22 Feb 2012 - Tragedy in Buenos Aires - 49 confirmed dead - 550 injured

A commuter train arriving at Station Once at 8:36 a.m., rush hour, crashed into the end platform of the station. Break Failure. The first three waggons were the ones mostly affected, of which the first two were almost totally destroyed, one waggon overlapping with the next by about 6 meters.
Rescue efforts started immediately, with ambulances and emergency vehicles from Firefighters, Civil Defence, City Ambulances, Private Hospital Ambulances, Airport Ambulances, Railway Personel, Federal and Municipal Police, two rescue helicopters all evacuating and transferring injured to the nearest hospitals - non stop for four hours. A traumatic experience, not only for the victims, but for the rescuers as well, being confronted with horrific injuries and mangled bodies.


The train engineers war cut out of his cabin and transferred to a hospital. He had communicated brake problems to the railway company just before the accident.


Buenos Aires public transport at rush hours is unimaginable - people are packed tight into every available space on trains, buses and subways.
Being a communter train, many carry their bicycles on the trains, to continue their way to work after disembarking from the train.


Passengers were extracted through windows and a couple of doors, which still could be opened.
About 130 people were trapped inside the most damaged waggon.


Firefighters with the help of railway personnel used chainsaws to cut through waggon roofs, erected a tri-pod, and extracted trapped victims one by one through a tight roof opening.

Four hours of non stop work by rescue workers, paramedics, doctors, nurses, police, firemen, people in suits....extracting injured passengers, running their stretchers to triage spots on sidewalks and platforms, and transporting them via helicopter or one of the dozen ambulances to hospitals.

One ambulance crashed on the way.

All ambulances were accompanied by police motorcycles.

Helicopter crews arrived and left at intervals of minutes of delivery of seriously injured - one after the other.

Roads around the railwaystation were blocked to facilitate transport of victims.

An incredible effort of co operation in response to the worst rail tragedy in 80 years.

By 12:30 the evacuation of victims was complete. What was left - extract the bodies of the dead.

About 600 injured and hospitalized. Their names are being read over all TV Channels, to notify relatives, who are already arriving at the trainstation and hospitals to find their friends and family members, who left this morning to start a normal workday - and did not arrive.

So far - 49 bodies have been recovered.

A shocking and heartbreaking tragedy .....

Investiagion of the accident has already started. Lack or mismanagement of investment is mentioned, this particular train dates back to the Fifties, cost cutting allows them to work with 4 brake systems instead of the regular 8. Union officials are commenting on lack of funds for maintenance, citizens are outraged.

Quotes of alleged government mis-spending are making the rounds in social networking sites and media, for instance: govenment invests 400 mill for roads, 1200 mill for "football for every one", untold millions for gratis public entertainment and parades....how much if any for aging infrastructure?

Officials such as Secretary of Transport, Chief of Civil Defense, Chief of Ambulance System, Union Chiefs, Hospital Spokesmen all express their various points of view openly on television interviews on site - and quote the sad facts.

So far La Presidenta is silent...

A day of mourning for Buenos Aires and Argentina.

Feb 2012 - La Ciudad celebrates summer

Summer hangs in with a vengeance. Temperatures today around 36 degrees, with 'tormentas' threatening to drench the city again tonight. Another 'infierno', which the citizens brave with lots of ice cream and highest ever electricity consumption - all those aire conditionados running continuously keeping restaurants, some stores, and many homes livable. A few electric outages in the city add a little impetus to another protest.
All this heat which lasts late into the night provides a convenient backdrop for summer celebrations which occur during the week and on most weekends of February: free public entertainment such as Raggae concerts, Rock concerts, Theatre pieces, Folkloric concerts and dances, Murgas (carneval parades), puppet shows for kids, drive in movies for adults - and kids, and Tango shows, Milongas and concerts. All open air affairs in eleven park or plaza venues, all immensely popular, and all - from my perspective - of very high quality.
So nothing else to do but join the throng....at least for some of the tango events

With a prior detour to another one of Buenos Aires 'historically significant' bars/restaurants. The Bar Federal in San Thelmo...

