So our last few days were spent in Buenos Aires and we arrived at the beginning of November. After a slight panic in the airport when Jayne left her phone on the plane, the pilot arranged for it to be collected. Her expensive ear buds were missing though, only to be found in her bag a day later!
In the city Jayne noticed a number of rainbows in shops and asked if there was some LGBTQ event happening, so I looked it up and yes there was!
Get ready for a complete contrast to peaceful riding in Patagonia.
The Plaza De Mayo was where it was all happening. I’m not entirely sure I was in the right mood to party, it was hot and I was tired but it did look a lot of fun.
As the time got near 4pm the dancing stopped and there were a lot of speeches. Even though we don’t understand Spanish it was obvious this was political and about injustice. We didn’t stay for the march because we didn’t know when it would start and also whether there may be some hostility (having seen the barricades on the last visit to the city).
We had booked to see an opera at the Teatro Colon. We had actually seen a ballet there on our last visit. The tickets for a view from ‘the gods’ were about £6. These were not cheap performances either just amazing value, meaning most people can afford to go. We booked tickets for Silvana and her partner (our previous Servas hosts) as a thank you.
The Opera was Salome. Weirdly this was a version written by Oscar Wilde in French and then made into a German Opera by Richard Strauss. Honestly I couldn’t make this up! If you don’t know, Salome is the daughter of Herod in the bible and it’s not a pretty story, ending with John the Baptists head on a platter.
I don’t think we thought this through. There were Spanish subtitles displayed above the stage. The acoustics were amazing, the characters were phenomenal and I managed to follow it pretty well. I thought Jayne would be fine because she speaks a little German.
At the end Jayne looked at me and asked ‘what language were they singing in?’ She was completely baffled from start to finish, hahaha!
Ah well another thing ticked off my ‘Container ship list’ (buckets are way to small), to see an opera!
The ballet we saw was Onegin, based on Pushkin’s novel with Tchaikovsky’s music. It was lovely, although I did get told off by the usher for sitting in an empty seat. I got up when the occupant arrived very late! Scolded, at 62 years of age, I ask you!
We re visited La Boca, we tried using the bus and at 34p each we arrived about a mile off where we needed to be. It was a bit of a rough area so we got an Uber the rest of the way. I can see why you wouldn’t come here at night.
It’s obviously a touristy area but it was interesting and as we walked a bit away from the main hub we came to an interesting mural.
This mural is in reference to the disappearance of an estimated 30,000 people by the military dictatorship (Dirty War) in Argentina 1976-1983. The victims were anyone thought to be a political or ideological threat to the government, there were no trials, they just disappeared and many of them were young (students etc).
Human rights organization, Madres de Plaza de Mayo (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) was born in 1977 by a group of mothers in an effort to learn what happened to their children, and they began marching in front of the presidential palace at the Plaza de Mayo. They continue to this day, every Thursday wearing their symbol the white head scarves.
There is also another organisation The Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo who aims are finding the stolen babies of the mothers who were killed during the dictatorship and as of April 2025, they have found 139 grandchildren, most now young adults.
If you want to see a bit more about this topic this link will take you to an Al Jazeera short film. It’s very moving.
Argentina’s Stolen Identity: A 46-year search for the truth | Documentary | Al Jazeera https://share.google/qUWsage8Z58HGOQqS
Moving on…Buenos Aires has some stunning buildings, many appear to be banks but there are some very accessible one like Teatro Colon. One afternoon we visited the memorial to the Argentinian Fallen from the Falkland’s War.
On the way back we looked into the foyer of a rather grand Chateau Style building, we were allowed to wander and discovered in this fantastic building a restaurant. It was reasonably priced and the setting was magnificent for two rather scruffy individuals. The food was lovely too so we visited it twice.
One the last day and after packing, we had a walk and Jayne was drawn like a magnet to a military event. There were all kinds of dignitaries, one turned up in a really scruffy car, which was quite funny and out of place. The uniforms look very 1800’s but very smart.
I just thought I’d put this picture in to show the chaos we brought and took home with us! We bought only a couple of items each to take home although I seem to have ended up with a lot of rehydration salts, some of which are fluorescent green when mixed with water! They taste disgusting too!
Finally my overarching impression of our fantastic trip can be summed up with one photo and I’m proud to say I took it!
Until next time….
The Travelling Bee 