[26th February - 4th March 2007]

Well, here we are at week number 13 of my (late as usual) Buenos Aires blog roundup. 13, lucky for some? Well, if you like blogs and Buenos Aires, this may indeed be your lucky day! I can’t believe it’s been a quarter of a year already since I started to write these roundups. I guess time flies when you are reading blogs all the time rather than doing any real work…

Buenos Aires Blog Posts of the Week

• He doesn’t post very often these days (I know - pot… kettle… black), but when El Expatriado springs into action, you sure know you will be in for some interesting and/or useful reading. And very useful indeed (for those laptop users among us) is this list of free Wi-Fi hotspots in Buenos Aires
• Yanqui Mike put in a sterling effort with his post commemorating the 150th anniversary of the death of Almirante Guillermo Brown (Bill to his mates) this Saturday, which saw a contingent come from County Mayo in the Republic of Ireland to lay wreaths on his grave in Recoleta cemetery (you can’t miss Brown’s, it’s the big Irish-green column with a ship on top). I would have liked to be there, as not only is Brown also one of my favorite figures in Argentine history (see Mike’s post to understand why), but also my mum is from that part of Ireland, and I spent a good few summer holidays growing up in and around Mayo… so I guess I feel an extra association with Brown… not that I’m thinking of running off and founding another country’s navy any time soon
• Robert proves that around every corner in Buenos Aires there are still interesting discoveries to be made. This time he made a visit to the Iglesia de San Juan Bautista, just off Av. de Mayo, and happened upon a beautiful cloister where soldiers from both sides were buried during the (unsuccessful) British invasions of Buenos Aires during 1806 and 1807. Shame the church authorities wouldn’t let him in to take some better pics

Read the rest of this entry »

Humberto 1º 340 (between Defensa & Balcarce), San Telmo

[Open Monday - Saturday, 8:30am to Midday and 4pm to 7pm. Sundays, 1pm to 6pm.]

I like churches.

Born and raised a good Catholic boy, I was.

…but that has nothing to do with why I like churches. I’m an agnostic, and instead like them because God generally gets some of the best architecture around. And in Buenos Aires it’s no different. So, this is the start of an attempted series on churches in BA, which may well be spread out over several years, cunningly hiding it’s series-ness from view.

The San Pedro Gonzalez Telmo church (try saying that after a few pints), is also known as the Nuestra Señora de Belén (Our Lady of Belen) church. A good church can never have too many names in my book.

A Little Church History

Some Jesuits named Blanqui, Bautista, Primoli and Schmidt designed the original and kicked off the building in 1734. That makes it one of the oldest churches in the city. But not the oldest, which I’ll cover at some point soon I guess. The church’s architecture was then added to and restored a fair few times up to the present, which accounts for it’s lovely eclectic style. Apparently it is ‘neo-colonial’. I prefer to call it ‘fancy iced wedding cake’:

Read the rest of this entry »

On the corner of Don Pedro de Mendoza & Del Valle Iberlucea, La Boca

Quite possibly the biggest mainstream tourist hotspot in Buenos Aires, the colorful Caminito street in the otherwise run down barrio of La Boca is often looked down upon as commercial, touristy, tacky, tango-ey rubbish by locals and travel guides alike.

However, I really think it is just trendy to say such things, because this small road and the immediate area around it do in fact have both an interesting history and the opportunity for taking some great photos, even though you will probably be surrounded by several American and Japanese tourists also happily snapping away before they quickly hop back onto their tour bus.

But give Caminito a chance! You might just like it…

Read the rest of this entry »

Corrientes 3247 (between Aguero & Anchorena), Abasto

[Open 10am to 10pm daily]

Largest Shopping Center in Buenos Aires

The Abasto shopping center is probably the one mall in Buenos Aires that has at least something to appeal to all people, of all ages, although apart from its wonderful 1930s Art Deco architecture you could not really argue that it is an authentic Buenos Aires experience.

As far as shopping goes, it is full of mainstream clothes stores, and it boasts over 250 brands to choose from, including major labels like Nike, Lacoste and YSL. As I said, not all that authentic an experience, but at least the building itself really is quite beautiful (see right), and is on a very large scale - it is the biggest mall in the city of Buenos Aires (Unicenter, the biggest mall in Argentina, is outside the city limits).

This area of Abasto also has played a major role in the social and tango history of Buenos Aires, and for those reasons alone it is worth a quick visit, even if you are not interested in the shops inside, which will probably be quite similar to the ones that you can find back home. And there is also a range of things to see and do inside the center, which can be found near the end of this blog post.

Read the rest of this entry »

First Weekly Buenos Aires Blog Update

[4th - 10th December 2006]

Hello and welcome to the first of my new weekly highlights posts covering what has caught my eye in the Buenos Aires blogosphere. Think of this a kind of a low-brow Global Voices Online solely covering BA.

Unfortunately, I can’t write in this blog as much as I would like to, but there are many other excellent blogs about BA out there - and so I am going to let them do some of the work for me! Most of the ones I know of can be found listed over at the excellent Bloggers in Argentina.

Each week I will link to the best blog posts I have read that I think will be of interest to visitors to Buenos Aires, and post the links up here, with a little commentary added. If I have missed something interesting out or seem to be overlooking a whole blog completely, please comment below to draw my attention to it. Here goes (warning, there is a lot this week!)…

Read the rest of this entry »