The Four Balconies of Buenos Aires

Your private guide and driver will meet you in the hotel lobby to begin your exploration of Buenos Aires.

Since populist President Juan Peron and his legendary wife, Eva, began leading massive rallies from the back balcony of the presidential palace, the adjacent Plaza de (25 de) Mayo has symbolized the desire for change. Named to commemorate the city’s declaration of independence from Spain, here dissidents still gather for major political demonstrations. The most famous are Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo (The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) whose weekly marches have continued for thirty years as they demand answers about the disappearance of their children during the notorious Dirty War.

A few miles away is Parque Lezama, thought to be where the Spanish first put down roots in Buenos Aires and the current site of a popular crafts market in Argentina. The park’s surroundings are equally impressive, including a late 19th century Russian Orthodox Church, built with materials imported from St. Petersburg, and the massive bronze Canto al Trabajo by the late Argentine sculptor, Rogelio Yrurtia. The park sits between two of the city’s oldest and most charming working class neighborhoods, where the tango was born and many artists live today.

La Boca neighborhood’s calling card is el caminito, a street of balconied dwellings originally covered with mismatched leftover paint by Italian immigrants too poor to buy their own. This colorful patchwork tradition has made the area the most oft- photographed spot in Buenos Aires and a popular attraction on tours of Argentina.

The Plaza San Martin and its statues commemorate the bravery of Argentine soldiers against the British, including those who defended the country in the 1807 invasion and those who died in the ill-fated 1982 Falkland Islands war. The plaza’s elegant setting in the posh Retiro neighborhood belies its eclectic past as slave market, bullfighting ring and barracks. The nearby landmark government buildings began as monastery and opulent palaces of wealthy ranch owners.

It was to their Recoleta summer homes that the elite fled during the 1870s yellow fever epidemic. Today the Recoleta remains one of Buenos Aires’ most stylish neighborhoods to visit on tours of Argentina, with wide boulevards, elegant homes, fashionable shops and art museums as well as the city’s most popular tourist attraction, the Recoleta Cemetery.

At the end of the tour you will be returned to your hotel.