Central and South America

October 14

This is my last day in Buenos Aires for three weeks while I visit Uruguay, and then I’m going to return to Buenos Aires for my last two weeks.

I have a reservation at the same place I’ve been staying. It’s a large and rather gracious old building with a different hostel on every floor.

Problem: my upcoming reservation is in a room that is more expensive, has it’s own bathroom, BUT…

…does not have the fabulous street view of my current room, and as I’ve learned, windows and views is my favorite thing in an accommodation.

I am looking for another place but nothing better has come along considering location and price.

Standing in front of the hostel. It’s lovely. Notice the very large trash collection boxes on the left. Every street seems to have them, they are easy to collect, and the streets stay clean. It’s a good system with one downside being that you give up parking spots.

Latin America is into politics for sure.

That’s my seat at the Teatro Colón, on the rail with an excellent view of the proceedings.

See the lights at the boxes…

…here they are close-up, like large and gracious fairy lights.

Remember the Museo de Jamón? The Museum of Ham? As it turns out, it is not a museum of ham. They say their whole restaurant is a museum because it’s so old.

I passed by on the way home from the concert and they were just opening, perfect for me.

I’ve left it here to talk about the food situation in general and now I have to get going for school. I’ll finish this afternoon!

Lunch with Nina, feijoada and cachaca
Cocktail hour at the Secret Garden
Cocktail hour at iguazu in brazil
Steak in Paraguay
Grappamiel in Uruguay
Homestay fish
Surprise chicken in the pizza place
Museo de jamon
Chori
Cheese and bread san antonio

One of the ferry companies had an office in this shopping center situated in an 1889 Beaux Arts building modelled on the Le Bon Marché in Paris.

I thought the tour was free, but no, but while I was buying the ticket, chatting with the gal at the window, come to find she had some free tickets for a concert on Sunday morning.

So I got one and now I get to hear music there although not a grand opera or even a huge orchestra, my favorite, but rather a simple trio. That should be interesting since the hall’s claim to fame is its acoustics.

October 13

I was confused by all the references to the 2018 Olympics so I looked it up. They had the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics here, an event that seems to have passed me by.

This being Saturday and the first sunny day since I got here the crowds were out in force and a great number lined up here for their chance at a photo.

I put this here to remind me of how the streets work at least in the central district. Except for the giant boulevards they are all one way for the cars and there are many walk streets in the updated shopping places.

These guys were doing a Team Building and Leadership course and were gathering to complete their costumes for a visit to a children’s hospital.

Their organizer told me the whole story in perfect English. Remember the skateboarders? The guys running that project also spoke perfect English. Actually the only time there wasn’t a perfect English speaker ready to jump in was during that first demonstration with all the police around.

Teatro Colón, per wiki: “It is considered one of the ten best opera houses in the world by National Geographic, and is acoustically considered to be amongst the five best concert venues in the world.”

The theater is very ornate. It opened in 1906 after 20 years under construction (20 years!), fell on hard times, and then was totally refurbished from 2005-2010.

I’m going to be sitting in the second tier of boxes toward the center.

On Saturday many businesses were closed, their gates were down, and we get to see their paintings.

I walked down two blocks of the musical district where every shop and restaurant had a musical theme.

Playing the guitar across two storefronts.

Another demonstration! but I’m too lazy to go downstairs. I’m standing on my balcony on the 5th floor. The really old elevator holds three people, four max if you really squish, and sometimes in the evening there can be a pretty long line to get upstairs.

Just two blocks down the street is the Congress Building and I suppose they’ll be heading that way.

October 12

Past the statue, on the right, is a ham museum. I’m going to have to stop by there.

I was on my way to several ferry companies to figure out how I was going to get to Montevideo on Sunday. It took the morning wandering from place to place and I enjoyed it very much.

It’s spring here and I was expecting a lot more of this. Maybe when I come back in November? I hope so!

