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| Playing tourist guide to friends, a couple from California, we strolled the obligatory alleys of Caminito in La Boca. La Riachuela, a side arm of the Rio Plata, is still thick and mucuous as oil and crammed with junk underneath these bridges, and fills the air with the typical la Boca odours. But, the street scene of tango, open air food, chacarera dancing and tourist shops carries on despite the somewhat cool spring temperatures. |
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| Heading to Plaza Dorrego in San Telmo, this lovely church facade rises on one side of a narrow street |
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| .....and opposite, a typical tango orchestra entertains the passers by. |
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| The Jardin Botanico, Botanical Garden, is pleasant and springlike now. Water lilies bloom, and most of the stray cats have been adopted - so it says at the entry gate anyway. |
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| Calle Florida, the main pedestrian street downtown Buenos Aires is actually walkable now, that all the underground piping has been replaced, the manteros (illegal vendors spreading their blankets filled with good on the ground) have disappeared to parts unknown, planters on rollers insert small islands of green on this mile long shopping paradise |
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| Instead of frequenting one of the dozens of tango shoe shops in the city and its suburbs, I have now progressed to receive a personal invitation to a fabrica artesanal de zapatos de tango. Meaning, the man who makes my shoes to measure, lets me design my shoes, select colour and leather type, and height of heel right there in his work shop. Hard to decide with so many choices available. But that footwear fits so well, that an hour after picking up new shoes, one can dance in them for hours without a single pinch or blister anywhere. And the price is right as well..... |
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| All shapes, all sizes, all colours...shoe forms to mould soft goat leather or thicker cow leather, or maybe some lacy and colourful material into elegant shoes. |
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| Various shapes which are used to cut leather to cover high heels |
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| The first taxi break down...new car as well.... |
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| And an example of some of the little master pieces the master shoe maker creates, one pair at a time |
