A last word on the Museo de Benito Quinquela Martin...other works of art found a place in it's spacious rooms: there is a collection of figure heads of sailing ships, a collection of sculptures, an open terrace of more sculptures, a large room filled with landscape paintings and another one with portraits of Argentinians - all beautifully displayed...and a shop of course.
Figure Head of a sailing ship
Looks like Martin Fierro is educating a youngster about the facts of life, while living in the Pampas...criollo horse looking on...
Landscape of Pumamarca - up north - as it was a century ago...
The same scene, as I saw it a couple of years ago...nothing has changed....
Just down the street, El Caminito, with its 'café notable' La Perla, one of the many old hang outs of tango greats of long ago, and now popular hang out for tourists from all over the world. It is EXPENSIVE!
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| It seems that today is not exactly a highlight in La Boca business...the café at around 4 p.m. is empty... |
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| However, street performers of any age and any ilk, WORK, and work hard....singing |
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| playing guitar |
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selling their wares
Picture postcards of Boca everywhere....try to find them in the non touristy areas, non of the 'Kioskos' carry them.
Some dancer make an all out effort, to have tourists pose with them in 'typical tango stance'. The male tourists, usually in sneakers and shorts, are decorated with a tango hat, and the female dancer wraps her legs around them in some 'tango' photo finish fashion....a tip a photo...Tourist ladies, as you can see in the back ground, are sometimes dressed in period tango costume, and bingo, another 'typical tango photo' - hard way to make a living for the buskers...
Folklore is ever present as well, with displays of Chacarera dancing, and artful maneuvres with Las Tres Marias, three leather covered rocks of different sizes which are attached to three braided leather lanyards, which were used - and still are - by gauchos as either lasso or weapon of defence....deadly I may add, if hit by a ball aimed at your head by a precision move of a gaucho. But in this photo, the man who plays La Bomba - the big drum.
Caminito would not be Caminito without the tango performances, many of them put on by youngsters, who want to augment their earnings as teachers or show performers by performing here for tips. Almost all of them I have seen are excellent dancers. When they came over to my table for their tip, the youngster asked if I dance tango. Por supuesto, of course...They were playing Hugo Diaz in the back ground, and I mentioned that his music needs a lot of musicality to dance to. Seemed to have intrigued him, so I agreed to his request to dance with him on stage, flat shoes and all.
Well, instead of doing the usual 10 second tourist thing up there, we danced one dance (of course, Hugo Diaz tango), and then - as we received quite a bit of applause - he surprisingly asked me to do another one. Well, we danced another beautiful Hugo Diaz 'close embrace' romantic number, got sponaneous rounds of applause especially when we did one of those languid 'leaning turns' and after the 'Grand Finale' and that was my 'contribution' to the Boca entertainment for the day. Needless to say, I enjoyed it, and he must have as well - he went all out with different moves - loved it!!
When the dancing stops....the Bandoneon starts...
Tarot, fortune telling, palm readings - who knows...
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And if one does not particularly like the 'live' dress up fake tango photos, well, one can do the 'peek-a-boo' thing....
Competition...tourists taking advantage of the tango music played - and danced - by the performers on their small stages, and almost stealing the show...
Caused something almost like 'consternation' amongst the locals - even these chefs
Absolutely stunning red head, she is one of the local performers....
Scary local....at least to me....there are a lot of 'toughs' just outside the 'tourist limits' of Caminito...
Being the 21 Century, Selfies abound....
One heads for the railway tracks, which run right through the centre of El Caminito and passes a 'No Littering ' sign, which inspires me to mull over the relationship between garbage and Argentinos (some, not all). Garbage is EVERYWHERE in Buenos Aires, and appears to be accepted as 'the norm'.
Just a couple of examples: recycling dumpster divers (they introduced the recycling idea here last year) empty the large recycling containers to find profitable 'tidbits', bag them, and then take off without putting the rest of the stuff back into the container.
Paper cups, wrappers, cigarette butts, empty fast food containers are dropped whenever the 'owner' is done with them wherever he/she happen to be. If riding in a commuter bus, with its windows open, whatever is 'surplus' flies out of the window - and I mean anything.
My highlight of that practice was, when a mother changed her baby's diapers on one of the seats of the bus, cleaned the tot's bum with wipes, and Dad took the whole mess and tossed it out of the window of the moving bus as if he was throwing a baseball at a pitcher - never mind pedestrians walking along the sidewalks.
I must have looked a little 'stunned' when seeing this, as the mother asked me 'que pasa' (what happened) - and I quickly answered 'nada' (nothing)with a smile....they did not look as if they would take disapproval by a stranger too kindly....well, and let's not even get into the subject of dog poop....
So the city always looks somewhat like he outskirts of a land-fill without the gulls....
Anyway, back to the rail way tracks, which look to me as if they haven't been used in a century...weeds, bumps, kinks...the whole lot. I have walked here many a times without ever seeing a train, or imagining that a train would DARE to pass.
I was wrong, of course! A freight train announced its passing with a blinding headlight and considerable noise, as it moved at snail's pace right through El Caminito. There are no gates, barriers, or anything, the train just screeches and rumbles through. The engine man waved to me as he was passing by, rather a neighbourly affair.....sort of.
El Riachuelo, the little river, whose mouth (la boca) into the Rio Plata gave the name to this area of Buenos Aires. It is one of the most polluted waterways in the world, but limpieza (Clean up) is supposed to be in progress.
Across Riachuelo, and the Puentes Avellaneda....no go land, at least for tourists. Some tourist tours expressly forbid their participants to even approach this area. Assault, robbery, murder....whatever. One of the most marginalized districts of Buenos Aires, it's hell for locals, never mind naïve curious outsiders...
Anyway, it was a nice day, the guy along the river front with his chorizo stand was doing a good business, so I just wandered towards the Puentes Avellanedas, entertaining the idea of a little row across to the 'other side'.
Camalotes, the floating vegetation, that still plug up marinas and harbours along Rio Plata, plug up parts of Riachuelo as well. Torrential floods up north brought these 'fields' of green down river.
I looked for the 'camalote' wild life, birds, frogs, snakes et al....but nothing.
Picking my way between construction fences and decrepit buildings I reached the 'ferry terminal', where a lone row boat takes passengers from one side of the river (La Boca) to the other (Avellaneda). I watched the business for a while, talking with passengers (who wanted to sell me things from a garbage bag....I had no money luckily) and the oars man....sort of, preparing the scene of my 'crime'...
After watching a couple of crossings, I asked the oars man how much a return row would cost me...8 pesos (80 cents Canadian). I dug around in my bag and dragged out my last 10 peso note, telling him, that I spent all my money to buy an expensive beer at El Caminito, to which he remarked ' you have two pesos extra'...ok, that sealed the deal and I was off.
Arrived at the other side (I did NOT get off to wander around looking like a tourist) and immediately turned around again. Friends, who have taken this trip as well some time ago, mentioned that on their crossing, the oars man refused to let them off for their own safety.
Actually, it was quite a pleasant little jaunt. The oars man helping me on and off the boat, offering his arm to assist me, and being quite the gentleman. He was even going to give me change for the 10 pesos...but...
So, here I am, a survivor of Avellaneda.....at least touching the dock on the other side....
