Chile/Argentina - Buenos Aires Revisited

It was a short flight from El Chalten to Buenos Aires and since we thought we only have one morning in the city we had not planned anything.  But then we learned at the last minute that Air Canada had cancelled our flight home and we have an extra day in this city that I had visited for several days in 2017.  My travel companion had not really seen the city so we took a Hop-on Hop-off tour of the city.  Although we only really hopped off at La Boca we did get a quick tour of a good part of the city.  

I wasn't going to write a post on this because I thought I had covered a lot of ground in my first visit and had some leisurely intimate experiences at ground level, including a dance at a tango club.  But this time around, the bus tour gave me a bird's eye view that I didn't get when I walked the city in 2017, so there were not a lot of duplication other than in La Boca.  I was also able to dig up a lot of background on the images I took, thanks to Google  AI.  Technically this should be Buenos Aires 3.  I highly recommend that you check out the other two earlier posts:       https://travelswithrarecat.blogspot.com/search?q=buenos+aires

One thing I noted on the bus tour was the large number of corner buildings in the city.  Many of these are historical buildings.  I practically have a collection of them but only showing a few here - you can see the wide variety of architectural styles.  While I captured images of tango dancers in La Boca the last time I visited, this time we missed that as we visited in late afternoon and most of the tourists were gone - but I got a local kid playing basketball...😀  We were tired and eager to go home after 3 weeks on the road, but the extra day was still a treat in such a vibrant, colourful city.  

Monument of Julio Roca, former president

1926 building Edificio Sud America - Neo-Louis XVI style, austere lines and minimal decoration

Edificio Banco Comafi, formerly Palacio Italia America.  Venetian Neo-gothic by renowned architect Francesco Gianotti

An iconic art deco building - Edificio La Equitativa del Plata 1930s architectural landmark

Art nouveau landmark from 1916 also designed by Francesco Gianotti

SOMISA building - first building in the world constructed entirely of folded steel plate 1966-77

Obelisco de Buenos Aires

Ministry of Public Works with massive iron
mural of Eva Peron

Another historical building neo-classical and art deco blend by French Architect Eduardo Le Monnier 1928

Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral with a distinctive neoclassical face columns that resemble a Greek temple rather than a traditional church, no spire, no dome - rather unusual

Casa Rosada - office of the President

Don Quixote sculpture - a gift from Spain for
Buenos Aires' 400th Anniversary

 We saw these all over the city - they look
like comfy benches but in fact are very hard
metal or concrete

Blue jacaranda tree with violet flowers

National Congress in a Neo-classical building

The stunning swing bridge Puente de la Mujer (Woman's Bridge) by architect Santiago Calatrava

     This is in the Puerto Madero district, with other contemporary buildings like the ones below

The historic ansporter bridge inaugurated in 1914 in the La Boca neighbourhood

La Bombonera stadium - homeground for the Boca Juniors football team

The corner buildings coninued in La Boca - below, the famous Caminitto Street area

Murals abound

This mural is on a public works pump station buildin with esgraffito (scratched relief).  The title etched on it "the neighbourhood I love" by artist Jose Palmiotti, Lalo Sussi.  This mural was referred to in the La Boca Museum

Typical La Boca buildings in vibrant colours

Three key figures depicted here - Eva Peron, in various poses with Charles Gardel, King of Tango  and Diego Maradona, legendary football player

First stop for tourists in La Boca - they all want to pose at the door!

A historical ting on the wall just on the street - Martin's Work day (at the docks)

Neighbourhood art

Lucky to catch this young player practicsing

This dazzling pasth takes you to a mix of shops and tenements

Argentina's 2022 FIFA World Cup victory memorialized 
in this mural of Lionel Messi kissing the trophy

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Caricature of Juan Carlos Altavista, famous Argentinian actor 

Immigrants at the docks - local history depicted by artist collective in La Boca

From the wilds of La Boca, we returned to downtown Buenos Aires and couldn't resist going into the Galerias Pacifico, just round the corner from our hotel.  The glitzy interior was a nice change after the urban grit of La Boca.

This wraps up our 3 week Patagonian Roadtrip.  It was exhausting but the variety of experiences we encountered was thoroughly worth it!  Thank you for coming along for the ride.

Chile/Argentina - Mt. Fitzroy (El Chalten)

We drove to El Chalten, a few hours from El Calafate, mainly to see Mt. Fitzroy - it was our "pilgrimage" and we had planned our trip around it.  But then came the physical abilities - we knew we could not do the "must-do" 8-10 hour trek to Laguna de los Tres, the glacial lake at the foot of the mountain.  Planning was the best part of the trip  - we watched videos on other people's treks starting at 3 am in the morning, visions of "hidden waterfalls" and mesmerizing sunrise views of the magical mountain.  But then again there is the reality - we got up at 5am the morning of the hike and made our way up the steep climb to Laguna Capri.  It took us two hours and we still missed the actual sunrise in spite of best efforts.  But the next best thing, the golden hour was still worth the climb, especially when we saw the difference in colours afterwards.  

There were other things to see in El Chalten of course.  There was the beautiful waterfall that we visited the day of arrival, just before the last light.  There was the amazing encounter with the kettle (large group) of condors circling the river with Fitzroy in the background - our car just stopped beside the highway.  There was the long road with the massif right in front of it, you can see sunrise and sunset without taking a hike!  Word of caution here for other travellers - don't let your car out of your sight while you're parked by the roadside - the risk of car break-ins are real!

This was our last stop before Buenos Aires so we celebrated with a nice dinner at Fuegia where I had the tastiest piece of Argentinian tenderloin - a fitting end to an amazing trip.

The view of Mt. Fitzroy from the highway - I don't know how many times we stopped on this stretch!

Chorillo del Salto - very accessible, just a few kms from El Chalten - we visited just before the light faded

We had to climb over a fence to get to this spot to watch the condors do their flying acrobatics all around us, apparently there was a carcass on the valley floor of the Rio de las Vueltas.  Too bad I didn't bring my birding lens on this trip and my slow landscape camera really stretched its limits with these shots, even though sometimes the condors were flying right in front of us.

Close up of Cerro Torre - beside Fitzroy - love those spikes!

Sedimentary rock layers on these fold mountains - a visual geography lesson

The glacier clearly visible in this close up near Fitzroy

The Rio de las Vueltas here cuts deeper into the valley as it meanders

This is the view after our two hour climb up to Laguna Capri 

Then the colour faded as the sun rose higher

Coming back down from the lake, we were able to see the wide river valley below us (which we didn't see on the way up because it was too dark)

The town of El Chalten laid out at our feet on the hike down

The last sunrise from the road - an intense red.  Too bad we had to make it to El Calafate for our flight.

This barely skims the surface of the sights around Fitzroy.  Wish I had visited when I was younger and able to do those hikes with specatcular views of glacial lakes and rivers.  My advice to my younger readers - do it while you're young!