This is not a place for tourists in the usual sense, and it is better to arrive knowing why. The ESMA, the Navy Mechanics School, is a complex of handsome neoclassical buildings in the Núñez district in the north of Buenos Aires, set in leafy grounds on the Avenida del Libertador. During the military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983 it was also one of the largest clandestine detention centres in the country. Thousands of people were held and tortured here, and most of them were killed, many thrown alive from aircraft into the Río de la Plata. Only a small number survived, and their testimony helped bring the junta's leaders to court.
After years of argument, the grounds were handed over in 2004 and turned into a museum and site of memory, with some of the buildings left deliberately bare, as evidence. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage list in 2023. The visit is intense and quiet. Guides take small groups through the Officers' Mess, the attic where prisoners were held and the basement, and they do not hurry or dramatise. The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who still march every Thursday in the centre of the city, are part of the story that is told here, and the name is spoken with respect by every porteño.
The ride is purely urban. From the centre or the southern suburbs, you take the Avenida del Libertador or the riverside Costanera, past parks, embassies, the racecourse at Palermo and wide, tree-lined avenues. Traffic is dense, drivers are quick, and motorbikes filter at speed, so keep your eyes up, and watch the paving, which is often cracked and slippery after rain. Parking a bike near the entrance is usually possible, and the area is calm and residential.
Fuel is easy in Buenos Aires, with stations on every major avenue, and Belgrano and Colegiales nearby offer cafes where you can sit afterwards. Give yourself some time to sit with it. A coffee and a medialuna in a corner bar, watching ordinary Buenos Aires roll past the window, helps you take in what you have seen and remember why it matters.