Mementos from the bar's past adorn the walls

The bar used to be a grocery store around 1864, sometime during that time the massive wooden carved arch over the bar has been crafted and stayed in place ever since. Great for a little cafecito or a cerveca with a few 'picadas' - appetizers - for lunch.

El Federal was closely associated with El Munich, an old German style brewery and beer house, where no one went for pastas and lemonades, but for 'salchichas con ensalada de papas', (sausages with potato salad) or 'jambonon con chacrut' (smoked pork with sauerkraut) combined with a German cerveza or a vino Mosela (Mosel wine) and complemented with loads of 'pan negro y picante mostaza' (black bread and hot mustard)

Although wine is the 'national' beverage of Argentina, cerveza runs definitely a popular close second.

In la Boca, in view of Puente Viejo at the Vuelta de Rocha, in front of touristy Caminito, a large stage has been erected, fronted by an even larger platform, which is covered with rubber mats, to serve as dance floor.

Low tide - there is some tidal action here in the Rio Plata - and steamy heat turns the Riachuelo into a bit of a odourous mudflat, waters of one of the 5th most polluted rivers covering the worst of the unsavoury mess.

However, this does not deter from the general enjoyment of music, dance and show...

The line up of entertainers for the tango oriented summer performances is nothing short of impressive.

World Champion tango dancing couples (yes, there is a world championship conducted every year in Buenos Aires, lately won - to Argentinas shame - by 'foreigners' from Colombia, Venezuela and Japan) hold a 'public free Tango class' and then give an example of their highly perfected and elegant tangos.

Tangoistas may recognize names like Maria Ines Bogado y Sebastian Gimenez, Jonathan Spitel y Betzabel Flores, Max van der Voorde y Solange Acosta

A few tourists attend, mostly to watch and try a couple of tango steps, but the local Argentinian die hards are out in force.

Old....

...and young, everybody loves to dance.

These boys practice with each other. Tango - in its starting days early 20t century - was first danced by pairs of men, to kill the ennui of waiting for their turn with a 'gatita' - a lady of easy virtue and of strong work ethics.

There is no stigma to dancing with same sex parters, and the boys are oblivious to those kind of details anyway.

Some dancers dance with 'the one who brung them', but others follow the normal Milonga protocol of 'cabeceo', the nod across the floor, to invite a stranger/partner for a set of tangos.

Just because it is a rubber floor, does not mean that the 'tacos altos' don't come out. One just has to watch that stiletto heels do not catch in the cracks.

There are no 'guarda ropas' where one may deposit personal belongings, and leaving them unattended anywhere is a sure bet to find them gone within a couple of minutes. People dance with backpacks, shopping bags, belly bags, shoes bags, and nothing seems to impede the 'abrazo cerrado', the close embrace, so typical of Buenos Aires tango.

Anything goes, as long as one can 'caminar, girar, pivot'....walk, turn and pivot.

Here, the world champions of Stage Tango of 2008, Cristina Sosa y Daniel Nacuccio, cast a critical eye on the 'first steps of tango'.

Big brother leading little sister through tango steps, these little kids are surprisingly good at it, and Tango is as much part of growing up for some Argentinian youngsters, as MacDonalds outings are for North American ones.

Never beyond a cheek to cheek, dreamy eyed passionate tango...this is NOT yours truly.

But, I 'lucked' out and was asked to dance with a real pro, incredible! I could follow steps and maneuvres I did not even know. So much for a dancer who knows how to 'lead', the great secret to harmonic Tango dancing.

Dancing aside, Tango apassionados are really here to listen to their favourite Tango singers and orchestras.
Here, Jairo, at 40 years of age is one of the 'younger' ones in the line up for summer concerts. Continuing family tradition, his son played the drums for this performance. Jairo is a household name in Argentina, he has a trademark horsey smile, that captivates and charms.

Jairo had to interrupt one of his songs mid-breath and mid-bar, when at the near by football stadium La Bonbonera (Boca team) exploded fireworks to mark the retirement of Martin Palermo, a favourite player.

Once the sound and light interruption stopped, Jairo launched back into song.

