A Walk Through Three Neighborhoods

Seeing the architecture, the buildings, the plazas, and the monuments, that's cool. But sometimes you want to learn more. Yesterday we did that more. We took a walking tour of three of the oldest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires: San Telmo, Monserrat, and San Nicolas. I am glad we did, because there are some interesting historic periods we learned about.

Sculpture representing the workers found in Plazoleta Eva Peron

We met our guide at Plazoleta Eva Perón. It is a very small park located in the middle of a major street. It is named for Eva Perón, wife of Juan Perón, and the subject of the musical and movie Evita. She was very influential in her husband's government while she was alive. She was born to a poor family in rural Argentina but she became an actress and famous in Argentina. And eventually, she was First Lady and encouraged her husband in a lot of policies to help the underprivileged in the country. But she died young from cancer.

The busy road and this plazoleta were once part of the Rio de la Plata. Everywhere we were standing and all the buildings around us were built on land reclaimed from the "river". (Remember Rio de la Plata is not really very river like. More bay like or estuary like.) However, just across the busy street there begins a hill going up. That hill was the once bank or shore line of the Rio de la Plata. We walked up the hill into San Telmo.

This, the narrowest house in Buenos Aires, is found in San Telmo

San Telmo is, one could argue, the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires. But wait, while this is true, there is a caveat. It is the oldest neighborhood in the second Buenos Aires. This may sound strange, but Buenos Aires was founded twice.

It was first founded in 1536 by Pedro de Mendoza. That Buenos Aires began slightly south of San Telmo. In essence, there was a good place to land ships called Lezama and that is where Mendoza landed and started his new "city." Mendoza, was pretty unhealthy and had to return to Spain. He appointed one of his men, Juan de Ayolas, as captain-general. Ayolas continued to sail up the Paraná River where he founded Asunción. In the meantime, the Spanish who stayed behind in Buenos Aires decided they were going to subjugate and tax the bejeebies out of the indigenous people. That didn't go over well, and pretty soon the Spanish were dead or they fled to Asunción.

The city was founded again in 1580 when a fort was built here. That Buenos Aires has remained and has grown to become the Buenos Aires of today. This time, the first neighborhood was San Telmo. One huge difference between old colonial neighborhoods and more modern ones is that the streets are narrow in comparison. They were built in a time well before cars. In some neighborhoods, those streets have been expanded. But not in San Telmo. There are house and buildings that would make it impossible. Not all of the buildings there today date back to colonial times. Some have been rebuilt. But there are a few. And one way you can tell is by looking at the corner of the building.

One thing Alrica noticed soon after we arrived in Buenos Aires was the diagonal cuts. Buildings on the corner of two streets don't come to a right angle. The streets meet at right angles, but the buildings all have a diagonal wall. Instead of two perpendicular walls meeting, it is like someone took scissors and snipped off the bit at the corner. Apparently, this is by law. In the 17th century there were problems with people or carts of goods crashing into each other because of poor sightlines. Also, bandits would wait at a corner at night and mug people. So the city required that all new construction have these diagonal corners. Only the oldest colonial buildings that have survived to this time still have perpendicular corners where the streets meet.

Let's get into one of the cool historical periods. It is amazing how much impact the Napoleonic Wars had on the independence movements of South America. I talked about this in regards to Brazilian independence in a previous post. But it also had its impacts felt in Argentina.

In the early 1800s, Napoleon is conquering a lot of Europe. Spain is his ally. And England is his great enemy. He really wants to conquer the British Isles, and while he has the best army in Europe, he just can't compete with the British in regards to the Navy. It is particularly hard to conquer an island when you can't get your troops there.

This becomes a trade problem from the British. Most of Europe is closed off to them, since it is mostly controlled by Napoleon and his allies. They do still have a good relationship with their ally, Portugal. But that's a smaller piece of the nearby market. The British decide they need to establish new trading partners in the New World. And bonus they think, "Wouldn't it be great to mess with Spanish colonies, since the Spanish are allied with Napoleon?" (I put that in double quotes, like an American, but since it was the British thinking it, maybe I should have used single quotes.)

