Don't Cry for me, Argentina
- Terrence
- Mar 24
- 6 min read
The first 2 months of our trip were very well planned. We knew where we would be and what we would be doing on any given day. However, we wanted to have some unstructured time for the last 4 weeks and, aside from booking a hotel in Buenos Aires, we were footloose and fancy free!
In a phrase, our visit to Buenos Aires could be summed up as “Rain stopped Play.”
Much of our travels so far were plagued with rain in what we were to understand was the dry season. But, like most of our trip, we refused to let weather dictate and soldiered on. One evening, we were starving and found a highly rated restaurant nearby, meaning only a 1.0km walk. No sooner had we started walking towards our destination, than the light drizzle became a downpour, and we arrived at the restaurant dripping wet. Although we had rain jackets, we were drenched. The restaurant staff gave us a table although Susanne had to wring her skirt before entering and I had water dripping down from my pants. I think this was much of the theme of our visit to this vibrant beautiful city.
Rainy street scenes in Recoleta
We had wisely planned to be in Buenos Aires on March 1 so that we could take in the carnivale festivities. Wow! What a mistake. Our first realisation that something may be up is when we took our usual step of getting local currency out of the airport ATM. We were surprised when the machine had almost no money, however, we were luck enough to get a small amount of cash. Little did we know at the time this would have to do us for well over a week. We tried almost every ATM in sight only to be faced with cold-hearted machines telling us that the amount we requested was not available. Thankfully, credit cards are widely accepted.
What we didn’t know at the time was that much of the city shut down during carnivale, including the banks and several other services like laundrettes. Not only did we not get any money, we never did find any festivities for carnivale and our dirty jungle clothes from Peru remained in their bag. There were not any parades or anything else…nothing. We were determined to enjoy our visit to this magnificent city.
Highlights of our visit include the Recoleta Cemetery, famous for its elaborate mausoleums and the burial plot of Eva Peron, a much visited site. We were in awe of the artwork involved in the mausoleums. One can only imagine the costs involved in constructing them.
Recoleta cemetery and church
The wonderful thing about old cities like Buenos Aires is that just walking around is like being in a candy store for lovers of everything city, like us. The people watching and variety of architecture kept our heads swivelling like toy spinning tops.The architecture spanned many centuries of construction, and amongst them that held us in awe was the Buenos Aires cathedral, which was the home of the current pope, Francis.
One day, as we were trying to find some walking-friendly activities, we made a spur-of the-moment to walk a little further to see the San Telmo Market. Like with many central and South American cities, markets are the vibrant food centres where inhabitants pick up their fresh food. This market, established in 1897, is no exception. We spent quite some time looking at the wonderful food on sale, the antiques, greengrocers, butchers, clothing kiosks, and most of all, the restaurants. We had built up pretty good appetites with all the walking and we were starving.
After looking at many of the restaurants and breathing in the wonderful smells, we settled on sitting at the bar of a bbq restaurant. We ordered a simple meal of barbecued sausage and a beer while sitting at the bar on a stool. Simple, but delicious. Funny thing, after eating, we wondered around for a while and the server from the restaurant came rushing up to us. He had overcharged us and brought us back to the cashier who gave us a refund in cash, despite having paid with a credit card. Not only did we finally have some currency, but we were impressed with the incredible display of honesty.
San Telmo Market
After 6 days of on and off again rain, we flew into Mendoza. Mendoza is the Wine Capital of Argentina and famous for the Malbec produced there. We were surprised to learn that olive oil production was also a large industry in the area. We took a half-day tour to visit 2 wineries and an olive plantation. At one of the wineries, as we swirled the wine in the glass, we commented on what nice legs the wine had. Our guide quickly corrected us. In Argentina, they are called tears, hence the title of this blog. We thought, if Argentina continues producing great wines, it can cry for us all it likes!
Malbec grapes
The city of Mendoza is centred around the beautiful treed plaza, Independencia. This central park is home to many artisan fairs and a hub for all events in the city. The roads in the city are all tree lined and, surprisingly, many trees are imported Canadian Maples. We spent many meals sitting in the restaurant patios located under these trees. Sadly though, one has to learn that sitting here also means one is a sitting duck for the various vendors selling all manner of items from jewellery to socks…yes, socks. We couldn’t figure that one out, especially since we had become used to vendors selling things like handmade jewelry, food, and blankets.
One of our big treats was to visit a winery and have a lavish meal with accompanying wines. The meal was 4 courses with different wines for each course. All we can say is “YUM!”
Late lunch/early dinner in Mendoza
While we were in Mendoza, we went to see the annual Harvest parade. Besides being unable to find any details, we finally found a closed road and sat at a paid restaurant table for 3 hours before the parade commenced. It was preceded by a statue of the Virgin Mary (aka, Carmen) followed by male and female gauchos on horses. The main part of the parade included floats from each wine district with the district queen and princesses who threw fruit and vegetables from atop the floats mounted on semi trucks. Each float had large generators and were equipped with sophisticated sound and lighting, and blaring music as loud as imaginable. This was fine however, it was a very well attended parade with people mobbing the floats in an effort to get some of the fruit being thrown. As North Americans, this came as quite a shock. Back home, people watch parades from the sidelines and adhere to certain safety protocols.
What could go wrong you may ask? Well, some of the items being thrown were melons and to boot, the crowd was pushing each other right next to the moving semis… YIKES! Then, there were the people carrying baskets tied to long sticks. They got as close to the trucks as possible in hopes of catching a honeydew melon. As our winery guide said, “Es may peligroso, no?!” (It’s very dangerous,”)
One day we decided to get out of the city and rented a vehicle. This was also an unusual experience because we had to fill out the paperwork at the downtown office and then walk a few blocks to a covered car parKing lot where the car was stored. We drove into the Andes up to the foot of Aconcagua mountain, a place where about 10 to 12 mountaineers die each year in ascent attempts. Another beautiful site was the Puente del Inca, shown in the photo. This is a natural bridge with a hot spring that is coloured due to the various minerals in the water. Initially in 1917, a deluxe hotel was constructed that had a hot spring bath in each room. Sadly, the entire hotel was destroyed in a massive avalanche in 1965 killing all the patrons. The church is the only remaining structure.
The Inca Bridge and surrounding Andean mountains
At this point in our trip, we had become a little scruffy and decided to get haircuts. There was a small salon across the road from our hotel. We were soon looking our best again and were ready to take on Chile.
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