Buenos Aires: Decaying Grandeur

So a week in Buenos Aires and it just wasn´t enough.

What a city, what a city. A city that has to be felt as much as seen. A city that can get under your skin, and it is hard to say why.

Perhaps it is the old decaying buildings, or the attempts at modernization. Perhaps it is the deep culture from it's street side cafes and busy back street parilla's or the deep love of tango. Exploring the city is in someway similar to tango it must be danced, explored and felt.

We spent long hours in the day walking the streets, from the ritzy houses and shops of Palermo. We explored the decaying and wonderful cemetary of La Recolta, the resting place for Evita and the city's elite. A cemetary full of opulence and decay. Some graves almost could have been store fronts, displaying caskettes, pictures and even plants through large glass panes. Others were full of garbage, dust, cobwebs and even open caskettes. Touristy it can be, but wandering the back alleys was a lesson in architectural stlyes and a forgotten salute to the dead.

We visited a tango hall and spent time at cafe's enjoying a mid afternoon coffee and media lunas. Free tango exhibitions abound and we took in a few roadside displays. We were fortunate to be there during the Tango Festival and took in some lessons as well as some shopping.

The cobblestone district of San Telmo sold everything from evening gloves to old gramophones. We visited La Boca where the corrugated steel buildings are painted lively colours and the colours of the local futbal team.

Our last night we ate a steak at a local parilla with locals. Huge steak, bottle of wine, salad and chips for under 20USD. No frills and what a tender steak. Seemed like a fitting end to our time in South America.

Leaving tomorrow is a melancholy thought for us. It feels like we have completed all we wanted to get done down here, but it was just enough to scratch the surface and to reveal what a wonderful and magical continent South America is, full of diverse and intriguing cultures, wildlife and sights. We will be back.