Palermo...daily life

Summer in Palermo, not the one in Italy, but the one in Buenos Aires. Regardless of economic, social and political ups and downs, daily life goes on. Portenos shop, eat, drink Mate, ride the subways, smoke and converse, converse, converse. One enjoys sitting under shady trees, watching the world walk by and sipping a gaseosa (soft drink) or a 'cortado' (small strong coffee) with a couple of 'media lunas' (croissants)....

A typical side walk cafe/bistro in the district of Palermo

Russel Passage in Palermo

Every so often, old wall paintings are freshened up with a new version of the latest artistic expression

One encounters some remarkable works of street art in Palermo

One also encounters some surprising shop displays...Palermo prides itself of a high concentration of fashion designers...

Interior design stores are plentiful, designs are avant garde and minimalist

Valentine's day is not that far in the past, and some wall art commemorates 'Amor'

Some pavement stones commemorate a sadder time in Argentine History ....the 'Disappeared' during their Dirty War. Here a plaque in front of my building, where one of the victims of that era was sequestered and subsequently 'disappeared'.

Amor?? Or Food Chain??

Palermo has not yet been totally overtaken by development of high rise apartment complexes - although they seem to be shooting up everywhere despite the decline in real estate market.  The new buildings replace these charming one story shops, with their historic facade, Garage doors and glassed entrance halls slowly replace mom and pop stores and famous designer boutiques of Palermo, which make up the street level part of the old street scape

At night, in the 'tavern' down the street, Los Cardones - a Saltena Pena - music starts at around 10 or 10:30 p.m. and works slowly up to the night's main feature band, which appears around 1 a.m. Music is non stop, there are no union prescribed 'rest periods'...the public joins into the singing, and dances amongst the rstaurant tables.

Being the only genuine Saltena Folklorico Tavern in town, some very well known groups turn up, and entertain a usually packed tavern until the small hours of the morning. The nice thing for me is - I only need to walk half a block to get there and back.

Early morning, and the cumple anos (birthday party) in the common room of the apartment  building next door is still in full swing, the kids are all up with their parents. No one worries about the little ones still playing with each other at 2 a.m. - saves on baby sitter expenses... 

Dawn breaks, and the dog house on the neighbouring balcony is still empty

But - another day - another protest, about 'something' ...this one at the back door of the 'Tribunales', the downtown court house.

Cristina, la Presidenta, celebrated her 60th birthday...

Here is how some of her subjects perceive their leader

And here is Angela Merkel, as depicted in the local papers

Maybe she has less to smile about than her counterpart here in Argentina???

Off to lovely Salta on Monday. Braving a couple of flights with the local airlines, which - I hope - are in a better state of repair  than the local trains. Salta is said to be one of the most spectacular Provinces of Argentina...Andean mountains, deserts, colonial cities and settlements, trains to the clouds (to 4000 meters altitude) salt flats, colourful canyons and - of course - llamas, vicunas, alpacas, gauchos, and some of the best folkloric music of the country.

Buenos Aires Theory of Relativity

A good cure for the robbery blues....all is relative in life. My insignificant one-in-a-thousand theft becomes insignificant, when compared with other Buenos Aires daily events.

Riding the Bus....
A busload of soccer players, leaving a football field after a game against the opposition of the day, was targeted for a bit of team revenge. A number of cars, carrying armed soccer fans of said opposition opened fire on the visiting team, when their bus drove away from the Stadium. Bus windows were smashed, bullets lodged in seats and - miraculously - no one was injured.

Sick Theft...

Compared to being robbed of a cell phone, the theft - in broad daylight - of a fully equipped ambulance is a little more costly. Almost brand new, Mercedes, a couple of hundred thousand dollars worth of equipment...just driven off from the hospital lot.

Miraculously, the ambulance turned up again with the number plate changed. Rumor has it, that the thieves needed a mobile hospital for one of their sick/injured 'companeros', who had convincing reasons not to visit a regular hospital.

Remember the antique Subway Line A in Buenos Aires? The wagons dating back to 1913 have been retired and are now parked in a yard, awaiting future restoration into historic artifacts and libraries.
But, even rail cars are not safe from ingenious thieves: parts of these cars, such as the original slatted wooden seats, control consoles and other little souvenirs appear on the equivalent of E-Bay and are sold to the highest bidder.
Illegally - of course.
Prices are high enough to inspire further deconstruction....
Even you may be able to own a piece of Buenos Aires history

Miraculously, Hugo Chavez has returned from Cuba, and is now installed in a military hospital in Caracas. No one knows for sure, whether he is the 'Heart of the Venezuelan People' in person, or a double.
Considering, he has been under intensive care, skirting a date with the grim reaper, since his latest cancer operation in early December, he looks pretty healthy. Here he is shown with his two daughters, supposedly from his hospital bed, reading a newspaper dated a couple of days ago.

