Retiro, Buenos Aires

According to the Lonely Planet, it is possible to enter and climb the Tore de Ingles. My experience did not confirm their claim. Maybe it is open only during the "high season". It was a pity though because it looked like the perfect place for a 360 degree view of the city. The tower is not that high tough and considering the lower ground it is built on, the horizons might be a bit too narrow. Still, if I had the chance, I would have been up there, driven by this tower-climbing passion of mine.

This monument to the soldiers of the Malvinas conflict with the British (known to us as the Falkland Island war).

Note: I visited here at dusk and unfortunately my pictures did not turn out. The picture shown is copyright Mario Mc Loughlin and is used with permission

This monument is dedicated to the soldiers who fought in the Falklands/Malvinas War. Some quick historical background: The war began and ended in 1982, when the military dictatorship needed something to distract the people from the atrocities that were being committed, and to shore up popular support for the government. Argentina invaded the two tiny islands in the South Atlantic, which the British had claimed in the 19th century. The Argentine Army was defeated, and this remains a controversial war today. You can see signs in the most random places (i.e. at the Bolivian border at La Quiaca) proclaiming "Las Malvinas son argentinas" ("The Malvinas [Falklands] are Argentine").

The picture here is an aerial view of Plaza San Martin, but you can see the Monument in the foreground, where the flagpole is.

This is one of my favorite parks in the city. I like it because it's right in the middle of a busy area, but it's huge and offers a pretty good escape from the city. There are lots of trees, including jacarandás, which have purple flowers in the spring. It's a great place to just hang out with friends and sip some mate.

In the picture, the Torre de los Ingleses is in the background. See below for details on that.

Retiro is the barrio of the city where the main bus station is located, as well as the train station. Since privatization in the 90's, there aren't too many train services anymore. The picture you see here was taken from the top of the Torre de los Ingleses, and it is looking toward the train station. The Retiro Terminal de Omnibus is a good place to go if you're looking for cheap food, luggage, bootleg soccer jerseys, etc.

The Torre de los Ingleses (the actuall name is: monumento conmemorativo del Centenario de Mayo, but noone calls it that one and most of the people don't even know thats the real name) was a gift of the British goverment to the City of Buenos Aires to celebrate the 100 years of the independence of Argentina (in the year 1910).
The tower's height is 75.5m and has a base of 280 square metres.
On th main door you can read: "Al gran pueblo argentino, los residentes británicos, salud, 25 de mayo 1810-1910" ("To the great argentinian people from the residents of Great Britain, Cheers - 25 de mayo 1810-1910" ).

For most of the world, the British-Argentine conflict was a short fight over a few insignificant islands far away from anything. But, in Argentina, there are memorials everywhere to their fruitless war to regain the Malvinas (or Falklands). The memorial in Buenos Aires, with its stiffly immobile honor guards, was the nicest we saw in the country. The war was only twenty years ago, so the names of the dead are still real to the living.

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This is Torre de los ingleses. It's located in Retiro.

It's origin is curious. When Bs. As. was preparing for the celebrations of the centenary of the May Revolution all the countries they sent their delegations with the exception of England, cause their king, Eduardo VII had recently died. The British residents decided to offer this monument, which project belongs to the architect Ambrose Poynter, to the country that it had received them.

su origen es curioso. Cuando Bs.As. se aprestaba para los festejos del centenario de la Revolucion de Mayo todos los paises enviaron sus delegaciones a excepcion de Inglaterra, que se hallaba de luto por la reciente muerte del rey Eduardo VII, por lo que la representacion britanica no participo de los festejos. Los residentes britanicos decidieron ofrecer ese monumento, cuyo proyecto es del arquitecto Ambrose Poynter, al pais que los habia acogido. De estilo renacentista, todo el material empleado para la construccion fue traido especialmente de Inglaterra. Tiene 70 metros de altura, y esta bien definido en tres niveles. Un primer nivel inferior que comprende escalinatas y el amplio balcon balaustrado, el nivel medio donde se destacan los escudos de las dos naciones y un pequeño balcon, y el superior, ocupado por el campanario de capitel corintio, que encierra en su interior cinco campanas. Solo las piezas que ponen en funcionamiento la maquinaria del reloj pesan una tonelada cada una. El cuadrante posee un diametro de 5,50 metros.