Time for the next musical…..What’s new, Buenos Aires 🎶
With a 7.30 disembarkation, we left at 7.45 and were out at 8, in the hotel room by 9! Our hotel is on the main Avenue de 9 Julio, being the date of the country’s independence in 1816.
It is the widest avenue in the world. On opening it was 110m wide with 16 lanes. It now has a 140m span, with 18 lanes of traffic, and 4 bus lanes. Finished in 1960, they removed whole blocks of buildings to create it. At the time, there were not many cars around, so everyone thought it a silly idea. Now very useful!
And of all the people to run in to heading for the tour we were about to do….. Kirsty and Jonathon. The guys we chatted with most on the cruise. You may remember the very late night?
A great walking tour around the Retiro and Recoleta areas. Learnt much of the city and country. Some time ago they had a huge immigration of Italians and when you look at most famous Argentinians they all have Italian names. That certainly makes sense of the driving style and constant hooting!
They also have the 3rd largest Jewish community in the world.
The city is known as Paris of South America. As a young city with an influx of inhabitants, much was built late 19th and early 20th century primarily copied from France.
Many of the buildings are a mixture of styles.
On 100 years of independence, many countries gifted something. This was our gift, called the English Tower and nicknamed Big Ben of South America. Formally renamed to the Monumental Tower in the 80s to reduce the sudden increase in vandalism, when the British became less popular.
He did speak of the Islas Malvinas (Falklands) war, a huge failing of the final dictatorship, and whilst a terrible loss of young lives did at least pave the way for dictatorship to end.
Interestingly, the Malvinas monument is right by the English Tower.
The peso has been through a challenging time with inflation hitting 200% last year. Over the past 10 or so years, people keep their money as USD in order to not lose value on their funds. The new government have promised to tackle it and recent figures suggest it is starting to turn around.
Atlas supporting the oldest tree in Argentina, with a 60m diameter!
The tour ended up at the Recoleta cemetery, being the third most visited cemetery in the world.
And of course, home to Eva Peron.
An Argentinian steak had to be done for dinner in the beautiful Puerto Madero area. Certainly the place for your evening stroll with many stylish people strolling past (again, very italian). The steak arrived in style, too!
Not far from the cruise ship port, we even heard our ship leave on its next journey north!
An evening of classical music in Teatro Colon, with one of the best acoustics on the world, certainly declared by Pavorotti.
Back home passing the main monument on the avenue, designed/copied from America. This is the place of celebrations. There were 5 million people here and around when they won the World Cup.
Heather and Mark's travel blog 