Awoke feeling full from last nights steak, but that didn't stop us from heading down to the buffet breakfast. The Claridge full American breakfast best so far. The scrambled egg soup and raw bacon not quite so soupy nor raw. Rest of breads, fruits and sweets very appetizing. Our Four Balconies tour was scheduled for 10:00 am so we had time to get organized. Federico picked us up and we were off.
First stop, La Boca where we learned about the passions of Argentinian life - Futbol, Politics and Tango. These passions are personified by Diego Maradona,
Eva Peron and Carlos Gardel. These three celebrities shared a common story of rags to riches, and memorable flame out. Carlos Gardel was killed in a plane crash, Evita died from ovarian cancer and Diego lost to the ravages of cocaine addiction. A major attraction in the vicinity is the La Bombonera futbol stadium. It seats 50.000 and when Boca Junior plays Club Atletico River Plate (los millionarios), it is apparently quite a spectacle. Of interest is that Coca Cola sponsors Boca Junior, but the River Plate team colours are red. So Coca Cola signs here are black and white, not the conventional red and white. We walked through the colourful tenement housing in the barrio, which the city is trying to upscale into a tourist destination with shopping and restaurants (Federico refered to this as "gentrification"). It is a bit of a tourist trap with tango dancers vying to get your attention to be photographed with you (for a fee). This area claims to be the origin of the Tango, where there was much poverty in amongst the brothels. The brothels were supplied by immigrants from Poland (mostly jewish) an the term polaquita was coined to refer to these prostitutes. Others from France - franchutas, were considered high class whores (not my words). Prostitution was a major component of the early history of this community. While waiting their turn with the ladies, apparently the men would pass time dancing together which apparently was the very earliest formulation of tango.
Next stop, San Telmo. This area was inhabited by the wealthy before the plague. Most abandoned the area to get away from the deadly disease. Consequently, lower classes moved in as took over abandoned homes. Now the area is also undergoing rejuvenation, again referred to here as gentrification. The area boasts museos and artisans. We window shopped at a old and famous silver smith, the make beautiful roses from silver. One such was gifted to Lady Diana upon her wedding by the government of Argentina. We walked through a big mercado with antique dealers (Karen noticed a set of golf clubs like mine) and back out onto the street. Federico pointed out a famous parrilla - La Brigada and I made note or the location in order to return.
From there we drove through Puerto Madero where the docks where originally designed for smaller ships to access and therefore the system is not used extensively any longer. We drove through some of the newer apartments and condos that are very expensive and occupied by the nuevo riche (brokers and lawyers).
Next to Plaza de Mayo which according to Federico is the nerve center of the country. Famous speeches from the Presidential Palace (Casa Rosado), large demonstrations, political unrest. We observed a 1.000 day old demonstration by army reservists claiming rights to benefits from the Falklands war of the early 80's. Every Thursday, Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo commemorate the disappearance of up to 30.000 men during the "Dirty War". The air force bombed this square at one point to quell a demonstration, and demonstrators have been shot and killed by police here. Federico took us on the oldest subway in the Americas. This was built prior to any kind of standards, and consequently the train cars cannot be replaced, but have been preserved and repaired. Old wooden benches, mechanical doors. We road two stops before d
isembarking to visit Cafe Tortoni, a cafe opened in 1858, but the wait was too long to enter so we decided to carry on.
Our last official stop was Recoleta at the Franciscan Monestary adjacent to the famous Cementario de la Recoleta. Inside the cemetary is a labyrinthine necropolis. The mauseleums are often ostentatious and representative of the vanity of Argentines (Federico's words). Eva Peron rests here along with many other famous and infamous, the who's who of Buenos Aires.
Afterwards, Federico dropped us off at Cluny restaurant in trendy Palmero. We had a delightful lunch before finding our way to the Subte Verde metro at Scalabrini Ortiz station. We bought tickets ($1,10 ea) and rode to Callao station on a very crowded tram (Karen was very nervous). There was some kind of scuffle between a man and a woman, but we couldn't figure out what was going on. We later learned this was likely a form of distraction employed by sophisticated pick pockets. We escaped unscathed. From Callao, we walked back to our hotel where we had a siesta and dropped by the pool for a cerveca.
