Downtown Buenos Aires
April 20, 2007
The trip to downtown Buenos Aires takes an hour or so on public transportation from where Laura lives in Ramos Mejía, ten miles from downtown. (Clayton always says that he can drive from Louisville to the farm in Larue County (50 miles) in less time than it takes to get to downtown BA on public transportation!) We got on a bus two blocks from their townhouse and rode for 30 minutes to arrive at the subway station. The subways were off schedule so we had to wait 15 minutes for it to leave the station. Our stop was 12 minutes away. Then we walked for about four minutes to get on the connecting subway to take us to Lavalle Street, one of the main pedestrian streets downtown. When we arrived up on the sidewalk, it was about 12:30 so we decided to eat before doing any other errands or shopping. We stopped at “El Gaucho Restaurant” for a nice typical lunch – steak and salad with bread and a “chorizo” (beef sausage grilled to perfection). We enjoyed looking at all the Argentine cowboy memorabilia – hats, bolos, knives, whips, saddles, ponchos – on the walls.
The sights and sounds of downtown BA have not changed since we were there last July. The bumper to bumper traffic, crowded sidewalks, hawkers selling their leather and “cashmere”, beggars, smoke-filled restaurants and bars, green spaces with lots of trees and grass, sidewalk entertainers with guitars, drums and other instruments, plus the tango dancers giving free shows in the middle of the sidewalk, food stalls, newsstands in the middle of the sidewalk, lots of places to eat whatever your favorite food is, sidewalk coffee shops, etc., are all memories of the years that we spent in BA.
Homelessness is no stranger to this bulging city. One old woman had made her home on the steps of a cathedral with all her belongings cluttered around her. Empty containers of food were scattered on the steps and her hand was extended to all who passed by. One’s heart cannot help but be touched by the scenes of poverty among the affluence of many of the passersby.
In the late afternoon Clayton and I stopped at a sidewalk café to have some ice cream and coffee (actually I was the only one who had coffee!). It was a perfect day to sit outside and sip coffee and watch people pass by and just drink in the sights and sounds of a busy city. I must admit that the noise of the traffic is not a pleasant sound but it calls forth a certain nostalgia for the years that we lived here and grew accustomed to it.
Buenos Aires has a population of almost 14 million people, four million of whom live in the capital district. Public transportation provides for easy access to all parts of the city but the distances can be quite long and time is often eaten up waiting for the ride. Taxis are also a common mode of transportation for those who can afford the fare.
We got back home by getting on the subway going in the opposite direction to the end and waiting on the train until it began the ride back to our stop to catch the bus. It meant that we got a seat and didn’t have to fight the crowds headed out of town for a seat! We got on the bus at the first stop and had seats all the way back home.
Back home in Louisville we often reminisce about all the things that we love about Buenos Aires despite some of the inconveniences of traffic and other things. I know we will talk about this day many times after we return to our home there in Kentucky.
The trip to downtown Buenos Aires takes an hour or so on public transportation from where Laura lives in Ramos Mejía, ten miles from downtown. (Clayton always says that he can drive from Louisville to the farm in Larue County (50 miles) in less time than it takes to get to downtown BA on public transportation!) We got on a bus two blocks from their townhouse and rode for 30 minutes to arrive at the subway station. The subways were off schedule so we had to wait 15 minutes for it to leave the station. Our stop was 12 minutes away. Then we walked for about four minutes to get on the connecting subway to take us to Lavalle Street, one of the main pedestrian streets downtown. When we arrived up on the sidewalk, it was about 12:30 so we decided to eat before doing any other errands or shopping. We stopped at “El Gaucho Restaurant” for a nice typical lunch – steak and salad with bread and a “chorizo” (beef sausage grilled to perfection). We enjoyed looking at all the Argentine cowboy memorabilia – hats, bolos, knives, whips, saddles, ponchos – on the walls.
The sights and sounds of downtown BA have not changed since we were there last July. The bumper to bumper traffic, crowded sidewalks, hawkers selling their leather and “cashmere”, beggars, smoke-filled restaurants and bars, green spaces with lots of trees and grass, sidewalk entertainers with guitars, drums and other instruments, plus the tango dancers giving free shows in the middle of the sidewalk, food stalls, newsstands in the middle of the sidewalk, lots of places to eat whatever your favorite food is, sidewalk coffee shops, etc., are all memories of the years that we spent in BA.
Homelessness is no stranger to this bulging city. One old woman had made her home on the steps of a cathedral with all her belongings cluttered around her. Empty containers of food were scattered on the steps and her hand was extended to all who passed by. One’s heart cannot help but be touched by the scenes of poverty among the affluence of many of the passersby.
In the late afternoon Clayton and I stopped at a sidewalk café to have some ice cream and coffee (actually I was the only one who had coffee!). It was a perfect day to sit outside and sip coffee and watch people pass by and just drink in the sights and sounds of a busy city. I must admit that the noise of the traffic is not a pleasant sound but it calls forth a certain nostalgia for the years that we lived here and grew accustomed to it.
Buenos Aires has a population of almost 14 million people, four million of whom live in the capital district. Public transportation provides for easy access to all parts of the city but the distances can be quite long and time is often eaten up waiting for the ride. Taxis are also a common mode of transportation for those who can afford the fare.
We got back home by getting on the subway going in the opposite direction to the end and waiting on the train until it began the ride back to our stop to catch the bus. It meant that we got a seat and didn’t have to fight the crowds headed out of town for a seat! We got on the bus at the first stop and had seats all the way back home.
Back home in Louisville we often reminisce about all the things that we love about Buenos Aires despite some of the inconveniences of traffic and other things. I know we will talk about this day many times after we return to our home there in Kentucky.
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