Ferroclubbing in Buenos Aires

Although our time on La Trochita was over, we still had one more railway rendezvous before our international flights.

Our morning was spent at the Ferroclub Argentino, a railway club at Lynch in Buenos Aires which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. The club has a terrific railway museum and an impressive collection of locomotives/rolling stock in their depot building. During our visit they had one standard gauge loco in steam within the depot grounds – 0-6-0 no. 27 ‘Monte Caseros’ (Neilson & Co, 1888).

FIAT 7131 railcar No. C.M.U. 5968 ex T.E.A at the Ferroclub Argentino in Lynch

Steam locomotives at the club include FCGU 4-4-0 No. 806 (Kerr Stuart & Co., 1913); FCGU 2-6-0 No. 11 (Neilson Reid & Co., 1888); FCGU 2-6-0 No. 15 (Dubs & Co., 1888); and FCGM 0-4-0T No. 863 (Couillet, 1886). There is also a FCNEA Steam crane No. 4144 (J Booth & Bros Ltd, 1931). There were also some interesting looking electric locomotives – LE907, 950 and 954.

We had such a warm welcome from the volunteers at the railway club who showed us round their museum, generously sharing their knowledge and personal experiences. One museum guide told us about seeing Eva Peron at the age of 6 or 7, on the back of a railway carriage throwing out gifts to children.

At the end of our visit an immense barbecue was provided, served up in a railway dining car. Time rather worked against us, so only a few of the group got the chance to get a guided tour round their depot and workshops. Those of us with international flights had to leave by bus at 1.30pm but were sorry not to have been able to spend more time at the club. Thank you to all the volunteers for giving us such a marvellous day at the end of our trip.

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Back to Buenos Aires

Today, we begin our slow homeward trek – with a little bit more rail action to come. Originally everyone was booked on an Aerolineas Argentinas flight from Esquel to Buenos Aires (which only sees one flight a day on this route) but that would have been too simple…

An unhelpful late demand for passport expiry dates from Aerolineas Argentinas saw the tickets for over half the group cancelled before the information could be supplied, so rather than fly home from the airport at Esquel we had to make the trek all the way back to Bariloche in our tour bus. It was expected to be a long drive and there had been reports of snow at Bariloche, so this meant a 7.30 departure.

Our tour bus at an earlier point of the tour

On our drive out of Esquel we could see that the roadsides were white, so it looked like the snow that we had wanted for the tour was taunting us again. That said, it looked like a thoroughly miserable day to be outside, so maybe it was better that it arrived on our transfer day.

At first our progress was pretty good and we reached El Bolson at 10:10. Unfortunately, not too far beyond, with 94km still to go, we started to see thicker snow around us and the traffic had come to a complete stop in what looked like a long tailback. We could see some cars ahead doing u-turns and abandoning their attempts to continue on, while others had stopped to put chains on their tyres. Our drivers stepped out to assess the situation and then bravely drove us past a line of stationary trucks and the occasional car that had skidded off the road.

The snowy scene towards the end of our transfer (actually one of the stretches of mountain roads with lighter snow!)

Our route took us on some winding roads through a mountainous area through ever thicker snow, then into a valley the snow had not reached. Our relief was short lived as we drove back up into the snowy mountains where diggers were hard at work clearing the roads. I think the roads would have been challenging under any circumstance – the road was disintegrating with some huge potholes. It was quite possibly the most heroic drive I have seen a bus driver put in on one of these tours.

Astonishingly, we reached Bariloche airport at 12:55 – in perfect time for our 15:05 flight on Argentinian budget airline FlyBondi. The Boeing 737-86N (LV-KDQ) that awaited us had some of the tightest legroom that I can recall and the flight was clearly almost totally full, but as luck would have it the seat next to me was empty – giving me a chance to enjoy the views on our approach to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, the airport located in the city centre of Buenos Aires.

A view of the railway yards outside Retiro Station on the approach to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery

The approach was far from pleasant with some really strong buffeting from crosswinds as we came in to land, with the wings going up and down wildly to my untrained eyes. Other members of the group commented on it being something of a white knuckle ride even for seasoned fliers. The pilots certainly deserved the applause from the passengers on landing. I just kept focusing on taking photos which helped distract me from everything else that was going on.

After our group was re-united we went for a final meal together at La Estancia, a popular steak house where large hunks of meat are carved at the entrance, barbequed and brought to the table still sizzling. All washed down with one litre bottles of Imperial IPA!

