Buenos Aires on a bike
Michael Benedict explores the diverse neighbourhoods of Argentina’s capital — the ‘Paris of South America’ — on two wheels.
Among the world’s bicycle-friendly cities, Buenos Aires ranks in the top 20. In fact, it is the highest rated among non-European cities and the only South American urban area to make the annual list published by Wired magazine. In the past three years, more than 150 kilometres of bicycle infrastructure, much of it dedicated, has been added to Buenos Aires’s burgeoning network, making a ride on wheels an ideal way to become acquainted with what is justifiably known as the Paris of South America.
To guide you through this mostly flat city, Biking Buenos Aires is a leader among several Englishspeaking cycle-tour operators. Its Ultimate City Tour effortlessly covers most of the city’s diverse neighbourhoods over seven hours. Actual biking time is much less as there are numerous information-filled stops with ample time to explore, as well as a leisurely lunch. Indeed, minimal effort is required.
Our first stop is the storybook Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity with four baby-blue onion-shaped domes situated in San Telmo, the city’s oldest neighbourhood. In the 17th century, San Telmo housed mostly dockworkers but today its well-preserved buildings are home to a vibrant arts scene. Even before noon, there are tango dancers practicing at Plaza Dorrego. The square’s several murals and sculptures are an introduction to the prolific outdoor art that make the city’s landscape itself a museum.
On Sundays, Plaza Dorrego is the focal point of a 10-block, all-day street festival that attracts more than 300 vendors and thousands of locals and visitors.
Originally an antique fair, the Feria de San Telmo now also offers everything from auto parts to highend jewelry, along with some very talented street entertainers. Come early to avoid the crowds and wear comfortable shows to navigate the cobblestoned streets.
From the city’s oldest district, we cycle to its newest, Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires’s largest urban renewal project where we stop for lunch at the Parilla Mi Sueno food truck, true to its name Grill of My Dreams. “The most surprising thing about visiting Buenos Aires,” says a fellow cyclist, a 20ish svelte female from California, “is how much I have been able to eat!” She, along with most of our group, orders the Bondiola, the traditional slow-cooked-in-ale pork sandwich, a specialty of this food truck, the oldest in a string of them along the former harbour’s waterfront.
Like all food servings in Argentina, the sandwich is large enough for two. Although there are non-meat options, they are mostly shunned in this city of carnivores where only pizza, chocolate and gelato rival beef as daily sustenance.
Redevelopment of the once bustling port began in the 1980s and is ongoing. All its streets and bridges are named after Latin American women, an initiative stemming from Argentina’s 1994 constitutional equal-rights reform. Warehouses, which became obsolete after the city built a new port, have been converted into restaurants. Modern highrise condominiums are springing up alongside. Our tour guide, Britt from Texas, points out the tower where Argentinian soccer megastar Lionel Messi is said to have an apartment on the 34th floor.
We do not have time for a detour on this cycling tour, but return to Puerto Madero a few days later to visit the Fortabat museum, an eclectic array that ranges from Egyptian sculpture through Turner and Chagall paintings to contemporary works by leading Latin American artists. A modern glass-and-concrete structure that opened in 2008, the museum showcases the collection of the late Maria Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, who was Argentina’s richest woman when she died in 2012.
Among the paintings is a portrait of her by Andy Warhol. Mobile aluminum awnings shield the art from the sun during the day and open to the sky at night, a feature Fortabat wanted so she could see the stars and her paintings at the same time.
Next we cycle to Recoleta, one of the city’s toniest neighbourhoods and the site of the famous cemetery where Eva Peron, or Evita, the wildly adored wife of former Argentinian president Juan Peron, is buried in an unassuming family plot. Her corpse’s journey to this resting place has contributed greatly to her mythological status. She died of cancer at just 33 in 1952 and, after a state funeral, her body was put on public display while a memorial and permanent resting place was being built.
But hours after Peron was deposed in a 1955 military coup, her remains were spirited away in the middle of the night. Eventually, the body ended up buried in an Italian cemetery under a false name. Later, it was disinterred and shipped to Peron, then living in exile in Spain with his new wife, Isabel.
For a while it remained in their dining room. After Peron returned to Argentina in 1973 and was reelected president, Evita’s remains also came home and in 1976, a quarter-century after her death, were buried at Recoleta, surrounded by many of her powerful enemies.
Her family ’s crypt is nondescript, in stark contrast to the mausoleums, Gothic and Greek classical, that characterize this cemetery for the nation’s rich and famous.
Still today, Evita retains her magical hold on the country as visitors come daily bearing flowers and to take photos. Not too far away is Museo Evita, a shrinelike museum dedicated to her legacy.
The cafes outside the Recoleta cemetery are a hubbub of social activity, especially on Sundays when families gather and a highend artisan market takes over the adjacent park. Here and throughout the city, there are numerous bookstalls and newsstands. It is a common sight for people to sit alone in the outdoor cafés and restaurants, eating pastries, sipping coffee — and reading. It is, indeed, very old world European.
Before we resume the tour, our guide Britt prepares us a special refreshment — mate, a popular South American drink made by pouring hot water over the ground leaves of the Yerba mate shrub.
Britt crushes the leaves in a gourd, pours in hot water from a Thermos he has packed for the journey, inserts a silver straw into the gourd, takes a sip and then passes it around, explaining the intricate social rituals that accompany this native pick-me-up.
There is another museum nearby that we don’t have time to visit until later, the Latin American Museum of Buenos Aires (MALBA), the pearl among the city’s galleries. A visit is a stunning introduction to the vibrancy of Latin American artists from the last and current centuries and is not to be missed.
Clearly, this is a city that has more to offer than can be experienced in a day tour, despite Britt’s best efforts. It takes several days, or nights, at least, to explore the nightlife, pre- and post-midnight.
In the dynamic Palermo Hollywood district, for one, the restaurants and clubs stay open until the sun rises. No wonder people don’t start lunch, or breakfast, until 1 p.m., at the earliest.
Our last cycling tour stop is the Plaza de Mayo, the city’s political centre. It also houses the city’s main cathedral, where Pope Francis presided as a cardinal. For more than two centuries, the plaza has been the site of major anti- (and pro-) government demonstrations. Every Thursday afternoon, the mothers of those who “disappeared” during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship still gather with signs advocating for social justice.
The president’s office and executive mansion, the pink Casa Rosada, faces the square. From its balcony, both Eva and Juan Peron delivered speeches to thousands of cheering supporters below. It must have been quite a sight in this city where history is always part of the present.