Frigata Sarmiento

This beautiful sailing vessel circled the globe 40 times between 1899 and 1938, and over 23,000 Argentine naval cadets and officers were trained on her decks and in her engine rooms. We visited the ship that is now docked in the harbor at Puerto Madero and has been made into a fascinating sailing museum.

100,000 strong

Saturday, March 24 we found ourselves in the main square in the midst of some 100,000 porteños protesting the takeover of the government 31 years ago by the military coup responsible over the next decades for the deaths of tens of thousands of Argentinians. They are "The Disappeared" -- almost every family in Buenos Aires has a connection to one who has disappeared. This march protests the coup and is in honor of them.








Buenos Aires has many fabulous art museums, native son Ernesto "Che" Guevara is immortalized here at the MALBA Museum of Contemporary Art. We're reading Che's The Motorcycle Diaries, about the young doctor's trip with his friend Alberto thru Argentina, Chile and parts beyond. The nickname "Che" is actually a term used to identify an Argentinian guy, and he often makes sure he is overheard calling Alberto "che" so that people they meet know they are from Argentina.

And on a lighter note, today porteños are very fond of their dogs, resulting in a common sight being the "paseaperros" or professional dogwalkers, here two of them and their charges.

Puerto Madero/Along the Waterfront

Saturday afternoon we took the subway to El Centro and walked to Puerto Madero -- the newest barrio in Buenos Aires, along the waterfront. We walked the cobblestone promenade fronting four dikes that lead from the harbor -- passing upscale condos in reclaimed brick buildings, sidewalk cafes lining the cobblestone walkways.



The boy points to the fantastic pedestrian bridge that is supposed to represent a couple doing the tango. It was built mostly in Spain, cost $90 million US and rotates 90 degrees to let water traffic pass.