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| "Flora Argentina" by Emilio Andina (1875-1935) is one of many artworks at Carlos Thays Botanical Garden. |
Buenos Aires, the city of fair winds, is not what it was. From 1880 into the Depression years it was wealthy, mostly due to foreign trade, nearby agriculture and the development of railroads. It was a magnet for Italian and Spanish immigrants who turned the city into a multicultural center with a world-class opera house, broad boulevards and the tallest buildings in South America as well as the continent's first subway system. The post-World War II decades also saw the city prosper. Today it seems to me to be a city of shadows. Wisps of its former glamour glimmer here and there, but the mood seems to be one of diminished expectations.
That said, it's not a joyless place. The cafes and nightlife that people associate with Buenos Aires are still here, though maybe not so crowded in late 2024 as the country endured an austerity program that has led to a poverty rate above 50 percent. We stayed in the Palermo neighborhood, which has about a quarter-million people (the whole city is about three million). When we visited Buenos Aires in 2007 we stayed in Palermo Hollywood, a part of Palermo known for film studios, nightclubs and polo. This time we stayed in the adjacent Palermo Soho, which is known more for cafes, restaurants and shopping. Like the rest of the city, Palermo is in need of maintenance, particularly the rough-and-stumble sidewalks. Commercial buildings are a mix of the sparkling brand new, the well maintained or restored, and the how-is-that-still-standing. Shade trees stll make many streets photogenic.
Our hotel, the Miravida Soho Hotel & Wine Bar, was pleasant enough, though the wine bar that we were expecting wasn't there. We signed up for a 6pm wine tasting, which was conducted by someone brought in from the outside and shared with six other people. There were five wines, at least three of them quite good but none especially memorable. In a city where good wine is everywhere, we expected more. On the plus side, the breakfast that came with the room was made to order and pretty good. I liked the medialunas, sweet rolls shaped like croissants.
We arrived in Buenos Aires in time for dinner on Saturday, December 7, 2024, had two full days here and left late on Tuesday, Dec. 10 to fly home to San Diego. We spent one day walking almost three miles to Casa Rosada, the pink mid-19th-century government palace with the "Don't Cry for Me,Argentina" balcony overlooking the Plaza de Mayo. We briefly visited a small history museum that had only Spanish signage and had a pleasant lunch at a sidewalk table near the plaza. Then we made the long walk back to our hotel, passing through the Recoleta district, which is where Eva Peron is the most famous resident of a large cemetery. We saw her tomb in 2006 and didn't stop by this time.
The second day we visited the Carlos Thays Botanical Garden, a short walk from our hotel, and strolled many of the streets of Palermo Soho and Hollywood, including Arcos District, an upscale outlet mall where many Americans should feel right at home. Fortunately or unfortunately, our bags were stuffed with the cold-weather gear we had needed in Tierra del Fuego and we had no space for new purchases.
Lunches were all at sidewalk tables, one at Plaza de Mayo and the others in Soho. Finding a pleasant cafe in Palermo Soho is easy. Dinners were within short walks of the hotel. We had an outdoor table at La Pescadorita (the Fisherman), just over the border into Palermo Hollywood. We ate indoors at Casa Barro, which seems more like a bar than a restaurant. When we arrived, we had to push through the young crowd around an improvised bar outside and another crowd inside where a band was just finishing its happy hour set.
Here are some photos.
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| Our flight from Usuaia, Argentina, landed at the international airport, which is much nicer than the domestic airport here. All the other planes I saw here were at gates with normal jetways, not stairs on the tarmac. |
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| A sidewalk cafe at lunchtime in Palermo Soho. |
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| Choosing an ice cream is one of the many challenges of foreign travel. Lucciano's is one of many ice cream shops in Palermo Soho. |
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| A Patagonian pinot noir was among the offerings at our hotel's wine tasting. |
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| The Casa Rosada (Pink House), orginally a customs building, has been the seat of the national goevernment in Argentina for about a century. In the movie "Evita," Madonna sang "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from one of the smaller balconies. |
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| The Plaza de Mayo is often the scene of protests, most notably perhaps when mothers of people who "disappeared" during the 1970s-1980s so-called Dirty War would demonstrate here for the "alive reappeared" return of their children. They helped topple a brutal military regime. Today, rocks bearing the names of people who died during the covid pandemic serve as a protest against the national government, which is seen as having done too little to protect people from the virus. |
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| A shopping street near Plaza de Mayo on a Sunday afternoon. |
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| Buenos Aires has many reminders of its prosperous past. |
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| The Carlos Thays Botanical Garden is off busy Avenida Sante Fe within easy walking distance of Palermo Soho. |
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| Nile lilies at Distrito Arcos, an open-air shopping mall in Palermo just a few blocks from the botanical garden. |
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| Many retailers in Palermo Soho, such as this clothing store, use English for a bit of cachet. |
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| This shop seems to be going for attitude as well as cachet. We were there during the Christmas shopping season and many stores were decorated for the holidays. |
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