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Aerolíneas Argentinas to Bariloche

The early hours of the morning brought thunder and heavy rain. It felt like an ominous start to another travel day – particularly with recent events in mind (a few weeks ago flash flooding resulted in a long list of cancellations and delays at both of the airports in Buenos Aires). However, everything seemed to be operating as normal as I headed away from my hotel in a taxi. Such a contrast to my arrival in BA – a journey that had taken 90 minutes in late morning weekday traffic took just 30 minutes on the deserted streets of Buenos Aires on a Sunday morning.

Flight AR1648 with a Boeing 737-800 en route to Bariloche

Bariloche airport

My domestic flight with Aerolíneas Argentinas to Bariloche departed from Ezeiza International Airport (on reflection, a flight from the city centre airport at Aeroparque Jorge Newbury might have been simpler). Check in was very straightforward, albeit with the slight oddity that you check in at Terminal A but had to go to Terminal C to board your flight.

Our flight took off at 08:26. It was pretty grey outside but at least we were spared a continuation of the heavy rain that was originally forecast to last all morning. Quite bumpy on way up through the clouds and a fair degree of buffeting once we reached cruising altitude – all in all, a really horrible first 20 minutes. That never gets any more enjoyable. The descent was much smoother and we were treated to some quite spectacular scenery as we came in.

Once we landed there was an absolute scrum for luggage – a small carousel surrounded by an absolutely full flight – and then a slow exit, as all luggage is scanned before you can exit. It was great to have reached this point and be ready to join another FarRail tour.

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More sightseeing in Buenos Aires

Three and a half days soon disappeared leaving plenty more that I could happily have seen given the opportunity, so if I ever make it back here I won’t have any shortage of targets. Anyhow, here are some of the other touristic highlights from my visit to Buenos Aires…

The Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires was well worth a look inside, particularly for the mausoleum of San Martín, liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru. Nearby, the Museo Casa Rosada includes some fascinating exhibits about the Presidents of Argentina which include a cadillac used by Juan Perón and an official portrait of Juan and Eva Perón, plus some photographs of the station that used to exist on the site.

The Centro Cultural Kirchner proved a great way to spend a few hours with some terrific modern art exhibitions (including the marvellous Orlando’s Library by Daniela Comani, which re-imagines a library of books where the gender of the protagonist has been switched); a rooftop viewpoint; the preserved central post office interior; the recreated Eva Perón Hall, where she replied to requests from people seeking her help; plus a small stamp museum (which includes some lovely stamps on display commemorating La Trochita among others) and philatelic shop on the ground floor.

The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and Railway Museum rounded off the list of museums, but there were plenty of statues and striking buildings to marvel over on top of this (not least the striking art deco skyscraper Edificio Kavanagh).

I easily filled my days and still left plenty that I did not have the time to get round to. If I had more time I would have liked to see the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Colón Fábrica, El Zanjón de Granados, the Museo Moderno, the Museo Histórico Nacional and taken a look at the striking Mercado de Abasto de Buenos Aires. Plenty to tick off if I end up back in Argentina…

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Teatro Colon (and a bit of railway history)

The Teatro Colon is another marvel in Buenos Aires. The building is quite simply spectacular with interiors that are more opulent than many palaces that I have visited. It is more than just showy though, with acoustics for opera that are said to be unrivalled anywhere in the world.

Before I talk more about the building, there is one little piece of railway history that needs to be mentioned. Teatro Colon was built on the site of Del Parque station, the first railway station in Argentina and the terminus of the Ferrocarril Oeste de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Western Railway). The railway station closed in 1883, with the terminus of the railway moving to Once. Work began on Teatro Colon in 1890 and was completed in 1908. Today a small plaque on the outside of the theatre marks its important predecessor.

Plaque to mark the railway history on the spot now occupied by Teatro Colon

The initial design for Teatro Colon came from Francesco Tamburini, an architect from Italy who sought to improve upon the famous opera house La Scala in Milan. On Tamburini’s untimely death at the age of 44, the work was taken over by his colleague Vittorio Meano, who also came to an unfortunate end when he was murdered at the age of 44. This gave the theatre a reputation for being cursed among Italian architects who were keen not to add their names to this tragic list. In the end it fell to Belgian architect Julio Dormal to complete the work.

An hour long english language guided tour gave us a good look at the astonishing interiors and gave us some insights into the operation of the opera house. This place is a factory as well as a cultural venue, making all their sets in house. Originally this work was carried out at a warehouse in La Boca, now turned into a museum of past sets, but today it all takes places in an underground extension under Avenue 9 de Julio.

