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94 QANTAS APRIL 2008

BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA

MORE FREQUENTLY ASSOCIATED with tango, Evita and ridiculously handsome polo players, the literary attractions of Buenos Aires are rarely the subject of travellers’ commentary. However, any conversation with an Argentine intellectual will reveal that the intriguing Jorge Luis Borges has been far more

influential over Argentine culture than the tango. Perhaps that is why the city attracts more than a million visitors to its annual book fair every April and, indeed, why the city is scattered with about 1000 bookshops and cafes. Best to leave your tango shoes behind and pack your reading glasses instead. This is Buenos Aires for the thinking traveller.

The Argentine capital is often described as melancholic. Its narrow streets, moody European architecture and perpetual state of political turmoil seem to lend themselves to a state of contemplation. Esteemed novelist VS Naipaul damned it as a “sudden, artificial society” of imported European styles and mimicked customs; Antoine de Saint Exupéry wrote The Little Prince inspired by his tumultuous relationship with a Porteño (Buenos Aires) woman; Julio Cortázar spoke of the Argentine’s sense of displacement; Cervantes Prize-winning poet Juan Gelman is in self-imposed exile after losing his son and daughter-in-law in the Dirty War. (Between 1976 and 1983, 10,000-30,000 Argentines “disap-peared” during the ruling military junta’s crackdown on left-wing activists.)

To explore the complex relationship between city and man, head for the cafes and bookshops. Finding a rare English translation of South American literature or a cheap photography book is an obvious quest, but the real attraction of cafe hopping is to sip on a fine malbec while chatting with a local. You’d better know your classics, if, as writer Tomás Eloy Martinez says, “Buenos Aires housewives buy Hopscotch and One Hundred Years Of Solitude as if they were noodles or lettuce”. The Porteños are superb conversationalists. Just don’t mention the peso.

This is a city that can best be appreciated on foot. That the streets are arranged on a grid should not lull the traveller into a false sense of navigational certainty. With intersecting diagonal avenues, streets that all look the same, conflicting maps and the Porteño tendency to change street names, becoming lost is all part of the Buenos Aires experience. Here are the barrios to lose yourself in:

WORDS CARMEN MICHAEL PHOTOGRAPHY ANGUS OBORN

Glorious chaos: El Rufián Melancólico bookshop

town and contentsDance a Latin literary tango through the scholarly streets of Buenos Aires.

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APRIL 2008 QANTAS 97

EL PREFERIDO DE PALERMO2108 Jorge Luis Borges.(011) 4774 6585.Borges’ house may no longer exist, but the “general store, pink as a playing card” does, and travellers can find an excellent Spanish lunch, such as their signature cazuela de mariscos (seafood stew), at this traditional BA restaurant.

BOUTIQUE DEL LIBRO1762 Thames. (011) 4833 6637. www.boutiquedellibro.com.arThere is always time for coffee and reflection at the back of El Libro, Palermo’s

most popular pick-up joint for philosophers and other intellectual fauna. Feed on salads and sandwiches and gather around sheaves of paper and laptops.

PAPELERA PALERMO4945 Honduras. (011) 4833 3081. www.papelerapalermo.com.ar For those keen to get a few of their own stories on the page, stock up on stylish handmade paper from this Palermo paper shop. Kitsch Evita wrapping paper, batik flower prints and diaries covered with the works of local Argentine artists are a smart alternative to the souvenir tango poster.

ARGENTINA BUENOS AIRES

PalermoOriginally the location of an estancia (ranch) slaughterhouse, the now sophisticated barrio of Palermo brings to mind the poem of former resident Borges, “Hard to believe Buenos Aires had any beginning, I feel it to be as eternal as water.” In the 20th century, the barrio’s simple rural beginnings transformed into a tough urban fringe, where Borges remem-bered the heady mix of street gangs, men dancing tango together and the sound of a lilting tune from a covered patio. By the 1950s it was a modest residential area and the cradle for several South American radicals. Che Guevara lived in Calle Araoz with his family before going to Guatemala. Cortázar lived in Calle Honduras while he wrote his novel Rayuela. The traveller can begin a walk around Palermo starting from the Garden of the Poets in the Palermo Bosques, where the busts of literary figures (Borges, Lorca, Dante, Amado Nervo, Fernán Félix Amador, Paul Grous-sac, Alfonso Reyes, Alfonsina Storni, Rosalía de Castro, Eduardo Sívori, Lucio Correa Morales, Marco Avellaneda, Antonio Machado – and Wil-liam Shakespeare) provide an interesting insight into the Latin American literary world. A stroll through the woods will lead the traveller past the vaudeville-style BA zoo, said to be the inspiration for Borges’ story Blue Tigers, and where unruly families now make weekend pilgrimages to heckle lethargic animals in sideshow enclosures. The zoo marks the beginning of Rua Jorge Luis Borges, a peaceful Palermo street that leads past Borges’ old house and into the heart of Julio Cortázar Square.

