The Ministry of Health Building in Buenos Aires
Passionate, and alive with an infectious crackling energy, the Argentine capital is a breathlessly romantic city, which blends old-world colonial architecture with a down-to-earth Latin American clamour. Famed for steamy tango interplays, and expertly seared steak slabs, a visit to Buenos Aires is a fiery fiesta for the senses. Mighty palm trees - that look like exploding fireworks - stand tall in Plaza de Mayo, the heart of this sprawling cosmopolitan capital of 48 barrios. The square has served as the stage for many fundamental events in this country’s history, and the location where the seeds of independence were sewn continues to serve as the city’s gathering point - and is a place for solidarity, rebellion and revolution.
The presidential Casa Rosada’s salmon-hued Palatial Palace borders the plaza, while nearby Museum Nacional de Bellas Artes houses the largest collection of public art in Latin America. Teatro Colón, the opulent 1908 opera house. The gargantuan, precipitous terraces of Bombonera Stadium form another of Buenos Aires’s incredible venues, and a wall of noise emanates from it when Boca Juniors take to the field. Juicy steak and punchy Malbec flow in the city’s parrillas – steakhouses - while glitzy bars and thumping nightclubs welcome revelers late into the night. It’s not just the meat that sizzles here either - tango dancers fill milongas - dance halls - to strut passionately until the early hours. Sip steaming mate, the country’s national drink, shop in covered markets, and explore Cementerio de la Recoleta - a city of grand graves and intricate memorials honouring presidents, politicians and notable Argentine heroes from history.
We were in Buenos Aires in 2010
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We took the Evita Peron tour.
Evita's involvement in politics and social work gained her a powerful position and she became known to all as Evita, unofficial saint to millions. Her untimely death at age 33, magnified her saintly aura and gave place to the legend that has surrounded her name ever since. .
We started the tour at Plaza de Mayo, the political heart of Argentina with the Casa Rosada (Presidential Palace) and the famous balcony from which Evita addressed her adoring fans. Then we visited the Recoleta Cemetery to view Evita's tomb and finally the Evita Museum where the story of her life unfolds through her personal objects. The Museum is housed in a mansion where her charity, the Eva Peron Foundation, once gave shelter to single mothers.
There was a not particularly good lecture about Evita's life from one of the Museum's experts. But I enjoyed the day which gave a lot of insight into her life.
Click on any thumbnail photo and get a larger photo
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Click on any thumbnail photo and get a larger photo
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Click on any thumbnail photo and get a larger photo
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And so back home, via Premium Economy on Iberia - not the grandest of ways to travel, but certainly better than their Economy
