Let me show you the city I was born into. Well, not me, but through a lot of drone footage somebody else took and posted on YouTube and elsewhere.
Grab a cup of coffee or tea, relax, and imagine you just spent quite a few hours flying from the literal other side of the planet. You had “café con leche con medialunas” (milk coffee with croissants) for breakfast, and you take off.
You’re flying over the chaos of the 15th biggest city in the planet, a beast slightly larger than Moscow. It’s a beautiful spring day, outside temperature 23° Celsius, we don’t do Fahrenheit wtf. Humidity 95%, which qualifies as a dry day in Buenos Aires (As the old saying goes in Argentina, “what kills you it’s the humidity”).
Let’s start with the “Obelisco”, at the corner of Avenida 9 de Julio (world’s largest, 150m side to side) and Avenida Corrientes (the traditional avenue of the theaters, cinemas, and restaurants) - you can see the river Rio de la Plata far in the background. I lived 300m from there between 1998 and 2001. I loved living in the heart of the beast.
The business district of Retiro: a little Manhattan with the iconic IBM building and everything (my mother used to work crossing the street from that one between 1985 and 1991).
Puerto Madero, the most expensive neighborhood of Latin America, built during the 90’s upon the remains of the old harbor of the 19th century… that spot of the city was completely abandoned when I was a kid.
Views taking off from the “Aeroparque Jorge Newbery” (a smaller regional and international airport next to the river) flying over 9 de Julio Avenue and the aforementioned Puerto Madero.
Precisely, here’s the Aeroparque seen from a drone flying over the Lugones highway.
Stadium River Plate: biggest in South America, 15th biggest in the world, 85'000 people, during the last Argentina - Brazil match.
Another one, same stadium, incredible panoramic shot at the end, overlooking the neighborhood of Núñez. My mother grew up in that neighborhood. I know it very well, I lived a bit further north during my childhood.
Bonustrack: the stadium from the inside (I’m a River Plate fan, can you tell?).
Things like mega-concerts also happen in that stadium, quite often. If you look closely, you can see the camera shaking at minute 02:00 when people start jumping. Do you like AC-DC? 🤘
Early morning Avenida del Libertador, one of the longest avenues in the world, this is near the city centre (trivia: my home address when kid was, precisely, Avenida del Libertador, but much further out of the city). On the left-hand side you can see “El Rosedal”, one of the most beautiful gardens of Buenos Aires. At the far end, in the middle of the avenue, there’s the “Monument of the Spaniards” a gift of Spain when Argentina celebrated its first century of existence in 1910, at the corner of Avenida Sarmiento.
World Cup vibes around the Obelisco. I’m sure you’ve probably seen this one already, can’t help it; as the people sing in the movie: “es un sentimiento / no puedo parar” (“it’s a feeling / i can’t stop”).
To end this tour, one of my favorite DJs: Ukrainian-born Korolova, in Puerto Madero, and again.
(To be honest I didn’t know electronica was so popular in Buenos Aires nowadays. Back in the late ’80s I was quite the weirdo just for listening to the only FM radio (named “Z-95”, at 95.1 MHz) that featured house music. Things change.)