Buenos Aires Things to Do Tips by barryg23

The oldest district in Buenos Aires is perhaps also the most atmopheric. Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza in the 16th century and his statue in Parque Lezama marks the spot where the city began.

There is wonderful nightlife in San Telmo, and with some of the cities best bars and restaurants, it´s a busy place every night of the week. The biggest crowds are here on Sundays for the huge markets on Plaza Dorrego and the surrounding treets. This is well worth visiting if you´re in the city as you´ll see free tango and many stalls with items well worth buying. Even if you´re not here on a Sunday San Telmo is a great district to visit.

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The Recoleta Cemetery is without doubt one of the strangest places I´ve ever visited. Each family seems to be trying to outdo the other in terms of who has the largest, most ornamental, intricately decorated tombstones. Tombstone is the wrong word as many of the final resting places in Recoleta are more like huge temples - I´ve never seen anywhere quite like it.

The one tomb that all visitors come to see, that of the Duarte family (where Evita is buried) is much less ostentatious than the others. Interestingly, there was much opposition to the Duarte plot from upper class Argentinians, who felt the Duartés were too common a family to merit a plot in Recoleta.

Many other well known Argentinians are buried here and a map at the entrance shows you who is buried where. There are free guided tours in English of the cemetery every Tuesday and Thursday at 11am.

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Phone: 4804-7040 & 4803-1594.
Address: Junin 1760
Directions: Next to Basilica Nuestra Señora del Pilar
Website: http://www.buenosaires.gov.ar/areas/espacio_public

The cathedral on Plaza Mayo is one of the nicest buildings in the city. From the outside it doesn´t resemble a cathedral, certainly not a European style one in any case. It´s one of the many important buildings on Buenos Aires' most important square and contains the tomb of one of Argentinas most celebrated historical figures, San Martin. His tomb is guarded by two soldiers and is the main monument of interest in the church. The tombs of other notable Argentines are also found in the cathedral, as well as some impressive religious paintings.

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Phone: 4331-2845 / 4345-3369
Address: Av. Rivadavia y San Martin
Website: http://www.arzbaires.org.ar/catedral.htm

If you´re interested in learning about the life of Eva Peron, Argentina`s most well known lady, the Evita Museum is worth a visit. It´s in a nice house in Palermo that the Peron government bought while in government and contains some of Evita`s personal possesions as well as TV and film footage of the lady and information about her life. The museum did seem a little too uncritical of an obviously controversial politician, but overall it was worth a visit. No sign of the musical or film in the gift shop though - obviously it wasn´t so well received over here. It`s far more expenisve than other BA museums though I think there is a special, higher price for non-Argentinians.

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Directions: Palermo

Plaza de Mayo is a huge square in central Buenos Aires and it home to some of the city´s most important buildings. It´s a good place to begin any exploration of the city. BA's cathedral, the president´s home and the central bank are all on the square as well as the Cabildo building, associated with the 1810 revolution.

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Palermo is a nice place to escape from the crowds and the busy streets of Buenos Aires as there you find plenty of green space in some beautiful gardens. The Botanical Gardens are a short walk from Plaza Italia station and are free to visit. There´s plenty of interesting gardens and plants to see, as well as some interesting sculptures, and hundreds of cats (for some reason this garden is very popular with cats!).

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Address: Av. Santa Fe 3951

If this is not the world`s widest city street then I wouldn't like to have to cross something bigger. There are about 7 lanes in each direction on Avenuda 9 Julio and it´s always full of vehicles. The Avenue runs from Constituion up to Retiro and contaian an obleisk at Corrientes, one of the cities best known sights. It's particularly spectacular at night and a good place to observe it all is from the walkways near Corrientes on either side of the obelisk.

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Until you visit Argentina you don't reaize how important The Falklands, or Las Malvinas as they are called here, are to the Argentinians. Argentina lost far more soldiers than Britain in the Falkalnds War and even today it's a sensitive issue here. All the local maps of Argentina refer to The Falkalnds as Las Malvinas while the capital city is referred to as Puerto Argentina instead of Port Stanley. In Buenos Aires the war is commemorated by a memorial in Plaza San Martin. Two soldiers stand in front of it and face towards the Torre de los Ingleses, which is in an area known as Plaza Britanica until 1982, the year of the war.

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This impressive tower in Plaza San Martin in Retiro supposedly offers great views over the district but like many places we visited in the city it wasn't open to visitors, meaning we could only admire it from outside. The tower is covered in graffiti like "Las Malvinas son Argentinas" showing that there is still plenty of strong feeling about the islands.

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The Fine Arts Museum in Recoleta was our favourite of the many museums in Buenos Aires. There is a good variety of paintings on display, especially by 19th century European impressionists. The upper level is devoted to South American artists and there are many impressive Argenitne paintings as well as pre Columbian exhibits and Peruvian and Mexican displays too.

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