The main attraction for the local Tango music fans are the 'relics' of past Tango glory. Alberto Podesta and Juan Carlos Godoy, 87 and 92 years old, and still singing. Maria Grana, la Diosa, whose strong voice, rubenesque form and blond mane belie her advanced years, gave a stunning performance.
Amelita Baltar, who looks as leathery as if she has smoked a million Marlboroughs, and survived them all so far, still croons the most moving tango stories in - what else - a most smoky voice.

Adriana Varela, the youngest female at 52 years, will close the cycle of Tango concerts.

All singers - and orchestras - are top class performers (still) and it is a privilege to hear them before it is 'too late'.

Argentinians in attendance go crazy at the first bars of an old well-known and loved piece, and burst into eternal applause at the end of them.

It was a bit much for old Godoy, who at 92 was giving encore after encore, sang with strength and feeling, only once loosing steam with his voice breaking. He paused for a little while - and then re-launched the entire song. But - he delivered every one of his songs to the last applause standing up, if a little bent, but a proud 'cantor y Argentino'.

It's a dog eat ??? world....

..I threw up on the carpet, but I ate it already...

And in other news:

The Argentinian Legislature has voted unanimously to grant themselves not 100% increase, but a 150% increase in salaries with this oh-so-logical reason: if politicians do not earn a lot of money, then only the Rich and the Robbers can afford to run for office. Not a complaint from the press...

On the other hand, local press maintains that Britain is 'militarizing' the South Atlantic with nuclear weapons on nuclear submarines as a threat over the Argentinian initiated dispute over the 'Malvinas' - Falkland Islands. Venezuela, Cuba and a number of Caribbean Islands lend this claim 'international' support. Admirable diversionary tactic to change focus from looming problems at the home front? Argentina has put a 'bloceo' -embargo - on ships flying anything remotely British from their sterns, except a BP ship carrying natural gas. Got to keep the Nation cooking I guess.

Argentinian Ex-soldiers from the Falkland Wars stage road blockages and demonstrations on the main intersection of Buenos Aires (Avenida 5 Mayo and Avenido 9 Julio) armed with stones et al, to defend themselves against riot police containing the chaos, and to hurl stones at water trucks trying to disperse the protesters. All that after a politician who handles the present dispute has been punched and mobbed by same rioters a few nights earlier - all faithfully recorded on TV.

Apart from that, everything rolls along in the usual quirky manner with car crashes, crimes of passion, pilfering, football violence, rock concerts and line ups for the coveted transit pass. Heat wave between 33 - 36 degrees again, free entertainment and carneval parades (murgas), tango carries on unflappable as ever, and tourists complain that there is no CNN news with USA content in ENGLISH on any of the local TV channels. That means of course, that there are NO NEWS as far as some visitors are concerned.

8-10 Feb 2012 - Antigua Casona in San Antonio de Areco

San Antonio de Areco, an almost perfectly preserved colonial town, is situated just 110 km north of Buenos Aires, an easy 90 minute bus ride away. The drive alone offers a small taste of the vast flat horizons of Pampas (grass lands), which spread out from Buenos Aires. Almost like Canadian Prairies, except that here groves of trees dot the landscape relieving the featureless flatness.


Areco is proud of it's old gaucho tradition, still alive and well in the surrounding country side, and celebrated with aplomb each November, when not a single one of the few hotel rooms can be rented unless booked months ahead. Also famous for fine silversmithing, weaving and leatherwork, the town has many small craft shops and some notable museums to show off the local artisans and provide good excuses for treasure hunting.


Being midweek, it was an easy task to secure a room - a living breathing functioning antique - in Antigua Casona, an old 'townhouse' with a secluded courtyard, about five romantic rustic rooms, and dining room and kitchen which seem unchanged since a hundred years.








Here we have a Parilla restaurant right around the corner from Antigua Casona. Shuttered tightly during daytime, it opens its doors at Argentinian Dinner time, which starts at 9:00 p.m.
to accommodate early birds - which are for the most part visitors from countries with 'decent' dinner hours - and quite a number of local youthful diners, fortifying themselves for the real evening to start.



Small, rustic, filled with antiques, the restaurant 'Almacen de Ramos Generales' offers parilla, pasta, Postres Caseros (home made deserts) and an extensive wine list. Quite the gourmet eatery...One may enjoy 'regular' meat dishes, but real beef addicts may splurge on sweetbreads, intestines, glands, tongue and kidneys. Half a liter of house wine sets one back nine pesos, the equivalent of $2.50.

