Buenos Aires – Day One

So today was the day we went on our weekend trips. We started VERY early this morning. It was about 4:30a.m. when we started working ourselves out of bed. We had to leave for the airport at about 5:30 so we could make early flights. A large group left Thursday night with the rest leaving some time on Friday.

I decided a month or so ago that I was going to Buenos Aires this weekend.I did this because I am staying after the classes are done and heading to Rio. Rio is where everyone else in the group headed for this weekend.

Welcome to Argentina

I arrived in Buenos Aires after a three hour flight on TAM airlines. If you ever get the chance, fly TAM. I have to say it was one of the most interesting flights I have flown on – in a good way. Before the flight, they provided us with lip balm, ear plugs and eye covers so that we could sleep. Then everyone on the plane got a hot towel. We were served drinks and dinner as well. It is amazing what we have lost in the United States with the airlines trying to scrap every dime.

I have to make a quick recommendation for travelers. I used Lonely Planet’s Buenos Aires Encounter book to plan my trip. It is a smaller book that provides the main things to see in each of Buenos Aires’ neighborhoods. It has been great and I have seen so much already on my first day of the trip.

One thing I found out after setting out on my journey of the neighborhoods was how easy and quick it was to walk around the city. I know I am missing a large part of the city and only seeing the tourist areas, but I have been amazed at the amount of distance I covered today in such a short time.

My first stop was the Plaza de Congresso. Here I saw the Palacio de Congresso. It was modeled on the US Congress building as you can see by the pictures.

Palacio de Congresso

I then proceeded to cross the Ave de 9 of Julio. This street has at least 16 lanes across. At the mid-point of the street is a huge Obelisco.

Obelisco on the Ave 9 of Julio

After this, I headed toward the Plaza de Mayo.

Plaze de Mayo

The Plaza is famous for its protests. In fact, there were protesters hanging out in the plaza today.

Protesters

But another famous thing about this Plaza was the Casa Rosada. This is the Presidential home of Buenos Aires that is just like the White House.

Casa Rosada

I then headed down Defensa which is known as a student trendy area. This is also known for its little markets selling second hand and retro items. These were really cool to look back into the past. One thing that was interesting was they were re-working the road. In fact, they are manually placing every brick into the ground for the road. A time consuming but awesome way of keeping the city the way it is.

Street Work

Next I walked up Defensa which turned into Reconquista north of the Plaza de Mayo. This road is very trendy and upscale. A lot of high end shopping and banking is done here. The street is very up to date in comparison to the South side of Plaza de Mayo.

Reconquista

My final stop for pictures was at Plaza San Martin in the neighborhood of Retiro. In this Plaza there is a 76m tower called the Monumental Torre (Torre de los Ingleses). It was a donation but the city’s British community in 1916. Apparently it was then a bombing target during the Falklands War in 1982 against Britain.

Monumental Torre

Like I just mentioned, there was the Falklands War against Britain. Also here, there is a monument to those who died in this war. It was guarded by two guards standing there. It was very interesting.

Falklands War Memorial

After all of this sight seeing, I ended up walking for quite a while looking at the various shopping malls around the different neighborhoods that were on my way back to my hotel. It was great to see the kinds of items they were selling. Most of these little malls were just selling retro and vintage clothing – second hand clothes. Mixed in were the regular retail establishments that we could expect to see.

I ended my journey shortly after sunset here. The weather was great as it warmed up in the day. I also ran across my first protest. This was about two blocks from my hotel. It was students out in the street blocking half of the road. It seemed that the police did not care too much and were redirecting traffic around them. Several things I have read indicated that many protests just start up and happen at random times.

Tomorrow’s conclusion to Buenos Aires: Rodin’s Thinker, Cemetario de la Recolata, some shopping and maybe journey into the Palermo neighborhood to the Japanese gardens at Jardin Japonese, zoo and botanical gardens. If I accomplish all of that, it will be a good trip.

There are lots of pictures from today. I recommend looking at them by clicking here.