Buenos Aires was founded by Spanish colonisers in the sixteenth century: one failed attempt to settle a city on the south of the Rio Plata was followed several decades later by a successful one. Although Argentina became an independent republic in 1816, the Spanish influence is visually evident in the architecture in central Buenos Aires, mixed with the American quirk of busy, multi-lane main roads crisscrossing through the city.
Wandering round the perimeter of Plaza Lavalle, you find numerous examples of the grand, Spanish architectural style. The plaza has two theatres: the Teatro Nacional Cervantes and the Teatro Colón. It is home to the Supreme Court of Argentina, a building so large and laden with Corinthian columns, vast stone engravings, tall windows and balustrade balconies that it could well be multiple buildings in one.
Two blocks away is the busy Avenue 9 Julio, five lanes of traffic on each side, winding together into a complex junction incorporating the Plaza de la República, home to Buenos Aires’ soaring white Obelisk.
Walking east along the Calle Florida, a busy shopping street, there are numerous black market money exchangers, calling out “cambio, cambio!” and rumoured to give the best exchange rates in the city. The emergence of this black market is a result of the hyperinflation Argentina has seen in recent years; as of September 2024, the annualised inflation rate is predicted to be 123%. A practical example of this inflation over time was that we read a comment on a Tripadvisor article from 2016 whose author balked at spending 400 pesos on a stamp, as this was the equivalent of around 20 euros; as of September 2024, 400 pesos is worth around 30p. More relevant to the daily lives of Argentinians is that the price of a metro journey in Buenos Aires tripled overnight in January 2024 – imagine the cost of your daily commute tripling with no warning!
The economic situation is evident not only in the money exchangers on Calle Florida but all around: people rummage through bins, sit on street corners clutching blankets around their children, and busk on the metro. As of January 2024, sadly over half of Argentinians are living below the poverty line.
The Puerto Madero area is Buenos Aries’ waterfront development of its old industrial dockyards and appears to point to a bright future of investment and opportunity for the city, in spite of its current political and economic turbulence. The development follows a formula familiar to many European cities of renovated nineteenth-century industrial warehouses converted into bars and restaurants overlooking a glamorous marina. Behind this, a mass of skyscrapers housing global corporations and stacks of apartments complete Buenos Aries’ skyline along the river shore, fit for any modern city. The cherry on top is the Puente de la Mujer, ‘Women’s Bridge’, that crosses the marina, instantly recognisable as a design of starchitect Santiago Calatrava, with its slender white mast tapering to a point against a brilliant blue sky and fanned cable stays dappling the sun’s rays onto the deck below. This seals the feel of this corner of the city as one of optimism and international quality.
When in Argentina, it would be remiss not to see some tango, as the genre originated here, so we booked a tango evening at Tango Porteño off Plaza Lavalle. The theatre was packed with tables and the stage framed by an enormous burgundy velvet curtain. Supplied with empanadas and unlimited wine for the evening, we watched keenly as the curtain swung back to reveal the tango band on an upper level, consisting of a pianist, a double bassist, two accordionists and two violinists, then followed by dancers performing all manner of tango styles, adorned in sparkling dresses and suave suits. The dancers and musicians alike radiated infectious energy and (notwithstanding the eviction from the theatre of two shouting men who had had one drink too many) an hour passed in a whirl of colour.
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