Diego Armando Maradona, Soccer God, born in 1960, divorced, grandfather scored one of his major goals at the home front just before he left a few months ago for Dubai, where he now coaches a local team: Macho
Man left a very pretty senorita 'encinta' - expecting.

The Happy Couple: La Novia, the girlfriend, just gave birth to little Dieguito weighing almost 7 pounds at birth. Mother and son are well, and the Nation is happy. Don Diego is planning a visit to Argentina - he says - to see the latest family addition.

Not only light standards in urban streets fall over, but unfortunately construction cranes as well.
Today one of them collapsed onto the roof of an unfinished project in Puerto Madero, killing one worker, and injuring two.

Photos - published by Clarin (local newspaper) TN Television and Google -  on the Web......

So - all is relative. Bigger events than the loss of a wireless device are shaping history down here...

Robbed in Buenos Aires

Well, it had to happen sooner or later....even with constant vigilance, eyes in the back of my head, forever conscious of my surroundings.

Returned to day via Buquebus (ferry) from a short  excursion to Uruguay. Forgot my camera in Buenos Aires, but carried my I-Phone for safety and security, and to stay in touch and (as a stand in for the forgotten camera) take some interesting photos of the lovely colonial town of Colonia de Sacramento. Checked the photos on the ferry ride home - some real beauties.

All went well, until I left the ferry, backpack carried as a front pack, arms wrapped around it tightly. Walked to the Buenos Aires side bus stop and rode the 'collectivo' home to Plaza Italia. Put my backpack down to extract the apartment key, and found one zipper slightly opened - BAAAAD SIGN!!!!

And - the I-Phone had disappeared. Anybody who has one, knows that's expensive!

No Photos - no story - no more mobile Internet, no cell phone.

Rogers - with usual customer service level - will charge me FULL PLAN cost regardless, although they kindly blocked the phone to avoid unauthorized use.
To cancel my phone altogether, I would have to personally phone Rogers at local long distance rates, and wait in the automatic answering queue forever, before someone live would even come on line...
Not a happy camper today....

Welcome to the Other Buenos Aires....the one one hears about so often.

Long Weekend in Buenos Aires

Sunday, we had a few 'tormentas', meaning one of those Buenos Aires downpours, which regularly flood various parts of the city. Here a stretch of the Panamericana Highway, a main access road to Buenos Aires. After the tormenta, is was turned in to a canal which would look pretty good in Amsterdam. Cars stopped and everyone just waited until the flood disappeared....

There is carnival in Buenos Aires, however our local 'murgas' cannot compete with flamboyant and exhibitionist Rio de Janeiro. Our murgas are neighbourhood affairs, which consist of about 33 street closures throughout the city (drives the taxistas crazy) and locals dress up in glittery coats and top hats and dance to the sound of drums.

Dance wear Brazilian Style. The idea of using anything else but bum floss to 'cover' female rear ends on the beach or during dances never remotely enters the minds of young women here. However, it needs to be said, that 'samba-bum' implants are the most coveted and most performed cosmetic surgeries in Latin America, with Brazil and Argentina leading the parade of bums of steel - or silicone. Girls get them as a present for their 'quinceanos' celebration, their 15th Birthday, which is a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood....hmmmm.

And the second largest cosmetic surgery business, the upper regions...

Back to a Long Weekend Monday in the City. All is relatively quiet, shops are closed, public transit bearable - all have empty seats. An almost perfect day to play tourist guide for visiting friends - albeit their tango shoe purchase dreams won't be fulfilled, as those stores are also hiding behind their shut 'persianas', metal blinds.

General Martin waves from his steed on the Plaza Martin.

One strolls past the Teatro Colon, here in its earliest days of glory

The wrought iron and glass canopy of the Teatro Colon, still intact and as attractive as ever.

A couple of doors away from the Teatro Colon, the Jewish Synagogue.

And a little further along the Avenida de 9 Julio at the intersection with upper end Calle Alvear, the French Embassy. It actually blocks one end of the Great Champs Elysee equivalent, the Avenida 9 Julio. When the avenue was constructed, the French just refused to give up their embassy, so it survived in it's prime spot until today, and still is one of the most 'classic' Belle Epoque buildings in Buenos Aires.

Exclusive Calle Alvear starts at Plazoleta Pelligrini, an immaculate little park, where the French Embassy Staff has the privilege of parking, and the Jockey Club has the privilege of keeping the park well groomed. Pooping and scooping is definitely de rigeur here...

At the end of Calle Alvear, the Recoleta Cemetery, always good for a few more discoveries of statues, half cracked open sarcophagi, stray cats, and the obligatory visit to Eva Peron's last resting place.

Evita, for ever in the heat of the People of Almirante Brown...