Interestingly, the entrance on the main road (the Avenue 9 de Julio) is the back of the theatre and mostly used for staff. The only other opera goers who would use this entrance were widows who who couldn’t be seen in public for two years. Widows entered via the back entrance after the start, taking up seats in special boxes for widows and had to leave before the finish.

The front entrance of Teatro Colon

The decoration of the interior is quite simply palatial. Most of the work is original, though the ceiling fresco was damaged by a combination of smoke plus humidity and couldn’t be restored. It was replaced by a new painting in 1956 which wonderfully includes artists backstage playing chess. Highlights of the opulent interior included a chandelier with 720 lights and a wonderful view from the boxes out to the stage (where set building was taking place for a show in the evening) with its three curtains.

One of the ironies of such an lavish interior is that musicians often gravitate to the very cheapest standing spots in the uppermost level (known variously as paradise or the chicken coop) where the acoustics are at their most perfect.

The tour certainly gets my vote as a must-see in Buenos Aires.

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Palacio Barolo – a marvel at 100 years old

One of the most interesting buildings I visited in Buenos Aires was the Palacio Barolo in the prestigious Avenida de Mayo, an unusual office block designed by architect Mario Palanti (1885-1978) and built in 1919-23 for Italian cotton entrepreneur Luis Barolo. On its opening it was the tallest building in South America, a record it held for just over a decade before it was eclipsed by the residential apartment block Edificio Kavanagh on the other side of the city.

Palacio Barolo

The office block cuts a striking profile as you approach it, with its curvaceous design and the surprising sight of a lighthouse sitting atop the tower. As I was doing my homework for the trip I read many conflicting views on the dual-language guided tours offered here, but was glad I booked up. A tour is the only way to see inside the building and get some understanding of the unusual inspiration here. I thought it worth every peso I paid.

The Palacio Barolo is modelled on Dante’s Divine Comedy. Our tour began on the ground floor where the representation of hell is reflected in the monsters atop the columns (some doubling up as lantern holders) and then took us on to purgatory (on the 4th floor) and the gates of paradise (on the 14th floor). The Swiss-built lifts in the building are still original.

The tours include the chance to climb up into the lighthouse at the top of the 22 storey tower block and enjoy the splendid views on offer, particularly the prestigious view across the Plaza del Congreso. Many descriptions of the building say that the light can be seen in Uruguay, but that is apparently an urban myth. Finally, the tours end in one of the offices with a chance to find a little more about the history of the building.

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Cemetery wanders at Chacarita

One of the less well known sights of Buenos Aires is the Cementerio de la Chacarita, which is an odd thing to say as this is the largest cemetery in the country at 235 hectares (larger than any cemetery in the UK) and still very much active today. Not exactly a hidden sight tucked away in a corner of the city! It is easily reached by taking Subte line B to Federico Lacroze.

The cemetery can trace its origins to 1871, when a yellow fever epidemic overwhelmed the city with 500 deaths a day at its peak. The situation was dire, with coffins piled up on the streets awaiting collection by an inadequate number of funerary carriages and capacity in the existing cemeteries of the city far exceeded. The epidemic would claim the lives of over 14,000 inhabitants, around 8% of the population in the city.

Panteón de la Policía Federal Argentina at the Cementerio de la Chacarita

The local authorities acquired the land at Chacarita de los Colegiales for the mass graves needed and a line was established on the Buenos Aires Western Railway (Ferrocarril Oeste de Buenos Aires), running from a warehouse in the city centre to the cemetery. Two trains a day served the cemetery with two stops along the way to pick up corpses.

Fifteen years after the epidemic it was decided to establish a monumental burial complex for the rapidly growing city on the parkland next to the existing cemetery, which involved the re-location of the existing burials and space for many more. For a while it was known as the ‘Cementerio del Oeste’ but from 1948 returned to its original name of Cementerio de la Chacarita.

Unlike the compact Recoleta cemetery (14 acres) this is a sprawling site and whilst there are many notable individuals buried here, this is not solely the preserve of the rich and famous. Depending on which route you take from the entrance you will discover a crumbling network of family tombs; national mausoleums for different trades and professions; multi-storey underground pantheons; and fields with traditional graveyard plots.

Mausoleo Jorge Newbery at Cementerio de la Chacarita

Among the monuments to individuals is a striking tomb for Jorge Newbery, the acclaimed aviator, sportsman and all round popular idol who died in a monoplane crash at Mendoza in 1914 while preparing to attempt the first plane crossing of the Andes (and a name familiar to many as they travel in and out of the city centre airport that bears his name).

