Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Buenos Aires
Dawn to Dusk
A
t their core, most capital cities in South
America are Spanish colonial. Not so here.
Buenos Aires has a decidedly modern European
flavor - so much so that it has often been called
“the Paris of the Americas.” It's easy to see why.
The city has wide tree-lined boulevards and
cobblestoned promenades. It has flower stalls,
sidewalk cafés and lots of bookstores. A soaring
obelisk is its Eiffel Tower and while a river
doesn't run through it, the Río Plata is always
nearby. Strolling along, you'll notice traces of
British, Portuguese and Italian styles of archi-
tecture, as well as clear adaptations from the
French Renaissance. The inner city is com-
posed of distinctive
barrios
(neighborhoods),
each adding a unique flavor to the whole. Fine
museums, excellent restaurants, chic shops
and open-air fairs are not clustered in one area
but can be found in each key
barrio
.
You'll want to explore the city on foot. It is a
veritable walker's paradise since it is quite flat
and has small plazas where you can rest. But
with lots of new construction and underground
cables being laid to modernize the telephone,
television and transportation systems, the side-
walks are badly broken. Repairs have not
caught up. Stay alert!