And more plaques to commemorate venerated Evita...
Although this is the Duarte Family crypt, there is hardly a plaque for any of the other dead housed in this crypt, which probably has several levels of basements below ground level, with at least a couple of dozen Duartes resting in peace down there.

At the cross roads in the Dead Centre of Town, a corner dividing a couple of crypt alleys in Recoleta.

Winged Tango....

Serene and simple, one of the less elaborate statues....

Life springs eternal, little saplings grow from some of the crypt roofs.

A whole block, a small city of the dead, surrounded by high apartment buildings, parks, museums and galleries, and the elite dwellings of the 'upper class' of Buenos Aires, who keep their dearly departed in sight, right here in Recoleta.

News from down under Latin style

A few days ago, I watched the transit of Jupiter behind the moon. The nights here are still clear enough to watch the stars....

Jupiter, a few minutes after it re-appeared from behind the moon.

Another tango class, private, concentrated, in depth learning and practising. Despite airconditioning one's body feels the work out, unless of course, one has a teachers constitution...they work 12-14 hour days, with the ladies in impossible high heels, and male teachers hiding knee braces under their long tango pants....

Paula, my teacher, after the lesson, fresh as can be, and ready for another full day of teaching.

That's more my feeling after a tango class....


The following photos: With thanks and recognition to Clarin, the local newspaper,whose published them on their web site.



Good news for the zoo lovers, it will be around for a little longer...subsidies are forthcoming.



A little more crowded than British Columbia beaches, here is Mar del Plata during Summer vacation and school holiday season.



A local kindergarten has been closed down, after it operated for years without a license. A concerned parent (why was his child in here??) hid a video camera in his child's backpack. It captured quite a noisy and physically aggressive interchange between a kindergarten attendant and a few little one - ranging between 1 month and 5 years old. The populace responded angrily and published their thoughts via spray can and most local TV stations.



Ah,m the never ending Saga of the Malvinas, Falkland Islands.
Argentine representative Timerman is in England and wants to discuss the Island's fate without the Islanders having any say in it. He requested, that he should be 'taken seriously'.
England of course refuses, awaiting the Falkland's referendum decision.
Argentina now states, that one of their reasons for insisting on taking over the Malvinas is to 'improve the Islander's living conditions'.
In the meantime, the Falklands are rallying, responding with cyber space messages which proclaim, that, given the debacle of Argentine's economy and other serious problems, there is more chance that Argentina will plant itsNational Flag on the moon within the next twenty years than it would have, planting its flag in Stanley, Falkland  Islands - Malvinas.
Quick repartee from the Argentinians: there is a strong smell of oil in the British argument.
I wonder whether the Argentinians have perceived the same smell, given their interest in this little place in the South Atlantic.
Argentine now threatens to fine any country that develops natural resources in the South Atlantic...now that is going to be a challenge, especially after another couple of Argentine Navy vessels did not quite overcome the challenges of the deep sea.

In the meantime - there is Carnival in Rio de Janeiro...

and this little guy is waiting for his costume to arrive...

What else keeps the locals on their feet?

Chilean Navy sailors ran through the streets of Lima singing: We will kill Argentinians!
Great outrage in both countries Argentina and Chile about xenophobia etc, .
Today, Argentinian Navy sailors run through the streets singing: We will kill Chileans!
An eye for an eye - Latin Style....

Maxima, the Argentinean born future nominal Queen of the Netherlands, will have her coronation without her parents present: the Dutch Parliament refused their participation, as daddy was quite active during the last military dictatorship here....

Kristina, la Presidenta, is announcing further improvements to the railway system here. However, the new A line subway cars from China proved to be a little too wide for the tunnel corners and the station platforms - not sure who measured them, but the blame is flying around freely. What gives now? The width of the tunnels or the width of the subway cars?
A highly touted new subway station in the works since a year, has been abandoned overnight - alternative arrangements are going to be discussed. Maybe the newly created hole in the ground will be made into a pond, who knows.

Congress received another 21% salary increase. Local teachers and professors asking for 30% - the government considers that too high and will not pay it. Inflation has to be kept under control.

Messi, Argentinean born soccer hero, now scoring tons of goals for Barcelona, Spain, just extended his contract with said club.
Sixteen Million Greenbacks per annum for the Pulga, the flea.
The Nation rejoices for his native son.

Food prices as well as electrical kitchen utensils, to the surprise of local manufacturers, producers and growers, have been frozen until 1 April by governmental decree. Shortages of food are expected...

And the blue dollar keeps creeping up and up in price of equivalent pesos. Real Estate sales are now down 85% from a year ago.

Wine seems to defy any upward pressure in price - and Quilmes beer remains at $2 (9pesos) a litre.
Just as well, as another heat wave is in the making, weekend temperatures will raise up to 36 degrees again.
Cheers!