Archive for the ‘South America’ Category

It’s one of the most recognisable sculptures in the world, and only 22 casts were made from the original mould. Of those, only one is in South America, sitting in Plaza de Congreso in front of the National Congress Building.

However, in a sad reflection of what happens here if it ain’t fenced off, Rodin’s Thinker recently got a new, temporary, colour.

I saw it on a tour a few weeks ago, snapped the above pic, and within 2 days it was scrubbed clean – impressively fast for this city where graffiti scrawled on the main Cathedral is often left for weeks on end. However, according to this article, in their haste to blast the pink off with water, the city Government may have caused irreversible damage to the sculpture and its original patination. Nice try…

Towards the end of the 19th Century, after a series of increasingly serious disease outbreaks (in 1871 Yellow Fever wiped out nearly 10% of the city’s inhabitants), it was decided to do something about the quality of the drinking water. Work began in 1887 on a central pumping station which when finished in 1894 turned out to be one of the most flamboyant architectural works in a city not known for its understated buildings. Officially named El Gran Depósito Ingeniero Guillermo Villanueva it soon became known by a much more fitting and stately name, El Palacio de Aguas Corrientes (The Palace of Running Water).

Palace may not be overstating things. It may well have contained 12 enormous tanks with a total capacity of 72 million litres of water, but it’s the exterior that truly grabs the attention. Decorated with 400,000 ceramic and glazed terracotta tiles made by Royal Doulton in England and sporting the coats of arms of the 14 (at the time) Argentinian provinces, it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer effort put into a public utility building.


Whilst its water-pumping days may be over, it still houses the Buenos Aires Water Company’s offices as well as a small water works museum. It can be found on Avenida Córdoba, a couple of blocks from the Callao subte station on Line D.

Wearing my Tour Guide hat, I was recently asked a few questions by the good folks at Expanish Spanish School Argentina about my experiences in Buenos Aires and the things I love and hate about the city. The interview can be found here: Expanish Meets Buenos Aires Local Tours.

Nice little film tracing the day of one of Buenos Aires’ famous Dog Walkers. Victor has been doing the job for the last 12 years and has been bitten three times and has lost 2 dogs (both turned up later!).

Every Sunday, the main street in San Telmo is closed to traffic and opened to stalls selling all the Argentina-related knick-knacks you could desire. Popular with locals and tourists alike it’s one of the essential experiences Buenos Aires has to offer.

I recently came across an old notebook I’d carried with me on my travels when I first arrived in Argentina and tucked inside the back cover were some tickets from bus journeys I had taken. Travelling by bus had been such a big part of my trip around South America that it was nice to be reminded of the distances and experiences that these tickets represented. A couple had the prices on them, so I decided to conduct a little experiment.

That Argentina has been experiencing heavy inflation these last few years is no secret. Whilst the government has gone out of their way to deny it, even fining agencies who dared publish figures which disagreed with their own, living here it’s impossible not to notice prices increasing on a monthly basis. So having the prices from the past in front of me, I thought I’d take a look at how they have changed.

In March 2009 I travelled from Rio Gallegos to Buenos Aires, a journey of 36 hours which cost me 500 pesos. The same journey today according to plataforma10.com would cost 810 pesos – an increase of 61% over 28 months. Given that unofficial estimates of inflation have been around the 25% mark for the last couple of years, that’s not too bad.

Other, shorter and probably more popular routes have however suffered much more heavily. Looking at the tickets from my parents trip last October, the cost of Buenos Aires to Puerto Madryn has increased by 62% in just 10 months. In the 31 months since I travelled to Puerto Iguazu, the cost of a Cama class ticket has gone up a whopping 154% from 185 to 471 pesos.

The most heavily affected by this type of inflation (which applies to everything, not just travel) is the Argentinian population who will be able to buy less and less as rent, food and transport take up more and more of their salaries which are not increasing by the same proportion as prices. However I do see another side effect which will be to affect tourism. As exchange rates have varied very little in the last few years these type of price increases are making Argentina twice as expensive to visit as it was only 2 years ago.

Flights to Argentina from Europe and North America are not cheap and the relative inexpensive costs (lodging, transport & eating) once you are here compensated for that making a holiday here a realistic proposition. The more those prices increase the less viable Argentina will become as a destination, something which will hurt both the travel industry and the economy as a whole.

I’ll tell anyone that listens that the best map of Buenos Aires is the Interactive Map on the Buenos Aires City Government site. With it you can easily find any street address and for planning a journey on public transport it’s indispensable.

However, today I discovered a feature I’d not spotted before which makes me very happy indeed (it doesn’t take much). As well as the expected map and satellite views, it offers a choice of photographic overlays from times gone by. A satellite view from 2004 and aerial views from 1978, 1965 and 1940. I’ve spent most of the afternoon exploring 1940s Buenos Aires and am going to sharing some of the highlights here (click on all photos for larger views).

Completed around about the turn of the 20th Century, the Plaza de Mayo has not changed beyond recognition in the 71 years since this photo was taken. The main change is that the Casa Rosada was surrounded by roads on all four sides back then. Balcarce to its left as we look at it is now pedestrianised and the Paseo Colón passed right past the front of the building instead of looping round the gardens as it does now. Also, with fewer trees than nowadays, it’s easier to see the symmetry of the Plaza itself in the aerial view, something its hard to appreciate from ground level.