So in 1806, the British attack and conquer Buenos Aires. The colonists are not happy about this. Their city was taken away from them and Spain didn't keep them safe. So they say, "Hey Spain, aren't you going to do something about this?" And Spain is like, "Little busy here. Leave a message at the beep and we'll get back to you when Europe is conquered."

This goes badly for Spain. The colonists band together, farmers and miners, sailors and merchants, and they manage to take back Buenos Aires. Not only that, a year later, the British send an even larger force and this ragtag band of colonists successfully defends their city and repels the British. But it also leads them to ask a question: Why are we paying taxes to Spain if Spain isn't doing anything for us except telling us who we cannot trade with. Why do we need them.

Incidentally, it went bad for Spain in another way too. Napoleon asked for permission to send his troops across Spain so he could conquer Portugal. Spain said yes, and, unsurprisingly, Napoleon betrayed them, conquered Spain, and put his brother on the Spanish throne.

See those black round spots, those are cannon fodder

In San Telmo, we saw the Santo Domingo Church. When the British conquered Buenos Aires, the bell towers of Santo Domingo were among the highest points in the entire city. So the British put their cannons up there and used it as a look out. The colonists had to attack the church. And there is still cannon shot in the left tower from that conflict over 200 years ago.

The statue over Belgrano's grave

In the courtyard of Santo Domingo there is a large statue that covers the burial place of Manuel Belgrano. Belgrano was important in Argentina's fight against Spain to earn their own independence. This all began soon after the trouble with the British. Belgrano was a statesman and also a general who fought led Argentina's troops. He's not considered the father of Argentina, that would be San Martin. Maybe he's the uncle of Argentina.

San Francisco Church

Right around the boundary between San Telmo and Montserrat is another church, San Francisco. The Franciscans were an order founded in Italy and the church has an Italian style. The statuary at the top is interesting. In the center you see Saint Francis with his arms wide over three people. The kneeling man is Christopher Columbus. Remember, Columbus sailed for Spain, but he was Italian by birth. In the statuary to the left of center, one of the figures is holding a book. That's Dante Alighieri, author of The Divine Comedy; another famous Italian.

Man in the center with the book, that's Dante

We revisited the Plaza de Mayo. Alrica and I had already been there, but we learned a lot of new things. We were not able to visit the Casa Rosada, because yesterday was the Pride March in Buenos Aires. I'll mention that more later. But we learned about the symbols in the Plaza. There is a central image with Athena at the top of it. Athena represents democracy and she is facing the Casa Rosada, which is the Presidential Palace. It is a reminder to Argentinian leaders that democracy is watching them.

Painted around the monument with Athena, there are images of white head scarves. Argentina, after its independence, has had a lot of military coups. Sometimes they have elected governments, sometimes they have military dictatorships. The last of these ended in 1983 and Argentina has been a democracy since. That military government was terrible and committed atrocious crimes. One such atrocity was their policy of disappearing people. They would just take people they didn't like and those people were never heard of again. This included women who had children or who were pregnant. Often these children were then re-familied. They were given to a family that the military government liked and those children were raised as though they had been born to that family, not knowing they had other mothers and families. Even today in Argentina, there are people who get genetic tests to find out if they really have some family that they or their parents were taken away from, and often they learn, yes, they do.

The white headscarf

The government didn't allow protest marches in the streets. So a group of women decided to protest, but not in the street. Instead, they all came to the Plaza de Mayo wearing white headscarves. White was chosen to represent the diapers of the babies being kidnapped by the government. These women marched in circles around the monument with Athena at the top. Today, there are white headscarves painted in a circle around that monument to represent the moment and to remember it.

Lisandro de la Torre

Another repressive military government took over the country in the 1930s. The Argentinians refer to the 1930s as the Infamous Decade. We saw a statue of Lisandro de la Torre, an Argentinian politician who was never the president. Still, he is held in high esteem as a paragon of ethical behavior. He was a member of the Argentinian Senate. Before the military coup, he was a vocal opponent of the ruling Radical Party. Then the military took over. And even though he hadn't liked the party in power, he was absolutely opposed to a military takeover, feeling that this was a denial of democracy. The government of the 1930s did terrible things and de la Torre would call them out on it in the Senate. He would publicly address the Senate, listing the worst deeds of the government.

