Bye bye BA

After 5 days in Buenos Aires, it was time to say goodbye to South America and head home. I had imagined the city to be a relaxed winding-down after the excitement of Brazil, but as it turned out, it captured my imagination all over again. The more I explored the more I found. On my last day I was torn between a famous street market in the neighborhood of San Telmo, a gaucho cowboy fair on the city’s outskirts, and a “parrot market’ for pet birds in a slummy neighborhood called Nueva Pompeya. I wished I had more time to do them all, and in the end opted for none, and went to lie in a park.

But at the same time, I felt relieved. The people of Buenos Aires were hard to get along with I thought, cold and charmless (certainly compared to the Brazilians). In a book I had read,  “Bad Times in Buenos Aires” the author discussed the rage brought on by the stresses of living in the city. I could imagine.

And even its beautiful, fading history seemed oppressive: too much of it, too many ghosts. In the end my favorite monument in this city of monuments was its newest and most hopeful one; a giant metallic flower that opens each day at dawn in a reflecting pool, and closes again at dusk. It was a reassuring symbol of certainty and constancy in this city of dramatic ups and downs, a city I had come to really enjoy, but was glad to be able leave.