Buenos Aires, Argentina (Day 1)

Today was our third time visiting Buenos Aires. Once again, we went off on our own, taking the required shuttle from our berth to the terminal, and then the optional shuttle from the terminal to Plaza San Martin, near Avenida Florida. The latter we took to save our steps for wandering around the city. As it is, we had a 17,080-step day. Whew!

Our original plan for today was to go to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) in the morning and do a graffiti tour in the Palermo neighborhood in the afternoon. But with the first off-the-ship RTW Event scheduled for tonight, we scrapped our afternoon plans and did the museum only.

After dallying a bit in Plaza San Martin, which was filled with silk floss trees in full bloom, we plugged the museum into Google Maps, picked a route, and off we went. We were mostly on neighborhood streets where the shade from the trees was most welcome.

Recognizing that we were near Recoleta Cemetery, we made a detour to check out the Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar (Basílica of Our Lady of Pillar), which had been closed when we visited the cemetery in 2007. The construction of the church, which was part of a Franciscan monastery, was completed in 1732 … making it the second oldest church in Buenos Aires. After a quick peek inside, we considered going to the cemetery again, but decided that we’d explored it plenty in 2007. So we returned to our original walking route.

Our meandering walk had us crossing a colorful bridge. A building in the distance looked like it might be the museum. Turns out that we should not have crossed the bridge as that wasn’t the museum after all. But for our efforts, I got a photo of the “Floralis Genérica.” This is a mechanical art installation made from steel and aluminum, and shaped like a flower … its petals designed to open and close with the sun. I didn’t know it at the time, but it apparently no longer operates due to mechanical issues that no one seems to want to throw money at to repair.

After retracing our steps, we made it to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes … the largest of its kind in Argentina. The place is huge — some 668 major works and 12,000 that fall into the minor works category. The collections are exhibited in a series of maze-like, interconnected rooms. Perhaps the most amazing thing is that the museum is free.

We enjoyed wandering around, seeing pieces from many artists unknown to us, but also pieces from Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Pissarro, Goya, Tintoretto, and more. Interspersed amongst all the painting were a number of sculptures — including Rodin’s “The Kiss” and Degas’s “Two Dancers in Red and Yellow.” In another section, we found some very colorful, and oddly intriguing, surrealistic art by an artist named Raquel Forner. A small exhibit of antiquities filled another room.

The museum turned out to be a very full day, which left no time for doing anything else since we had to return to the ship to get ready for the special event.Read more