One thing that the 1930s government did was build Avenida 9 de Julio. This is an incredibly wide boulevard which can handle a lot of traffic. Some argue it is among the widest of all avenues in the world. The obelisk is in the middle of it, also built by that same government.

Sounds like a real positive development, right? Yes and no. This wasn't empty land that the government decided to build a road on. This was entire neighborhoods. People were cleared out. Homes and businesses were demolished. Ironically, this neighborhood was called, and still is, San Nicolas. Many old neighborhoods of Buenos Aires were named for the church that was central to that neighborhood. San Telmo is named for the Church of San Telmo which still stands. San Nicolas was named for the Church of San Nicolas. But that church is no more.

Where the church once stood

The church was in the middle of the land the government wanted for its road project. In fact, where the Church of San Nicolas stood is where the obelisk stands today. The neighborhood kept its name, but lost its church, and got a pillar to the sky in its place. Lost a lot of its residents too, so there were fewer people left to complain.

I learned a lot about Argentinian history during this three hours of walking. But I also want to tell you a bit about the journey to the walking tour and back again.

It just so happened that yesterday, the day we did the tour, was the Pride March in Buenos Aires. Alrica and I caught a bus to get to Plazoleta Eva Perón. But the bus didn't follow its regular route. Alrica was watching on Google maps as we made all kinds of turns and went far south of the regular route of the bus. At the time, we didn't know why, only that there was some road closures. We thought it might be related to the visit from the Pope. (The Pope arrives today in Argentina, but we thought maybe they were closing roads a day early.) Turns out, that wasn't the reason. It was for the Pride March.

We were able to get out of the bus just a couple blocks from where we wanted to exit, so it wasn't a big deal for us at all. We were just lucky that in our neighborhood it was on its regular route. Otherwise, we would have never found it. During the walk to the meeting point, I noted a poster advertising a band with what I thought was a clever name.

Houston and the Problems. I find it funny.

Coming home, we did pass through a park with closed streets all around it. Here there were merchants selling all kinds of pride related merchandise. One of them had tarps laid out and on the tarps were lots of these skimpy women's tops in pride colors. Alrica decided against buying one. It really was a lot less material that she usually wears in a top. Plus, we own pretty boring bland clothes. For example, all of my shirts are just one solid color. Why? Not because we hate imagination, but by having very plain things, they are acceptable everywhere we go. When you own so little and have to carry it when you travel, you want your wardrobe to be useful no matter where you go. People don't object to boring. You see, I'm boring by design! (That's my excuse, don't disagree.)

Check out the capes. And the socks!

Argentina is pretty liberal in regards to homosexuality. Same-sex marriage has been legal here since 2010. They also passed a major transgender rights law in 2012. They were the first country in Latin America to do both of these things. As a result, Buenos Aires has the largest openly homosexual population of any city in Latin America. And we saw plenty of people dressed to participate in the march. As I mentioned before, the very next day the Pope was scheduled to arrive. I guess the Pride March had already been planned and then the Pope announced his intention to visit. Some in the government were worried about holding Pride the day before the Pope arrived. Someone ran it by the Pope who was completely not bothered by it. You go Pope!

We decided that taking a bus could be challenging. Who knows where it would pick up or what route it would take? Instead, we opted for the subway. You can't detour the subway.

I noticed one of the maps over the doors of the train car. Not only does it show you the stops of the train, but also which road you are riding under. And it lists the names of all the cross streets. What a great idea!

Cross streets listed on both sides of the road

We wanted to exit at the Rio de Janeiro stop. (Name of a road, we didn't travel back to Brazil.) I would normally pronounce that J in Janeiro like the French j, sort of a zh sound. I think that is how the Portuguese pronounce the j as well. But in South America, we find that each country has its own way to pronounce some of the letters. J is one of those which can have a variety of sounds. In some countries it is an h sound, in others it is a y sound, and here, in Argentina, it is apparently that hard kh sound like you are clearing your throat. It's not a sound we tend to use in English.

So we visited three neighborhoods, learned about Argentinian history over the past 500 years, saw a social movement in action, and even picked up a bit of linguistic knowledge. What a day for my brain!

