Life As Canvas

I first started developing a crush on Buenos Aires when I walked off the plane. Those friends of mine who are more sensitive to the physical appeals of the opposite sex (you know who you are) would be drooling here, as most of the people are very good looking. Well dressed, too, in sort of an Italian style.

Well I like Buenos Aires but I don’t think I want to marry it. It is a very busy city, after all, and there’s plenty of pollution to be had and lots of fumes from busses and cars, but otherwise it’s a very charming place to be. Big administrative buildings in the centro mimick those of Paris, inside and out, with sweeping rooves and tall windows, narrow entrances and old rickety elevators in wire cages. Sometimes I catch myself thinking I’m actually in France. From inside the buildings, the rooms are small and the ceilings high, with plaster decor around the light fixtures. The windows open from floor on up high with small terraces looking down on the hubub below.

Fortunately, the prices don’t mirror those of Paris. Lunch or dinner in an all-you-can-eat buffet costs around 4 dollars and dinner in a nicer cafe between 7 and 10. Hotels are around 10, too, while buses are about 40 cents. I catch myself holding back, thinking things are going to be expensive, given the marble floors and the nicely dressed patrons of most cafes and bars but am usually delightfully surprised by the prices and the quality of things. Some people who had already been here told me I’d see tango in the streets and indeed, there are beautiful men and women dressed in pinstriped suits and evening dresses with heels dipping and twisting, legs going this way and that and romantically striking poses at the end, lips hovering an inch apart. I wonder why Americans don’t come down here more often – is it the ticket price, or general fear of South America?

Well Buenos Aires is full of things to do and it would take years to figure this place out from one side to the other, up and down but I don’t have years so in another day or two it’s off to Iguacu, the giant falls in the North.

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 8th, 2007 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.