KLMNO . TrSUNDAY, MARCH 5, av2017 WASHINGTONPOST.COM/TRAVELel EZ EE F BERNARDO GALMARINI /ALAMY STOCK PHOTO ABOVE: A pleasant evening walk across the Putente de la Mujer in Buenos Aires. BELOW: The Torre Monumental, a gift from British residents of Buenos Aires, was renamed after the Falklands War in 1982. Buenos Paris Argentina’s capital city has an undeniably French undercurrent BY DINA MISHEV crepes filled with Nutella and bananas. Special to The Washington Post Fifteenish years after our trip to Paris, Kevin and I book our tickets to the Paris of Latin Last December, I had an urge to visit Europe America. Although Kevin is the Spanish speak- — I wanted gorgeous architecture, a rich cafe er, he entrusts me, one who does not speak culture, fabulous wine and cheese, wide ave- Spanish at all, with trip planning. Because my nues to stroll and narrow cobblestone streets to tastes have matured beyond Nutella crepes and bike. friends’ floors, I start with hotel and dinner Instead of flying across the Atlantic though, I reservations. fly over the equator, to Buenos Aires, “the Paris The Alvear Palace is a graciously Old World, of Latin America” where, it was explained to Belle Epoque hotel in the Recoleta neighbor- me when I was there in 2012, the residents are hood. Servers at its L’Orangerie breakfast buf- “Italians who think they’re French and speak fet wear white gloves. Placards on each floor Spanish.” remind guests of the dress code: In public Yes, Buenos Aires is a longer flight from my areas, attire should be “formal or smart casual; home in Wyoming than the Paris of France, and shorts, Bermudas, or sleeveless T-shirts are not Buenos Aires is in South America and not allowed. If you jog you may leave and enter the Europe. But, between December and April, hotel in your running apparel.” Bathrooms are Buenos Aires is 90 degrees and sunny; winter marble with brass fixtures. The doormen wear in Europe means rain or snow and darkness. tuxes and top hats. We will be European aris- This December was a particularly cold one for tocracy, at least for several days. There is a Wyoming — it is about 15 degrees below zero personal butler. when I board my plane at Jackson Hole Airport Conveniently, one of the restaurants I want — so I am willing to trade Europe for a warm, to eat at, La Bourgogne, is in Alvear Palace’s sunny European-ish city. basement. My travel partner is one of my best friends Two blocks from Alvear Palace is Palacio from high school. Our last international trip Duhau, designed as a family home in the early together was to the real Paris. This trip was long 1930s by French architect Leon Dourge in the ago enough that I was perfectly fine sleeping on style of the Chateau des Marais, a neoclassical the floor of Kevin’s friends, who I had never palace outside of Paris. met. For six days, I happily ate nothing but BUENOS AIRES CONTINUED ON F6 DINA MISHEV NAVIGATOR Why no WiFi? Travelers Nestled in the cool of the Andes, Salento is a hot destination bemoan the state of BY TOM SHRODER after his departure, my wife and I By the time we boarded an picked us up at Matecana Inter- if everything in the world were Internet connectivity. F2 Special to The Washington Post boarded a Delta jet in Atlanta for Avianca flight in Cartagena for national Airport in Pereira and brand new. We soon learned the a surprisingly brief (three hours, the hour-and-20-minute trip to drove us out of the not-especially- climate was like this year round; PHOTO ESSAY For most of my adult life, when 20 minutes) flight to the Caribbe- the Colombian interior, we were attractive, medium-size city. But a delicious little chill in the early In New Orleans, nothing’s I thought about Colombia at all, an coast of South America. By fully committed, but not without as soon as we began to climb out morning and late evening, and it was in the context of drugs, then, I had reassured myself that a small slice of trepidation. I can’t of the crowded chaos, we found mid-to-upper 70s while you’re up half as beguiling as the kidnapping, murder and endless the worst of the drug violence say what we expected, but it sure ourselves lifted into a pristine and about — day after day after French Quarter. F4 civil war. When our son an- had ended with the 1993 death of wasn’t a brand new jet with landscape of relentlessly green day like those mid-May beauties nounced he was going to join the kingpin Pablo Escobar, and a individual video screens on each mountains. The hammering in Washington, when it’s impos- FILM Peace Corps and commit to 27 peace deal had