TripTalk - Argentina Trip: Part 2 of 3: Buzz of Buenos Aires

In Buenos Aires, we walked endlessly checking out prominent tourist areas, driving to neighbourhoods beyond the tourist areas to glance at the daily lives of the citizens, checking out the prominent local dishes, walking through resplendent malls and kicking back to observe the people go about their daily lives on the 1^st 3 days in the city and then upon return from Patagonia, too a trip to the adjacent areas to check a BsAs area estancia (ranch) and the industrial heartland of the country.

Reflecting back on Buenos Aires (BsAs), the city, the top 10 impressions that linger are:

1. It’s a big and busy city full of buzz – that seems to never sleep – people shop till late in the night and party till early morning - even on week-days and still get to office at decent time

2. I saw some of the most strikingly good-looking crowd striding down the streets, dressed and perfume-sprayed as well as they could afford – clearly the spend on fashion (clothes, fragrances and accessories) must be a large part of the monthly budget in the city

3. The streets were lined with cafes and eating out is clearly quite common – and similar to mainland Europe, people use these cafes to linger on, meet and watch others go by – a few are known hangout joints for the intelligentsia

4. The traffic moved very fast on the many broadest avenues that I have seen in any downtown anywhere in the world ( 6 to 10 lanes in many places) and the small mini-buses tore through these roads reminding me of the sounds of Calcutta

5. The architecture of several of its older buildings, the aerial view of the city layout, its broad avenues and tree lined streets were very reminiscent of Paris; sadly quite a few of the extremely beautiful buildings (prominent archs, doors, elegant entrances and decorated ceilings) had graffiti on them, some had fallen into disuse and many had ugly modern buildings built next to them thus diminishing their allure

6. The high density of shops (average of 1 every 50 meters in some parts of the town) selling flowers and those that that sold magazines – mostly the naughty kinds, but also on sports and fashion

7. The friendly police that genuinely seemed to be helping locals and tourists alike – I do think twice before approaching a cop in Mexico but out here, they were very courteous, definitely approachable and seemed to be looking out for the people

8. The prominent parks at the edge of the down-town where on the weekend, families descended in large numbers to exercise, chill out, eat and chat; on working days, we saw lots of runners sweating it out in these same areas

9. The aggression of male waiters in reminding (sometimes not too subtly) that they expected generous tips while the lady waiters were way more relaxed about the level of tipping (and probably secured more with their better attitude)

10. Many trivial observations such as – lots of smokers in the city with women greatly outnumbering the men, lots of people with dogs and staff from different banks hanging out together (including in union gyms that overlook the streets of the bank district)