Flowerstands are good for the dogwalkers as well, with their 'clients' dragging along, and stopping by the flower buckets to plunge their noses into them and take a little lapping of stale water. The legal limit of canines per dogwalker is eight dogs - but, I have seen them with up to ten of them trotting along. I have even seen dog-bicyclers...how would you like to tow a pack of dogs (all sizes) behind a bike in riotous Buenos Aires traffic? The dogs all take it with a rather bored expression - they do it every day.
Flowerstand on Calle Flores, the most well known pedestrian street. Not too many dogs there, but flocks of pesky pigeons make up for the lack of quadrupeds.
Last shopping day before Christmas. Even Argentinian Shopping Malls have succumbed to the Christmas Spirit, and the Fiebre de Consumerismo - El Shopping (that is Spanglish for Shopping Madness), is alive and well. Shops don't wait for Boxing Day (I suppose that is an Anglo Saxon concept) and do the Navidad Discuentos (Christmas Discounts) before people have completed their Christmas Shopping. Items are 10 to 50 % off, at times...
The bane of legitimate shop owners on Calle Flores, one of the Peatonals (Pedestrian Streets) in Buenos Aires are the Manteleros (table cloth shops), which are said to be mostly 'organized crime' related. Some are 'independent', all are illegal. These colourful pavement establishments are so tightly packed along the 'street', that is is at times difficult even to cross over from one side to the other.
Yesterday, the 'legal' shops staged a protest (what else is new in Buenos Aires) against this nuisance, by adding to the congestion by puting out their own open air tables, where they sold the same items as the illegals for even less money. But, there was so little space left on the pavement, that pedestrians could hardly make progress amongst the profusion of stalls and 'manteles'. Well, the City is supposed to clean this mess up by mid February - Good Luck.
On the other hand, in the most exclusive district of Buenos Aires, La Recoleta, none of that could even be imagined in ones wildest dreams. There, Roche Bobois, Dior, Polo Ralph Lauren (with and Argentinian Poloplayer as a logo) and every upper echelon Trade mark is sold in expensive looking Belle Epoque buildings. A profusion of interior design shops, one more luxurious and exclusive than the next.
The shoppers exude an air of 'muchos dineros', and the air is somewhat rarified...but the Italian Pizzas are superb (and affordable). These things are worthy of gourmet designation - no the slightest similarity with anything called 'pizza' in North America.
Kids' clothing in La Recoleta is nothing short of exquisite - with exquisite prices to match.
Downtown, on Calle Flores, though, is one of the City Malls, the Pacifico with an Atrium to die for. Painted ceilings, stained glass, generous stair cases, and a Christmas Tree reaching from the sub basement to the stained glassed dome.
Street decorations in Calle Flores
One of the Manteleros, street sellers...many of then are indigenous.
Catering to the soccer fan crowd....Argentina ueber alles. The prices are in Argentinian Pesos, divide everything by 4 and a bit, and bingo - Canadian Dollar equivalent.
Missing out on Christmas Shopping - a man and his dog.
One of today's television programs pointed out the bad influences Santa Claus has on 'believers', such as:
doing non stop night work, leading a sedentary life, only working seasonally, breaking traffic rules, eating a fattening diet, drinking too many sugary Coca Colas, ruining his back by carrying sacks, breaking into houses through chimneys...
No wonder today's youth is losing it with examples like that....
Calle Flores Architecture...
Street Art
Civilization invading the City
Ivan's Cafe on Calle Flores
And how does one get around in a City a large as Buenos Aires, home to almost 1/3 of Argentina's forty million people?
As a tourist - there is the hop-on/hop-off Bus, which trundles around most of places which are pictured in Tourist Brochures. Plus - English is spoken.
Here is The Kiosk, where even today on Christmas Eve (the city is almost empty) tourists line up by the hundreds.
For seventy pesos, $ 18.00 appr., still cheap for the price, a visitor is carried around in the obligatory double decker bus with piped in commentary to all the must see places.
Yours truly takes public transport. $ 0.27 a ride - wherever.
This is an entry to the Subway, connections to the different lines are displayed over access stairs.
Downstairs - the stations. Not all of them have this 'retro-look'. Some are very new, some (in the less affluent districts) look quite dingy.
The oldest subway dates back to 1913, it still runs with the same carriages - laquered wood and manual doors.
Now this is something we could use at home. Since last year, Buenos Aires has introduced a wallet card, like a credit card, that can be swiped on Subways, Buses and Commuter trains, eliminating the need for (very hard to find) coins.
A little improvement even since the beginning of the year, when the 'Monedero' a previous edition of the SUBE card, could only be used on Subways. This Sube card works on every public transit.
SUBE means literally "Climb on".
Of course, with subways running every 3-7 minutes, 500 private bus lines on the system and a bunch of trains - there are absolutely NO WAITS. Drawback - the whole business is very popular, so transit vehicles of any kind are full to bursting - quite cosy especially on a very hot day, when the ancient editions really get rather steamy, as air conditioning is almost unknown.
But - who wants to drive in this nutty city, where only yesterday a taxi banged into an ambulance during heavy traffic - 4 additional injured apart from the one already in the accident prone vehicle.
However good this SUBE card - getting it is half the fun.
First one makes a pilgrimage to an issuing office across from the 'Obelisco' (it took me a week to find that out) where one takes care of the burocratic bit: line up, move past a security guard, fill out a form, show identification (dog-eared copy of a passport for me), fill in local address, sign on the dotted line...and finally one is handed one's very own plastic card. Empty! not worth a single Peso.
Off to a subway stop, another line up at the 'boleteria'. Once at the cashier's window, one holds the card against a designated spot on the window, hands over a few pesos, and the card is electronically 'loaded'. Off to the joy rides now.
I loaded 30 pesos onto this thing 10 days ago, and I still have 20 left - after using buses and subways constantly. Each time one swipes the card through a turnstyle or against a bus 'card reader' the remaining balance flashes up. Once depleted, one returns to another boleteria and reloads the card.
Perfect!
Requiring the mathematic talent of an Einstein, one may even understand the pocket sized bus 'schedule'. Not so much a schedule (not needed, as these buses run almost bumper to bumper the whole day long) but a coordinate map. The whole city is divided into little squares on a whole series of maps, depicted in the guide. Opposite the map page is another lay out of squares, each containing a set of numbers.
The idea is, that one looks up the 'From' square, and the 'To' square and finds number, that corresponds between those two squares: if one finds a 'bingo', that is the bus number to take to get from A to B.
Considering the expanse of this city, and the many one way streets - it is a little more confusing than it sounds. But - after a while one recognizes the buses 'of interest' and learns to keep a map in ones' hand and an eye on the 'maybe' street signs once on a bus.
My Palermo 'home-page' - I circled the buses that take me to my more frequently visited destinations.
The best of course is - the price is definitely right.
The drawback (not connected to the SUBE card) is - young men, who used to give up their seats for 'old ladies' now tend to grab seats and keep them for themselves - it's easier to text sitting down.
Progress.