In Praise of Shirley

If you are a dedicated reader with a good memory, you may recall that I like to name my cars (when I own a car.) I wrote about this just as we were leaving the United States, just over two years ago. But if you are even more dedicated and interested in the minutiae of what is Erich, then you will recall that in addition to naming my cars, I always name my shoes. I mentioned that in this post from Sarajevo, Bosnia.

The Plaza de Congreso, the parliamentary palace.

There is a key difference though. My cars each get their own individual name. My shoes are always Horace (on the right foot) and Shirley (on the left). i don't know when I first named a pair of shoes, but it must be at least thirty years. While on the topic of shoes, I also mentioned in a much more recent post that the shoes I bought in Malaysia were getting pretty out of shape. I have very flat feet, I love walking, and I am rough on shoes. I had been wearing those Malaysian purchased shoes for a year. That's like an eternity to me. And I knew I was pushing my luck.

Hard to see, but this building has a feature that imitates a windmill

Yet, I continued to adventure. And some of those adventures involved long walks. So let me relate my recent explorations and I will comment on shoes as I go.

Between the mustache and the bowtie, this face is amazing

I took a walk to Plaza Mariano Moreno. This is park just across from the Plaza del Congreso, the building where the Argentinian Parliament meets. It was around a one hour walk there and another hour back.

How many copies of Rodin's The Thinker (El Pensador) are there in the world?

The Parliament building is gorgeous. Plus I had some dark clouds forming, making the entire scene imposing, almost threatening. (Only the sky, not the people.) I enjoyed the architecture around the plaza in the dramatic setting.

I think the skies make this picture so much more dramatic

On my way home, I saw a juggler. He had a ladder with only two feet. When the stoplight would turn red, he would take his ladder to the front of the line of cars, climb it and juggle while balancing the ladder. Then he would climb down and walk to a few cars in hopes of some pesos.

I bet he doesn't like the motorcycles inching closer. But he has a hard hat.

The next day, Sunday, Alrica and I went to lunch. We walked, but not too far from home. I have mentioned that we live right beside a big park. On the way home, there was an event going on in the park. So we stopped to watch.

There's a crowd between me and the dancers

There were various dance groups taking turns performing. Most of the dancers were women, primarily older women. But there were a few exceptions. Music was broadcast and the groups would perform. At the end of their songs, each group would crowd up together for a photo in which they held up a banner with the name of one of the city parks or plazas on it. I don't know the significance of having such a banner.

Perhaps a better view?

I have a shoe related story here. We were watching the dance performances underneath the branches of a tree. Take a look at this vicious tree. Yikes!

Buenos Aires, where the trees want your blood!

As I was walking, I stepped on something and felt it sinking into Shirley (my left shoe.) It was a fallen twig with wicked thorns from that tree. Thanks to Shirley, nothing reached my skin. I did have to grip the twig carefully to pull it out without cutting up my hand. Imagine if Shirley hadn't been there to protect me. I might be taking a long convalescence with no more walking adventures.

That's a thorny problem

On Wednesday I went out for another long walk. I walked to the Parque de lost Patricios. The Patricios is the name of Argentina's Infantry Regiment One. It is the oldest regiment in the nation, the core of what would be its armed services. The Patricios serve with distinction and honor. They represent Argentina's honor and willingness to fight for liberty. To serve in the Patricios is considered very special. The park has a monument to celebrate the Patricios.

In honor of the Patricios

It also has something I've seen in several parks in Buenos Aires: a very large, very old tree surrounded by a fence. I'm not sure if the fence is meant to protect the tree from the people or to protect the people from the tree. But it is a huge tree with an impressive wingspan. (I know it's not wings, but is branchspan a word?)

Doesn't it look like the light is radiating from the tree?

It was a beautiful day for a walk and the park is lovely. Buenos Aires has a lot of public art which is fun to see as I explore.

You would almost think I was in Africa, but no, still South America

This walk was again around two hours. I was doing okay for the first hour and a half, maybe even hour forty-five. But the last part of the walk, my shoes were done. Horace and Shirley were like, "Sorry, Erich. We got nothing left to give." My feet were so sore when I got home. Alrica even suggested going out to buy new shoes. But I had no desire to take another unnecessary step that day. It's pretty bad when I shrink away from the idea of walking.