just been reached seat, or the tidy little hotel whose tropical heat of the Colombian sible to repress a smile. In just For this housebound months in that country, I was between the Colombian govern- balcony I found myself standing coast had been replaced by a cool more than an hour, we crossed a motivated to attempt to revise ment and FARC, the country’s on a couple of hours later. A van breeze infused with the irresist- rushing mountain stream and travel writer, road movies my opinion. Almost exactly a year main rebel group. and driver we had prearranged ible perfume of spring growth, as COLOMBIA CONTINUED ON F3 hit the gas. F5 F6 EZ EE THE WASHINGTON POST . SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2017 More than fromage in Buenos Aires’ melting pot BUENOS AIRES FROM F1 In 2006, after extensive resto- ration work and the addition of a 17-story modern tower, it opened as a Park Hyatt. Sitting in front of my computer in Wyoming, scan- ning the hotel’s website, it doesn’t take much imagination to transport myself to its outdoor patio, which overlooks the city’s largest private garden, for after- noon tea. I also make a reserva- tion for a cheese tasting at the hotel’s Vinoteca, where the city’s only maitre fromager works. Although Recoleta might be one of Buenos Aires’ most European-feeling neighbor- hoods, we do want to explore the wider city. Our first activity will be a seven-hour, guided bike tour. To immediately get us into a Euro state of mind, I insist that Kevin and I walk from Alvear Palace to Biking Buenos Aires’ storefront in the San Telmo neighborhood, one of the city’s oldest. We’re late because I can’t stop taking pictures of the architec- ture. (Also because I misjudged the distance we would have to walk.) At one intersection of two cobblestone streets, buildings range from Edwardian to Brutal- ist, Beaux-Arts and Art Deco. Maybe planning an architecture tour is in order. Pedal power In our first hour with bike guide Pepe Rivas, we pedal down narrow, one-way stone streets and on designated bike lanes along the edges of wide, leafy DINA MISHEV avenues. We ride through Leza- ma Park, which, with its numer- ous sculptures and large espla- nade, where two couples are making out, feels decidedly Euro- pean. This makes sense when Rivas tells us that, at the turn of the 20th century, it was a French Argentine landscape architect that remodeled the park’s origi- nal design. Lezama’s jacaranda and rose- wood trees pull me back to South America, as does a massive mon- ument honoring Spanish con- quistador Pedro de Mendoza, who founded Buenos Aires in 1536. I watch groups of men pass around cups of mate, a caffeine- rich tea made from ground leaves of the yerba mate tree and desig- nated by the Argentine Senate as JEREMY HOARE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO the country’s “national infusion.” It is easy to recognize people CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: A shady umbrella on a sunny drinking mate because it is al- alleyway in Colonia, Uruguay, a UNESCO World Heritage site ways drunk out of a very specifi- across the River Platte from Buenos Aires; a winding staircase cally sized and shaped “mug” — at the Alvear Palace hotel in Buenos Aires; a selection of sweets actually a hollowed-out gourd — from Duhau Patisserie in Buenos Aires. and through a metal straw called DINA MISHEV a bombilla. We pedal past La Bombonera anchovies and olive oil. Here in a nity to drink wine is at the tles from around the world, even and four wines at the hotel’s Vi- stadium, home to the Boca Ju- small park kitty-corner from a Frenchiest of Buenos Aires’ Israel. It might just be the noteca. (Not as uninspired and niors soccer team, whose colors number of women dressed in French restaurants. Frenchy formality of the atmos- unadventurous as banana-Nutel- PERU are those of the Swedish flag — tango outfits who pose for photos Detail Before I can worry whether it’s phere — waiters in tuxes, the la crepes, but probably about as blue and gold. Rivas tells us what and then demand several pesos, BOLIVIA acceptable to order non-French table’s small crystal vase with healthy.) I’m sure must be a tall tale — that, we take a break for a mate lesson. wine at La Bourgogne, I worry three pink roses or the hushed The tea experience is even bet- over a century ago, after losing a “To understand Argentina, you BRAZIL whether our clothes make the cut tones of our fellow diners — but I ter than I had imagined back game against a team wearing must understand mate,” Rivas CHILE PARAGUAY.