2012.1.8The next day morning, we went to see the Obelisco de Buenos Aires. It’s located in the intersection of avenues Corrientes and 9 de Julio. Spanning seven lanes on each direction and 2-lane byway on each side, Avenue 9 de Julio is the widest avenue in the world. Only two blocks away from the Obelisco, Teatro Colón is considered to be one of the best opera houses in the world. Unfortunately, the theater was in renovation, we didn’t even have a good look of it from the outside.
Still traumatized by the incident the earlier day, my wife asked me to explore the city by myself in the afternoon. The taxi first took me to the Plaza Dorrego at San Telmo. A short walk lead me to the small plaza that is surrounded by beautiful two-storied buildings. It’s Sunday. The plaza was taken over by stands selling all kinds of antiques. This is Buenos Aires’ most famous flea market, Feria de San Pedro Telmo. Everything selling here must date before the 1970s.
I spent about an hour at Plaza Dorrego then took taxi to another legendary place of Buenos Aires – El Caminito at La Boca. This is a short pedestrian street overcrowed with restaurants and shops, but what draws visitors and photographers here are the houses painted in vivid colors. They are predominately in blue and yellow, which are the colors of the Boca Juniors football team. Although the street is crowed by visitors having their good times, there was no single visitor could be seen immediately out of the area – La Boca’s crime rate is among the highest of the city. Even within the tourist area, there were many police on patrol to keep the street safe at least in the daytime.
Buenos Aires is a such elaborate and culture-rich city, two days was not enough to cover it all even in the most superficial way. We didn’t got chance to visit Palermo and Belgrano, the upper-class side of the city. We left Buenos Aires in the evening and concluded our 16-day trip.
It’s already nine months and two more trips later as I finished the last installment of the travelog. The legacy of this unparalleled journey is that wherever we go, we always think, “we have been to Antarctica, nothing will surprise us”. However, the fact is, the world’s beauty and diversity have never stopped amazing us in every unexpected way. With an open mind and keen eyes, we will never feel bored of travelling.
