Buenos Aires

My first day was spent combing the internet to find a dentist who could see me the same day as an emergency. It cost a fortune but I got my tooth repaired in the Buenos Aires (also known as BA for short) equivalent of Harley Street with prices to match.

Next it was off to see some of the sights of BA, and walking along the 9 Julio street, allegedly the widest thoroughfare in the world at over 140m wide with according to the guide 16 lanes of traffic. I counted between 16 - 20 depending on which section you were at. The traffic is split up into different widths by parks lands with some unusual trees. (The widest road is actually the Katy Freeway west of Houston with 26 lanes).

 The obelisk in the centre of 9 Julio...a great land mark to remember so that you never got lost.

 No its not Paris but it is very similar, this is the main cathedral.

 New York and Moscow both have White Houses but BA has the Pink House.

 Opposite the Pink House in the Plaza de Mayo. This is where the Mothers of the Disappeared demonstrated to demand to know the whereabouts of their sons and daughters from the government who had disappeared during the Dirty War where more than 30,000 people 'disappeared'. They still protest every Thursday but more for a memorial for the disappeared as there are unlikely to be any further investigations let alone prosecutions.

 There are many strong European influences in the architecture of the city wherever you look such was this building with a French influence.

 The docks were a fascinating place. It is a bit like Albert Docks in Liverpool or much of the Isle of Dogs in London where the old Victorian era warehouses have been converted and are now expensive marinas and flats for the rich and lined with boutiques and restaurants.

 Although there are still many modern influences.

 Another view of the dockland area.

 In some places you can see the juxtaposition of the old and the new with an old style tower reflected in the glass of the modern office building.

 Several views of the Teatro Colon, the opera house of the side,

 the back entrance facing 9 Julio,

 and the front facing a park. Each entrance led to a different section of the seating area but were not interconnected so that private box holders didn't mingle with those who could only afford to stand at the top of the building . The inside of the main entrance is a fantastic expanse of coloured marble, Corinthian topped column with statues everywhere under chandeliers. The side entrances for the seating in the Gods were more functional than ornate but still had their charm.

 A statur to San Martin. He is as famous as Simon Bolivar is in the north of the continent as they both led armies against their Spanish overlords to achieve independence. San Martin led a force of 4,000 soldiers and 200 officials from Mendoza in present day NE Argentina over the Andes to attack and defeat the Spanish in Chile to liberate Chile and achieve a lasting independence for Argentina. The man on a horse statue was originally just on a plain white stone plinth but the elaborate marble extras were added to celebrate Argentina's first centenary celebrations in the early 20th century.

 A gift from UK to Argentina...a clock tower and quite ironic as Latin America runs on a different track when its comes to timeliness and punctuality...it is almost rude to suggest that someone is late.

 A tribute to the more than 680 fallen during Las Malvinas war in 1982 when Argentina invaded the Falklands. This was a particularly poignant moment as just a few months before I had visited the Argentine Cemetery in the FALklands where the majority of these fallen soldiers have been buried.

 On one of the tours around the city I was told the history of many of the grand houses, called palacios that were built by wealthy families in and around the northern sections of the city. Many now are preserved as embassies such as those which house the French, Vatican or Brazilian embassies or up market hotels, such as the Four Seasons where the most expensive suite is $12,000 a night. Only one had survived in private ownership, Palacio MacQuire.

 The oldest church in BA, a former nunnery and now the church most associated with the Recoleta cemetery which is one of the top three sights to see in BA.

 The entrance to the cemetery.

 Inside are a host of elaborate examples of funeral architecture, much as Highgate is to the London funeral architectural scenery. Here are a few examples that are typical of the expense and extravaganza spent for the dead in the area.

 And not as grandiose as some of the others in the cemetery, here is the final resting place of Eva Peron...who was buried under her family name of Duarte and not her married name of Peron.

 Some more general views of the pathways through the cemetery.

 And finally the building of the National Congress.

 And in front of it the stone that marks ground zero from which all roads are measured from which span out across the country.