Buenos Aires: Wednesday

On Wednesday, Tim arrived in the morning. I spent the morning at the conference, but we got together for lunch and spent the day wandering around the center of Buenos Aires again. We had lunch at a little restaurant not far from our hotel (called Dadá Bistro). Tim had steak. I had pasta. It turns out that there are a lot of Italian immigrants in Buenos Aires, so the Italian food is pretty good.

After lunch, we started by heading to the Teatro Colón, and we bought tickets to go on the tour. The building actually faces Plaza Lavalle; though it sits right on Avenida 9 de Julio, it's back door actually faces this major thoroughfare, which was completed after the theater. The theater opened on May 25, 1908 after 18 years under construction. Construction began in 1880, with the intention of being complete by 1882 to mark the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. When it was finally completed, the officially listed architect was a Belgian, but there had been two previous (Italian) architects, who both died. When the Belgian (Julio Dormal) came onto the project, he wanted to tear down the original building designed by Francesco Tamburini, but he was ultimately convinced that that was a bad idea. The style of the building is considered "European eclectic". It has floor tiles in a British style (materials from England), stained glass in a French style (materials from France), stucco work in an Italian style (materials from Italy), and so on. The building is beautiful. We also got to see the theater itself; when we walked in, there was a group of people on the stage, one of whom was playing the piano while another sang a song from The Phantom of the Opera. Apparently (according to our guide), this was unexpected and unscheduled. The theater has perfect acoustics; it is considered one of the top five theater for opera in the world. In the center of the ceiling in the theater (28 meters up in the air), there is chandelier, surrounded by a painting. The two are separated by a decorative gold ring. Except that it's not just decorative. It apparently disguises a corridor that can house up to 50 musicians or vocalists. When people go there and make music, it emulates something like a choir of angels.

After seeing the theater, we continued our walk. We walked first to Plaza de Mayo (remember: the plaza named for the revolution on May 25, 1810). This Plaza is a center for all kinds of political demonstrations in Argentina. It also is the home of the Casa Rosada, which you may have seen in the movie Evita... it is from its balcony that political leaders of Argentina (including Eva Perón) address assembled masses.

We also wandered from Plaza de Mayo into the neighborhood of San Telmo. The market is only on Sundays, so we could see more of the streets, including the painting style fileteado, for which Argentina is also well known. We wandered into Convento Santo Domingo (in fact, the only church we went inside in Buenos Aires!). After San Telmo, we wandered back through Puerto Madero on the way to the hotel, strolling along the waterfront. We met up with my student Colin and our friend Hyrum before heading out to "Le Grill" for a dinner of steaks.

[25,614 steps, 10.54 miles]