I went over to the Teatro Colon for the free tour, available every fifteen minutes which turned out to cost $20 and there was nothing available for two hours so I bought a ticket for tomorrow.

Turns out they’re making a video for Adidas to run on their youtube channel called Adidas Skateboarding.

It wasn’t too hard to determine the Adidas connection since everyone was marked with the three lines.

Everyone’s first question = where are you from? I answer California and nods all around and clearly cred-points accrue my way.

Then in a flash one of the guys notes that I have the exact same camera as the main videographer (he’s got a way better lens and a mike attached but not one of those steady-cam holders which is surprising) and I’m IN.

Just walking down the street deciding where to go next I came upon a skateboarding event, right on the street. What’s Happening? I’ll have to hang around and find out.

Their video should be done in a month or so and I’ll look it up. What a couple of cuties.

Tango! I’m definitely not going to get to it this time but when I came back after Uruguay, Yes Please!

Oh look, another demonstration and this one right exactly in front of my hotel. This group seems considerably less threatened that the first one – no phalanxes of police armed to the teeth with shields and barricades, and actually they were monitored by what looked like the traffic patrol.

Notice all the puffy coats and scarves and cozy pants. I’m fine btw, I’m actually going to be using all the clothes I brought so that makes me feel good, that I’m not dragging around things for no reason.

October 11

You know, don’t cry for me Argentina, according to my uber drive, Our First Lady.

I wanted to go look at the school I was thinking of attending for a week when I come back from Uruguay. The school is on this very block and I got distracted by all the flags and the heavily armed police behind several 8′ tall metal barricades.

I went up into the school which looks very nice and asked them about the demonstration. They said it happens all the time, they weren’t sure of who was down there, and it’s basically not dangerous except at night, you don’t want to be caught in one of these at night.

We’re surrounded by the Plaza de Mayo and all the major government buildings.

I was trying to be subtle which resulted in a lot of out-of-focus efforts.

Better move on.

This is the front of the Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires. It looks like a museum or a mausoleum but no, it’s a church.

“The Cathedral of Buenos Aires was rebuilt several times since its humble origins in the 16th century. The present building is a mix of architectural styles, with an 18th-century nave and dome and a severe, 19th-century Neoclassical façade without towers. The interior keeps precious 18th-century statues and altarpieces, as well as abundant Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque decoration.”

Lazy…haven’t looked it up yet.

It is a lovely city so far but also it’s been grey and threatening rain and surprisingly cold.

The side chapels are big too, and also not so ornate.

Half the seating is behind me. It’s pretty tall but not as heavily decorated as I would expect.

The floor is cool.

I need to look up these buildings here on the main square, on the same plaza as the other one I didn’t look up yet.

A line to get into a cafeteria. I just ate my first spicy food of the trip at a Chinese restaurant…but I surely have to get in that line before I go!

PHASE ONE OF MY BUENOS AIRES STAYS

October 10

At the Buenos Aires airport. The electricity was out at the Puerto Iguazu airport causing a great commotion for boarding passes and security but in the end all was well and we took off only 30 minutes late.

They didn’t have uber in Brazil but it’s easy to get in Argentina, and I did.

This is the view from my balcony! I’m staying in a $25 per night hostel with a private room and a nice bathroom as close as the bathroom in my house, although not always available to me, and this fine window.

I came for a few days to see if I would be able to stay here for more than two weeks when I come back to Buenos Aires in November.

It’s really perfectly fine, the kids are fun, the bed is comfortable, the location is great. Nothing smells bad, but the internet has gone out both nights from 9:30pm until the morning. If it happens tonight I’m definitely going to have to reconsider.

Tonight I said to myself I was not going to stop looking until I find broccoli. It’s meat and potatoes and pizza around here, and in Brazil, and in Paraguay, and sometimes a salad of lettuce, carrots, and tomatoes. Cheese, eggs, one thousand kinds of bread. I simply had to find some broccoli.