The General Jose de San Martin Monument celebrates General Jose de San Martin, who battled against Spain in the wars of independence and is known as the founder of the Argentine nation. It was the home of the Paz family and took almost 12 years to build the patriarch who commissioned it died waiting. Palacio Paz is perhaps the most beautiful of the Beaux Arts mansions in Buenos Aires the Circulo Militar looks plucked from the Loire Valley.
Designed as a residential structure, it took more than 16 years to sell the apartments in this Art Deco building. The Kavanagh Building, at the time of its construction in 1936, was the tallest building in South America, standing at about 120 m (400 ft) with over 30 stories. It's not generally open to the public, but sometimes they let you into the circular lobby. Our first stop is the Centro Naval, one of the city's most exquisite buildings and a masterpiece of cast stone architecture. Your Tour Leader will possibly juggle sightseeing content in order to accommodate this. This evening, after our group dinner, we'll have a look at some of BA's exciting nightlife! Our November date is set to coincide with the annual Gay Pride festival in Buenos Aires, which uusally features a parade on the Saturday and informal festivities on the Sunday. Here we enter the legendary cemetery to visit Evita's tomb. We end our tour in Recoleta, where we find the colonial style church of Our Lady of Pilar, the second oldest in the city. We will visit San Martin Square, surrounded by elegant buildings and French architecture, and continue to the traditional neighborhood of Palermo, a favourite for strolling large parks, rose gardens and ponds. We leave Puerto Madero and we head towards the north, where we find Retiro. Its new residential area, very close to the river, houses three design hotels, chic restaurants and exclusive apartment buildings. This neighborhood was totally redesigned in the 1990's.
We will walk along the mythical street of Caminito to breathe the characteristic atmosphere of the area, with its love for tango and soccer. Our tour goes on in the neighborhood of La Boca, with its colourful tenements, where a lot of artists open their studios and workshops. We will pass around Dorrego Square, popular for its weekly antiques market. We continue our journey towards San Telmo, a neighborhood of bohemians, artists, antiques shops and cobbled streets. We will visit the traditional Cafe Tortoni, inaugurated in 1858, much frequented by intellectuals and artists. We continue our way down May Avenue which joins the Pink House with the Congress, with its Art Nouveau buildings, old hotels, theaters and cafes. There we will visit the spectacular mausoleum of General San Martin, Argentina's independence hero. We will also see the Cabildo, the colonial city-hall, and the Metropolitan Cathedral. Here we will admire the Pink House (Government House), which houses the mythical balcony from where Evita used to address the people. We arrive to the historical May Square, the place where Buenos Aires was founded. We begin our day's tour at the political center of the city.