Saturday night and Sunday in BA!

“Buenos Aires is like a cooler version of NYC. There is the same bustling energy and activity throughout the city, but Buenos Aires is more spacious, has more beautiful old architecture mixed with modern new buildings, and it frankly just smells better (NYC is just always filled with the smell of cigarettes, and I can't stand it). I loved walking around the city and seeing the different sites I researched during class these past 2 years. I finally got to see the obelisk, the casa rosada, the plaza de mayo, recoleta, and so much more. I adored the area around recoleta because it was filled with all of these little vendors that sold goods ranging from stuffed bread and empanadas to leather belts to artwork to homemade jewelry to maté and bombillas. All in all, my experience in Buenos Aires has been quite incredible and I am excited for what is still to come."

Rory

Obelisco:

Casa Rosada:

Somos ARGENTINOS:

Nos gusta el fútbol (we’re inside a giant football)

Primera cena en Buenos Aires:

Walking tour & Puerto Madero @ night: 10 miles!:

Today was, as promised, a day of intense walking. However, it was also a day of intense fun, a day of beauty and discovery and lots of good food. In addition to viewing several historically and politically important sights and learning about their histories, we also went to an outdoor market / fair that sold everything from hand crafted jewelry to original artwork to artisan stuffed breads and empanadas. After the market, my favorite part of the day was our tour of the Recolecta Cemetery, which was both spooky and fascinating and also highly entertaining. It looked sort of like a small city, only with mausoleums instead of buildings and corpses instead of citizens. Our tour guide, Mariana, told us many interesting stories about those buried in the cemetery and speculated that the dead rise every night to have a rave.

Laura

Tumba de Evita:

Frente al hotel con Mariana, nuestra guía de hoy:

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Day 10: All Good Things

Tuesday, our last full day in Buenos Aires, was as packed as every other. After breakfast at the hotel buffet, we took the bus over to Palermo, where we embarked on a tour of street art and murals. We talked about the importance of street art to the culture of Buenos Aires, visiting murals ranging in subject from Frida Khalo to the LGBTQ community to soccer. It amazed us to see murals in many parts of the city, each symbolizing something different. Many of the murals wowed us with their intertwinement of 2D art with 3D art, incorporating aspects of the building’s architecture into the paintings. After the mural tour, we headed to another graffiti workshop, where we learned to paint a distinctive form of art central to Argentine culture. This style of art, called Fileteado, incorporates colorful components like borders to decorate parts of the city, including buses, signs, taxis, and trucks. At first, we attempted to mimic our maestro’s masterful paint strokes, but eventually diverged i...

Day 5: Los Porteños!

On Thursday, we started our day with a swift breakfast in the hotel and a short walk to the Casa Rosada--workplace of the Argentinian president--where we began a scavenger hunt that was organized by an Argentinian travel company that we have been working with so far on this trip. As we split into groups (los carpinchos, los chocotortas, y los empanadas), we began to walk around the city and complete tasks along the way. These challenges often included talking to friendly strangers or organized actors and asking many questions regarding the daily lives of Argentinians. For example, we asked an actor (our previous tour guide Fernando) and other locals (pedestrians, workers, police officers, etc.) questions about Argentinian football. In turn they taught us facts like how fans of the team River Plate are called “Los millionarios” (the millionaires) because their home stadium, which is el estadio mas monumental of South America, is located in a wealthy neighborhood. In addition, we we...

Day 9: Day Trip to Colonia

Monday morning was wet and windy. We walked a short way to the ferry station where we caught a boat to Uruguay. Once on the boat, some of us chatted while others slept, and to our pleasant surprise, across the river, we found specks of blue and some sun. Profe. Levin crossed her fingers, hoping that the temperate conditions would hold for the day. Colonia was founded in 1680 by the Portuguese, and for much of its history, the settlement has passed from one controlling power to another. In the 18th century, the Spanish and the Portuguese fought for its possession, and in the 19th century, Argentina and Brazil became its new claimants. Finally, in 1825, Uruguay, along with Colonia del Sacramento, gained its independence. This history of hostilities had a hand in the settlement's design; the Portuguese surrounded the old peninsular town in a thick stone wall, whose battlements held cannons directed at whatever enemy the river might bring. We walked the cobble stone streets, whi...

Poly GIP Argentina 2023-25

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