Argentina: Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

We had another long weekend here on May 25^th so I made a bus trip down to Argentina's capital city Buenos Aires.

The residents of the city are known as porteños. Porteños have a reputation for being broody and I definitely found them different to people in the provinces (perhaps this is how people feel about Aucklanders!?). Don't expect to walk into a shop and be greeted; if you get a smile you're lucky!

When walking down the street you could easily be mistaken for thinking that you were somewhere in Europe (it is known as the Paris of South America). Most of the city was built around the turn of the century during Argentina's boom time so buildings and infrastructures were big and lavish. However the boom times finished and people from other parts of the country began moving to the city and the population increased too quickly. Social issues such as poverty, unemployment and pollution began to grow and are still problems today.

Buenos Aires has a reputation for being peligroso (dangerous), especially for tourists . There there are places that foreigners are advised against visiting even during the day. As soon as I arrived from New Zealand an AFS representative told me that recently a French tourist who had been in one of those places was killed for not handing over his camera (not what you want to hear when you've just stepped off the plane!).

I really enjoyed my time here. It is a beautiful, exciting city with so much to do. However it is a big city with extreme poverty and you can never feel entirely relaxed as you always have to watch your back and your bag.

And sorry there aren't many photos; I was to scared to use my camera!

In La Boca neighbourhood. Famous for it's coloured houses and La Bombonera stadium (home of the Boca Juniors futbol team).

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Street futbol

The beutiful Teatro Colon a world-class facility for opera, ballet and classical music . The acoustics are so good that performers do not use microphones.