February 29th, 2008 
Sheila Simkin Today’s sightseeing involved Evita, Eva Peron. Almost every tourist makes the pilgrimage to Recoleta Cemetery (free) to see her family’s mausoleum there. View image… The cemetery is filled with stylized mausoleums in designs from Egyptian to Art Deco. You can buy a cemetery map outside the gates but we just followed the long line of tourists who made a beeline directly to Eva Peron, champion of the poor.
Outside the cemetery were many cafes and restaurants and the Recoleta neighborhood is one of the oldest chic areas to live and shop in. We ate at Cafe Victoria on Roberto M. Ortiz Avenue with its daily special of $35 Pesos (around $10 U.S.) for: bread, appetizers (caesar salad); entree (steak in wine sauce with potatoes); dessert (cheesecake); and one-half bottle of wine. (Those were our choices.) Recoleta was definitely higher class than the downtown area we stayed in and a lot cleaner. This was the area for five-star hotels – Sofitel, Alvear Palace and Four Seasons.
I must tell you about one of the most unusual McDonald’s Restaurants we’ve ever been in. In Buenos Aires, an order taker moves down the long lines with a handheld PDA, and hands you a printout with order number. Take a table and wait for your order to be delivered! This McDonald’s was jam-packed…standing room only. …View image… Why, oh why, didn’t I ever buy any McDonald’s stock in the 1960′s?
HINT: The Portenos do not curb their dogs and there is dog shit all over the sidewalks. Watch every step.
A walk through the Plaza de Mayo to look at the Casa Rosado (pink house) which houses the presidential offices. Eva Peron would address the crowds from the balcony of the Casa Rosado and this square was the site for some of the country’s most important historical occasions.
There were souvenir stands all around the Plaza selling T-shirts and posters with Che Guevara’s picture on them. Che is the Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, who became leader of Cuba’s guerrillas.
It was hot and sunny, trees were flowering…View image…, and we spent the entire time strolling the many different neighborhoods and eating. No tango shows. No museums. More than 15 million people live in the Greater Buenos Aires area, the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world and it seemed that most of them were out with us doing the same thing. Take inexpensive taxis or public transportation. We took a bus from the Sheraton to Palermo for $80 Pesos (about .30 cents) – very easy to use but you need exact change to put into the ticket dispensing machine. Ask your hotel/guesthouse staff how much your ride will be.
There was so much more to see and do but we thoroughly enjoyed three fast days in Buenos Aires.
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Hi I heard you on amateur traveller. I went to two countries on your website, Argentina and Vietnam. It seems you don’t stay in a place too long. Are you solo travellers or do you mostly go with tours?
We try to do solo whenever possible but some destinations are not worth the hassle to do by ourselves. We are going back to Vietnam in October and into the same Sapa area with a few other places tacked on. Using Adventure Center for this trip with one of their groups. Take a look at their offerings on the side-bar of my site. They have hundreds of offerings and I wouldn’t think of recommending if they didn’t do a great job. They are also EXTREMELY REASONABLE! Thanks for looking at the site and listening on Amateur traveller.
Happy traveling, Sheila
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