Buenos Aires

Monday 9th May 1988

Dawn had trouble breaking through a heavy grey fog on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. It was cold outside but the train was well heated. Juan started to get excited and said that we could travel together through Brasil and stay together in a hotel that he knew in the city. I was getting sick of his hyperactivity and told him that I was staying with friends.

Buenos Aires, officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (Spanish: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and largest city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South America's southeastern coast. "Buenos Aires" can be translated as "fair winds" or "good airs", but the former was the meaning intended by the founders in the 16th century, by the use of the original name "Real de Nuestra Señora Santa María del Buen Ayre", named after the Madonna of Bonaria in Sardinia, Italy.

The city of Buenos Aires is neither part of Buenos Aires Province nor the Province's capital; rather, it is an autonomous district. In 1880, after decades of political infighting, Buenos Aires was federalized and removed from Buenos Aires Province.

I left Juan at the station and took bus number 7 to the International Youth Hostel at Calle José Mármol 1555. The bus driver told me where to get off and I walked two blocks to find that the Youth Hostel had moved and was now at Avenida Brasil 675, some thirty blocks away.

I trudged across town and soon after crossing the busy Plaza de la Constitución I found the new Youth Hostel, bedecked with flags. I checked in for ₳21 Australes per night, which included a roll and coffee for breakfast. I was given a bed in a crowded dormitory full of bunk beds.

I dumped my kit and took a delightful hot shower. Then it was time for a preliminary look at the city. I walked along the Calle Bolívar browsing in a second-hand bookshop along the way. I bought “The Old Man and the Sea” in Spanish to try and read to improve my understanding of the language.

The Old Man and the Sea is a novella written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cayo Blanco (Cuba) and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction written by Hemingway that was published during his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it tells the story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Cuba.

The old woman serving in the shop tried to interest me in a huge 1920 illustrated dictionary which was like a door stop. I walked across the Plaza de Mayo with pigeons whizzing about. The Plaza de Mayo (English: May Square) is a city square and main foundational site of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

It was formed in 1884 after the demolition of the Recova building, unifying the city's Plaza Mayor and Plaza de Armas, by that time known as Plaza de la Victoria and Plaza 25 de Mayo, respectively.

The city centre of Buenos Aires, Plaza de Mayo has been the scene of the most momentous events in Argentine history, as well as the largest popular demonstrations in the country. On the occasion of the first anniversary of the May Revolution in 1811, the Pirámide de Mayo (English: May Pyramid) was inaugurated in the square's hub, becoming Buenos Aires' first national monument.

It is located in the financial district known as microcentro, within the barrio (English: neighborhood) of Monserrat. It is bounded by Bolívar, Hipólito Yrigoyen, Balcarce and Avenida Rivadavia streets; and from its west side three important avenues are born: Avenida Presidente Julio Argentino Roca, Avenida Roque Sáenz Peña and Avenida de Mayo.

In the square's surroundings are several significant monuments and points of interest: the Cabildo, the Casa Rosada (seat of the President of Argentina), the Metropolitan Cathedral, the Buenos Aires City Hall, and the Bank of the Argentine Nation's headquarters. Underneath its lands are the Underground stations of Plaza de Mayo (Line A), Catedral (Line D), and Bolívar (Line E).

There were a number of plazas about, dotted with the usual statues of horses, winged beings, guns, soldiers, etc. in abundance. The Argentinian women where very stylish and attractive, walking with an animal grace and such tight trousers!

I walked along the busy Florida pedestrian shopping mall to the Tourist Office at Santa Fe 883. Avenida Santa Fe is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The artery is essential to the imaginary axis of Barrio Norte in Buenos Aires, comprising the areas influenced by the route of the avenue through Retiro, Recoleta and Palermo neighbourhoods, it is considered one of the main shopping and strolling areas of the city, its many boutiques range from elegant to edgy, which has led it to be dubbed the 'Avenue of Fashion'.

Upscale Alto Palermo, at Avenida Coronel Díaz, is one of the city's best-known vertical malls. Avenida Santa Fe is also an attraction for its architecture, strongly reminiscent of Paris. Its name pays homage to the eponymous province in Argentina.

At the Tourist Office I got a bunch of maps of the city and the country and walked back along the wide multi-laned Avenida 9 de Julio lined with tower blocks a Piccadilly Circus-style illuminated advertisements.

July 9 Avenue (Spanish: Avenida 9 de Julio) is a major thoroughfare in the city centre of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Its name honours Argentina's Independence Day, 9th July 1816.

The avenue runs around 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) to the west of the Río de la Plata waterfront, from the Retiro district in the north to Constitución station in the south. The avenue has up to seven lanes in each direction and is flanked on either side by parallel streets of two lanes each. Through the centre of the avenue runs one of the city's Metrobus (Bus rapid transit) corridors, which stretches 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) and was inaugurated in July 2013. There are two wide medians between the side streets and the main road.

There was a huge central obelisk and lots of traffic with associated exhaust fumes. The Obelisco de Buenos Aires (Obelisk of Buenos Aires) is a national historic monument and icon of Buenos Aires. Located in the Plaza de la República in the intersection of avenues Corrientes and 9 de Julio, it was erected in 1936 to commemorate the quadricentennial of the first foundation of the city.

I got the subway (SUBTE) back, paying ₳1.20 Australes for a token to get through the turnstiles at the station. The trains were old and dimly lit, as were the stations. The Buenos Aires Underground (Spanish: Subterráneo de Buenos Aires), locally known as Subte (from subterráneo – 'underground' or 'subterranean'), is a rapid transit system that serves the area of the city of Buenos Aires.

I bought some onions and tomatoes to liven us some powdered chicken soup which I brewed up in the Youth Hostel kitchen. I ate the broth eagerly and chatted to an Australian group. I wrote up my daily diary as several others around me studied Spanish books. Music blared and the dining room got quite busy. Girls giggled and shrieked around the end table.

I sat next to a Japanese guy who was studying Spanish. He was trying to learn some useful phrases such as “I love you” and “you are so sweet” in case he got lucky with the girls. I talked to John, American who seemed to be revelling in the Buenos Aires nightlife, and Gerrard, the Brazilian hostel helper.

A group of us sat around and tried to understand Gerrard’s jokes, told in Spanish, until gone midnight when we finally went to bed.