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This is the starting point of our walk:
Monumental de Núñez Stadium, home to the CA River Plate,
a traditional club here in Buenos Aires.
It’s called Monumental de Núñez, but it’s not located in Núñez,
Núñez is the surrounding neighborhood, this neighborhood is called Belgrano.
The official name of the stadium is Antonio Vespucio Liberti,
who was the president of River Plate at the time of its construction.
This stadium was built in the 30s, and opened in 1938 more precisely.
This is currently the largest stadium in Argentina, with a capacity of more than 70,000 people,
although in the opening more than 120,000 people were put in here.
This stadium held 7 games of the 1978 Fifa World Cup,
including the opening, which was a game between West Germany and Poland,
and the final match, when the Argentinians were champions by beating Netherlands 3-1.
Leaving Monumental de Núñez behind, let’s go to the Buenos Aires hippodrome,
the second point of our walk.
We are passing through the neighborhood of Palermo toward Palermo Woods,
but before that we’ll make a quick stop:
behind me there is the Hipodromo Argentino de Palermo.
This was the first racecourse in Buenos Aires.
It was opened in 1876 and the Gran Premio Nacional is held here,
the best known Argentinian derby.
I found out that in 1996 it was won by a Brazilian horse
ridden by a Brazilian jockey for the first and only time.
We nailed them right here on their very grounds!
Right beside the Hippodrome there are the famous Palermo Woods,
which are nothing more than a set of several parks that we’ll get to know now.
Finally we got to the famous Palermo Woods, here in Palermo.
Today, particularly, it's a holiday, so many people are walking,
cycling, rollerblading, playing sports, and the like.
In these dozens of hectares of Palermo Woods there are also the
Botanical Gardens, the Zoo, the Japanese Garden,
Plaza Italia, which we'll visit in a few minutes,
Plaza Sicilia, Plaza Holanda. Back there is the Planetarium.
Let's take a walk around.
This is Plaza Italia, we finally got here.
the 'Plaza Italia', as they say.
It's one of the busiest places in Buenos Aires.
Dozens of bus lines pass here,
as well as subway lines.
Behind me there's a statue in honor of Giuseppe Garibaldi,
an Italian military politician
also known as the "hero of two worlds".
This is because of his successful military expeditions
both here in South America and Europe.
And it was from Plaza Italia
that the first electric tram in Buenos Aires left.
Here's a tribute to it, a short text:
"From here, the first electric tram in Buenos Aires left
on April 22, 1897
for its first voyage".
I stop here in front of MALBA -
Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires,
a relatively new museum, opened in 2001.
and it is only to Latin American artists.
So here you can see paintings, sculptures,
drawings, videos, installations, photographs,
anything you can imagine.
More than 160 artists, more than 400, 500 works...
Well, we are here at Floralis Genérica,
which is this enormous stainless steel flower,
more than 60 feet tall,
that is surrounded by a reflecting pool that, I think,
besides being beautiful it's more likely a protection against trespassers.
It lies here in this square,
the Plaza de las Naciones Unidas.
And the cool thing is that this flower has a mechanical system
which opens and closes the petals according to the time of the day.
So when the sun rises, the petals open,
and when the sun sets, the petals close.
Except in a few special days of the year, like Christmas and New Year's Eve,
when the petals are open and the lights are on...
Here is the National Library, the largest and most important of Argentina.
It exists since 1810, but it was not here, it was somewhere else,
because this building was built in the 60s and opened in 1992.
Now we're going to one of the places I think is one of the most interesting ones
we will visit, which is the Recoleta Cemetery.
I know that for some people, visiting cemeteries
as tourism may sound somewhat exotic.
Nevertheless, the Recoleta Cemetery, as well as the Chacarita,
placed in another part of the city,
is very beautiful and is recommended for tourists to visit.
This place was formerly a garden of a convent
and became the Recoleta Cemetery in 1822.
It's the cemetery of choice for the most prestigious and powerful people here in Argentina.
Among those who are buried here there are many politicians, soldiers,
poets, writers and even some sports celebrities.
Inside we'll get to see the best known person
among those who are buried here,
Evita Perón.
Among those who are buried here in the Recoleta Cemetery,
the most known to us, Brazilians, is Eva Perón.
She was a first lady, an actress and a political leader,
being highly respected by the people of Argentina,
as you can see here.
Take a look, everyone is waiting for us to shoot
so that they can take a picture.
I got here to Plaza San Martín, where behind me
there's a monument to the liberator José de San Martín.
He is a hero, not only for the Argentinians,
but also for Chileans, Peruvians and other South American countries
because he was a warrior in the fight for independence of these countries from Spain.
Now we got to Florida Street, or Calle Florida,
which is a commercial street.
It became a commercial street in the 19th century
and now it's the most important shopping street of all Argentina.
It's a pedestrian-only street, but it was not always like that.
It only became a full time pedestrian-only street in 1972.
Besides, it's well known for having several galleries,
such as the Pacific Gallery, which is where we'll go now.
Over there.
The Pacific Gallery shopping center is the most important in all over the country.
Conveniently located, it's on the corner of Florida and Córdoba,
a super busy place right here in downtown Buenos Aires.
This building dates from the late 19th century
and it was restored in the 90s in order to build this shopping center,
totally luxurious.
Now I'm crossing the 9 de Julio Avenue toward Teatro Colón
when I remembered something:
the Argentinians keep boasting they have the widest avenue in the world,
which is 9 de Julio.
I came here to see if that was true.
That's when I realized that on one side it's called Carlos Pellegrini,
on the other side it's called Cerrito,
and just in the middle it's called 9 de Julio.
So this record they claim is kind of a cheat.
