A day of culture in Buenos Aires

Today we would be on own and after all the warnings yesterday about places we should and shouldn’t go, it was nice to spend a day taking in the cultural side of this city.

We woke up to blue skies and a beautiful, fresh Spring day. After breakfast we set off, deciding to get an Uber to our first stop. Everyone else was still wearing coats and we stood out like proper tourists in our t-shirts. It was really nice to be out in the sunshine without being covered in suntan lotion and DEET and constantly worrying about being bitten!

Our first stop was the Museo de Arte Latinamericano de Buenos Aires, or MALBA for short. Buenos Aires has several reputable art galleries but I’d decided that this was the one to visit. It houses a considerable collection of Latin American art by artists I’d never heard of. Generally, they’re from the 20th century and very vibrant in colour.

The collection is housed in this white, modern building on the edge of posh Palermo which was built in 2001. We were there before they opened at 11am and it felt like visiting a smart London gallery.

As I say, most of the artists are unknown to me , with one notable exception. They have two paintings by Frieda Kahlo which are housed in a separate and guarded area.

On the top floor there was a solo exhibition for a guy from the 60s and 70s who obviously had a bit of a sense of humour, with his monkey paintings and sculptures, his playful ‘human’ nest and mad hatters bunny in a cup! His name is Edgardo Gimenez and his exhibition was very busy. His stuff is all a bit barmy but it made us smile. As we left, there was an old man being fussed over by several staff. We think it was probably Edgardo himself.

After this we then made our way on foot the short distance to our next stop -the Japanese Gardens. These are reported to be the biggest Japanese Gardens outside of Japan. They are very beautiful with lovely azaleas and cloud trees in particular, at this time of year. They’re also very popular but it was a relaxing way to spend some time on this sunny day.

Now we needed some sustenance so we walked all along Avenida de Libertador back to Recoleta and near to the cemetry. We revisited the La Biela coffee house which has always been a favourite haunt of locals wanting a gossip. Here we had a tostado (cheese and ham toastie) and Jane ordered a Grand Beer and I had a nice cup of tea. It was a particularly good meeting point for the old boys of the area and has historic connections and memorabilia, to racing drivers who used to meet up here.

At night we went on our big night out in Buenos Aires. We were collected at 8pm (ridiculously late) in a mini bus which then proceeded to collect a variety of folk from different hotels. We were taken to Cafe de Los Angelitos for our evening of Argentine Tango. The cafe is very old and historic and we were given a top table right at the front! We had a very good meal after which the entertainment began. I think they tried to tell the story of the development of the tango and it was fabulous watching these terrific dancers right in front of us. There was a huge variety of different dances from more traditional to very funky, modern day. The music was from a live band and there was absolutely no participation required. This was a bit of a shame as the previous evening, after our 2 glasses of Malbec, Jane and I had been practising in our hotel room and thought we were rather good.

At the end of the evening it all wrapped up promptly and we were back on the minibus to our hotel and in bed by 12-30am. What a lovely day of culture we had had.