Buenos Aires

Well that's it for touring this year....1500 kms behind us, fitter, a bit lighter, and that acomplishment bliss soaking in......spending some time in the big city of Buenos Aires before heading back.

BA is a great city ..... built on the banks of the Rio Plata by the spanish back in the 1600 it started out as a humid mosquito infested outpost and was almost abondoned due to yellow fevor outbreaks. But with help from the british and later the french to build docks, locks, dredges, trains to the country's interior, residential sites away from the river, it became one of the major ports on the east coast of south america and it used to rival Canada and the US in standards of living.

The archetecture of the city is its most dramatic feauture as there are no mountains or other geological highlights other than the muddy brown river nearby. There are literally thousands of ornate stone civic and residential buildings most built back around the late 1800s and early 1900s using french archectural style. All have grand entrances, lots of wrought iron, balonies, 15 foot high doors, arches, marble, etc. There are also thousands of statues and monuments which seens to be emblematic of most south american cities. The most interesting sculture (for lack of a better term) is the huge modern stainless steel tulip (see below) in one of the parks - the tulip opens and closes and turns following the sun as it moves across the sky. Like a real flower it barely opens at all on cloudy days and at night coloured lights on the inside of the flower shine out between the closed pedals.
















Took a walk over to the Plaza de mayo to see the Casa Rosada which is the government residence that used to be painted pink with bull's blood (now with home depot pink). This is where the Peron's greeted the thousands back in the heyday 40's when Argentina was experimenting with their social revolutioin.














Great city for tourists as well (if you like good coffee, good food, and good weather). Even found it manageable for a bit a cycling although I think your number would be up soon with the crazy drivers if you spent too much time on the roads here - 15 lanes of one way traffic on some of the city streets.