2016 Summer Images of Buenos Aires

Summer in Buenos Aires...movies, festivals, soccer, tango, heat waves and power outages....situation normal and as vibrant as ever.

I finally did see Un Tango Mas...a film definitely worth attending. I still have not managed to witness one of the many soccer games here....I may go once tango is incorporated into the game....


 

Un Tango Mas

Our Last Tango

Love Story of Maria Nieves and Juan Carlos Copes

 

Balon d'Oro of Tango Soccer

By the way, Messi the Argentinian Soccer Super Hero just won his 5th Golden Soccer Ball. The Man who changed the definition of Great Soccer, here doing his best at scoring a great voleo.

 

The other 'pelicula' has finished as well, a bizarre escape and hunt for three criminals incarcerated for life in one of Buenos Aires Penitentiaries - high security no less.
The Script: did they or did they not escape with help 'from above' i.e. prison guards, police, secret service, owing favours to other powers that were in charge previous to the present government...how did they manage to evade re-capture for 15 days, during which they committed a few robberies, some shootouts, injuries to various police without help 'from above'...massive turn out of gendarmerie, federales, provincials, locales managed to let them escape from under their noses for 15 days...
One fugitive, Martin Lanatta, was finally captured (with the help of a borrowed horse, as the landscape is somewhat inhospitable to vehicles, as the photo shows) after he turtled a stolen half ton truck, repainted as a police vehicle...

Stolen Half Ton truck...Martin Lanatta crawled out of this one a little 'worse for wear'

The remaining two escapees were 'captured' - but not really - as they appeared at loose again as soon as the 'capture' was announced on TV...but two days later they were finally corralled in the change room of a rice mill in the Pampas of Santa Fe....

The 'Before'  Pictures....

The Three Stooges after recapture....

They were so hungry and thirsty after a few days without access to water and food, that they asked the kidnapped attendant of the mill to let them eat the doggie bone which of course by right belonged to the mill dog...first words of Christian Lanatta (his prison mate Victor Schilacci was not quoted) were: kill me or take me in, but give me a glass of water....but, the plot thickens...narco trafico and ex-cabinet minister connections, corruption of police forces, the Mexican and Chinese connection....the saga goes on.

In the meantime....




 

Avon Calling.....
the dog days of summer are definitely here. Dog-walkers pick up their charges at theowners' doors. The Labrador, who refuses to walk on a leash together with the pack (I know that dog since years) is now 'running off leash' but still joins the pack. A show of a certain canine independence: I will go for a walk with the dog walker, but ONLY if I am allowed to do so off leash....humanity consents.

 

 

Congreso...at the opposite end of Avenida de Mayo (at the other end is Casa Rosada, Government House)
The park in front of the Congreso, provides a shady location for tent cities, Buenos Aires style

Laundry at the tent city

Marble platform for make shift housing

Tent City neighbourhood

Beside the Parliament Building, the old Molinos Building, long neglected and now under reconstruction. It used to house one of the most famous 'confiterias' of Buenos Aires (the old furniture is allegedly still inside). Who knows,  one may dance a milonga here again sometime....all a question of time, Buenos Aires time, which may be somewhat lengthy and slow....

 

Bank Notes for larger nominations are in the making for 2017. Instead of political heroes and anti-heroes the new peso bills will feature heroes of the animal kingdom - a whale for 200 pesos

....and a leopard for 500 pesos

20, 100 and 50 peso notes will be replaced as well with new images. Un venado por Evita (100 Pesos), y un Condor por las Malvinas (50 Pesos), translating 'A Deer instead of Evita, and a Condor instead of the Falkland Islands'

Cats having a nap on a downtown balcony in Calle Salta, a block from Avenida de Mayo....some refurbishing needed as well. Canadian Building inspectors would have a fit!

Plaza Vaticano, beside Teatro Colon....someone tossed out a number of garbage bags filled with old headphones. A bone must have hidden among them....duly found by a perro callejero, who dug into the best smelling bag to get to the essence of things....an absolutely divine left over of someone's asado.

 

The cultural scene of Buenos Aires continues a lively as ever.
Verano en La Ciudad (Summer in the City) has started, albeit with programs attuned to reduced budgets. Huge outside life performances by top artists seem to be a thing of the past, but open air movie and music performances have taken their place. However, sitting on a balmy evening on Plaza Vaticano under a waning moon (the stars are invisible here - light pollution and air pollution are too heavy), with traffic unabated around the plaza, beside  the illuminated façade of the Teatro Colon, listening to a screened performance of Tchaikovsky and Beethoven is a good finale to an afternoon of tango.

 

 

Today in the City....35 to 36 degree heat....