A Series of Unfortunate Events

One City, One Month
Destination: Buenos Aires
Travel Dates: January 5th – February 5th
Date: January 7, 2009

Travel Journal: A Series of Unfortunate Events

In which our heroine and her valiant beau visit an underwhelming museum, see a Soccer Stadium, meander through a tourist trap, get in a bus accident, and eat at a very poor restaurant.

Unfortunate Event # 1--The Museo Historico Nacional

Upon arriving in Buenos Aires, my valiant beau and I decided to familiarize ourselves with local history and visit the birthplace of the tango. Around 3 o’ clock in the afternoon we headed out to The Museo Historico Nacional. Located next to Parque Lezama at Defensa 1600, The Museo Historico Nacional is a vivid pink building frosted with white, art nouveau plaster curls. In front of the museum is a shaded courtyard cluttered with canons and a couple of concrete lions. An exterior wall near the entrance displays a vast array of complimentary brass plaques.

Despite the rows of commendations, the museum itself was rather disappointing. Although some guidebooks claim there are 30 exhibition rooms, available to the summer visitor was only 5 or 6 rooms which loosely summarized the history of Argentina’s 16th through 19th centuries. Entire decades of history were condensed to a few paragraphs of text and illustrated by only two or three historical artifacts: a photograph, a pistol, a military uniform, etc. The museum had scant mention of the indigenous peoples of Argentina, the gaucho culture of the Pampas, the Peron administration, or the oppressive military dictatorship of the 1970’s.

City Girl Recommendation: Skip it.

La Bombonera

After our anti-climatic museum excursion, my valiant beau and I cut across Parque Lezama and walked down Avenida Almirante Brown until we were in the barrio of La Boca, best known for its famous soccer team the Boca Juniors. Team colors for the Boca Juniors are blue and yellow, and as we turned right on Calle Brandsen and came closer to the Soccer Stadium, entire apartment buildings were painted in painted in flamboyant blue and yellow patterns. The stadium itself is named La Bombonera (the chocolate box) but is also painted blue and yellow. Footprints of famous soccer players are perpetually embossed into the concrete of the sidewalk perimeter around the stadium.

The Soccer Stadium has a museum, Museo de la Passion Boquense, in honor of its famous soccer team. At the museum entrance is a very high priced gift shop which sells everything from Boca Juniors caps and jerseys to Boca Juniors thong underwear and shoelaces. Beyond the gift shop is a statue of Diego Maradona. In order to take your photograph with the statue, you need to stand in line. My valiant beau and I both stood in line and took the requisite photo, but we decided to bypass the complete museum tour.

For a reduced rate of fifteen pesos, we choose the Express Tour. This tour allows you to bypass the museum and head straight to the stadium, which has three tiers of alternate blue and yellow seating. Some stadium areas are standing room only, and the front row seats along the middle of the field are a mere six inches away from a very tall, very thick, plexi-glass wall. The interior walls of the stadium are entirely covered with scribbled messages of graffiti, most of them extolling the near divine virtues of the Boca Juniors. The Express Tour also allows you to take a photograph with Argentina’s World Cup trophy.

City Girl Recommendation: Soccer fans will love it.

We turned left on Calle del Valle Iberlucea and eventually came to the famed El Caminito, a short cobblestone street lined with historic buildings and corrugated tin houses painted in a bright, whimsical array of rainbow colors. El Caminito dead-ends at the Riachulo River, once the main port of Buenos Aires. Supposedly, Italian immigrants who came to Argentina in the late 1800’s decorated their houses with left-over cans of paint taken from the harbor.

El Caminito is strictly a pedestrian walkway. The cobblestone streets are cluttered with make-shift tango stages and overflow patio seating. It is something of a tourist trap with aggressive street vendors selling artwork and mementos. Almost every restaurant has at least one employee handing out pamphlets and pulling out chairs as you walk by and most of the stores along El Caminito sell tourist trinkets and Boca Juniors items. The entire place felt a little like Hollywood Blvd., charming in a tawdry, touristy sort of way, but not worth seeing twice.

City Girl Recommendation—Visit El Caminito only if you’ve got the time.

After wandering about a bit, my valiant beau and I found ourselves at La Perla Café. We snacked on some delicious capresse empanadas (mozzarella, basil, olives, and tomatoes) and a couple of beers (the local Argentinian brand is Quilmes) and did some people watching before deciding that we were too tired to make the long walk home.

Unfortunate Event #3—Bus 92

While dining in La Perla, my valiant beau and I noticed a bus stop in front of the café. After questioning the waitress, we learned that Bus 92 would take us back to San Telmo. We should have inquired how much the bus cost. The bus driver does not collect money and was too preoccupied to explain the large and efficient-looking ticket machine behind him. I left my valiant and more technologically inclined beau to fumble with tickets and monedas and took a seat near the center of the bus.

The bus started abruptly and traveled swiftly until it crashed head-on into a car pulling out of a driveway. My valiant beau was flung forward to the front of the bus, banging his hip along the side of the ticket machine. The bus driver got out of the bus to talk to the other driver. All of the passengers stood up to stare at the dent in the silver car. In a few moments the bus driver returned, and we were back en route. There were no expletives or insurance information exchanged. The bus driver did not inquire about the safety of the passengers. Except for a rather large and purple bruise, my valiant beau was relatively unharmed. In a few minutes it was almost as if the accident had not occurred.

Lesson Learned: Have your monedas ready before getting on the bus.

Unfortunate Event #4—Restaurant La Riol

Wandering around San Telmo after our trip to La Boca, my valiant beau and I decided to dine at one of our many local restaurants. La Riol is located in a beautiful old building on Peru Street. The tables were draped with nice white tablecloths, the prices were economical, and the two Argentinean families inside seemed to be enjoying their meal.

My valiant beau ordered Milanesa Napolitana (thinly breaded topped with tomato sauce, ham, and melted cheese) and I ordered Merluza a la Romana, a lightly breaded white fish. We also ordered a lettuce salad. The salad came up first and was filled with crisp lettuce and fresh wedges of tomato. Unfortunately, it was also filled with three very dirty, very gray pieces of string, which we discovered half-way through the salad.

The waiter brought olive oil and red wine vinegar to flavor the fish and the salad, but again, it was only half-way through the meal that we realized that the small flecks in our bottle of red wine vinegar were not flecks of oregano, but rather very small insects, complete with delicate little legs and translucent wings. We pointed out the insects to our waiter. Making no apologies, he merely nodded and exchanged our bottle of vinegar for that of another diner. Stunned, my valiant beau and I promptly paid the check and left.

City Girl Recommendation: You might want to pass on Restaurant La Riol.

Lesson Learned: Use the Internet, do your restaurant research, and eat only at restaurants that come well-recommended.

Travel Tip: Restaurant Recommendations for Buenos Aires

Below are some links to restaurant recommendations in Buenos Aires. Enjoy!

Try Virtual Tourist for reviews from fellow travelers.

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/South_America/Argentina/Distrito_Federal/Buenos_Aires-1541981/Restaurants-Buenos_Aires-TG-C-1.html

Concierge is the web-site for Conde Nast magazine recommendations.

http://www.concierge.com/travelguide/buenosaires/restaurants?pageNumber=1&pageSize=10&resultOffset=1

New York Times Recommendations for Palermo Viejo.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/11/19/travel/tmagazine/19buenosaires.html

This last site is in Spanish.

http://www.adondevamos.com/?b4=73&e=b&p=1&z=restau