This past decade, there's been no reason to cry for Argentina-Buenos Aires especially. And that's saying something. In the early '90s, the Argentine capital had all the vitality of a city hit by a neutron bomb. Yes, Buenos Aires had come through the tragedies inflicted by a
military dictatorship, but it had emerged broke and reeling from hyperinflation. The infrastructure of an exciting cosmopolitan metropolis was in place-the shops, the restaurants, the dance clubs-but at night and on the weekends, cash-strapped porteños, as the port city's residents are known, mostly vanished. It was a town of slightly melancholy window-shoppers.
Today, after almost a decade of relative prosperity ushered in by a fiscally savvy government, the city has recovered its reputation as Latin America's chicest destination. It is safe, sophisticated, and, like the tango dance it spawned, endlessly seductive.
The secret of Buenos Aires's sexy-snobby charm is that in its heart of hearts, it never believed it was part of Latin America. It is, as every porteño will tell you, European. Actually, Buenos Aires wasn't much of anything until around the turn of the last century, when the fertile pampas, or grasslands, of the interior were snatched by the Argentine army from the Araucani Indians. The wealth generated by the export of meat and wheat attracted millions of Italian and Spanish immigrants. With them came European architects and artisans, and the materials needed to transform this two-bit provincial outpost into a marble and limestone fantasia built on themes lifted from Paris and Milan. Avenida 9 de Julio, billed relentlessly as the world's widest thoroughfare, cuts through the city longitudinally like one of Baron Haussman's Paris boulevards, only bigger. And in the middle of the Avenida stands the tall white Obelisco, which serves as a proud, if not altogether original, symbol of the city's Continental élan.
NEIGHBORHOODS
I've spent exalted days in Buenos Aires wandering through the Recoleta and San Telmo districts under the bright Southern Hemisphere sun. There's simply no better way to get a feeling for the city's New World-Old World split personality … or a tan.
Stroll around the uptown Recoleta, just in from the Rio de la Plata, and you'll see Beaux Arts– and Empire-style mansions. Walk a couple of blocks toward the grassy Plaza Intendente Alvear and you'll find world-class boutiques, restaurants, and cafés that offer some of the planet's most stunning people-watching. The men and women are stylish and neurotically self-obsessed (psychotherapy is the civic religion). As they strut down the boulevards or sit at their sunny outdoor tables (remember: winter here is summer there), you'll feel happy just to be sharing the same spot.
For Buenos Aires's Old World side, the side that's redolent of the city's louche, rough-and-tumble immigrant history, head south to San Telmo, a mix of arty self-consciousness and ghetto charm. (If the Recoleta is the Upper East Side of Buenos Aires, San Telmo is its Greenwich Village.)Cobblestone streets are lined with picturesque old cream-colored houses and antiques shops. Old men sing and skinny kids run around in shorts cradling soccer balls like young Maradonas. The scene is spectral and nostalgic, straight out of an old Carlos Gardel tango film.
The Recoleta and San Telmo, high-taste and tango, the pleasures of the moment, the sorrows of the past—there's your mental map of Buenos Aires.
TANGO
Argentina's national treasure has fallen in and out of favor over the years, but today the dance is as popular as it has been in decades. Darkly lit, burnished-wood tango palaces are filled with young Argentine slicksters and hip, edgy women. Should you wish to make like a young Argentine slickster or a hip, edgy woman—if only for a night—many tango clubs offer classes for tourists and out-of-practice porteños alike. The heaviest concentration of clubs is in San Telmo. Especially happening right now are Casa Blanca (Balcarce 668, 4331-4621), patronized by politicos and showbiz notables, and El Viejo Almacen (Balcarce and Independencia, 4307-7388), a tango landmark that never gave up during the dark years.
THEATERS AND CULTURE
A night at Teatro Colón (Libertad 621, 4378-7100), the city's world-famous opera house, is like a night at La Scala (some say better). Everyone from Nijinsky to Placido Domingo has performed at this gilt and silk temple. For the porteño version of London's West End, check out Avenida Corrientes. It's lined with grand theaters—Teatro General San Martín (Avenida Corrientes 1530, 4374-9775) is the grandest—and movie houses, from mainstream to out-there. Art lovers should visit the Centro Cultural San Martín (Sarmiento 1551, 4374-1251) or the Centro Cultural Ciudad de Buenos Aires (Junín 1930, 4803-1041), where living avant-gardists stir up interesting trouble. Porteños actually hang out in cafés and argue about art—it's enough to make you misty-eyed for Paris of the '20s or Manhattan of the '60s.)
