Buenos Aires · Central & South America

Overview

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This city is really hot. Incredible food, fresh young designers, and a cultural scene that's thriving despite tough economic times -- all these Buenos Aires has. Yet less tangible things are at the heart of the city's sizzle -- namely the spirit of its often divided but never indifferent inhabitants. Here, a flirtatious glance can be as passionate as a tango; a heated sports discussion as important as a world-class soccer match. It's this zest for life that's making Buenos Aires Latin America's hottest destination.

The world's ninth-largest city rises from the Río de la Plata and stretches more than 200 square km (75 square mi) to the surrounding pampas, Argentina's fertile plains. With more than one-third of the country's 39 million inhabitants living in or around the city, it's clearly the country's hub as well as it's main gateway.

Buenos Aires locals refer to themselves as porteños because many of their immigrant forebears arrived by ship to this port town. Known as thinkers, porteños launch readily into philosophical discussions and psychoanalysis (Buenos Aires has the largest number of psychoanalysts per capita of any city in the world). People here take their beliefs seriously, be they about politics, food, or sport, and passions (and voices) run high at dinner-table discussions. With 85% of the Argentine population of European origin, there's a blurred sense of national identity in Buenos Aires -- South American or European? Residents are often concerned with how outsiders perceive them, and they also scrutinize one another -- with casual, appreciative glances or curious stares -- making many of them deeply image-conscious.

Unlikemost other Latin American cities, where the architecture reveals a strong Spanish influence, little remains of Buenos Aires's colonial days. This is due in part to the short lifespan of the adobe (mud and straw) used to build the city's first houses, and also to the fact that Buenos Aires's elite have always followed Europe's architectural trends closely. The result is an arresting hotchpotch of building styles that hints at many far-off cities -- Rome, Madrid, Paris, Budapest -- but resembles none. With their boulevards lined with palatial mansions and spacious parks, Palermo, La Recoleta, Belgrano, and some parts of the downtown area are testament to days of urban planning on a grandiose scale (and budget), whereas San Telmo and La Boca have a distinctly working-class Italian feel.