Thomas Bywater visits the Argentine capital of Latin dance. Video / Thomas Bywater
Arriving late on a Saturday night in Puerto Madero is no problem. Few people have eaten supper yet and the restaurants either side of the Rio Dique canal are up and busy, well past midnight.
Buenos Aires is a city that keeps its own time and is a gift to jet-lagged travellers.
Often feted as the Paris of the South, Naples on La Plata might be more accurate. This part of Argentina divides its cultural and culinary heritage like a pizza, with the Italian-Argentine “Tanos” making up a healthy portion of the pie.
As my airport taxi driver proclaimed, he was proudly a quarter-slice Italian.
Waves of immigration from Spain, France and southern Italy mean almost 70 per cent of the city has some claim to Mediterranean heritage. You can see why they call it “pizza porteña”: food that arrived via the port. It’s difficult to find a bad slice.
A mix of European architecture cobbled together with ibis birds and vibrant jacaranda trees make the mestizo city easy to slip into from a 15-hour flight via Santiago from Auckland. The up-all-night attitude only adds to an addled time clock.
The Madonna on the Puente de la Mujer, or Woman's Bridge, in Buenos Aires. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Nowhere is this more obvious than the drive in front of the Hilton on Avenue Macacha Güemes, past the floodlit Puente de la Mujer – Woman’s Bridge – and the rigging of the museum ship Presidente Sarmiento. I am met by a crowd of 200 to 300 neon-lit rollerskaters and a sound system.
I asked one rollerblader, wearing a superhero cape and fairy lights, what the event was and he seemed to think it was self-evident.
“Halloween,” he said, as a ghostbuster skated past.
It did not seem to matter that it was already late November. Buenos Aires is a city that keeps its own time.
Reminders of Diego Maradona are around every corner in Buenos Aires. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Sunday Morning in San Telmo
Argentina – the birthplace of both Pope Francis and Diego Maradona – has two religions: football and Catholicism.
Walking the streets of central Buenos Aires today, you’re as likely to see a shrine to the Golden Boy and former Boca Juniors No 10 as you are to the Madonna and child.
On the 30-minute walk south from Puerto Madero to San Telmo, both icons are everywhere. It might be the ultimate game of BA bingo. From La Donna on Puente de la Mujer through the cobbled Calle Bolivar, you will find a painting of the young Maradona midway through the so-called “Goal of the Century” during the 1986 World Cup. For soccer street art aficionados, you can take a paid tour of the shrines to the country’s stars of past and present. (buenosairesstreetart.com). An increasingly popular option is visiting graffito of some young upstart called Lionel Messi. However, you don’t need to look hard for public art dedicated to Maradona.
Ecce Diego: Diego Maradona is everywhere in Buenos Aires. Photo / Thomas Bywater
At one point I am stopped by a cardboard cutout of Maradona: “Ecce Diego”. Notably a good head and shoulders taller than the 1.65-metre star ever was, there is a queue of tourists stopping for selfies.
At fulltime, it’s Madonna 4, Maradona 5.
Finally, we make it to the entrance to Mercado San Telmo. The indoor market is one of the city’s most popular arcades. Built in 1897, it’s a Belle Époque maze of cafes and stalls. Fill up on empanadas and a glass of malbec or coffee and pastries, smothered in dulce de leche. Or even more pizza.
The Mercado San Telmo arcade, Buenos Aires. Photo / Thomas Bywater
The 1.3 hectares of covered market feels like the South American cousin of a Parisian mall with its glass stalls and restaurants. All are at their busiest on a Sunday morning.
Around the corner at Plaza Dorrego is another weekend staple, the Sunday flea markets. You’ll find knick-knacks from the length of South America and Europe: racks of 1920s trinkets, coats of genuine coypu and chinchilla fur, genuine fleas.
It’s a great place to haggle for souvenirs, if you’ve always wanted a wooden chai mate cup and straw.
The San Telmo flea market in Plaza Dorrego, Buenos Aires. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Every Sunday, the jacaranda-lined square is also the setting for one of the city’s best-known activities, tango.
When I wrote Buenos Aires had but two religions, I may have misstated. (Culpa mia!)
There would be no Argentina without the tango. And the Plazo is a pilgrimage site for dance enthusiasts from around the world. From midday, Pedro Benavente “The Indian” turns up for his weekly masterclass in milonga, a precursor to Argentine tango. Arriving in red leather shoes, he taped flattened cardboard to the square to create an impromptu dance floor. And they’re off, in the 2/4 time signature.
Pedro Benavente leads tango in the park every Sunday at Plaza Dorrego, Buenos Aires. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Pedro "The Indian" Benavente arrives at Plaza Dorrego to set up for his tango lessons. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Passing the hat at the end of the dance, he asks where his audience are from. The spectacle draws huge crowds of doting señoras of a certain age. A few are offered the chance to share a dance – though many are here to ogle Benavente’s broad shoulders, intense brow and thick black ponytail.
Evita and the Cementerio de la Recoleta
Having tallied the Madonnas on the way to la Boca, there is one that didn’t immediately come to mind. The grave of Eva Perón in the Cementerio de la Recoleta is one of the city’s most visited attractions. The “spiritual leader of the nation” and subject of a Tim Rice/Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, she was played in the film – of course – by Madonna Louise Ciccone.
One wonders what “Evita” would have thought of being played by the Material Girl.
The Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires. Photo / Thomas Bywater
Or, as the left-leaning hero who went from poverty to political powerhouse, what she would think of charging a $10 to $15 entry fee to visit her grave. She is definitely the biggest draw to the shady necropolis containing 4500 tombs.
“Don’t cry for me, Argentina,” she sang – so I did not.
Instead, I headed along the brick cemetery walls to the Centro Cultural Recoleta. Despite being in the centre of the country’s largest cemetery, this public arts centre is alive and kicking.
The venue hosts cinema, art and music. Central to the network of galleries is a 200-square-metre public dance studio, open for free, from Tuesday to Sunday.
The Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires. Photo / Thomas Bywater
It’s a long way away from San Telmo, about a 25-minute taxi ride away. There is no tango to speak of. Instead, it is full of people filming music videos and TikTokers practising their routines.
While dance draws tourists from around the world to the Río de la Plata, this is perhaps not what they are thinking of. Though it is everywhere.
Heading back to Puerto Madero along the Calle Olga Cossettini, I can’t help but notice the reflection of dance troupes perfecting choreography in the mirrored hotel’s windows.
Although it’s TikTok, not tango, dictating the rhythm of the barrios today, the spirit is alive and well.
Yes, Buenos Aires is a city that keeps its own time.
