I love walking through the core neighborhoods of cities, finding my way about, and seeing the sights. You never learn a city quite the same way if you don’t wander on foot.
This works great in small old European cities that have millennia of history concentrated in a small area. And it seems to work well enough in the big European cities that have oodles of stuff spread about. It doesn’t work as well in a place like New York, where the city has a relatively large footprint, and its sites are dispersed across a large area.
Buenos Aires is one of these latter cities. It covers an extremely large area, but the things I want to see are scattered about, and it’s not easy to make compromises and visit unrelated attractions because they happen to be in proximity to one another.
I tried to do some of that today, however, starting on foot in the San Telmo Market and neighborhood.
The market reminds me of some of the popular covered markets I have visited elsewhere. I arrived before the day had started, with local vendors still cleaning up for the day, mopping the floor and setting out wares. Not much was open yet with the exception of a few coffee shops, and it was a place to walk through.
The San Telmo neighborhood is a beautiful place for a stroll, a place where many homes have balconies, from which vines drip down toward the streets below.
My big destination here was the Museo de Arte Moderno. It fit my schedule and the part of town I wanted to be in today, leaving tomorrow to visit the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes for more classical art.
The art here is fun and thought provoking.
This was one of a series of pieces that I particularly enjoyed. The entire group of them is subtly (or not) and bitingly humorous, fronted with AI produced images of “Disney style” art imploring people to “be real forever,” superimposed on other AI images. The entire room left me chuckling.
This upholstered room with its ridiculous constructions was also a lot of fun. Sometimes art isn’t about what you think, but moreso about how it makes you feel. And I felt good.
Finishing my visit at the museum I began my walk back to my hotel, stopping only for lunch. At the hotel my afternoon guide was to pick me up.
This time I had planned for a small group tour in a van, which is entirely practical considering the number of things on my list to see here.
These tours aren’t perfect, often leaving you looking at structures through a dirty window, but our van stopped a few times.
On one occasion we stopped to visit this flower sculpture in Plaza de las Naciones Unidas. This brilliant steel and aluminum sculpture was placed in 2002, with a mechanism to open every day and close in the evening. It has not always functioned, however, and was damaged in a storm in 2023, so now permanently sits in an open state.
We also visited the Ateneo bookstore. A bookstore would seem a strange place to visit, but this was once the El Grand Splendid Theater. It was slated to be destroyed at one time, but the stunning structure was saved by converting it into one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world.
The tour wended around town, with our guide randomly singing when she wasn’t describing the sites we were passing. In due course, our van brought us to the Boca neighborhood, where we parked near the Bombonera, the brillaint blue and yellow concrete stadium that is hosts the Boca Juniors professional soccer team.
There we stopped in one of the local fan-favorite hangouts and had choripan (chorizo sandwiches) and beer.
After that we walked through the energetic Boca neighborhood near the port, with its vibrantly painted shacks and markets. Although tourists often come here to see the neighborhood, it is very much a working class place once one moves beyond the areas frequented by visitors.
The tour continued on, stopping on the Puerto Madero to admire the asymmetrically cantilevered Puente de la Mujer footbridge, and then back at Casa Rosada.
Late into the night, after dinner (more meat) I found myself visiting the rooftop bar of my hotel. I nursed a glass whisky and considered the city around me.
I have some hours ahead of me tomorrow and much more of this great city to see. This has been a much needed break, but I think I will be ready to be home soon.
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