Buenos Aires - La Boca and Plaza de Mayo
Tuesday 10 March
After the drive around the famous Bombonera football stadium, we continued on to the Barrio of La Boca, famous for its colourful tenement houses reflecting its strong Italian immigrant heritage and is often described as an open-air museum. We walked up the Caminito (little walkway), a pedestrian street surrounded by the brightly coloured tin houses which is where the immigrants lived and which are mostly now converted into artists’ studios and restaurants. These were traditionally painted in what was leftover paint from the shipyards and its winding layout is due to the fact that, until the early 20th century, a stream ran through it. The Italian community which settled in the La Boca neighbourhood is what gave the area its distinctive character The whole area was absolutely buzzing with music and was so vibrant, restaurants, cafés and bars were in full swing – I just wanted to stay there all afternoon, but unfortunately that was not on the tour agenda!
Our next stop was to El Zanjón de Granados - the story of Buenos Aires told by a mansion. In 1985 Jorge Eckstein was looking for a property to open a restaurant. He bought an 1830 house which was pretty much in ruins and when the workers were transforming it, the ground gave way and Jorge realised that the potential and historical value were far greater than he had imagined. The house had a series of underground tunnels and relics from different eras. The labyrinth of brick tunnels revealed interesting details of the urbanisation process, such as porcelain, dolls, tools and horseshoes, and the history of Buenos Aires including cisterns, a culvert passage, a river passage, several courtyards and an observation tower. Have a look at the photos below and you can see what a magnificent job they did of preserving this history. Needless to say, the restaurant never opened. It’s a fascinating story, but I won’t lie – I would rather have spent the time here back in amongst the colours and action of the Caminito!
Last stop was to the Plaza de Mayo to see two very important buildings. The first was to the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires to see the mausoleum of General José de San Martin. This marble mausoleum is in a dedicated chapel on the right side of the main nave. You may recall from my earlier blog on Mendoza that I mentioned he had died in1850 in Boulogne-sur-Mer in France. We didn’t know until today that his remains were repatriated to Buenos Aires in 1880 and laid to rest in this beautiful Cathedral. They are housed in a black sarcophagus guarded by three life-size female figures representing the countries he liberated: Argentina, Chile and Peru. Members of the Regiment of Patricians (Grenadiers) stand guard, and our guide had timed it perfectly, we watched as the guards marched along the street from the Presidential Palace, the Casa Rosada, and into the Cathedral for the changing of the guard ceremony which occurs every two hours from 7.00am to 5pm. It was very impressive.
And yes! The Casa Rosada, on the other side of the Plaza – the “pink house” is the President of the Argentine Republic’s official workplace. It is one of the most emblematic buildings in Buenos Aires and has been declared a National Historic Monument of Argentina. The historic balcony (see my photos below) is where Eva Perón gave crucial speeches to the crowd gathered in the Plaza de Mayo, the one on 1 May 1952 being one of her last and most remembered messages. As a side note here, Madonna was allowed to lip-sync on the balcony of the Casa Rosada in February 1996 for the film Evita. Despite initial government denial due to controversy over her reputation, President Carlos Menem eventually granted permission for the filming of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” here.
And that concluded what was a huge day of sightseeing for us, but we really felt we had covered so much and seen so much of this beautiful old city with its incredible, majestic old buildings and monuments. It was back to the ship for our final night, and what a night it was! Viking had organised one of the top Tango Dance companies in the city, to come aboard and perform this passionate and dramatic dance, their technical skill with those dramatic lifts and high kicks was unbelievable. It was such a treat and an amazing finale to what has been a wonderful 17 nights!