{"id":1450,"date":"2007-11-06T22:45:50","date_gmt":"2007-11-07T02:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2007\/11\/06\/buenos-aires-part-uno\/"},"modified":"2007-11-06T23:03:30","modified_gmt":"2007-11-07T03:03:30","slug":"buenos-aires-part-uno","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/2007\/11\/06\/buenos-aires-part-uno\/","title":{"rendered":"Buenos Aires, Part Uno"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, here I am day three into my trip to Buenos Aires. The weather has been spectacular, though today was a bit warm for my tastes (lower 80\u2019s). I probably should have blogged more regularly since I\u2019m already forgetting what I did yesterday, not to mention two days ago. <\/font>But I\u2019ll start at the beginning. <\/font><\/p>\n

As a result of that tropical storm that was approaching the\u00a0coast on Saturday, we changed our departure flight to Saturday morning instead of Saturday afternoon. That got us into Dallas\/Fort Worth with a 6+ hour lay-over. To make it more enjoyable, we rented a car and drove to Fort Worth where we went to the Botanical Gardens\/Japanese Garden and then onto the Fort Worth Stock Yards. How cool was that!?! We got to sit in on some sort of cattle auction in this enormous barn-like structure. In between the auctions a guy would come out and bull ride. It smelled like shit (literally), but it was fun.<\/font><\/p>\n

The flight from DFW to Buenos Aires was quite nice \u2013 even at 10.5 hours. We were in business class of their retro-fitted planes. That meant we had these seating pods that would recline almost flat (almost\u2026not quite). They had individual entertainment units that stored countless songs, movies, TV shows and games. You could either keep it in the back of the pod in front of you or take it out and put it on your lap. Sweet! Randy has made me accustomed to traveling a certain way.<\/font><\/p>\n

So, we arrived in Buenos Aires on Sunday morning headed straight for the condo. As a result of a marathon, the driver brought us the back way into the city \u2013 through some pretty sketchy looking neighborhoods chock full of graffiti and empty buildings. Little did we know that that is what most of the city looks like (more on that later).<\/font><\/p>\n

Our condo is located in the Palermo district, bordering Barrio Norte \u2013 which are two areas packed with shops and restaurants. We\u2019re on the 8th<\/sup> (and top) floor of building where each unit is a two story loft. That means we\u2019re actually up around the height of a 16 story building. We have a decent urban view. <\/font><\/p>\n

We weren\u2019t feeling any jetlag since the flight is practically due south so after settling in and showering, we headed out to San Telmo. This is an old district that, on Sundays, has a public market\/antiques fair. There were street musicians, tango dancers, and vendors everywhere selling useless things you can\u2019t live without. The area was a bit gritty (and all guide books encouraged you NOT to visit after dark. However, during the day it felt quite safe.<\/font><\/p>\n

It was here that we first noticed some gorgeous old buildings\u2026in terrible states of disrepair. And this, so far, has been the common theme in all of the areas we\u2019ve visited (San Telmo, Montserrat, Microcentro, Retiro, Palermo, Palermo Viejo, etc\u2026) You can tell the city at one point was quite prosperous with architecture rivaling Paris. But decades of decay has taken it\u2019s toll. Even the well-maintained buildings are tagged with graffiti on the lower levels. It\u2019s a shame.<\/font><\/p>\n

Anyway, we were exhausted by that evening so we headed to a local market, picked up some groceries, and had dinner in the condo. On our way back to the condo, we also discovered that the screen on Randy\u2019s camera got cracked\u2026and stopped working completely. Since I didn\u2019t bring a camera, we\u2019re now limited to taking photos using the tiny viewfinder and not the screen. This also means we\u2019re unable to adjust camera settings for night time photos, or photos taken inside, outside, in sunny conditions or in shady conditions. <\/font><\/p>\n

On Monday, we decided to explore Palermo Viejo (hip and trendy) and Avenue Cordoba (where you can buy ultra cheap clothes). One great thing about Argentina (for tourists) is that locals can\u2019t afford to import clothes from other countries so there are countless local designers making handmade clothes. And they make some damn creative stuff. I picked up four shirts (3 well-stitched dress shirts and one polo shirt) for under $100.<\/font><\/p>\n

But you can find better bargains at restaurants. For example, we had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich and two bottles of sparkling water for $5 (including tip). We had a dinner consisting of two appetizer, two entrees, two desserts, two bottles of sparkling water and a bottle of wine all for under $15 each. <\/font><\/p>\n

Today we headed to the center of the city where all of the government and historic buildings are located (Congress, Supreme Court, Metropolitan Cathedral, etc\u2026). Once again, some buildings were amazing \u2013 yet closer examination showed pealed paint, faux finishes, and lots of cracks. One of my highlights for the day was riding the A-line subway. It\u2019s the oldest subway line in
\nSouth America \u2013 dating back to 1913 \u2013 and they still use the original train cars. They\u2019re made completely of wood with double hung windows that you can pull down. And the lighting is frosted glass globes suspended from the ceiling. You also have to open the doors manually to get off (or on). <\/font><\/p>\n

It was also on this subway line that I had my first experience with a pick-pocketer. He wasn\u2019t able to get anything (I don\u2019t carry a wallet in my back pocket) but he tried.<\/font><\/p>\n

OK \u2013 slight distraction: I\u2019m watching Argentinian television as I type this and a commercial for Playboy magazine just came on the air. It showed the cover of the current issue then flipped the pages open to show the naked photos inside!!! It\u2019s 6:30PM on a Tuesday.<\/font><\/p>\n

Back to today. After the exciting subway ride, we visited the gorgeous (yet rundown) Metropolitan Cathedral. This edifice rivaled churches you\u2019d find in Europe, yet can\u2019t find in North America. Such a shame.<\/font><\/p>\n

We then walked down Calle Florida, a pedestrianized street filled with restaurants and shops. We had lunch at a caf\u00e9 (bread, dinner sized entr\u00e9e, two bottle of water\u2026$8 each), then continued to Gallerias Pacificas \u2013 an old shopping mall designed like that famous one in Milan. It\u2019s essentially like streets covered in glass it\u2019s like you\u2019re walking down a <\/font>Parisian Street. The center has a gorgeous rotunda with frescoes. <\/font><\/p>\n

And that brings us to now. I\u2019ve got the hiccups, Randy is napping, and I\u2019m seeing porn on network television. Our current plan is to take a boat to Uruguay tomorrow. WOO HOO \u2013 another stamp for my passport!<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, here I am day three into my trip to Buenos Aires. The weather has been spectacular, though today was a bit warm for my tastes (lower 80\u2019s). I probably should have blogged more regularly since I\u2019m already forgetting what I did yesterday, not to mention two days ago. But I\u2019ll start at the beginning. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1450\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}