Argentina: Buenos Aires at last

The following is from an email that I had written to friends and family in the first week of arriving in Buenos Aires. The experience and comments are, I feel, worth the post.

March 24, 2008
11:20 AM
Buenos Aires, Argentina

Comrades, friends, and family:

Che (In Argentina this is a popular way to address people, possibly equivalent to the Australian mate)

After a 17 hour trip, which at times involved babies crying, and no window seat, I finally made it Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the local time of 14:00. The sensation of being in a different country didn't hit until the trip from the airport to the city, where after passing through a few toll booths, the highway carves through the shanty town known as villa 31 and here you feel you are in a different place. The villa, which are adobe houses, two-story high, is where the urban poor live, and this dominates much of the drive till you get to the city. Once I arrived at the city it was time to find accommodation.

My attempts to try and pre-book a hostel proved pointless, as they never got back to me. Fortunately, I met an American backpacker, Brian, who had traveled through New Zealand for a few months, and he had some idea of a good place to stay (according to his lonely planet). A short trip in a taxi, and we were in a middle class area called Palermo.

Palermo is somewhat of an affluent area. Night spots, bars, restaurants are plotted all along here. Palermo is nice though, with its two story apartments, and tree lined cobble stoned roads. It is suitable for a tourist; but you would need to travel out of here to explore the other side of Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires city, as one English backpacker agreed, has the feel of a European city - although, according to him, it is quieter, and the people are more friendly (?). Buenos Aires is known as the Paris of Latin American. I spent most of Monday, March 24, exploring the huge CBD. It was a public holiday, during the morning it was noticeably quiet, but it picked up by mid-afternoon for the commemoration rally, or as it is referred to here, Nunca Mas (Never Again).

Nunca Mas is the anniversary of the 1976 military coup, where thousands of people were tortured, assassinated, or disappeared. Hoards of people - possibly 50 thousand, although I'm really bad at guesstimating - came to the city centre, Plaza de Mayo, to commemorate this day. I've never seen so many flags, drums, and chanting in my life - it was amazing (see attached photos). Numerous speeches were made, which demanded the government prosecute the military officials, open the secret archives to determine accurately those that were repressed, and others which I recorded my MP3, but memory fails at this moment. Amongst other demands, the spirit of Internationalism was expressed with a call for Yankee Imperialism out of Iraq, and Latin America; Hands of Venezuela and Cuba; No aggression against Iran; Release of the Cuba 5; Close Guantanamo; Argentine troops out of Haiti; and denounced Israeli occupation of Palestine. The day finished around 20:00.