Buenos Aires
Why go?
Buenos Aires isn’t a Latin American city at all. Opulent
baroque architecture makes you feel you’re in Paris; yellow
roofed taxis and Porteños (as the locals are called) rush
around as if they’re in New York; and there are more theatres
and cinemas than London’s West End.
But catch a few bars of a melancholic tango from a taxi radio,
glimpse a few moves of the erotic dance itself in the dark interior
of a milonga, or sniff the deliciously smoky whiff of steak
sizzling on the grill at a parrilla restaurant, and you know
immediately: you’re in Buenos Aires.
The city’s dramatic history is palpable everywhere: you can
imagine the crowds greeting Evita on the balcony of the Casa Rosada
in Plaza de Mayo, where grandmothers of those who
‘disappeared’ in the 1970’s Dirty War still
parade in protest every Thursday afternoon. Stunning Belle Epoque
architecture in Avenida de Mayo and Recoleta reminds you of Buenos
Aires’ wealthy heyday at the start of the twentieth century,
when Argentine beef and wheat exports made it ‘the
breadbasket of the world’.
Rapidly recovering from the economic collapse of 2002,
Porteños live well: their hunger for fashion fed by abundant
designer boutiques, and their desire to pose in cool places
spawning an overwhelming array of chic bars and superb restaurants.
If you love cities, a week will leave you wanting more. And even if
you don’t, a couple of days will start your trip with a
bang.
Finally, if you want to escape the city for a day or two in the
land of gauchos (Argentine cowboys), it's only an hour or
two's drive into The Pampas - fertile plains fringed by the
Atlantic coast - where you'll find some lovely estancias
(cattle ranches) turned into boutique hotels.