It's like faces on drumheads. Maybe that's why they are drumHEADS.

So instead we went out on Thursday. We walked to a bus stop and took a bus to a neighborhood called Palermo Soho. I find this interesting, because having a neighborhood called Soho is something I am familiar with. My first Soho was the one in New York City where it stands for "South of Houston". (It's the neighborhood bordered on the north by Houston Street. Incidentally, that is pronounced HOW-ston and not HUE-ston. It isn't named for Sam Houston of Texas fame. It is named for William Houston. He was one of the delegates from Georgia to the Continental Congress and to the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Sam Houston came later, but being the more famous of the two, most people think HUE-ston when they see the name.)

But New York didn't start calling that part of town Soho until the 1960s. The, so far as I can tell, original Soho is a section of London. There aren't definitive records for how Soho got its name, but the most accepted idea is that origially it was a very open area of countryside and farming just west of London. Londoners came here to hunt and "So-ho" was some sort of hunting call. Whether or not that is the true origin, London's first written record of the area being called Soho is from 1636, way beating out NYC.

Here in Buenos Aires, one of the nice neighborhoods is Palermo. In the 1990s, marketers started referring to one part of Palermo as Palermo Soho. It was changing from a working class neighborhood into one full of artists studios and nightlife, gentrifying. Soho was specifically chosen as a reference to the neighborhoods in NYC and London, both considered trendy and artistic.

While in Palermo Soho, we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant called Saigon. Probably had I just told you the name of the restaurant you would have guessed it was Vietnamese. If you wouldn't have guessed that, just don't admit it to anyone. The food was great, but most amusing was Alrica's lemonade. It came with slices of cucumber. Needless to say, I didn't take a sip to taste it.

Who puts cucumber slices in lemonade? Not something I ever saw in Vietnam.

But lunch was not our primarily reason for visiting Palermo Soho, nor did we go for nightlife or art. We went to buy shoes. That's how loyal I am. Just days after Shirley saved me from dangerous spikes, I replaced her with a younger, newer model. I wanted to hold out for Santiago, but life had other plans. Still, I did name these new shoes Horace and Shirley, so their legacy lives on.

Montevideo

Do you know the song The Battle of New Orleans? Well, I have my own lyrics to introduce my blog post all about our short adventure.

The last few days I went across the watta
Along with my Alrica on the Rio de la Plata
We took along our passports and I'll gladly tell you why
Cause we left from Argentina and arrived in Uruguay

To cross the bay we hopped upon a ferry.
It landed in Colonia with a lot of way to go.
We caught a bus which drove across the prairie.
A couple hours later we're in Montevideo.

That's José Gervasio Artigas, Uruguay's national hero.

When I was young, I remember in social studies we had to learn capital cities. When I learned Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, it just sounded like a cool name. But at that age, cities across the globe were like an abstract idea to me. Sure, every country had to have a capital city. But did they really exist? Or were they just ideas on paper? At that age, I hadn't yet even been to the capital of my own country, but I knew the USA existed in a tangible form. So I guess I found the existence of Washington to be easier to visualize than Montevideo or Moscow or Muscat.

In Spanish colonial times, Montevideo was a walled city. This is one of the gates to get in. Or out. (You don't need it as much now that the walls are gone.)

Now, I can confirm, it is not just on paper. Well, Montevideo. I can't yet say with first-hand experience anything about Moscow of Muscat. Though I did just have a realization. All those capital cities I named, they start with M but also end in an English word. MosCOW, MusCAT, MonteVIDEO. It works for MadRID too. Though I know it doesn't work for all capital cities beginning with M. Like Manila, which is a kind of envelope, but doesn't end in a separate English word. Or Minsk.

Architects can be so imaginative.

But I am wandering from my point. I wanted to tell you a bit about our two day adventure to Montevideo, Uruguay. It began on Monday morning. We caught a ferry through a company called Colonia Express. It leaves out of Buenos Aires and arrives in Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay. The distance is maybe 30 to 40 miles, and the ferry takes around an hour. It goes at a good speed when you are on the open water, but slows a lot in the harbors of each city.

