Buenos Aires: Palacio Barolo

One of our favorite adventures in Buenos Aires (wait, do I say favorite on every post?) was the Palacio Barolo night tour.  The Palacio Barolo is a gorgeous office building with a lighthouse on the top and an interesting history.

(Copied from Wikipedia)
Italian architect Mario Palanti was commissioned to design the building by the empresario Luis Barolo, an Italian immigrant who had arrived in Argentina in 1890 and had made a fortune in knitted fabrics. The Palacio Barolo was designed in accordance with the cosmology of Dante's Divine Comedy, motivated by the architect's admiration for Dante and his work. There are 22 floors, divided into three "sections". The basement and ground floor represent hell, floors 1-14 are the purgatory, and 15-22 represent heaven. The building is 100 meters (328 feet) tall, one meter for each canto of the Divine Comedy. The lighthouse at the top of the building can be seen all the way in Montevideo, Uruguay where there is a similar twin building built by the same architect. When completed in 1923 it was the tallest building, not only in the city, but also in the whole of South America. It remained the city's tallest building until 1935.

The tour took us through the various floors with a narration on how the building aligns to Dante's Divine Comedy. We ended up in the lighthouse with some amazing views of the city and even got to sit in the light tower itself as the guide turned on the searchlight for us. Pretty fun experience. Here are some of the photos.

 A view of the lobby (also considered 'hell').

A view from purgatory down into hell.

Some beautiful accents throughout the building. This is supposed to look like a dragon head on and just ornate scroll work from the sides.

A gorgeous view from the lighthouse. The moon was in almost the perfect spot too.

Can you see Evita on the side of the this building?

Even the staircases were beautiful - and to think this is 'just an office building'.

This is off one of the patios (maybe around the 12th floor or so?) It's a huge patio area and this is looking back at the building. There's some significance to the green as well, but I can't remember anymore what it was. A cool view that's for sure.

Our camera has this amazing night shot setting, which is the only reason this photo turned out at all.

Buenos Aires: City Tour

Another highlight of our trip was a city tour. But not just any city tour, this one was in a vintage car!

We stumbled across the tour unexpectedly one afternoon and thought it would be a more interesting ride than the traditional big bus.  And we were right.

Cafe Tortoni is one of the oldest coffee shops in the city. We had breakfast there and it was awesome! The waiters are all in their 50s or 60s and have been working there forever. Not always the most friendly, but very knowledgeable and efficient. So different from the very young, unknowledgeable and inexperienced servers we're used to in Abu Dhabi.

We took in a lot of the architecture.  Buenos Aires was heavily influenced by Spanish, French and Italian and you can see all three in this picture. Can you tell the difference? 

The Congresso.

The oldest and certainly most ornate mosque in Buenos Aires.

Open air tour - a little chilly as the sun went down, but worth it. We also felt a bit like celebrities as people on the street waved and took pictures of the car. What a hoot!

This area is called La Boca and is said to be where tango first started. Did you know that tango was originally a dance performed by two men? It was how the dock workers entertained themselves in the evenings. Very colorful place.

Another view of La Boca.

Buenos Aires: Recoletta Cemetery

I know, I've been terrible at keeping up and now I'm a vacation behind again. Such a rough life I lead! :)

To continue our Buenos Aires adventure, we spent an hour or so wandering around the Recoletta Cemetery, which was in walking distance from our apartment. Why on earth would we want to spend time in a cemetery, you ask?  You'll see ...

Recoletta Cemetery is where the rich families built their mausoleums for the dead. No burials here, but instead elaborate crypts that are somehow beautiful if you don't think too carefully about what they contain.

As we wandered through, we found a huge ladder so I decided to climb up and see what things look like from the top ... not quite as pretty.

Meanwhile, these yahoos were supposed to be holding the ladder!

They variety of the styles, size and complexity is amazing. You can see in to some that have a staircase to a lower level, others that have a beautifully decorated table with photos of the deceased and others that are plain (relatively speaking).

 Nope, not a church, just one of the family crypts.

Apparently, angels wept when this guy passed on.

This was one of the older in the cemetery - such a contrast.

Buenos Aires: The Rose House

Another tourist stop during our Buenos Aires visit. Ironically, we also visited a Rose House in Sao Paulo - that one named for the Rose Garden in front of it. But this one is the house of government for Buenos Aires - their white house, if you will. The house is named for the color of the stone it's constructed of.

The president of Argentina works here, but doesn't live here. She travels in every day from her home by helicopter and is then transported in secret car (secret tunnel?) to the Rose House for work. Pretty nice commute, I'll bet. And yes, if you're an Evita fan, this is where she made her famous speech, or as we joked, where Madonna sang Don't Cry for me Argentina - whichever you prefer.

We went on a guided tour of the house, which are run every Sunday and are free to the public.

 This is the inner courtyard garden, complete with a few palm trees and pretty fountain in the center.

 Some of the guards making sure we don't steal the furniture.

 A mural in one of the upstairs rooms. I know he's someone famous in Argentina, but I don't remember the name ... some tourist I am!

 This is called the women's room and is where the president (a woman) makes many of her public addresses. The walls are adorned with photos of important women throughout Argentina's history.

 A better view of the courtyard from the second floor.

 One of the banquet rooms - pretty amazing furniture and furnishings.

 This is a view from the balcony beside the famous balcony. Unfortunately, the famous balcony was closed to the public.

 The gold room. Where they meet dignitaries and hold official functions that require a lot of ceremony. A pretty impressive room for sure.

 And finally, the president's private elevator ... to go up one floor. Guess it must be a slow trip to require a couch! :)

Buenos Aires: Teatro Colon

One of our tourist stops was the amazing Teatro Colon. This theater has been around a long time and was recently renovated. We took a tour of the place and got to see the amazing architecture, carpets, paintings and here a little of its history. Unfortunately, they were running a lighting rehearsal for the Marriage of Figaro opera that was performing that evening so while we got to see the actual theater, it was dark. Thanks to our awesome camera and its nightshot setting, we still got a glimpse of how beautiful it is. Here are a few highlights.

 They have their own workshops and make most of the costumes and sets themselves. Some of the costumes were displayed throughout the theater.

 Even the floors were amazing.

Note the three colors of marble on this staircase - yellow, rose and white. Gorgeous!

 One of the reception halls. Way back this was the place to see and be seen by rich Argentinians from Spain, Italy and France. Patrons would come early to mingle before the performance.

 The best view I could get of the side box seats with the lights off. Too bad we couldn't have seen it with the lights on.

The dome inside the theater. In some performances, they put a small group of musicians up here to represent heaven or angels. Can you imagine?