When I moved to Argentina eleven years ago, I had to make a decision: in which Argentina did I wish to live? You see, there are two distinct nations packed within the Argentine republic — Buenos Aires and … everything else.
Argentina, as a whole, has a relatively sparse population density. There are vast tracts of land with nary a road nor power line nor even an occupant. Small towns and villages dot the landscape and there are even some large cities … but nestled against the coastline rises one of the world’s great metropolises, packed to the gills with nearly 14 million residents.
Imagine, if you will, a United States where more than 100 million people live in Washington, DC and its suburbs. That is how it would be if our country resembled Argentina, with nearly a third of its population concentrated in one city. With that urban body count — plus being the seat of government, the spiritual center of the Catholic church, and the locus of the country’s banking and commerce — Buenos Aires dominates the rest of the nation absolutely.
We have a saying here,
Dios está en todas partes, pero solo atiende en Buenos Aires (God is everywhere, but his office is only in Buenos Aires)
The deference to Buenos Aires is maddening at times. You go to a government office in the interior of the country and halfway through whatever process you’re pursuing, the clerk will say “OK, come back next month after we get approval from Buenos Aires for this.” You go to a store and say “I saw this product on your website” and the clerk replies “Yes, but that item is available only in our Buenos Aires stores.” You want to fly from one city to another and the only way to do it is to fly past your destination city for 2 hours, land in Buenos Aires, change planes, and fly back to the destination city — because almost all flights have Buenos Aires as the starting or ending point.
Gran Buenos Aires, the combined metropolitan area. The light yellow area in the middle is Capital Federal — the City of Buenos Aires proper — and the blue, pink, and purple areas are GBA
To make things even more complicated, there are two Buenos Aires. The first one is the City of Buenos Aires proper, known as Capital Federal or CABA (for Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires). It’s an autonomous region, not part of any Argentine province, much like our own Washington, DC. To the east is the Rio de la Plata (River Plate), a huge estuary leading to the Atlantic Ocean, which let Buenos Aires become a world class port. To the north, west, and south is the province of Buenos Aires and 99 of its cities snuggle up against Capital Federal to create Gran Buenos Aires (Greater Buenos Aires, or GBA), forming an unbroken cityscape for miles and miles around. Of the roughly 14 million people in the GBA metropolitan area, about 3 million live in Capital Federal.
So where did I want to live? In remote Patagonia, with its stunning windswept seascapes? In La Pampa, where real gauchos (cowboys) still roam the unending plains in their traditional outfits? In Bariloche, tucked up in the Andes mountains amid alpine forests and nearby glaciers? Or Buenos Aires, the vibrant city of Belle Époque architecture, nearly a hundred museums, countless sidewalk cafés and restaurants, innumerable parks and plazas, and frequently called “the Paris of the West”?
Having spent most of my adult life in big cities like Los Angeles and London, I opted for metropolitan life yet again. Buenos Aires was exciting and filled with places to go and things to see. It was inexpensive at that time so I was able to sample life in various high-end barrios (neighborhoods or districts), taking short-term lets of all-included apartments (furnishings, linens, kitchenware, utilities, cable and internet, weekly maid service, etc) for a song — an average of about $400 per month.
Packing up my suitcases every few months and relocating let me get to know Capital Federal in a way that wouldn’t have been so easy had I stuck to just one small part of it. Every move meant exploring the surrounding area, finding the shops and services I needed, and talking with the locals to find out which bakery made the flakiest medialunas (a sweet croissant) or which poultry shop had good deals on milanesas (breaded chicken breast cutlets). Every apartment offered a new view of the city skyline, or a charming cobblestone lane, or an emerald park, or gray seas across the River Plate to Uruguay.
Eventually I left Buenos Aires, moving to the northwest of Argentina. The contrast couldn’t be greater: the entire village where I now live probably wouldn’t populate even a single block of the Buenos Aires high-rises I lived in before. I enjoy wide open spaces here and share the streets with goats, horses, and chickens instead of cars, trucks, and a gazillion people … but I still fondly remember my adventures in Argentina’s grand capital.
So let me share with you some memories of Buenos Aires.
