BUENOS AIRES is the third largest city in South America and is the home of nearly three million people. Like other large cities the downtown area is as noisy and congested but it lends itself to walking and once you orient yourself, it is easy to find your way around its logical grid pattern. The Porteños (‘people of the port’), as the natives are called, have a mixed Spanish and Italian heritage. Visitors walking the along the boulevards lined with palatial mansions and large green parks could laspe into thinking they were in Paris or Madrid. The southern part is the oldest part of the city and here among the cobbled streets you will find some of the most interesting architecture.