Getting Around in Buenos Aires
Walking through the streets of Buenos Aires I was initially very much lost until I started realise that it was constructed in one massive grid – like many cities – with larger arterials running east-west and north south. Libertador, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Mayo/Rivadavia, Independencia, San Juan arranged east-west named from north to south and...
Read MoreCongreso, Abasto and Once
Head west from the Plaza de Mayo crossing Avenida 9 de Julio and continue until the road swerves to the right, opens out into a plaza and becomes Avenida Rivadavia. These are the plazas Moreno and Congreso and in front of the latter sits the congress building; a large, imposing and dirty building with...
Read MoreMicrocentro – Puerto Madero – Retiro
These are the big business districts of Buenos Aires. My first and only experience of Puerto Madero was a shock because I walked from San Telmo up the Plaza de Mayo and over the Puente de la Mujer (Bridge of the Woman) to Puerto Madero. It was like diving into cold water. One moment...
Read MoreLa Boca
This was where Pedro de Mendoza founded Buenos Aires in 1536 and it served as the initial port for the city before a better site with deeper waters was found to the north. For centuries it housed black slaves before immigrants from Europe began to settle in the area. When nations around the world...
Read MorePalermo
Enter Cony – couchsurfing friend, or let me rephrase that: friend who I met through couchsurfing. She offered to show me parts of the city and the first destination was Palermo, where we strolled north from the Plaza Italia to the Planetarium before sharing mate on the banks of Lago de Palermo in the...
Read MoreRecoleta
Located in the northern neighbourhood just to the north of the absolute centre, Recoleta boasts many parks, the Museum of Bellas Artes (classic art), Nacional Library and a Cementario, which is like a graveyard on steroids. I walked the parks by day, the streets by night and on one overcast late afternoon, I found...
Read More