Buenos Aires, Argentina
The bridge is the Puenta de la Mujer Bridge (Bridge of the Women) at Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava and built in 2001. After arriving at my accommodation in downtown Buenos Aires, I took a walk from my hostel down to the waterfront. It was a beautiful spring day so I snapped a few pictures.
Puerto Madero is a new upscale neighborhood along the Rio de la Plata riverfront in Buenos Aires. There you can see the latest architectural trends in this hustling, bustling city.
My very first impression of Buenos Aires is that it is in a class with New York, Paris and London. Like New York, the main streets are crowded with people hurrying one way or another. Like Paris there is an abundance of old European-style buildings.
Take a Walking Tour
Buenos Aires is a huge city so I it will take a while for me to get acclimated to it and get my bearings. One of the first things I did was take a guided walking tour. Starting from the downtown microcenter, we headed out the pedestrian-only Calle Florida to the Plaza de General San Martin in the Retiro district. General Jose de San Martin and the Mounted Grenadiers played a major role in Argentina’s independence from Spain.
We headed north towards Recoletta and visited the famous Recoletta Cemetary. We viewed the mausolium of Eva Peron, who was the subject of the Hollywood movie Evita starring Madonna in the title role. The tomb has the name Familia Duarte because that was her family’s name. There is a long, strange story about Evita’s body being smuggled to Italy after her death and how it finally ended up back in Buenos Aires.
We ended up at the Floralis Genérica sculpture at the Plaza Naciones Unidas (Plaza of the United Nations) which is the University of Buenos Aires Law School. Young law students, the boys in black suits and girls in black skirts, were coming from their lectures.
Tenedor Libre Restauants
Later we ate at a restaurant that offered Tenedor Libre which means literally “free fork” in Spanish. These are all over the city. They are all-you-can-eat restaurants that have Parillo or Barbeque grilled meat. Many of the Tenedor Libre restaurants are Chinese, but they are the best value in Buenos Aires. Our bill was only 21 pesos for the meal plus a drink which was 6 pesos. The whole bill was only 30 pesos per person inlcuding a 3 peso tip for the waiter. A real bargain.