Sunday market of the city of fair winds

Heart To Heart

By Dr. Muhammad Hafizullah

“There is no single special place that you must visit; Buenos Aires is a city full of many historically important places - museums, monuments, parks and shopping areas. Every place has its own characteristic and Buenos Aires is proud of that!” the counselor at Argentinean embassy warned us before our trip. How very true! The physical structure of Buenos Aires is as mosaic and varied as her culture. There is no dominating monument or natural monolith which can be regarded as a focal point. The whole city is full of surprises and every area has a special treat for the avid visitor.

Buenos Aires means fair winds or good air originally named after Nostra Signora di Bonaria - Italian for 'our lady of fair winds'. The people of Buenos Aires call themselves 'portenos' meaning people of port. Descending from varied European heritage and preserving their individual traits, all have very nicely merged into a single nation -Argentineans. People from Germany, Italy have retained their names and culture while Spanish names, language and culture dominates. 

We were lucky to stay in the heart of the city in Porta Carretos hotel situated on Esmeralda Street. The hotel had two blocks a new and an old one. My room on the third floor had old classical look with windows opening in a patio. The bathroom had real wood paneling giving it an elegant look.

Though the lift was old but the ambience of the hotel was friendly. We were two blocks away from Ave 9 De Julio, the widest road in the world. Florida Street, the busiest shopping centre, was again two blocks east running parallel to our street. The shopping was in abundance, shops attractive, prices reasonable, wishes unbridled but there was no time. Hence we had to confine ourselves to brisk window shopping and promise to visit the city again for increasing the city's foreign exchange.

We got up a little late on our first day which happened to be a Sunday. After a fifteen hours flight -from Dubai to Sao Palo, three hours break at Sao Paulo and then another three hours flight we were all disorientated and dead tired.

The consensus was to explore the famous Sunday market. As we headed south our first natural stop was on Lavalle Street. This street had attractive shopping plazas on both sides with numerous Italian and local eateries. As we turned left to explore some shops - half of them shut, we wandered along till we hit Florida Street and turned right.

Florida street has upscale designer outlets with tempting displays and attractive prices. Large malls with multiple stories and hundreds of shops were like a shopping paradise.

There were many shops offering leather goods; very good quality shoes made in Argentine with imported soles were available on good discounts. Purses, wallets, mobile cases and bags made of local leather were being sold of varied attractive brands.

Prices were fixed with a minimal discount on bulk purchases. Even small shops were neat and clean. All international designer clothes were available at reasonable prices.

Florida Street led us to Diagonal Street and turning left we reached the most historic area of Buenos Aires called Plaza De Mayo. This is the main scenario of Argentine political history. Here is the 'Pink house' the president house of Argentine, where the president comes and works. The president flies to the office in a helicopter for public convenience.

The security around the president house was minimal and many tourists were seen taking pictures in front of the Pink house. An ancient cathedral called 'Cabildo' is towards right side. At the interception of main avenues is a large round about -the plaza.

The plaza in itself is the source of attraction and cameras were seen clicking to preserve memories. Avenida de Mayo takes one to Plaza De Congresso crossing Ave 9 De Julio 

Walking on Defensa street and crossing Av Belgrano opens a new world - Sunday market. On both sides of the street were small smart open air shops. The striking thing was the self enforced discipline. Every one had almost same area, some had their items displayed on the floor and some had low lying tables. The owners were sitting on comfortable chairs, reading newspapers and many had music playing in low volume.

As against what happens on the Florida street, where people outside big shops are advertising their stores and attracting the tourists, here there was no pushing and pulling.

A visit to San Telemo is a must to peep in the multinational heritage of the city.  Here the architecture has the Spanish colonial designs with Italian detailing and graceful French classicism.

La Boca's classical tin houses are painted in bold colours - often multiple in rainbow hues and muralists have turned the area especially side streets into avenues of colour. A visit to La Boca's stadium is a high point of visit to Buenos Aires.

Diego Maradona's presence is palpable all over the area. We enjoyed preserving the memories of the historical ground by posing in front of the lush green ground with large screens.

This must be the only place where coca Cola is advertised in black colour as their arch rival club's colour is red!

Buenos Aires is an amazing city in many aspects. One the one hand she has huge shopping plazas, large convention centre, lots of museums, attractive high class restaurants and the widest road of the world to prove its opulence and on the other hand she has old taxi cabs, poor neighbourhoods and lots of young boys and girls on the street to attract tourists to shops and restaurants to reveal its developing economy.

It has a rich history, many role models and numerous places of historical importance to visit. Though people have varied heritage, the amalgamation is exemplary and a model for many to follow. Above all pride in being 'Portofenos' is worth emulating!