“Hard to believe Buenos Aires had

any beginning. I feel it to be as

eternal as water” B O R G E S

El Preferido’s cazuela de mariscos

Garden of the Poets

Borges’ bust, Garden of the Poets

El Preferido de Palermo (and right)

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BAR EL FEDERAL395 Carlos Calvo.(011) 4300 4313.Buenos Aires seems to be one of the few cities where foreigners blend easily into everyday life. El Federal, with its elaborate baroque bar and charismatic street setting among the crumbling terraces of San Telmo, suits intellectuals and travellers alike. It sells “honest” litres of Quilmes beer and enormous sandwiches.

BAR BRITÁNICO399 Brasil.(011) 4300 6894.Solitary writers and other night owls feed the insomnia of BA at this iconic cafe on the corner of Parque Lezama. A favourite scribbling spot for Argentine writers Sabato, Borges and Eloy Martinez, the Britanico closed briefly

in 2006, but was reopened (by new owners) last year after protests by local artists and bohemians.

EL RUFIÁN MELANCÓLICO BOOKSHOP857 Bolivar. (011) 4300 1027.A key location in Eloy Martinez’s novel The Tango Singer, the Melancholy Pimp is a classic disorderly Buenos Aires bookshop filled with piles of old postcards, second-hand books and the owner’s papier-mâché dolls of Argentine cultural figures.

WALRUS BOOKSHOP617 Estados Unidas.Whet your appetite for South American literature at this excellent second-hand English bookshop. Eloy Martinez, Cortazar, Sabato and Borges are staple reads.

Bar Británico

San Telmo Tourist tango hub and hotbed for the local artistic avant-garde, the inner city barrio of San Telmo is undergoing something of a renaissance. European architecture, an eclectic mix of marginal and bohemian communities, and the collapse of the currency in 2002 have attracted artists who might have once sought inspiration abroad. It is a dirty barrio with a layout that Borges described as being like “a ramshackle old house… the streets were like long porches and corridors, the plazas like interior courtyards”. The traveller can start at the Manzana de las Luces or “block of enlightenment” (276 Peru), where the Jesuits established schools before being expelled in 1767 from Spanish South America. It is possible to take a guided tour through its underground tunnels.

From there, perhaps make your way down to Parque Lezama along Calle Defensa. The barrio is scattered with tiny cafes, edgy art spaces and eclectic second-hand shops selling everything from old letters and discarded heirlooms to 1920s cocktail hats. It hosts a sprawling street market on weekends. The intrepid literary traveller may wish to seek out the location of Borges’ fantastical “Aleph” – the point at which all points of the universe converge, enlightenment, in short – under the nineteenth step of a basement somewhere in Juan de Garay Street.

It is a dirty barrio with a layout that Borges described

as being like “a ramshackle

old house… the streets were like

long porches and corridors, the plazas like interior

courtyards”Bar El Federal (and below)

Reading matter at El Rufián




RecoletaHome to local dignitaries and luxury hotels, the classical streets of Recoleta evoke memories of the Argentine belle époque. Anyone who is anyone should have a house in Recoleta in life – and a grave there after it. Borges and his mother lived at Quintana 222 and 263, and the iconic Eva “Evita” Perón, has a gravesite in the local cemetery. Even the Pope has his own private garden, next door to the Hyatt Hotel at the back of the belle époque mansion of the Vatican embassy. Stroll from the El Ateneo bookshop on Avenida Santa Fe to the Recoleta cemetery. If it’s a Sunday, pop in for an overwhelming brunch at the grand old Alvear Hotel, which caters for all tastes, from seafood and champagne to red meat and malbec. It was an old favourite of Evita, although presumably not where she infamously announced that she would like to “bomb Barrio Norte” – the district in which the Alvear, and her former apartment, was located. The story of Evita still captivates the imagination of foreigners and Argentines: a spectacular rise from a poor, illegitimate outcast to powerful wife of President Juan Perón; a woman who fought for the rights of feminists and the marginalised while fighting off corruption allegations; who was always immaculately dressed in Dior and Cartier. After some grave-spotting, relax in one of the many leafy plazas – known as the “lungs of Buenos Aires” – along Avenida del Libertador, to observe the curious business of dog walking. Professional dog walkers are capable of leading up to a dozen mismatched mutts on each arm, so be prepared to share the footpath.

