Buenos Aires, just like Paris in South America

Getting into the center of Buenos Aires was actually not as hard as we thought: the highway from La Plata brings your right on Avenido 9 de Julio, the widest avenue in the world which in some places has 22 lanes! It also has in the middle the famous obelisk, around which people gather when Argentina wins a big soccer game. Like in France, you can park your bike here on the sidewalk and so we did, with Chad keeping an eye on the bikes and Caroline looking for accommodation. Of course, we could not encounter a hostel with parking so we had to pay parking in addition to the hostel we found right next to the big avenue. It would definitively not be cheap to stay in the big city but at least the bikes would be safe in a guarded parking lot.

Learning how to dance the sensual Tango

Since we were staying in the central area of town called the Microcentro, we started to walk around this area first. We went to the famous Plaza de Mayo where the presidential palace is, the famous Casa Rosada from whose balcony Eva Peron a.k.a. “Evita” made her speech. If you are not too scared to watch Madona acting, you can watch the movie to refresh your memory about the story. It had this surprising pink color that we had never seen before on an official building, even brighter when shining in the sun. The strange thing is that we happen to be on the Plaza de Mayo right when the Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) were marching around the plaza. They have been doing so since 1977 when the first people started to be kidnapped. Every Thursday at 3:30pm, they march there so that the people that disappeared during the Dirty War are not forgotten. They marched and marched around, while the names of the “Desaparesido” where called out loud and for each of them, they would answer “Presente” to reinforce that they were still present in the memories and heart and had not been forgotten.

It was a very moving thing to see these mothers walk around, calling and asking for their lost ones. They were standing tall, marching with confidence as it had been the case for more than 30 years, reminding everyone that none of the lost ones should be forgotten. The wound was definitively still open and justice had to be done. Pensive, we walked to the cathedral nearby, thinking about how hard it must be for all these families that never got closure. The quietness of the church was a welcome haven where we stayed for a while. As we strolled down the nearby streets, it was more and more obvious as we observed the buildings that their architecture was similar to the one in France and we really felt like we were walking down the streets of Paris. Narrow streets with tall sculpted stone buildings, little squares lined up with outdoor cafes where people were street watching and pedestrian walkways. It felt like we were really back in Europe, how strange a feeling.

As we came back to our hostel, we booked our entertainment for the night: a Tango class followed by dinner and show. This was something so typical of Argentina that we could not miss it in the capital city. It was also our way of celebrating our anniversary that had been two days ago. Already two years, we had a hard time to believe it. Although since we had been 24 hours/7 days a week together for the past year, it almost should count as seven years of marriage:) The bus picked us up at the hotel and in no time, we were in the dance classroom. The teacher started by making us walk around, to feel the rhythm of Tango. Then we learned the spirit we had to be in to dance and the dancing position: women should feel like the most sexy and desirable creature in the world and guys should be strong, macho and filled with passion for life and women. With that in our heads, we started learning the basic steps. Guys and girls were separated to learn and then would come back together to practice. It was really entertaining, especially since you had to change partners all the time so that everyone would have a chance to dance. We learned just enough in an hour to understand how difficult Tango is to master and what its spirit is all about. A perfect introduction to the upcoming show.

After the dinner, the room turned black and the band starting playing Tango music, with the typical sound of the accordion filing the room. The dancers arrived on stage in old fashioned costumes: tonight, the dances would take us through the history of Tango. The guys and the girls did have a lot of attitude, their bodies and faces close to each other, pulling these incredible leg moves, their feet and legs flirting with each other. It was love, passion, jealousy, rivalry, all expressed through the moves of the dance. It was a small stage and room and we could appreciate so well the expression the dancers had on their faces, their soft hand gestures and caresses on their partner's face. With the music, light show and costumes, it was simply magical. The dancers came down the stage to mix with the crowd in several occasion, inviting some people to dance with them and Chad was lucky to be chosen by a beautiful dancer, with whom he had a chance to practice his newly learned dance moves. Everything had been perfect and back in the bus, we were still under the spell of Tango.


Walking through Maradona's childhood neighborhood

With more nice weather, we decided to walk all the way to La Boca instead of taking a bus or taxi. Our bikes were relaxing in the parking lot and we thought the two beasts deserved another day's rest from the heavy traffic. La Boca is not the safest neighborhood of Buenos Aires to say the least but we had studied the map to avoid the most dangerous areas and removed all the items that would identify as tourists: no backpacks and camera / money well hidden in our pockets. A few weeks before the World Cup, it was very appropriate for us to visit this area where the most famous Argentinean soccer player, Maradona, who was now the coach for the Argentinean team in the World cup, had grown up. A quite poor neighborhood we immediately noticed as we walked through it, but nobody seemed to notice us or give us bad looks so we kept on walking straight to La Bombonera, the stadium of the Boca Juniors which was the first team Maradona played in. You could clearly see that the kid of this neighborhood was still the local star: many walls had his drawing on it, with his famous number 10 shirt. He was like God on earth here!

Navigating through the multiple streets where the pavement was being redone, we were trying to stay in big avenues to not get in trouble. We were going to the most touristy part of La Boca called El Caminito. It is the strangest thing as you walk in this poor area and suddenly enter this super touristy four-block place, quite an abrupt change. What makes it famous are the metal houses that used to belong to the local fishermen since we were so close to the river. They used the remaining boat paint for their houses, creating a very colorful and unique neighborhood. Each houses was painted in five or six different colors, each one so bright in the sun. The locals had of course understood after a while the touristy potential of this habit and now, the ares is just filled with cafes and tourist shops, Tango dancers in the street pulling the moves for you or posing in pictures for a tip. So a very touristy area but still very nice to walk in due to the uniqueness of the houses.

We also walked all the way back to our hostel, a long and tiring walk. Our feet were starting to tell us that we had walked enough for the day and that we should rest now. In a park, we saw a group of old guys playing something that looked like Bocci ball (Petanque) but with heavy and thick flat disks. It seems like everywhere in the world, old guys just get together to play some sort of game on a late sunny afternoon. After en earlier dinner, we went to McDonald's for desert to try a pastry that Lucrecia had recommended. It sounds like a strange things to do but the dulce de leche, vanilla and cream pie we tried was actually pretty good. As we walked out of the fast food restaurant, we could not resist taking a silly picture as Argentinean soccer players. The soccer fever was definitively getting to us.