Alrica on the ferry going toward Uruguay

If you look at a map, you see this dip, like a bay between Buenos Aires and Colonia del Sacramento. It's isn't technically the Atlantic Ocean. It isn't even exactly a bay. It's called Rio de la Plata, the River of the Silver. But it isn't what you think of as a river either. It would probably be most accurate to describe it as an estuary with a mix of fresh water and salt water and the salinity changes with the tides.

Palacio Salvo in the day

Palacio Salvo at night

The ferry ride was great. Getting there was fine too, but there was one annoying aspect. After purchasing the tickets, the ferry company sent Alrica email after email reminding her that we MUST be there two hours before departure! This is an international trip. Failure to be that early could mean you don't get to go. Well we did arrive, in fact, more than two hours before departure. And when we got to the check-in window they told us you can't check-in until 90 minutes before departure. And even after that, they didn't open the boarding gate with customs and immigration until about 45 minutes before departure. So the threats of losing your place on the ferry, it was all a lie!

Mural Across from the Rambla

On the way to Uruguay, it was a pretty full ferry. But the seats were comfy and you had plenty of leg room. In Buenos Aires, you did both your passport control of leaving Argentina and your passport control of arriving in Uruguay. So when the boat landed, you didn't have to get into a line to have your passport stamped. That was already done.

I wonder if those pinnacles can break off

But we had not booked a passage just to Colonia del Sacramento. We booked passage all the way to Montevideo. So at the port, we climbed on to a bus. We rode through a lot of countryside where I saw horses, cows, sheep, and donkeys. The landscape was quite green, not entirely flat, but not mountainous either.

I would say the bus was less than two hours in total. And then we arrived at the Tres Cruces Bus Station in Montevideo. It was a beautiful day outside. So we walked from the station toward Old Town where our hotel was. And there is something odd about the street signs. At the top of the street signs, above the name of the street, you would see some other name. The most common one I saw was Doña Coca. But Acompaña was pretty common too. I thought maybe it was the names of different neighborhoods. But no, I saw the same names all over the city. And sometimes one block would be Doña Coca, then the next Acompaña and then back to Doña the next block after that. So I looked it up. These are advertisements. The city of Montevideo lets corporations sponsor street signs. That way they get their name prominently displayed. What I found particularly strange was that advertisements had more prominence than the street names. And isn't the street name the most important piece of information on a street sign?

Apparently it is a pork company, like the Uruguayan Hormel.

This one is a cable and internet and cell phone company.

It's a healthcare company. I think it has clinics and residential care.

I bet you can guess what SmartFit is.

After checking in and dropping off our stuff, we headed out again. We decided that with only two days, we would see a lot of city using a hop-on/hop-off bus. In Montevideo, that bus system is run by the city, but the same transportation agency that runs the regular city buses. On Monday we did the central loop.

I like the pink, but then the last letter is red. Interesting choice.

One thing I loved about the streets of Montevideo is the trees. There are these tall trees that rise up from the sidewalks and make a canopy over the streets. Lots of places you walk are in shade, under box elders and avocado trees. The bus was one of the double-decker buses where on the top floor you are in the open air. There were periodic reminders that they keep the trees trimmed, but it was possible that some low branches might exist. Don't stand up while the bus is moving. Good news, we never got hit by any branches. It wasn't even close.

Yes, a lovely fountain, but also check out those trees!

There is a downside to the trees though, I mean, aside from the potential to bonk your head. That's pollen. There is plenty of it. And it can get in your eye. Or make you sneeze. Or give you a runny nose. I guess we have to accept that it is spring here.

The Presidential Offices

Much like Buenos Aires, Montevideo has a very intricate, beautiful, and European architectural style. Some of the buildings really are breathtaking. We saw the library, the Legislative Palace where Parliament meets, the Presidential Building where the President works, the Judicial Palace where the Supreme Court is, and we saw amazing buildings that were not part of the governmental structure. There is a mall in Montevideo that was built on the site of a former prison, and they kept the front buildings of the prison as the outer facade of the mall.

