A Pope, a Queen, and Messi

Skyline of Buenos Aires

On our first full day in Buenos Aires, we took two excursions. In the morning, we did a tour of the city of Buenos Aires, where we saw the highlights. In the afternoon, we took a ride down the Parana River Delta on a sightseeing cruise boat. This post is about the city tour. The next post will cover the cruise. 

Our tour guide's name this morning was Gabriela. All our tour guides are local to the area we are touring, and they all speak English, but sometimes the way they phrase things are a little different than the way we might say something. For example, Gabriela asked people to raise their hands for something, and she worded it by saying "Rise up the Hand". 

Gabriela

As we drove around on the bus, Gabriela pointed out some of the interesting places we passed. She explained that Buenos Aires has a European style and architecture more so than any other city in South America. Argentina is the second largest country in South America, second only to Brazil. Inflation tends to be a bit higher here than in Brazil. If you recall from my previous post, the conversion rate for Brazil was 5 Real to 1 US dollar. Here the conversion rate is about 363 Argentine Pesos to 1 US dollar. It can be a shock to go to dinner and be handed a bill for $18,188 until you do the math and realize your dinner will not drain your savings, but instead comes to $50. It can be confusing, because even though the currency is pesos, they use the $ sign. If they are referring to US dollars instead of pesos, it will say U$S.

Our first stop where we exited the bus and walked around was in the downtown area of Buenos Aires at the Plaza de Mayo, a square surrounded by government buildings. Since Buenos Aires is the capital of Argentina, many important buildings are located here. For example, the Presidential Palace is at one end of the plaza. The building is painted pink, and so is referred to as the "Pink House". There is a balcony at the top, and for those of you who are a little familiar with Argentine history, this balcony is where Juan and Eva Peron addressed the people of Argentina, who were standing in the square where we were standing, during the time that Juan Peron was president. Evita (Eva) Peron was one of the most famous women in Argentine history and according to Gabriela, was somewhat controversial. There was a movie made about her life starring Madonna as Evita Peron. The politics of today in Argentina sound like the people are just as divided here as in our country. They recently held a presidential election. The incumbent did not run, and the new president is of a different party, as people were fed up with inflation and possibly other issues. The new President will take office on Sunday, as in 3 days. Gabriela reminded us many times that they will have a new president in 3 days. Sounds like she can't wait. She doesn't seem to be a fan of the outgoing president. She said that he plans to move to Spain once he is out of office, and thought that that didn't say much about his loyalty to Argentina.

Plaza de Mayo

The Pink House

Balcony where Juan and Eva Peron addressed the people

Here are some other pictures from around the square.

We're not technically in Patagonia yet, but not too far away.

One of the other buildings that fronted the square was the Metropolitan Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Buenos Aires. What this Cathedral is most known for is it's famous pastor: Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, known today as Pope Francis. It is typical for a country to be proud of the people from their nation who are well known. Gabriela told us that an Argentine lady, Maxima, married the King of the Netherlands, and so became Queen Maxima. Therefore, says Gabriela, Argentina has a Pope, a Queen, and Messi (a famous soccer player), and she hastily added with enthusiasm "and a new president in 3 days!" 

Metropolitan Cathedral

We walked around the Metropolitan Cathedral and took pictures of the beautiful church, altar, and many side chapels. It reminded me of the Basilica in Washington DC that has many side chapels. One of the side chapels in the Metropolitan Cathedral contained the tomb of Jose de San Martin, who is a national hero for the role he played in Argentina's independence.

Beautiful mosaic tile floor

One of the Stations of the Cross

Buenos Aires is a large city and that is reflected in one of the city's streets. Known as the 9th of July Avenue, this street has 18 lanes. It is a major thoroughfare and it is named for Argentina's Independence Day. The hotel that we stayed at on Tuesday night was a half block from this busy avenue. When we walked to the restaurant where we ate dinner that evening, we had to cross this busy 18 lane avenue. In fact, the pedestrian sign doesn't say "Walk" here, it says "Run like heck!" No, just kidding. You cross the wide avenue in stages, like you might cross 4 lanes and then wait for the next light to turn, etc. It takes awhile to cross the street.

We returned to the bus and continued our tour of Buenos Aires. At one point, I noticed the markings on the street in a few locations, where I kept seeing the word "Mire" with arrows. I wondered why my name (maiden name) was written on the streets and on some signs. Later I asked Gabriela what Mire meant and she pronounced it Mee-ray and said it means to look. That made sense since I usually saw it at intersections.

The next stop where we got off the bus was to tour a house/museum. I didn't catch the complete story, but it sounds something like this: a family purchased the house intending to renovate it and discovered some underground tunnels and artifacts in the process. They went ahead with the renovations and restored the house. They had to build a cistern for water supply because the nearby river was polluted. Eventually the house became a historical sight and was turned into a museum. At the end of the tour, they treated us to some empanadas, soft drinks, and wine. Later, when trying to capture the story in writing for this blog, I told Joe that I remembered, from the tour, some things like old house being refurbished, artifacts, tunnels, museum, etc. I asked what he remembered about the house and he said empanadas and wine! Sounds about right.

Cistern

Joe's favorite part!

Next we headed to the Italian neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Along the way, we passed a school where the children were outside celebrating, with music and lots of dancing. The tour guide told us that that was a kindergarten class, and they were celebrating because the children were graduating as today was the last day of school before three months of summer vacation. The children won't return to school until late February.

Kindergarten graduation celebration

The Italian section of Buenos Aires is known as La Boca. The main street in La Boca is Via Caminito, and is a narrow street with very colorful houses and shops. La Boca means the mouth, and is so named because it is near the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. We got off the bus with an opportunity to do a little shopping. I bought two Argentina postcards for my daughter, Sarah, who teaches world cultures, and is doing a project with her class where they are collecting postcards from many different countries.