HISTORIC SIGHTS
I can't think of a better way to explore Buenos Aires's culture than to tour its tortured political past. The downtown Montserrat district, dominated by the presidential Casa Rosada, or Pink House, was strafed by Argentine naval aircraft in 1955 in an effort to drive President Juan Perón from power. The Casa Rosada faces the Plaza de Mayo, where the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo still march every Thursday afternoon at 3:30 to demand information about loved ones "disappeared" by the military government during the "dirty war," which ended in 1983. It's as sad and moving a sight as you'll ever see. The Palacio del Congreso attracts crowds as much for its architectural splendor as for its political significance. Buenos Aires's socially obsessed well-born practically look forward to dying so they can be buried in the Cemeterio de la Recoleta (Junín 1822, 4803-1594). The most famous resident of the elaborate carved-marble necropolis is Eva Perón (ask for the Duarte family crypt), whose tomb is indeed engraved with "No Me Llores" ("Don't Cry for Me").
SHOPPING
Shopping in Buenos Aires is plentiful and comes in three flavors: funky, fancy, and very fancy. Very fancy would be the boutiques in the Recoleta district clustered around Avenida Alvear, with their high-end international fare—Vuitton, Versace, Hermès, etc. Fancy is the mix of shops in the neighboring Retiro district, on Avenida Santa Fe, especially around the Plaza San Martín—check out Welcome Marroquinería (Marcelo T de Alvear 500, 4312-8911) for all things cowhide (leather is always a good bet in cattle-crazed Argentina) and Guido Mocasines (Avenida Quintana 333, 4811-4567) for excellent women's shoes. Just south of the Plaza, a beautifully restored old building houses the three-level Galerías Pacífico (an entire block bounded by Florida, Córdoba, San Martín, and Viamonte streets, 4319-5118). If there's such a thing as a cool mall, this is it. For a walk on the funkier side, visit San Telmo's antiques stores, north and south of Plaza Dorrego, where it's not unusual to find a shimmering silver tea set and a turn-of-the-century wooden phonograph player in the same cramped, cluttered shop.
RESTAURANTS
Porteños, like their counterparts in Paris or Rome, care obsessively about good food—in this case, traditional French cuisine, Italo-Argentine, or classic Argentine grill. The current pick for the best Continental restaurant is La Bourgogne, in the Alvear Palace Hotel (Ayacucho 2027, 4805-3857). Chef Jean-Paul Bondoux is a master of Gallic classics, such as foie gras and escargot in Provençal sauce. A second hot spot is Tomo Uno (Carlos Pellegrini 525, 4326-6698), which moved a few years ago into another of the city's high-end hotels, the Crowne Plaza Panamericano. Chef Ada Concaro blends French cuisine, Italian cuisine, and her own unclassifiable style to create such memorable dishes as shellfish in fennel broth and duck ravioli with juniper. Parrillas, or steak houses, serve up the staple of Argentina's carnivorous cuisine. You can hardly go wrong with any of them, but the foodies' favorite of the moment is La Brigada (Estados Unidos 465, 4361-5557). For the full porteño ritual, order the parrillada, or mixed grill. An individual grill will be brought to the table loaded with sizzling beef cuts and strange but delicious morsels like chinchulines (small intestines), ubre (udder), and riñónes (kidneys).
NIGHTLIFE
Early-morning life is more like it; following the local custom, I usually sat down to dinner at about 10 and headed to clubland around midnight. And in a city that has recovered its appetite for decadence, there are plenty of choices. Bárbaro (Tres Sargentos 415, 4311-6856) is a boisterous saloon with first-rate jazz Thursday through Sunday—the upscale yet man's-man ambience (complete with peanut shells on the floor) will make Wall Streeters feel right at home. For something in the dance-and-romance department, try Shampoo (Quintana 362, 4241-2630) or Hippopotamus (Junín 1787, 4802-0500), your basic beautiful people haunts in Recoleta (dress smartly or you won't make it past the velvet rope). The current It spots among the city's gilded youth are Buenos Aires News (Libertador and Infanta Isabel, 4778-1500), a huge disco complex, and Divino Buenos Ayres (225 Puerto Madero, 4316-8400), in Puerto Madero, a former shipping dock turned entertainment area.
