Buenos Aires – Easter Sunday

Our first stop was the national Rose Garden – a large French Provincial formal garden of great beauty. That’s Yanko on the left.

We are fortunate in that one of my students was born in Argentina and has a sister living here – Yanko. Yanks rang the hotel this morning and is going to come and pick us up at 12.00 for a day out around Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, being Easter Sunday most places will be closed so we will have a look from her car.

Yanko picked us up around noon and had a plan to show us in one day her beautiful city; Buenos Aires. She was wonderful and drove us East, West, North and South. She showed us her river – saying Buenos Aires is a river city but you do not see it from the streets – all along the river’s borders are industries relying on the river for ferrying goods. We looked at the swanky suburbs and the poor areas now famous for the origins of Tango. We saw brutalist architecture, modern and poor housing made bright with walls of corrugated iron painted. We took in the antique sections, had lunch in an upstairs Italian restaurant and perused local artisan markets.

And what a better way to celebrate Good Friday but a visit to a church – there were several churches of exquisite glory with congregations, priests in robes, music, and religious sculptures in all their glory.

One of the more unusual customs I am finding here is when you put your car on the kerb or street side parking there is always an ‘attendant’ who promises to ‘look after your car’. This is so that it is not broken into or bumped or anything ‘untoward’ happens to your parked car while you are away. Apparently the authorities discourage the behaviour – as on your return the made asks for his reward. It’s a form of useful begging… And Yanko says it’s best to smile and be good to these people because yes, they will look after your car and make sure the lights are not broken or you have a smashed windscreen.

Here are some photographs from today.