The mausoleum for Jorge Newbery was designed by sculptor Hernán Cullen Ayerza, depicting the lifeless body of a winged Icarus, overlooked by five Andean condors who appear to be bowing before the man who attempted to defy the laws of nature. The mausoleum took some time to come to fruition and was eventually unveiled on May 2nd 1937, with Newbery’s body transferred from its temporary resting place at Recoleta cemetery.

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Street art in Buenos Aires

Although I have only been in Buenos Aires for 24 hours but already understand why it has been described as ‘the Paris of South America’ and just how people fall so in love with it. To get a different perspective on the city again, I headed out to one of the middle class suburbs, Villa Urquiza, and joined a street art tour.

I guess I tend to associate street art with grittier urban areas and city centres, so I was a bit surprised to see street art in such a leafy residential district. As we began our walk we heard about how the organisation giving our tour, BA street art, work closely with local street artists to find locations for their art, often tailored to the interests of property owners. This unusual approach has resulted in over 250 murals across the city and a quite amazing body of work.

Tale of the parrots by Martin Ron (2013)

Our tour lasted about 2 hours and was just wonderful. The first mural, by Martin Ron, was a giant mural now a decade old named ‘El Cuento de los Loros’ (Tale of the parrots), spread across the ends of an apartment block just across the road from our meeting point. Our guide explained how it was adapted over the two weeks it was painted to include a kid who rode past on his skateboard regularly and the face of the forklift driver who helped. One local resident objected to the nudity, despite this being an obvious homage to a classic piece of art, so some very strategically positioned parrots were added!

The most poignant piece featured a gorgeous cat, which sadly disappeared afterwards. I like our guide’s optimistic take on this, saying that they liked to think it would have the art to tell it where home was.

I thoroughly recommend a tour with BA Street Art to see a side of Buenos Aires that is such a complete and joyous contrast to the bustling city centre.

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Lost in the city of the dead

The Cementerio de la Recoleta is one of the top attractions in Buenos Aires, said by some to be the most beautiful cemetery in the world and with some pretty tragic stories to match (like that of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak, who is immortalised in bronze above her tomb, wearing a wedding dress, reflecting her death in an avalanche whilst on her honeymoon). Inevitably, there are some unlikely stories too.

Cementerio de la Recoleta

The cemetery, established in 1822, sits in a surprisingly compact 14 acre plot of land, surrounded by high rise buildings. Yet, within that space an extraordinary maze like city of the dead has been established, where the great and the good from Argentinian society have been immortalised in over 6,400 striking tombs and monuments in a wide variety of styles from faux-ancient Egyptian to belle epoque. You never quite know what you are going to find around each corner.

After paying the modest admission fee to enter you are free to explore, armed with a free map, but after a while I found it simplest to allow myself to get lot and just explore the cemetery path by path, taking in all the surprises along the way. In the end I spent two and a half hours in the cemetery, not wanting to rush. It wasn’t hard to spot the tomb of Eva Peron, as there was rarely a moment where a tour group was not gathered in the narrow passageway outside.

Among the tombs I found on my wanders were the tombs of Federico Lacroze, who created the first tram line in Buenos Aires; Enrique Moscino, a pioneering military engineer; Pablo Riccheri, minister of war; Luis Ángel Firpo, boxer; Luis María de la Cárcova, who died in a plane crash in 1948; and Martín Rodríguez, politician and soldier. The AfterLife project is a great resource for looking up the details of individual tombs.

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First stops in Buenos Aires

A flick through the guidebooks left me in no doubt that there was plenty to see in Buenos Aires, certainly far more than I could fit into my four day stay. Nevertheless, I was determined to squeeze in as much as I could, not knowing if I would be back in this part of the world again.

Buenos Aires is almost back to its pre-pandemic norms, although tourist information centres around the city are still closed as a health precaution. There are other problems of course, such as rampant inflation, and you do need to get your head around the different exchange rates in operation (the official rate, blue rate and the preferential tourist rate you get for using a foreign credit card) but on the whole planning my trip proved to be pretty straightforward.

The Floralis Genérica sculpture, one of the landmarks of Buenos Aires (albeit currently broken)

Ahead of my flight I downloaded a copy of the free city map from the excellent Turismo BA website to my phone so that I could use this offline and picked up a SUBE card from a street vendor (essential for using the Subte underground railway system). Taking heed of various warnings about street crime I left my SLR camera behind and just used my smartphone for taking photos around the city.

My sightseeing began in earnest with a visit to the Museo del Agua y de la Historia Sanitaria (Museum of water and sanitary history), located in a former water pumping station (built 1887-1894) which is known as the Palacio de las Aguas Corrientes (Palace of running waters). This might not seem the most obvious place to start, but it is one of the most striking buildings of its type in the world.

