The Best Night Shot of Ave. 9 de Julio, Buenos Aires

Originally uploaded by kelvinlls

Apart from sunsets, one of the scenes I like to capture are night scenes of a busy, buzzing city. I went to Buenos Aires 2 years ago and fell in love with the city! They have the widest avenue in the world, with 8 lanes going on each direction. I managed to find an island in the middle of the road and setup my tripod to take this stream of cars flowing through this wide avenue. At one end of the avenue is the perennial symbol of Buenos Aires, the Obelisk (El Obelisco).

The Paris of South America

Buenos Aires – a city known for Tango, Evita and Diego Maradona. It’s been dubbed as the Paris of South America, a city of wide avenues, beautiful parks and fine architecture. I recently visited the most romantic city of South America, and I can see what the fuss is all about. I felt like I was in Europe, somewhere between Madrid and Paris. The people are very well dressed, and well mannered (in fact, sometimes too well mannered that it can be borderline snobby – though saying that, the Argentinians are very friendly and warm once you get to know them!).

Here are some of the top ten highlights of my trip to the Argentine capital:

1. Tango

One of the highlights of my trip was to see a tango show. I have never been into dancing, but there is just something about the passion and elegance of the tango. While I was walking in some of the neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires, I saw a lot of bars and tourist pubs that try to lure you to a free tango show. A lot of them are just amateurs, but you can’t tell the difference until you’ve seen the real Tango show where you have to pay. The dancers we saw at the show were just fantastic dancers! My friend and I went to this place called La Ventana, and we got the dinner and show package. It was well worth it! The food was great, and the show was just absolutely fabulous!

2. Crossing the Ave. 9 de Julio

Ave. 9 de Julio is the widest avenue in the world, and has the most famous landmark of Buenos Aires. Nearly every image or postcard of Buenos Aires has to have this iconic monument called El Obelisco (The Obelisk). It has 10 lanes on each direction, and it normally took me more than 1 minute to cross the entire stretch!

3. Indulging in Alfajores

I’m a big chocolate addict, and the minute I discovered this mouth-watering Argentinian treat, I was instantly hooked to it! The Alfajores (pronounced as ‘Al-fah-ho-res’) is basically a cookie with dulce de leche in the middle and covered with a chocolate or meringue coating, wrapped in a foil. Some would call it a type of dulce de leche, which is an argentinian delicacy. I just had at least a piece of it each day while I was in Buenos Aires, and even brought some home! My favourite brands are El Cachafaz (the dark chocolate ones are the best!) and Havanna…Yum!

4. Visiting the El Ateneo bookstore

The El Ateneo bookstore is a chain of bookstores around Argentina, but there is one particular branch that is special. This store is an old theatre converted into the bookstore, and still retains a lot of its 1920s theatrical features and charm. It’s voted by a British publication as the #2 best bookstore building/interior in the world! The selection of books are fantastic, and the CDs are also great! They have both English and Spanish sections, which caters to tourists as well!

5. Walking along Calle Florida

Calle Florida is one of the pedestrianised shopping streets of Buenos Aires. It offers a wide range of shops from souvenir shops to leather goods to bookstores and cafes. It stretches to a few blocks, and along the way, you’ll find old buildings with remarkable architecture ranging from the 1600s til the early 1900s. It’s a great walk for both sightseeing and shopping. At the corner of Calle Florida and Avenida Cordoba is the Galerias Pacifico, one of the best shopping malls in Buenos Aires. It offers tax-free shopping.

6. Exploring Recoleta and the Recoleta cemetery

Recoleta is one of the more upmarket suburbs of Buenos Aires. You’ll notice it while walking around the big plush houses and upmarket shops around the area. One of the unique attractions in the area is the Recoleta cemetery (Cementerio de la Recoleta). It’s filled with grand and beautifully-decorated mausoleums and sarcophagi of the rich and well-known people of Buenos Aires. You will find the tomb of Eva Peron, the famous first lady of Argentina (made popular by the musical “Evita”). Another attraction is the Florialis Generica, which is a giant metal flower monument in the middle of a park that opens like a flower during the day, and closes its petals during the night!

7. Cruising around Tigre

Tigre is a town 50 minutes away from downtown Buenos Aires. It’s on a river delta along the Rio de la Plata. This is a weekend destination for the Porteños (residents of Buenos Aires city). Residents in the area are connected via the rivers and canals that run along the region. There are no roads to get to some of the houses by the riverbanks, and nearly each house has its own mini-pier. There’s a floating supermarket, a few gas stations with no roads beside them.. Quite an interesting sight!

8. Visiting an Estancia (Gaucho farm)

The Gaucho is one of the unique symbols of Argentina. It’s a reminder of the traditional farming and cowboy roots of the country, which developed into a culture of its own. The gaucho culture is slowly dying, as farmers have now become more modern, and have slowly abandoned the traditional ways of living in the countryside. I visited Estancia Santa Catalina, which was 2 hours away from Buenos Aires. The farm offered a BBQ lunch and a gaucho show to showcase the talents and skills of a gaucho. There was a museum of a typical gaucho house, and we had the chance to ride on a horse around the farm. It’s well worth checking out!

9. Dining in Puerto Madero

Puerto Madero is a new development in Buenos Aires. It used to be a bustling port area in the early 1900s, but unfortunately turned into a series of abandoned warehouses. Then in the late 1990s, it was turned into restaurants, bars and cafes, and a whole number of condominiums and offices have since arisen in the area. Being by the water, it’s nice to sit out and have coffee and watch the people walk along. A nice modern pedestrian bridge spans the port area to link up to the other side of Puerto Madero. We had dinner at this restaurant called La Caballeriza. They serve a good asado ribs and this great dessert called Bombon Moro (made of mascarpone cheese, chocolate brownie, and topped with strawberries)!

10. Caminito (La Boca) and San Telmo

These two neighbourhoods are worth checking out. San Telmo has a lot of very old buildings, and is one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires. It has a lot of plazas where people dance tango to show to tourists, shops and cafes all around the place. Caminito, on the other hand, is a very colourful neighbourhood, with brightly painted houses and buildings and giant papier machè dolls decorating some of the shops. The neighbourhood around it (La Boca) is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Buenos Aires, and locals don’t advise tourists to go around the area apart from the Caminito. It’s a very lively neighbourhood, definitely worth visiting.