Buenos Aires 3

3-hour trip from Caramelo, a little town of Uruguay to recreation “Mecca” Tigre of Argentina turned out to be amazingly pleasant. Tigre delta, a meeting point for the Uruguay and Plato rivers, is a huge field of water resembling sea. Due to massive fellings around the rivers, the unprotected fertile soil gets washed away, dying the stream with brownish shade, similar to Mekong in Asia. Luckily there is no household trash noticeable on riverbanks, making American rivers different from their Asian relatives. Houses on the riverbanks are erected on poles, neat and well-groomed gardens are presently partly flooded, due to abnormally rainy summer.

There are households of various levels, although wealthier villas are prevalent. Old shipwrecks, intentionally left in shallow waters, match the scenery.

This is a perfect place for people fond of water activities. Approaching Tigre, the place got more and more crowded by holidaymakers. As our hearts are not bonded with water activities, we left the seasonal centre behind and headed towards capital.

BA, despite of its 3 million inhabitants, does not seem too nervous at all, at least during the holiday season. We did not wander in suburban slums of the city, just got a glimpse of them while travelling from Tigre to BA by train.   Porteños are not very proud of local railway. They recommended us to use buses instead of trains. Our single experience did not confirm their opinion. Brand new carriages, painted in national blue-white colour were clean and in good shape. Typically to big cities, part of traffic is transferred underground. Subway is a bit worn out, but operated smoothly.

From architectural point of view, BA is a complete mixture of styles. According to our freelancer porteño guide, who introduced BA during 3 hour city tour, majority of buildings from colonial era were demolished at the end of 19^th century, due to political reasons. During the golden era of BA in 1890- 1930, lots of majestic and wealthy mansions were erected in the city. General city planning strategy was unknown, money declared everything then and apparently nowadays as well.

BA’s famous 140 meters wide Avenue July 9th, is one of the widest streets in the world. Only the experienced sprinters are able to cross the street during single cycle of green traffic light. Both directions have 9 lines for cars and two for buses. I felt a bit scared when crowd of cars started moving with green light. Luckily pedestrians have enough security lanes between the vehicles. The city has a network of one way streets, keeping traffic movement smooth and quite safe for pedestrians.

One of the largest theatre buildings worldwide, ballet, opera and concert house - “Teatro Colon”, is situated in BA  as well. It took more than twenty years to complete the majestic building.  The grand opening took place in 1908. Due to holiday period the only possible way to visit the theatre was to join the guided tour. Quite ordinary and plain from outside, it hides gorgeous opera hall and magnificent interiors.

Design is dominated by 3 different sorts of marble, all imported from different countries of Europe, gold and bronze decor. Floors are covered with either oak parquetry or flooring patterns, consisting of millions of tiny ceramic stones. Under the ceiling, at the height of 30 metres, is a huge chandelier, weighing 1500 kg and containing thousands of tiny light bulbs. Around the chandelier there is a narrow passageway, with sufficient space for up to 15 musicians to spice musical performances with different sounds from “heaven”.

According to our guide the auditorium has a capacity for 2800 people, 600 in parter and others divided between 7 balconies. On the highest balcony, where sound is the best, 300 standing places are available. These places are favourites of music students from all over the world. Specialists claim that Theatre Colon is concert hall with one of the best acoustics worldwide. Just step into the marvelous theatre and you find yourself in wonderland.

We celebrated Andrus’s 50^th birthday in BA. As we did not announce the party place through Facebook, I was the only guest (poor Andrus..). We chose Peruvian cuisine for the occasion, seafood chivito with Pisco Sour tasted really well. We completed the evening in one of BA’s famous “heladerias”, where you can select favourite ice cream from more than 20 flavours. Here is the “Kingdom of ice cream” indeed! Many thanks from Andrus to all family members, friends and colleagues, for kind regards. Special thanks to our dance group for an excellent Estonian Pasodoble performance, bringing gentle smile on our faces!

General Jose Martin, one of the most important heroes in the struggle for independence of South America is honoured by every Argentinian. Most celebrated female person from Argentina is Eva Peron, who faught for the benefit of women, children and underprivileged. We visited Evita´s Museum, located in the beautiful former hotel, erected in 1923 in Palermo district of BA.

In her initiative 1948 an asylum for women and children was opened in this building. Nowadays it shelters a thorough exposition depicting a life and death of Eva Peron. It also reveals a shocking fact about the mishandling of her cremated dead body by military coup. After long exodus, Eva Peron’s remainings are finally buried in family crypt at Recoleta Cemetery.

We have been stacked in BA longer than we planned. Luckily the City has plenty to offer.

Peculiar place is bus terminal for city transportation. To describe it as a bus stop is not quite accurate. A large square, rounded by numerous poles, some with numbers, others anonymous. We could not find timetables or any written information. Anyhow, buses moved in and out, people stayed patiently in lines close to the poles, knowing exactly the proper point where to wait.  We, ignorant tourists, had to make some strolls round the square and interview several people, before the correct bus stop was found. Luckily we were not in a hurry and managed to solve the puzzle. Following morning we shall return here to continue our trip to Zarate. Hopefully we shall receive our van, finally?