Areco is - of course - gaucho country> Gaucho paintings, gaucho indumentaria (clothing and asseccories for their work) and saddlery items are available in many stores through town.

Public 'Room service' phone beside the kitchen entrance in the courtyard of Antigua Casona. The most expensive item was a small bottle of Chandon bubbly at 22 pesos.

Most of the furnishings in Antigua Casona date back to times, when toilets were still flushed with these contraptions...

Even soap and water glass holder would have predated some of our great grand parents.

Letter slot in an intricately carved door of one of the city houses, some of which are meticulously maintained, others somewhat faded and decrepit - all adding to the undeniable colonial ambiance of Areco.

San Antonio de Padua, the local church, has the only clock in town, that actually shows the correct time, with churchbells chiming punctually to prove it. Time does not appear to be of major concern here anyway, everything seems slowed down to a different sleepy pace. Stores open late, if at all - if closed, ring the bell. Restaurants, boliches (bar/pub) close their shutters over lunch - except for the restaurant Esquina de Merti, the only game in town - and do not open again until 'sometime' late afternoon.

A ray of sunshine illuminates a side altar....

What else to do but stroll towards the Puento Viejo, the old bridge, where the Areco River is swollen to a fast running debris laden brown soup, almost overflowing its banks. It had flooded the surrounding grass lands, streets and parks during the 'tormentas' a week ago, and shallow lakes covering paths and roadbeds gave witness, of how much this little river may rise.

Siesta or not, kids are out riding their horses like city kids would ride their bicycles - unencumbered by safety gear or helmets, or even unwatched by worrying parents. They do not seem any worse for wear despite the lack of protective efforts.

Areco has woken up to the fact, that their historic architecture, their antique 'almacens' and 'boliches', stores and pubs, are worth protecting from progress and development. Many a 'lugar signitivativo' - significant location - is now protected by municipal law.

Once the old shelves and wooden counters would be ripped out; antique cash registers and scales, chipped but shiny tiled floors and brick and beam ceilings removed, the old store keeper would just be another convenience store attendant. Now, surrounded by history, he is himself history and proudly tells his tales, to whomever shows interest.

Even the most humble and decaying old house has beautiful detailling, slowly rusting away, but still preserving an air of country elegance.

Young men learn from old masters, and traditional artisanship is transferred from one generation to another.

Beats a Canadian Tire particle board tool holder anytime. Everything in its place and ready for use....orderly stored on a artistically carved wooden board

Workshops are part of the stores, and villagers get together to chat and mingle, work goes on, and customers are free to wander about to purchase, watch or join the conversation.

Hand crafted leather stirrups...

In the Museo de Plateria Draghi, located in another historic casona on the main plaza of town, works of the most famous silversmith of Areco, Josef Draghi, provide an insight to the highly developed artistic skills of Arecos craftsmanship.

Gauchos still adorn their mounts on festive occasions with silver headgear and saddlery items. Here a hand hammered silver halter...

Chest and noseband adornment....

Solid silver stirrups....

The workshop of Plateria Draghi - one maypurchase their pieces of art crafted here - is a museum piece in it's own right...

Wall paintings, tiles, posters, drawings of the most prolific artist in Areco, Garriti, can be found all over town. And, of course, a discerning visitor may take one of his masterpieces home - for a reasonable price.

Kitty corner from Antigua Casona, my hotel, is an old gaucho tavern/store, where to this day the 'regulars', dressed in estancia clothes, boots and hats, sit together for a couple of bottles of wine and a few hours of gossip.

Some of the merchandise has not moved in a hundred years, and layers of dust cover slippers, laundry soap, coffee tins and whatever else has populated these shelves since decades.

A frazzled poster, designed by Garriti, advertises a long gone Dia de la Tradition. It assures gauchos, that 'safe accommodation' will be provided for their tropillas (horse teams) whilst they are staying in town for the fiesta.

And the work is done, a long hard life on horseback working land and cattle, has written a few lines into this retired gaucho's face...