Tonight, we had our Tango show. The transfer was by a bus to El Querandi. This is a smaller club and we got a pretty good table. Dinner and wine were typical for a dinner show, nothing exceptional, but not terrible. The show was really good, providing artistic representation of the history and development of Tango. Music, singing and dancing was great. Transfer back to the hotel and ended a long day of adventure in Buenos Aires.
First stop, La Boca where we learned about the passions of Argentinian life - Futbol, Politics and Tango. These passions are personified by Diego Maradona,
Eva Peron and Carlos Gardel. These three celebrities shared a common story of rags to riches, and memorable flame out. Carlos Gardel was killed in a plane crash, Evita died from ovarian cancer and Diego lost to the ravages of cocaine addiction. A major attraction in the vicinity is the La Bombonera futbol stadium. It seats 50.000 and when Boca Junior plays Club Atletico River Plate (los millionarios), it is apparently quite a spectacle. Of interest is that Coca Cola sponsors Boca Junior, but the River Plate team colours are red. So Coca Cola signs here are black and white, not the conventional red and white. We walked through the colourful tenement housing in the barrio, which the city is trying to upscale into a tourist destination with shopping and restaurants (Federico refered to this as "gentrification"). It is a bit of a tourist trap with tango dancers vying to get your attention to be photographed with you (for a fee). This area claims to be the origin of the Tango, where there was much poverty in amongst the brothels. The brothels were supplied by immigrants from Poland (mostly jewish) an the term polaquita was coined to refer to these prostitutes. Others from France - franchutas, were considered high class whores (not my words). Prostitution was a major component of the early history of this community. While waiting their turn with the ladies, apparently the men would pass time dancing together which apparently was the very earliest formulation of tango.Next stop, San Telmo. This area was inhabited by the wealthy before the plague. Most abandoned the area to get away from the deadly disease. Consequently, lower classes moved in as took over abandoned homes. Now the area is also undergoing rejuvenation, again referred to here as gentrification. The area boasts museos and artisans. We window shopped at a old and famous silver smith, the make beautiful roses from silver. One such was gifted to Lady Diana upon her wedding by the government of Argentina. We walked through a big mercado with antique dealers (Karen noticed a set of golf clubs like mine) and back out onto the street. Federico pointed out a famous parrilla - La Brigada and I made note or the location in order to return.
From there we drove through Puerto Madero where the docks where originally designed for smaller ships to access and therefore the system is not used extensively any longer. We drove through some of the newer apartments and condos that are very expensive and occupied by the nuevo riche (brokers and lawyers).
Next to Plaza de Mayo which according to Federico is the nerve center of the country. Famous speeches from the Presidential Palace (Casa Rosado), large demonstrations, political unrest. We observed a 1.000 day old demonstration by army reservists claiming rights to benefits from the Falklands war of the early 80's. Every Thursday, Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo commemorate the disappearance of up to 30.000 men during the "Dirty War". The air force bombed this square at one point to quell a demonstration, and demonstrators have been shot and killed by police here. Federico took us on the oldest subway in the Americas. This was built prior to any kind of standards, and consequently the train cars cannot be replaced, but have been preserved and repaired. Old wooden benches, mechanical doors. We road two stops before d
isembarking to visit Cafe Tortoni, a cafe opened in 1858, but the wait was too long to enter so we decided to carry on.Our last official stop was Recoleta at the Franciscan Monestary adjacent to the famous Cementario de la Recoleta. Inside the cemetary is a labyrinthine necropolis. The mauseleums are often ostentatious and representative of the vanity of Argentines (Federico's words). Eva Peron rests here along with many other famous and infamous, the who's who of Buenos Aires.
Afterwards, Federico dropped us off at Cluny restaurant in trendy Palmero. We had a delightful lunch before finding our way to the Subte Verde metro at Scalabrini Ortiz station. We bought tickets ($1,10 ea) and rode to Callao station on a very crowded tram (Karen was very nervous). There was some kind of scuffle between a man and a woman, but we couldn't figure out what was going on. We later learned this was likely a form of distraction employed by sophisticated pick pockets. We escaped unscathed. From Callao, we walked back to our hotel where we had a siesta and dropped by the pool for a cerveca.
Tonight, we had our Tango show. The transfer was by a bus to El Querandi. This is a smaller club and we got a pretty good table. Dinner and wine were typical for a dinner show, nothing exceptional, but not terrible. The show was really good, providing artistic representation of the history and development of Tango. Music, singing and dancing was great. Transfer back to the hotel and ended a long day of adventure in Buenos Aires.
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