The writer was a guest of The Traveller Group.
Airline connections for travelling around Argentina are not as streamlined as we’re accustomed to in Australia.
And our travels across the country from Ushuaia, in Argentina’s southern tip, to Iguazu Falls, at the northeast section of the country bordering Brazil, require three overnight stopovers in its capital, Buenos Aires.
Fortunately, there’s plenty to see and do in Buenos Aires and its 48 barrios – neighbourhoods – range from stylishly sophisticated to beguilingly bohemian.
You can while away the time visiting historic landmarks, slick tango tours and lively restaurant precincts.
And a favourable exchange rate means there are shopping bargains to be found.
Stopover one: The elegant city
We’re in the heart of fashionable Recoleta barrio, where the latest Fendi, Emporio Armani, Ralph Lauren and Escada fashions hang on shelves in boutiques housed within grand neoclassical buildings. Among the beautifully dressed, I spot a guest flitting through wearing a white bathrobe, presumably heading for the spa.
Nearby, in the Recoleta cemetery, a crowd gathers outside the Duarte family mausoleum, leaving flowers in acknowledgment of Argentina’s most celebrated lady, Eva Peron.
Although most people visit the cemetery to see her grave, a walk through the graveyard is an eye-opener to the riches of the Argentine elite. Grand art nouveau, art deco and modernist-style mausoleums are the final resting places of presidents, scientists and prominent Argentine families. In Plaza de Mayo, the city’s main square, you could easily be convinced you are in a European city. In the centre of the square is Piramide de Mayo, a small obelisk that marks the first anniversary of Buenos Aires’ independence from Spain in 1810.
The 1939 Banco de la Nacion building was designed by well-known Argentine architect Alejandro Bustillo. There’s the Spanish-style Cabildo town council, the pink house of Casa Rosada where Juan and Eva Peron once stood on the balcony to wave at the crowds (Madonna also sang from here in the movie Evita ) and the baroque Cathedral Metropolitana containing the tomb of General Jose de San Martin, Argentina’s most revered hero.
The city was founded in 1536 by Pedro de Mendoza, who arrived on a personally financed expedition from Spain. After Argentina severed ties with Spain, waves of Spanish and Italian migrants continued to roll in.
The Europeans were followed by mestizos of mixed Indian and Spanish descent from other Latin-American countries, giving Buenos Aires a multicultural atmosphere. The city’s newest barrio is Puerto Madero, once a bustling port, and now a rejuvenated leisure precinct where warehouses have been converted into lofts, businesses and restaurants.
Stopover two: Shopaholics heaven
For our second stopover, we choose a hotel with a stiff English name, The Claridge, and a European vibe right in the heart of the central city shopping district. There are several shopping precincts in Buenos Aires including upscale Recoleta, antique San Telmo and boutique Palermo.
If you only have time for one shopping area, Calle Florida – or Florida St – a long pedestrian mall which stretches over several city blocks from Plaza San Martin to Plaza de Mayo – is an essential Buenos Aires experience.
It’s not just a shopping street but a complete tourist attraction with buskers, street performers, alfresco cafes, persistent shop touts and a zappy vibe. We only have to walk a few steps out of the hotel and we are right there in the midst of shopping heaven.
Shops are packed with leather bags, shoes and jackets in every imaginable cut and colour. I stock up on belts, wallets and gloves. Belts cost as little as $15 and leather jackets $80.
After spurning several pushy touts, a striking white, soft, lamb’s-leather jacket with black chequered embroidery catches my eye. The portly shopkeeper leads me to a couch near the dressing rooms and wheels out a rack of jackets. Had I stayed for a few more days, they could have tailored a jacket to fit me. In the end, I strike a bargain on the one I spotted first for a knock-down price of $300.
We wander into Galerias Pacifico at the corner of Florida and Cordoba streets. This grand building used to belong to the state railway company before it was refurbished and converted into an upscale shopping mall. The shopping mall was named after the historic railway line that linked Argentina to Chile and the Pacific Ocean. The building is worth wandering through just to admire the frescoes painted by some of Argentina’s best artists.
Shops in Galerias Pacifico are upmarket and they include swanky Argentine and international brands such as Rossi Caruso, a specialist in equestrian leather goods and gaucho trappings, polo label La Martina for polo books, bags, leather belts and international polo event merchandise.
Stopover three: Time to dance
Our third stopover finds us strolling through the colourful barrio of La Boca while admiring tango art in the open-air mall and tapping our feet to the tango dancers twirling energetically on the pavement.
There’s no other city in the world where the tango’s influence has embraced the very core of its character. Here, the tango is part of the culture and a way of life. It permeates the city with street dancing, milongas – or dance halls – and dazzling tango dinner shows everywhere. Stay long enough and the tango’s melancholy tendrils will sink their hooks into you.
We head for the bohemian barrio of San Telmo, Buenos Aires’ oldest. Pedro de Mendoza might have founded the city in this barrio but it is said that Buenos Aires didn’t truly find itself until tango musician Carlos Gardel sang the first tango hit song in 1917, Mi Noche Triste.
Our hotel is the Mansion Dandi Royal, a quirky tango hotel tucked away in the back streets, and we’re going to learn to dance the tango.
Some say dancing the tango is the only way to connect with the soul of the city.
But that’s a whole new story for another day.
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