If the Plaza de Mayo hasn’t changed much, then the above shot shows an area that has undergone some major work. We all know the Avenida 9 de Julio these days as it cuts its way through the heart of the city. Well it hasn’t always been this way – back in 1940 it was only 5 blocks long and was more of a Plaza than an Avenida! The Obelisco had been built 4 or 5 years prior and it wouldn’t be for another 10 years until the buildings between Cerrito & Carlos Pelligrini would be levelled to extend the avenue. The Teatro Colón can be seen in the bottom left of the picture.

El Caminito, now one of the main tourist attractions in Buenos Aires was a long way from that in 1940. As the above picture shows it was then simply a spur of the main railway that served the docks. It wouldn’t be for another 15 years before local artist Benito Quinquela Martín would begin working on his vision of transforming it into Buenos Aires’ first open-air musuem.

The above picture shows one of the main sights of my tour, the market building in Abasto. At the time of this picture it had only been open for 5 years and would remain so for another 44 years. Clearly visible is the rear sections which is somewhat altered these days, but the front section remains intact as it was then. Also note the tramlines running up and down Corrientes. Buenos Aires once had one of the largest tram systems in the world (more than 850km of track at its peak) which was dismantled in the 1960s in favour of buses.

There is, of course, much more to be discovered with these wonderful old aerial shots and as I find more things of interest I’ll post them here.

Visitors to Recoleta Cemetery usually have one priority, to see the grave of Eva Perón. In fact to the average visitor to Argentina she is the only “name” that the cemetery has to offer. People at the gate will tell you where her (frankly underwhelming) family tomb is, although it’s easy to find – just follow the crowds.

Whilst a pilgrimage to Evita’s grave is a must-do, it represents just one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of stories that Recoleta has to tell. Of all of them, my favourite is that of Rufina Cambaceres.

Born in 1883, daughter of accomplished Argentine author Eugene Cambaceres, Rufina grew up in comfort and wealth. Her father died when she was very young and she lived with her mother in a large house in the south of Buenos Aires, and by the time she reached her late teens she was known as one of the great beauties of the city.

Her 19th birthday was to be a grand affair – her mother had organised a large party and the evening was scheduled to end at a function given in the Teatro Colón. As Rufina was finishing her preparations for the big night, a friend of hers confessed something that everyone except Rufina knew, that is to say her fiancé was having an affair with Luisa, her own mother.

Left alone, Rufina’s heart broke into tiny pieces and one of the maids found her collapsed on the floor some time later, whereby 3 doctors were summoned and all pronounced her dead. Her distraught mother ordered her to be buried in Recoleta Cemetery.

Several days later at the final ceremony prior to burial, one of the guardians of the family vault shared some terrible news with Luisa. When the coffin had been opened for the last time, scratchmarks had been found in the lid, and Rufina’s face had also been badly scratched. The official story at the time was that the coffin had been raided to remove the jewels the body was wearing.

It is now known however that Rufina was in fact placed into the coffin alive, suffering from catalepsy, a condition characterised by rigidity and low vital signs. At some point she awoke to find herself trapped, tried in desperation to escape and unable to she died, this time definitively, of a heart attack.

Her Art Nouveau resting place can now be found on a corner to the left of the main square. Not only is it one of the most amazing stories in the cemetery, the beautiful tomb reflects the beauty and sadness of her short life. Pay her a visit when you’re next in Recoleta.

This post originally posted here.

In a city filled with architectural curiosities, one that captures the attention more than most is the Confiteria del Molino, on the corners of Rivadavia and Callao, opposite the Congeso Nacional. Abandoned since 1997, it now sits in one of the best locations of Buenos Aires, looking unloved and getting dirtier every day. Things were not always this way of course, and the building has a much brighter past than its current sorry state implies.

Gaetano Brenna had been operating as a cake maker in Buenos Aires since 1850 and the Brenna name became synonymous with some of the finest Pan Dulce to be found. Towards the end of the 19th Century Brenna changed the name of his café from Confiteria del Centro to Antigua Confitería del Molino (Old Windmill Café) in honour of the nearby Molino Lorea, the first flour mill built in Buenos Aires. In 1905 they moved to the current site and in 1917 the Nueva Confitería del Molino opened in the building we still see today.

In order to build this Art Nouveau masterpiece, architect Francisco Gianotti imported all of the doors, marble, ceramics, glass and 150 m² of stained glass from Italy. Above the decorative windmill, the attic roof and the decorative cupola still have their gold tiles, although due to the dirt accumulated over the years, these are best seen when it’s raining!

Being such a prominent and striking building, many famous Argentines (and others) have passed through its doors. From Eva Perón to Carlos Gardel (who requested a special dessert be created in honour of his friend, jockey Irineo Leguisamo) to Madonna, who even filmed the video for her song Love Don’t Live Here Anymore (see below) in the building, less than a year before it closed.

Unfortunately, the exterior beauty and beautiful clientele did not mean that the business was being run with any level of competence and after several decades of bankruptcies and buyouts the Confiteria finally closed its doors on the 24th January 1997, and was named a National Historic Monument the same year. Plans have come and go to reopen the building, and there is currently a proposal of expropriation working its way through the House of Representatives. Until that happens however, the Confiteria del Molina will remain closed, it’s grubby exterior giving us only a small glimpse of her glamourous past.

Love & questions will be in the air on Monday 14th February with the Cigale Valentine’s Quiz!

It starts at 7:30pm, teams of up to 6 people allowed and entry is 10 pesos per person. There will be prizes for the winners and runners-up!

See you there! map