Buenos Aires Orientation
Article Date: Sunday, June 08, 2008
Written By: Russell Rawlings
La Boca is the neighborhood where the tango was born. |
From Jennifer Stuart
(Sunday, June 8)
Today was our orientation to Buenos Aires. Our guided tour took us to several different neighborhoods and monuments. Among the highlights was the President’s office, including the balcony from which Evita and Juan Peron made their famous speeches. We also walked around the famous Cementerio de la Recoleta where we saw Evita’s mausoleum. While visiting a large open air flea market we had the chance to watch tango dancers performing on a street corner, typical anyplace in the city with lots of vendors.
Buenos Aires is all about tango. The neighborhood of La Boca, birthplace of tango, was especially vibrant with brightly colored houses and street performers. We meandered around the vendors and watched a dancer try very hard to include Dick Heidgerd in her performance. Pictures were taken with soccer legend Diego Maradona. Well, OK so it wasn’t the REAL Diego, but a very good impersonator.
We had a leisurely lunch at a Brazilian steak house where various cuts of meat were brought to the table for sampling. Besides tango, Buenos Aires is all about the beef. And of course the soccer. And since there was a big game going on we watched it from a sports bar while we ate dinner.
We are still trying to adjust to the Argentine custom of eating light meals during the day and then eating a large dinner very late at night. We were the early-birds tonight arriving for dinner before 10:00 p.m. When we began making our way home close to midnight the crowd was still growing and the dinner rush peaking. It’s a mystery how the people of Argentina get up in the morning. But they certainly know how to have fun.
End of Day 2 in Argentina