The Legislative Palace

A notable building that probably didn't impress us as much as it might have impressed others is Estadio Centenario, or Centennial Stadium. It is named that because it was completed in 1930, exactly one-hundred years after Uruguay became an independent nation. But what would be exciting for the right crowd is what it was built for. This is where the championship games of the very first World Cup occurred, again, in 1930. It is a stadium that is designed specifically for soccer and no other sport is played there. The legend says that one of the best players on the Uruguayan national team got a tour of the stadium when it was completed. He went back to the team and told them that their country had built a stadium so perfect that they had to honor it by winning the World Cup. And they did. Uruguay did win the 1930 World Cup.

The Judicial Palace

On Tuesday, we took the bus that did the Rambla tour. The Rambla is a road that runs along the shore. On one side of the road are beaches or parks and a lighthouse and a few other buildings. There is a long walkway that goes 13.7 miles. On the other side of the street are high rise apartments, shopping, and more parks. Also, both the United States embassy and the Germany embassy are right there beside the Rambla.

The statue is called the Greeting Man. It is a gift from South Korea which is antipodal from Montevideo.

The tour took us out as far as Currasco, a very high-end neighborhood at the east end of the city. It was designed to be a high-end neighborhood before Montevideo stretched out this far. Its founder was inspired by his visit to Oslo and wanted to create a village with luxury and beauty in mind. His palace is today the Currasco Hotel and Casino.

That's the Currasco Hotel and Casino

On the central tour we heard about the legend of the Uruguayan national team. But the Rambla tour has its own legend. Along the Rambla we passed Palacio Pittamiglio. This huge mansion house is, we were told, full of secret passages and hidden rooms. It was built by a man named Pittamiglio who was many things, but primarily an alchemist. The house is designed in all kinds of alchemical symbols. But that's not the legend. It's just the setting.

I could find no label or title for this sculpture. But you're with me, that's gotta be Prometheus, right?

According to the legend, Pittamiglio was a friend to Bishop Eugenio Pacelli when the good bishop served in Uruguay. You probably don't recognize that name, but later he was called Pope Pius XII. In 1944, Pope Pius XII visited Montevideo. Here's the legend part. Supposedly, Pope Pius XII brought the Holy Grail with him. He was afraid that the Nazis, who were always looking for objects of the occult as we know from Indiana Jones movies, would attack the Vatican and steal it. So he brought it to Uruguay and asked Pittamiglio to hide it away in his crazy palace.

If you unzip this building, what do you think you find under?

In 1988, Pope John Paul II came to Uruguay. One of his aides was taken to the second Palacio Pittamiglio and the condition was that he was supposed to be left alone for a few hours. Many believe what that aide was doing was retrieving the hidden Holy Grail so it could be brought back to Rome. So, if you believe the tales, for 44 years, the Holy Grail was in Uruguay. You might argue this isn't a lot of evidence. But think about it. This aide to the Pope was left alone for hours in the palace. Is there any other more plausable explanation?

In case you were worried, no, I didn't forget a hydrant pic. Look at how slender it is!

Montevideo is a bit more expensive than Buenos Aires. (Probably not an issue if you are the Pope.) And already we are finding Buenos Aires a bit pricey. For just two days, it was fine. But it would be harder to live in budget there. Maybe if one were further out from the city center it would be easier. I don't know. But for a quick trip, it was a great time!

The way back was similar to the way there, but in reverse. We did the bus first and then the ferry. Again, we did all of our passport stamping before we got on the ferry, both leaving Uruguay and entering Argentina. In fact, the Argentinian agent asked where we were staying in Argentina. I gave him the address and he said "Ah, Cabazheeto." It took me a minute to understand. The part of Buenos Aires that we are in is Caballito. But I assumed the double l would be more like a y. Cabayeeto. The thing is every country in South America seems to have variations on the pronunciations of certain letters. The double l, the g, and the j are particularly fluid. So I did eventually figure out what he was saying, but I am so not an Argentinian. I'm also not a Uruguayan. But for a couple days I got to imagine I was.

Two In Two

Two days, two adventures. And I am going to make two posts in the same day. Such twoness!

Everyone say hi to Mafalda

On Saturday, Alrica and I headed into San Telmo. This is one of the older districts in Buenos Aires. It has a market and museums and narrow cobbled streets. We were planning to get some lunch at the San Telmo Market, but it was crowded to the point of not being so comfortable. So we headed out.

