In the land of Eva Peron

Well, you will all recognize this picture as the beginning of another adventure. This time? I will revisit South America but on the eastern side of the continent this time, Argentina and Brazil.

We arrived in Buenos Aires early this morning, but our first activity with the Montreal tour operator WingDing’s semi-organized tour isn’t until tomorrow evening. We lost no time in venturing out to see what we could see from our hotel in the San Telmo district. It’s within walking distance of some of many of the sights of the downtown core.

Within our first 5 minutes just down the street from our hotel we discovered the “Changing of the Guard” at the Plaza de las Armas Argentine Army in front of the Department of Defence Building. Not only was there pomp, circumstance and a band, they even sang as they departed.

Another 5 minutes brought us to the Plaza de Mayo, a huge plaza which is the oldest and most important plaza in Argentina and which has witnessed many protests. It was in this square that the May 25, 1810 revolution took place. The revolution marked the beginning of the Argentine struggle for independence. They also used to hold bull fights in Plaza de Mayo.

At one end of the plaza stands the Casa Rosada, Government House, or the seat of the National Government declared a Historical Monument in 1942. It’s a little older than our seat of government, having been built in 1580. The pink colour was apparently originally made by mixing lime with cow blood, to defend against the humidity.

Eva “Evita” Peron, considered by some as the spiritual leader of the country, and who with her husband struggled to bring labourers out of poverty, spoke many times to massive crowds from the balcony of the Casa Rosada including the most noteworthy one during a demonstration in 1945 to led to the release of her husband Juan Peron.

And no we didn’t stand in the square and sing Don’t Cry for Me Argentina, but it felt like we should!

This equestrian monument in front of the Casa Rosada is a tribute to Manuel Belgrano, who was the creator of the Argentine flag, and leader in the country’s independence. We were wondering about the stones at the base of this statute and I was able to find that it started organically when the families and friends of victims of the COVID pandemic started placing stones with the names of their loved ones at the site. Kind of cool that it transformed the monument to one that memorializes an important historical figure as well as more recent victims of more recent tragedy.

Although I’m no student of architecture, the architecture in view around the square and down the many impressive avenues leading off the plaza was amazing. We walked down many of them, including Calle Florida, which was the first pedestrian only shopping street in the city in the former cinema district. It has seen better days but still offers a wide range of shopping opportunities.

We walked for a while along a huge thoroughfare called Avenue 9 de Julio, named in honour of Argentina’s Independence Day. It has up to 7 lanes of traffic in each direction including a two-way, two-lane rapid bus corridor in between. It is claimed to be the widest avenue in the world, currently. The stretches of trees (including beautiful purple flowering jacarandas – my Millie would approve as purple is one of her most favourite colours) and grassy areas in between the lanes made it feel not so much like the 401.

At one of the larger intersections, is Plaza de la Republica (Republic Square) where the Obelisk of Buenos Aires is rooted. It was built in 1936 from reinforced concrete to commemorate the quadricentennial of the first foundation of the city. At 68 meters you can see it a long way off. Along Avenida 9 de Julia we also saw the south facing side of the Ministry of Public Works Building where a mural of Eva Peron, made of steel 31 meters tall. by 24 meters wide. There is also another on the north facing side, towards the aristocratic area, where she is seen giving a speech to the people. They are illuminated at night, although we haven’t seen that yet. Perhaps tomorrow.

And of course my blog would not be complete without a reference to an election being held somewhere I’m travelling! The day before we arrived was the mid-term elections in Argentina where the existing government was re-elected but with a larger majority which will allow them to continue with their austerity plans. This is a sign from one of his opposition.

And who doesn’t love door pictures?!

After all our walking we definitely needed a cuppa and some sustenance and so we stopped at a not-very-Argentinian named cafe called London City for some tea and sandwich. The loose tea was put in boiling water in this heavy pot and I was told to wait until the grains of time ran out to pour!

Then it was back to the hotel to put up our feet, have an early supper in the hotel dining room and then hopefully we’ll have a good night sleep after too much time of being on the go to get here.