It would be hard to guess the function of the palace at first sight with its French renaissance style and extraordinary decoration with 300,000 glazed terra cotta tiles from Royal Doulton (apparently all labelled with unique numbers in what the museum describes as a high-precision Meccano kit). The pumping station was used to serve the city between 1894 and 1978, but today houses the museum and also appeared to be a payment point for water bills.

Palacio de las Aguas Corrientes

The museum inside has a series of displays on the water and sewage pumping stations across the city, with some of the exquisite decorative terracotta pieces produced for this building by Royal Doulton and original architectural drawings. You can also get a glimpse of the industrial heart of this palace, where you find the tanks which would once have held 72,300,000 litres of water for the city.

Another interesting sight nearby is the former Teatro Gran Splendid which opened as a theatre in May 1919, before conversion to a bookshop in the early 2000s. Today, it trades as the El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookshop, the flagship store of the book chain. It’s not hard to see why National Geographic proclaimed this to be the most beautiful bookshop in the world.

The afternoon quickly disappeared but did its job of getting me acclimatised to the city. In the coming days I plan to visit the Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires; Cementerio de la Recoleta; Cementerio de la Chacarita; Centro Cultural Kirchner; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes; Palacio Barolo; Railway Museum; Museo Casa Rosada; Museo Nacional del Cabildo y de la Revolución de Mayo; and Teatro Colon. Ideally I will find a way to gawp at Congress and the Edificio Kavanagh along the way.

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How not to fly internationally

My ever so slightly mad schedule this year has trip after trip stacked up with relatively short gaps in-between. If it seemed a bit much on paper, it has certainly proved to be OTT in reality. Anyway, once again it is time for me to head overseas. This time I am joining a tour group in Argentina to experience and photograph the incredible 750mm narrow gauge railway in Patagonia known as La Trochita.

Flight prices were a little crazy, bouncing all over the place when I booked last month, approximately six weeks ahead of travel. It was hard to make sense of what was going on, but when I saw business class seats on sale for less than economy I didn’t need any further encouragement to book – even if that meant a somewhat indirect route with Swiss.

Our plane (HB-JNK) from Zurich to Buenos Aires via Sao Paulo. Seen here on the ground at Sao Paulo.

Starting my journey, I was somewhat relieved that things were seemingly back to normal at Heathrow after the chaos of the collapse of the national airspace systems across the UK the day before.

My first flight got caught up in some delays, landing in Zurich around 45 minutes late. The next step should have been to follow the signs for transit from the D gates to the E gates but I must have gotten lost at some point, then passed through border control. I thought it was odd that they stamped my passport during transit, then it dawned on me that I had entered Switzerland. Cue panic. What a muppet…

I navigated my way from arrivals to departure security and passport control to get airside again, then jumped on the shuttle to the E gates. Another passport stamp – only minutes after the last. Talk about ways to ramp up the stress on your travels!

It was with a sense of relief that I boarded our Swissair Boeing 777-300ER for flight LX92 to Buenos Aires, via Sao Paulo. Timings were inevitably a bit odd. After taking off at 23:24 food came out relatively quickly, with service finishing up at 00:45 (Swiss time). The crew started serving breakfast just before 3:00 (Brazilian time) with our flight landing at 5:29. The breakfast was excellent (you get to make your choices on a tick-box questionnaire the night before, so it is perfectly tailored to your wishes).

Swiss breakfast on LX92

The stop at Sao Paulo lasted around two and half hours. Everyone has to disembark and clear transit security to return to the departure gates, then wait for re-boarding. I thought this was too easy, so somehow managed to lose my boarding pass along the way. I retraced my steps and used the Translate app on my phone to seek help from the gate staff, but eventually spotted my boarding pass lying on the floor after a stressful hour. Phew!!! What a scare though… I am not making this trip easy on myself.

We re-boarded our Swiss Boeing 777-300 ER (Luzern) at about 7:20 and took off at 8:18 with a nice view of the immenseness of São Paulo through a break in the clouds, followed by a second breakfast on the short leg to Buenos Aires. The business class cabin had been full out to Sao Paulo (62 seats) but for this leg there were no more than 10 of us.

After all the stresses of the build-up and during the journey I was incredibly relieved when we landed in Buenos Aires at 10:59. Thankfully I had arranged to be picked up from the airport, so had no scope to add any extra stresses to my day! My home for the next four nights would be the MGallery Palladio Hotel Buenos Aires, which quickly revealed itself to be one of the best hotels I have stayed at anywhere.