I arrived in Buenos Aires on Thursday afternoon. The taxi ride from the airport to my apartment gave me my first taste of life in this crazy city -- the crazy drivers. My well paid taxi driver was rather careful and calm, but the rest of the drivers on the road were a bit terrifying to watch. Although the lanes are clearly marked on the streets and highways, most drivers here ignore them (see picture below). They also ignore lots of other traffic rules, which makes crossing streets here an art form and an exercise in avoiding death.
Crazy drivers aside, so far I am enjoying Buenos Aires much more than Santiago. It definitely feels like a bigger city (because it is), but there also seems to be more interesting stuff happening here. It helps that the neighborhood I'm living in here is much better than in Santiago. I'm staying in Palermo, which is a middle-class barrio of BsAs, with lots of little shops and restaurants. Within a few feet of my door are at least three restaurants. A little more than a block away there's a well stocked grocery store, and a "chino," a Chinese-owned market that sells fruit and vegetables.
My host (Alexia) is lovely and easygoing, and I have enjoyed meeting her family over the past two days. Normally she lives here just with her four year old daughter (Antonia), but her ex-husband (Jose), with whom she seems to be very close friends, is visiting for the next two weeks. Last night I also met her mother, who lives a short distance away. Alexia has a nanny (Anita) for her daughter during the week, who welcomed me when I arrived on Thursday. Anita is also nice and very kindly showed me around the house. The house itself is charming -- tucked away into the block, which makes it very quiet and a rather unique urban space, at least by my standards. It is also really clean and comfortable, which I appreciate. There's even a roof terrace!
The weather is also much better here. It is significantly cooler -- probably in the high 70s right now, and while there are mosquitoes at night, I'm just glad not to be sweating. I do need to continue to protect myself from the sun, as I got a really nasty sunburn yesterday after spending the day outside. Oops.
Yesterday I explored a series of parks in Palermo. I went to the exquisitely manicured Parque 3 de Febrero, which houses a nice, if small, contemporary art museum with an equally lovely garden area. I saw lots of people rollerblading in the Parque 3 de Febrero -- that might be fun to try sometime, if I can rent a pair of rollerblades. I also went to the Japanese Gardens, which are beautifully maintained and rather serene, despite being in the middle of a huge city. Finally, I decided to go to the zoo, since it is right next to the other parks, and I love zoos. The admission was a bit hefty (40 pesos or 10$) and the zoo a little run down, but I had a nice time walking around anyways. They have a lot of South American animals there, ones that you don't normally see in zoos in the U.S., so I particularly enjoyed that aspect of my visit.
Today my host and her family were kind enough to take me around a bit of the city. They showed me how to take the bus to the National Library, where I'll start my research this week. Nearby is the Recoleta Cemetery, where many famous Argentinians, including Evita, are buried. We went for a walk inside. The cemetery is rather impressive, and nothing like any cemetery I've ever seen in the US. It reminded me of the Pantheon in Paris, except exponentially bigger, and outdoors. I'll put some pictures below.
After the cemetery, they showed me a cultural center nearby. We also ate some "panchos," AKA glorified hotdogs, and wandered through a nearby craft market for a while. This is definitely a place I will return to for souvenirs. Later we parted ways for a bit. Alexia and Jose took their daughter to a children's museum, and I went to the fine arts museum, which was nice, although rather dimly lit and staffed by some rather gruff security guards. Oddly enough, as I was walking back to the bus stop from the museum, I ran into my host and her family on the street, so we ended up taking the bus back together. All in all, it was a nice day!
Here are some pictures from today. I didn't take my camera with me yesterday, so I don't have any pictures from the Palermo parks yet.
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| The cemetery was filled with rows and rows of tombs like this. It's like a miniature city of dead people, as my host said. Yeah, a little creepy. |
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| This is where Evita is buried. |
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| An exhibit at the Recoleta Cultural Center |
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| A good example of how drivers here seem to ignore the lane markers. I count at least four cars and a bus straddling the lanes. |
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| This is the BA Law School |
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| The Fine Arts museum is just on the other side of those trees. |
