Ride in a police car in Buenos Aires

It happened in Buenos Aires.
Buenos Aires is a great city. I have visited a few times and it’s always a pleasure to go back. Insecurity is sometimes an issue, but the times I have been there I have felt safe. It’s a question of taking the same precautionary measures that you would take almost anywhere in the world. On our first trip to Buenos Aires, one morning we decided to visit Boca. This part of town is where the, mostly Italian, immigrants established themselves from 1880 to the 1930's. Today, it is a tourist attraction because of its characteristic houses, for being home to the Boca Junior football club and because of the tango "Caminito" or "little path". This path inspired the composer of the music of this very famous tango, Juan de Dios Filiberto. I was also aware that it was not a good idea to walk the area at night, since it was still a bit...rough. That morning, we took a taxi from the hotel to Caminito, and at around midday we decided to go back to the hotel. It was sunny and given the hour, we decided to walk back. We walked about 300 metres and met a police from the port, whom we asked for directions. He looked surprised when we told him we were walking back to the hotel and said that it was not very advisable to do so around that area. He pointed as in the direction of a street, five minutes away, where we could take a taxi. We had only walked a couple of minutes when a police car drove up to us, flagged us down and asked, very politely, if we needed help and where we were going. When we explained one of the police officers said: "You are obviously not from here. Jump in and we'll give you a lift". We did and they drove us to the nearest taxi. Thank you Buenos Aires police!!!

Buenos Aires

The first time I visited Buenos Aires, I remember standing in front of a Monet painting in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes and thinking how nice and odd this was. I was in exotic Latin America but at that precise moment it was like being in Paris. Buenos Aires is a city of opposites and this is one of it's attractions. It can be grand when walking along the Avenida 9 de Julio - one of the widest avenues in the world - and intimate when walking around the streets of Recoleta. Borges, the foremost Argentinian writer, in one of his poems thinks of the city as being as "...eternal as the water and the air".

The sense of insecurity in Buenos Aires changes from time to time. The normal precautions you would take in any city you don't know, also apply to Buenos Aires. Walking around most of Buenos Aires during the day is usually safe, though it is not recommended in Boca outside of Caminito. If you want to take a taxi, get your hotel to call for one. If you have to stop one in the street make sure it's a "radio taxi". Radio Taxi Blue and Radio Taxi Premium are long established companies.

There is a wide choice of hotels in the city. I have stayed at the small and traditional Meliá Recoleta Plaza in Recoleta and at Hotel Madero in Puerto Madero which is a larger "design" hotel. I enjoyed my stay in both.

Casa Rosada in Plaza de Mayo

Climbing in Puerto Madero