This is the Teatro Colón, the most famous concert hall in Argentina.
It was opened in 1908, after 20 years of building.
In other words, it's a centenary theater.
Its capacity is for over 3,000 people
and the theater is considered a national historic monument.
This is the Obelisk. It was opened in 1936
to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the city of Buenos Aires.
It's located here on the square Plaza de la República.
It's 200 feet tall and on the top there are 4 small windows.
In order to get up there's a staircase of 206 steps inside the Obelisk.
Unfortunately, only maintenance personnel are allowed to climb up there.
On the last December 1st, which is the World Day Against AIDS,
something very cool was done:
a giant *** was put on, covering the entire Obelisk.
Avenida Corrientes, one of the most famous avenues in the city.
Many compare this avenue to Broadway in New York.
Firstly, Corrientes cut Buenos Aires from one end to the other,
just as Broadway cuts through the island of Manhattan in New York.
Secondly, this is where the city's main theaters are,
just like Broadway in New York.
Besides Corrientes having several theaters,
here's a huge number of bookstores.
It's said that the city of Buenos Aires alone
has more bookstores that all Brazil.
For people who live in Rio Grande do Sul, this company, Buquebus, is very useful.
Why? Because we drive to Montevideo, park our car there,
catch the ferry and cross the Rio de La Plata from Montevideo to Buenos Aires.
This route, from Montevideo or Colonia de Sacramento,
which is another city in Uruguay,
takes about 2,5 to 3 hours by ferry.
If one would go from Montevideo to Buenos Aires by bus or by car,
it would take about 14 hours.
The Puerto Madero was originally built in 1890 with the purpose of being a port,
but as time passed it fell into disuse,
and this whole area of the city ended up marginalized.
So in the early 90's the government decided to make
a national contest of ideas
to find out what to do with the area.
Today, Puerto Madero is what you see there,
a really luxurious area, with skyscrapers.
It's practically a financial center.
The warehouses of Puerto Madero were also restored
and now they hold several stores, chain restaurants,
and there's even a college in one of these warehouses.
Crossing the Puerto Madero district along a distance of one mile,
there is a train called Tranvía del Este,
which goes from one end to the other end of the neighborhood.
And this is Plaza de Mayo.
It's the main square in the downtown Buenos Aires
since the colonial era to the present.
The name of Plaza de Mayo honors the May Revolution of 1810,
that was when the process of independence
of the colonies of southern South America began.
The Plaza de Mayo is surrounded by many important buildings:
the Metropolitan Cathedral,
the Buenos Aires Cabildo,
the Banco de la Nación Argentina
and especially the Casa Rosada.
The Casa Rosada is the current headquarters of the presidency of Argentina.
Where the Casa Rosada is located, in the 16th century there was a fort originally.
It was the stronghold of the city.
At Casa Rosada scenes from movies such as
'The Official Story' and 'Evita' among others were recorded.
For the shooting of 'Evita', in 1996,
Madonna and Antonio Banderas, the two protagonists of the film,
came to Buenos Aires to talk to Carlos Menem, then President of Argentina,
to request permission to be able to shoot
using the balconies and the facilities of the Casa Rosada.
Legend says that Domingo Sarmiento, then president of Argentina
at the time of the painting of the Casa Rosada,
chose this color because pink represented the fusion
of white and red, which were the two parties that fought
a civil war there for years.
But the most accepted explanation is
that he was a big fan of Italian architecture
and in the Italian architecture,
pink was the color that was in vogue.
Now I'm walking toward the neighborhood of San Telmo,
which is a bohemian neighborhood with cafés,
hostels and antique shops.
We're walking down Defensa street
on the way to the corner with Chile street.
There will be a friend of mine sitting on a bench waiting for me.
Here we are. Here's my friend, Mafalda.
In fact, Mafalda's statue
was inaugurated in 2009.
The ceremony was attended by Quino,
who is the creator of Mafalda.
In 1536, Pedro de Mendoza founded Buenos Aires for the first time
and, according to some historians, it happened in this place, now the Lezama Park.
Buenos Aires also had a second founding in 1580,
but the first one is said to have happened here.
Dragging myself rather than walking,
I'm getting here to the penultimate stop of the walk.
Here is the Boca Juniors stadium, La Bombonera.
And there are many children practicing sports,
which may explain the success of Boca Juniors soccer team lately:
youth categories.
The real name of the stadium is Alberto Jacinto Armando,
a former president of Boca Juniors.
People call it 'La Bombonera' because
its shape resembles a box of chocolates.
It's rectangular with the bleachers rising practically vertically.
The Bombonera began to be built in 1923 and was opened in 1940
with a Boca Juniors match, of course.
The current capacity of the stadium is 49,000 people.
Boca Juniors is a traditional club, probably the most traditional in Argentina,
and one of the most victorious for this past decade.
Do you know why the colors of Boca are blue and yellow?
One of the founders of the club decided that the colors of the team
would be the colors of the flag of the country of the first ship that would arrive at the port.
Then a Swedish vessel came, whose flag is blue with a yellow cross,
and these colors became the colors of the team.
Our journey is coming to an end...
You can see that it's almost nighttime
and the first pole has its lights on.
We are in Caminito, the most colorful area of Buenos Aires.
The Caminito is a 500-feet long street
with major cultural and tourist attractions,
located in the neighborhood of La Boca.
Back in the 20s there even was a tram line here in Caminito.
After that, the street was practically forgotten
until it became a museum-street in 1959.
It was the painter Quinquela Martín who had the idea to paint
all the colorful houses the way they are today.
35,415 steps were taken
... and nearly 18 miles walked.
The walk lasted 11 hours.