Historic bells outside the History Museum

We walked south and visited the National History Museum. This is an interesting museum that covers various time periods of Argentinian history. It starts at the time of the revolution, when Argentina fought for independence from Spain. It goes through some of the wars that came after this too. And it is pretty honest about various governments of Argentina that conquered and crushed the indigenous people, or even that oppressed the Argentinian citizens. But it also highlights some of their accomplishments.

Some of the signs were in both Spanish and English. But many of them were only in Spanish. Interestingly, I didn't do as well with the Spanish only signs at this museum compared to at the Natural Sciences Museum a few days ago. But in some ways, that makes sense. The words used in science are often from Latin and so they are very similar in Spanish and English. The words used to describe history aren't quite as similar and matching.

Proof that we were in Caminito

We continued south and entered a neighborhood called Boca. Historically, Boca was also a very early neighborhood. And it was very poor when Buenos Aires was young. Many people built their homes from corrugated metals that they found at the port. (It won't surprise you to learn Boca is near the port.) To combat the stigma of their metal homes, many people started painting them in bright colors. And not just one color, a patchwork of colors. This became a thing. Now when you visit Boca, there are many murals. But if you head to the Caminito, which is a short pedestrian street, you can see the full effect of the patchwork colors. In addition, that neighborhood is dedicated to art. There are artists selling their goods, there are statues and sculptures and reliefs, there are paintings on the walls.

So colorful

I've decided this one is a politician giving a speech

The indigenous people working a loom

One thing I noticed in both Boca and San Telmo, was the prevalence of one image. There is this image of a little girl with black hair that looks like she is from a comic strip. I've actually seen her all over Buenos Aires. But she was big time on display at the markets of San Telmo and in the Caminito region.

Just in case we forgot she was from Argentina

Her name is Mafalda and she did come from a comic strip that ran in the 1960s and 1970s. She is an icon of Argentina. In the comic, she is a six-year old girl with a paralyzing fear of school. She is incredibly passionate about social justice, often clashing with her parents who are just working and living and trying to get by.

Mafalda came to represent the middle class in Argentina, how they were torn between enlightened ideas and the realities of living in society. The comic strip was highly satirical and often commented on the new of the day.

Don't jump Mafalda! Or gray footballer.

The comic hasn't run in fifty years and still Mafalda is everywhere. She's like the Charlie Brown of Argentina. In one image I saw, she is looking straight up, much like a Charlie Brown pose, and screaming "Basta!" That means "Enough!"

The only Argentinian who can rival Mafalda

Mafalda isn't the only popular figure we see all over the place. Lionel Messi, the soccer powerhouse who just retired days ago, he's pretty much everywhere too. And even if you don't see Messi images himself, you see plenty of the Argentina team jersey with the number 10. (That was his number.)

Today, Sunday, we headed to another part of town: Mataderos. Here, each week, there is a fair called Feria de Mataderos. It has lots of craftsman, but also stalls selling traditional Argentinian food. We tried locro, a stew with beef and sausage and beans and I don't know what all was in it. But it was very hearty and quite delicious.

Locro

But the most unique thing about the Feria de Mataderos is the gaucho performances. There is a stage and on the stage, gauchos perform. A gaucho is a cowboy, an Argentinian cowboy. We got to see lots of gaucho dances.

Nearly to the top

Before the dances began, there was a flag raising ceremony. They played the national anthem over the speakers. There was a man slowly (and I mean slowly) raising the flag. You have never seen a man pull a rope with such viscosity. I understood why. He was trying to get the flag raising to last as long as the national anthem (which isn't short.) But I found it amusing what tiny tugs he gave to the rope.

It was like a tap dance in cowboy boots

The dances were vigorous and fun. There were children who are learning the dances who performed along with adult cowboys and adult women in flowing skirts.

Skirts must be flapped

We also bought churros. One had dulce de leche inside (which is a very popular filling here) and the other was chocolate frosted. Nobody doesn't like churros, right?

I am trying to get all up to date on the blog because tomorrow begins another adventure for us. And I don't know when I will be able to blog about it, so I didn't want to get behind.

You will get the deets of the new adventure soon enough. Fear not! (Yes, I recognize you probably weren't afraid.)