CAFéS
Porteños think nothing of lingering for hours over a single cup of coffee, chatting about the meaning of life or who's sleeping with whom. On Avenida Corrientes you'll find cafés such as Café Pernambuco (Corrientes 1680, 4831-9669) in the bohemian-existentialist mold. For a more traditional, almost sepulchral, setting, try Café Richmond (Florida 468, 4322-1341) where, lacking a conversational partner, you can read Graham Greene in silence (in The Honorary Consul, the author's protagonist smells his mother's hot chocolate at the Richmond "like a sweet breath from a tomb"). Café Tortoni (Avenida de Mayo 829, 4342-4328) is another must-visit favorite of writers and intellectuals. If you want to move into the light, La Biela Café (Quintana 598, 4804-0432) on the Recoleta Promenade is the best for afternoon meeting, greeting, and ogling—a routine I never grew tired of.
SPORTS
Like everything else in Buenos Aires, sports separate into high and low. The high game is polo, which the porteños picked up from the visiting British in the late 1800s—and quickly mastered. Tickets to matches at the Campo Argentino de Polo (Avenidas del Libertador and Dorrego, 4323-7200), in the Palermo district, go for $15 to $100, and the booze flows freely. Imagine a cross between a Town & Country photo spread and a rodeo: a clubby atmosphere, champagne, thundering horses, and fragrant dung. The low sport is fútbol. Buenos Aires boasts the highest concentration of first-division soccer teams in the world. The most intense rivalry is between Boca Juniors (the working-class team) and River Plate (the middle-class favorite). Catch a game at River Plate Stadium (Avenida Presidente Figueroa Alcorta 7597, 4788-1200), in Nuñez, or at La Bombonera (Brandsen 805, 4309-4700), in La Boca, known for its brightly colored homes. Avoid wearing team colors—blue and gold for Boca Juniors, and white and red for River Plate—or risk the wrath of the barrabravas (hooligans).
HOTELS
No city I've visited has more grand hotels than Buenos Aires. The Alvear Palace (Avenida Alvear 1891, 4808-2100), in the Recoleta district, is a rococo palace that since its construction in 1932 has been the city's most desirable temporary residence. Nightly rates start in the low $300s and move upward, just like its 11-story-high marble spiral staircase. Besides the Alvear, there are at least a dozen top hotels, the newest and swankest being the Recoleta's Park Hyatt Buenos Aires (Posadas 1086, 4326-1234; from $425 per night). Of 1992 vintage, it caters to business travelers and has an excellent modern health club with a gym, pool, and spa. During the filming of Evita, Madonna stayed in the Park Hyatt's historical annex, the Belle Epoque–style La Mansión, where each suite comes with its own butler, and if you have to ask the price…. Well, if you have to ask the price, the Chile Hotel (Avenida de Mayo 1297, 4383-7112), in the center-of-town Montserrat district, offers good value. Corner rooms with balconies that face the Casa Rosada start at $35 a night—less than what you'd pay at a typical Days Inn.
OUTSIDE THE CITY
I love Buenos Aires as much as any city on earth, but its urban intensity can wear you down. Fortunately, there are the great estancias, or ranches, many of them in the vast, flat pampas outside of town. Akin to the American Wild West, these wide-open spaces gave rise to huge herds of cattle, the gauchos who ride roughshod over them, and indeed, an entire macho, romantic national identity. On La Josefina estancia (Mai 10 Outfitters, 4314-3390), you'll get the authentic Argentine dude-ranch experience, with enough milling cattle and generous asadas (barbecues) to make a Texan jealous. At La Martina estancia (also Mai 10), just an hour west of Buenos Aires, the owner, Adolfo Cambiasso, one of Argentina's top polo players, will happily instruct you in the finer points of the game. That's Argentina—modern snob appeal and traditional warmth all in one package.