This is the detailed view of the yellow area of the map above, showing the districts of Capital Federal
La Boca
We begin at one of the oldest and most colorful districts of Buenos Aires, La Boca (the mouth). Sited where the Riachuelo River — which forms one of the boundaries of Capital Federal — empties into the Rio de la Plata, La Boca is renowned for art, music, and dance, and being the home of the Boca Juniors, one of Argentina’s two most important soccer teams (Tip: it doesn’t matter if you’re not Argentinian, people will ask and expect that you have a favorite between the Boca Juniors and River Plate teams!).
There is a small harbor at the point where most visitors arrive by taxi or public transportation. Street vendors, selling curios and native handicrafts, line the way for the two block walk to the heart of La Boca. There one finds a pedestrian-only street filled with cafés, shops, and galleries, as seen above, with every building bursting in color. To the right, you can see the start of the Caminito (little pathway), where artists display their works amidst statues that adorn the scene.
Artists hang their paintings on portable frameworks and tourists and porteños (natives of Buenos Aires) almost as quickly take them down as purchases. You can find watercolors and oil paintings of city scenes, landscapes, portraits, and non-representational modernist pieces. A popular subject, naturally, is Argentina’s signature fusion of music and dance, the tango.
Interspersed among the artists’ displays are statues that are public property rather than items for sale. So strolling El Caminito is like walking through an outdoor museum and art gallery as well as an artist’s studio, because you will often find a few of them painting right there on the street. Many of the buildings lining El Caminito have galleries and shops inside, where you can buy both art works and handicrafts.
Carlos Gardel (tango musician), Evita, and Maradona (soccer star)
While it might not be high art, another art form is very popular in La Boca. Posed on balconies or on the streets themselves, you will see humorous life-size statues, often caricatures of famous Argentine figures.
And, well, this is Argentina so of course there has to be a cow around somewhere. Fortunately, I think it’s safe from that car; it doesn’t appear to have moved in decades.
When you get back to the main street, you might have worked up an appetite with all the walking. So sit down at a table and order a bite to eat; you don’t even have to go inside since many restaurants spill right out into the sidewalk and the street (closed to traffic). While enjoying your meal, you can become familiar with the sensuous music of the tango, performed by the café’s own ensemble. If you get a good table, you’ll be close to the mini-stage where tango dancers will show you their provocative style of dancing, as they dramatically shift between seducing and spurning their partners.
When your meal comes, be prepared for beef. A lot of beef. Unthinkable parts of beef. It’s served on a charcoal mini-grill, sizzling hot.
The parrilla (which may mean the grill itself, the meal of grilled meats, or a “steakhouse” type of restaurant that serves grilled meats) is the classic Argentine meal. In addition to steak-ish cuts, there are regular sausages, blood sausages, and assorted organs. It’s a lot to eat so, fortunately, you’re expected to share with your companions and thus you can let them eat the parts that make you queasy, if you’re like me.
It will likely be served with a mysterious green sauce. Give it a try, you will probably like it. It’s called chimichurri and it’s made of parsley, garlic, oregano, and red pepper flakes in vinegar and oil.
After your meal, stroll around a bit. You’ll probably find another couple of street dancers performing a tango for the crowds. Be sure to toss them a tip because I can tell you it’s hard work. Many years ago in Los Angeles, I took an introductory tango course for gay men. The basic moves are quite challenging and since some of them involve sliding your foot or leg between or behind those of your partner, it’s an accomplishment just to not crash to the floor in a heap. I can’t even imagine doing it in stiletto heels!
if you feel inspired by the dancers, you might want to give it a whirl and hie yourself to a milonga. Keeping the theme of word confusion going, a milonga can be either a one-off organized event for tango dancing or an actual “dance hall” where tangueros gather most nights to enjoy dancing. La Boca sometimes hosts the former but the popular established milongas of the latter sense are in other barrios of the city. There is a delightful outdoor milonga in a large gazebo-bandstand in a park in the Belgrano district, the Plaza Barrancas de Belgrano, several evenings per week.
Now, relax a few moments and listen to the most famous tango song of them all, Mi Buenos Aires Querido, by Carlos Gardel — Argentina’s legendary composer and singer — a paean to the city that he loved.
An afternoon in La Boca will give you a crash course in Argentine culture, covering two of the three essentials: tango and beef. If you spot a fútbol (soccer) game going on as you leave La Boca, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a veritable expert on Argentina!
I don’t have a timeline for writing and publishing future installments of this diary series. But I will continue it, so just keep an eye on the Recent Diaries list if you want to see more of this remarkable city.