New Year's Eve in Buenos Aires

At this point, guest blogger Mama Viajera writes a few posts about our shared adventures during the four weeks in Argentina and Uruguay in December.

The pictures are taken by me.

My posts will continue to be delayed as usual.

Happy arrival at our Airb&b: power outage! The elevator doesn't work (no air conditioning either, over 30 degrees Celsius, of course). We live on the 12th floor!!!! Do you want to carry the suitcase (about 18kg)? Marc innocently asks. I don't want to! Fortunately, the concierge rushes to help. Sweat is pouring down his forehead... Today we have to go down again, or we'll starve. The shower only provides cold water as well. Refreshing, at least! That was our 'welcome' in BA. Because the concierge promised us power at midnight, I refuse to go home before midnight after dinner. It's worth it. The rickety elevator takes us up and down reliably from then on. Our Airb&b is clean, quiet, and very well located near the Obelisco.

On the first day, Marc is convinced to take a tourist city tour on the Hop-On/Hop-off bus. In this huge 12 million metropolis, it gives a good overview (where else do you start if you only have 4 days???). As a conclusion, we want to visit the Teatro Colón, built in 1908. It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful theaters in the world with the best acoustics. Tough luck. All the tour tickets are sold out and it's closed for the next 2 days. We console our disappointment with a huge piece of chocolate cake and coffee at the opera café. When leaving the building, a man speaks to us in mixed Spanish-English. His wife (or child?) has gotten sick and he has 2 tickets for the ballet starting one hour later. He gives us the tickets. I feel like I'm in a fairy tale and could have hugged and kissed him. Instead, all I could do out of joy was say a heartfelt thank you and he was gone. We couldn't even wish him a speedy recovery. Now we have to hurry back to our apartment in our leisure clothes, take an extremely short shower, change into our 'going out clothes' (Marc bought an elegant black shirt especially for the Christmas party), and hurry back. We made it. We were able to enjoy the stylish room full of warm light before the performance. By the way, the theater, which opened in 1908 with Verdi's Aida, has not only 2500 seats but also 1000 standing spaces. Only when I sat down did I realize that we didn't even know what was being performed. And it wasn't just anything, it was the classic "The Nutcracker" by Tchaikovsky, especially performed during the Christmas season. It was fantastic, the dances, choreography, scenery, lighting, everything. We were both totally enthralled and very grateful to the unknown benefactor.

After the ballet, we took a taxi to the La Boca neighborhood, where I had booked dinner at Colectivo Felix as a surprise for Marc. The restaurant is a so-called 'Puerta cerrada' (closed door). They were created during the great economic crisis at the beginning of the 21st century when many unemployed chefs went to Europe and learned from good chefs in France and Spain. Since they have returned (and probably didn't have the money for a 'real' restaurant), they invite people into their living room, so to speak. A certain level of quality is expected. But above all, not everything here revolves around meat. In any case, we really enjoyed the 6-course menu, always accompanied by the appropriate wine.

On the 2nd day - New Year's Eve - we let a taxi take us to the La Boca neighborhood. Taxis are an important part of the street traffic here and cheap. There are said to be about 36,000 taxis in BA. La Boca is mainly inhabited by poorer immigrants, a multicultural neighborhood with people from all over the world. The houses made of corrugated iron in the brightest colors are attractive and unique. A feast for the eyes for me as a lover of colors. However, the whole thing has a rather sad background. Corrugated iron was the cheapest building material. And because the shipyard workers living here were often paid in kind, they received ship lacquer instead of money, which they used to paint their houses. Probably not the healthiest living climate.

La Boca has another reason for its fame. Diego Maradona comes from here or rather from the highly paid Boca Juniors football club. Despite all his escapades, he remains a god here and is as omnipresent as Pope Francis, who worked in BA. Unfortunately, we cannot visit the stadium of the Boca Juniors team, it is closed like almost everything else in the city on New Year's and New Year's Day.

In the evening, the big question arises. Where do we celebrate New Year's Eve? No one can tell us if and where anything is happening. Fortunately, we enjoyed an aperitif in our apartment because we can't find a single open restaurant and the streets are deserted on the way to the port, where we want to see if anything is happening there. At least, our choice is right. Life gradually returns to the area. Ad hoc vendors offer beer and empanadas (stuffed pastries). This way, our hunger and thirst are satisfied. With the crowd, we stroll around the harbor basin, admire the pedestrian bridge designed by star architect Calatrava, and finally secure a strategically advantageous spot for midnight - still not knowing what will happen then. The tension builds. At 11:52 pm, the first fireworks shoot up into the sky. For the New Year's Eve and long after, it is cracking and shining like crazy all around the harbor basin. One of the fireworks displays is clearly the biggest and lasts the longest, but it's not really well composed either. Later, I hear someone say that there is no official fireworks display, but everything is set off privately. If that's the case, some people have dug deep into their pockets. It was beautiful in any case. And we even got a sip of (warm) champagne from the bottle because we made room for a couple next to us and they happened to have "champagne to share" with them. What also becomes clear to me on this evening: BA is a fairly safe big city. There is hardly any pickpocketing or even robberies like in other South American cities. That's because of the many police officers, a taxi driver told us. In fact, they stand in pairs or threes on every corner.

New Year - on to new discoveries. We make a truly special one. I want to visit the famous Recoleta cemetery, especially to see the final resting place of the legendary first lady, Eva (Evita) Perón, still highly revered in Argentina (I love the musical Evita). In this cemetery, you can forget what you know about cemeteries. Recoleta is a kind of city of the dead. The masonry mausoleums are lined up as closely as the high-rise buildings in the city, but they are mostly more artistic. Gables, turrets, and decorations adorn the burial monuments. They are probably all family graves of well-to-do Porteños (that's what the city's inhabitants call themselves), some even have up to 6 coffins inside, not to mention those buried underground. Eva Perón, who is buried in the tomb of her family of origin, is said to be buried 5m below the ground. The flower-decorated tomb is easy to find, you just have to follow the stream of tourists. By the way, the so-called 'Bovedas' burial structures were created because burial in the earth only lasts for 5 years and Argentine Catholics reject cremation as believers. Despite the tourists, Recoleta Cemetery is an oasis of peace and well worth a visit.

Although the sun was scorching hot, we decided to take a few photos at the 'Flower', the artwork Floralis Genérica. On our last evening, we treated ourselves to a real asado (meat platter) and a tango show - which is a must in BA, of course.

Mama Viajera leaves on January 2nd. In the morning, we take more photos of the 'new' port city. Just before departure, the heaviest thunderstorm rain we experienced in Argentina comes pouring down.

The customs clearance confirms what I said throughout the trip: Argentinians are champions of inefficiency. A huge line of people is waiting, and out of the approximately 10 counters, 8 are occupied but at most 3 officials are actually checking. I stand in line for over an hour until the flight is called for urgent boarding. The airplane door closes behind me.

I would have liked to stay longer, to feel the pulse of BA even better and to see Patagonia. God willing (not Maradona!), I will have the opportunity for a 2nd trip to Argentina. Gracias, el Viajero, the 4 weeks with you were very nice. Buen viaje y hasta luego.

I, Marc El Viajero, will stay in BA for a few more days to rest. The pace at which tourists travel, trying to pack as much as possible into a few weeks of vacation, is a bit high for a long-term traveler like me.

So I'm enjoying the city, the warmth, visiting some very interesting museums, or dining in the trendy Palermo Soho neighborhood.

After almost two weeks in this metropolis, I will continue to the wine region of Mendoza.