride. However, a big storm rolled into São Paulo just as we were about to land, so our plane got diverted to Rio de Janeiro. After sitting in Rio’s airport for a couple hours, they told us it was okay to go back to São Paulo. So within the course of a few hours, we went from South America’s third-biggest city (Buenos Aires), to its second-biggest city (Rio de Janeiro), to its biggest (São Paulo).

Unexpected stop in Rio

And even then, the adventure wasn’t quite over. As we were going through customs, the agent told me I could only have one day in Brazil, and I had to go see the Federal Police the next day because my visa wasn’t valid anymore. After a moment of panic, I looked at my visa and noticed it clearly said, in English and Portuguese, that it was valid for five years. So, with as much respect as I could muster, I showed it to the moronic customs agent. He looked at it for a couple seconds and said, “Oh… okay,” as if it was no big deal. With that, he changed my stamp from 1 day to 90 days. Whew, I’m glad I said something!

So now we’re back in São Paulo, safe and sound. Kim has begun her new classes, and they seem like they’ll be very interesting but very challenging. And I’m still working part-time, thanks to my incredibly generous employer in Minnesota.

The next month should be really fun. In a couple weeks, Kim’s friend Carla will be visiting us. And the day after Carla leaves, Kim’s friend Katherine will be visiting. It’ll be fun to show people around the city… we don’t exactly feel like locals, but we’ve definitely grown quite fond of São Paulo, and it will be nice to show it off a bit.