EL ATENEO 1860 Avenida Santa Fe.(011) 4813 6052. www.tematika.comOnce a grand theatre, El Ateneo is a fabulous example of the insatiable demand of the locals for literature. The baroque-styled boxes, from which Porteños previously watched the local theatre of the day, now hold classical literature. The stage is now a cafe –

usually crammed with creative types conducting animated discussions.

VICTORIA OCAMPO HOUSE2831 Rufino de Elizalde. Use a visit to the house of the Argentine intellectual and writer Victoria Ocampo as an excuse to wander around the serene plazas of Recoleta and lunch in the lovely garden of Café Croque Madame (1902 Avenida del Libertador).

Even the Pope has his own private garden, next door to the Hyatt Hotel…

Literary heaven at El Ateneo Recoleta: “the lungs of Buenos Aires”



Montserrat & San NicolasThe stomping ground of Argentine writer Ernesto Sabato, Spanish play-wright Lorca and French artist Marcel Duchamp, and the birthplace of Borges, San Nicolas is the grand dame of the city they call the Paris of the South. Her stiffened spine is Avenida de Mayo and it sweeps down from the National Congress to the Plaza de Mayo, where Evita once stood on her rose-coloured balconies and mothers still march on Thursdays for the missing children of the Dirty War. Along the way, stop in at London City, where Cortázar wrote his first novel; the Castelar Hotel, where Lorca holed up while he launched plays at the nearby Avenida Theatre; and the neo-gothic Barolo Palace, a building inspired by Dante’s Inferno. Like most of Buenos Aires, it is a wonderful place to stroll around at midnight, when the Porteños slip out of their tiny flats to relax after dinner.

famous for its chessboards and glittering list of former clientele, including Borges, Graham Greene and Marcel Duchamp.

BUENOS AIRES BOOK FAIRLa Rural, Palermo.One of the world’s largest book fairs, this is a fascinating insight into the literary trends in the Spanish-speaking world and has events to attract the English-speaking traveller. This year Naomi Klein, Francis Ford Coppola and Tom Wolfe will participate. April 21-May 12. www.el-libro.com.ar

CAFÉ TORTONI 825 Avenida de Mayo (011) 4342 4328. www.cafetortoni.com.arOnce frequented by tango legend Carlos Gardel, and writers Neruda, Ruben Dario, Lorca and Borges, the Tortoni literary cafe is an insight to the Argentine belle époque, even if you do have to line up with 100 tourists to get a look in.

CONFITERIA RICHMOND468 Calle Florida.(011) 322 1341.Any literary tour of BA requires a visit to this 1920s wood-panelled cafe,

San Nicolas is a wonderful place to stroll around at midnight, when Porteños slip out of their tiny fl ats to relax after dinner

Café Tortoni


Barolo Palace


STAYMORENO HOTEL376 Moreno Street, San Telmo. (011) 6091 2000. morenobuenosaires.comTucked away in the crumbling back streets behind Plaza de Mayo, the cupolas of the basilica grazing its rooftop terrace like a Parisian skyline, this ultra-modern boutique hotel offers sprawling loft-style rooms. A bar and restaurant are due to open in May. From $180.

HOME5860 Honduras, Palermo. (011) 4778 1008. www.homebuenosaires.comThe owners of this new darling of the international boutique hotels set (including Crowded House bassist Nick Seymour) have employed a combination of South American modernism, rare European wallpapers and a Zen garden with a pool as an inspiring environment for its more artistic guests. From $153.

Qantas begins direct flights to Buenos Aires in November this year. For airfares call Qantas on 13 13 13 or visit qantas.com

FAENA HOTEL + UNIVERSEMartha Salotti 445, Puerto Madero. (011) 4010 9000. faenahotelanduniverse.comAt the heart of BA’s regenerated docklands is the spectacular Argentine offering of Philippe Starck. Inspired by the glamour of the belle époque in Argentina, the designers have gone fabulously over the top with their red-and-white colour scheme, silver swan head taps and unforgettable rows of unicorn heads. There are no check-in staff at the Faena. On arrival, guests are allocated “experience managers” who are personally responsible for your satisfaction in BA. A glamorous pool bar is open to the public in the evenings. From $385. �

Heads up: unicorns supervise dining at El

Bistro in the Faena Hotel + Universe


Rooftop terrace, Moreno Hotel

Inspired by the glamour of the belle époque, the designers have

gone fabulously over the top

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town and contents carmen michael photography angus … · 1762 thames. (011) 4833 6637. www....

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