2-28-09 Tango at Los 36 Billares, Avenido de Mayo, Buenos Aires
From my journal: "Last night caught tango and flamenco—the first more scripted but great, with the singer interviewing us from the stage, then circulating, then the fantastic female tango dancer came out and danced with many of us (yes, me included)—until close to 3:00 in the morning."
"The tango and flamenco place was about a block from my door, at Los 36 Billares, so-called because it used to be the city's biggest pool-hall gambling joint. The 36 billiard tables are still in the basement beneath the restaurant and intimate dance/music stage."
"Last Tango in Paris" star Marlon Brando has a burger at McDonald's in Buenos Aires.
3-1-09. "Just outside my hotel was a huge parade celebrating the nearby opening of the new parliamentary session with a big speech by La Presidente Christina Fernández de Kirchner." To her left on this banner is her husband, former president of Argentina.
The Kirchners see themselves as carrying on the populist traditional of Juan and Eva Perón.
The Congress where Christina Kirchner spoke.
Eva Perón's gravestone in the Ricoleta cemetery.
The balcony of the presidential "Pink House" where Evita gave her famous speech resigning the vice-presidency because of her fatal illness, and where Madonna sang "Don't Cry for me, Argentina," in "Evita."
"La Boca (“the mouth”—of the estuary, leading eventually to the Atlantic) is the Italiano-Argentine equivalent in Buenos Aires of Irish-American South Boston: Both incoming ethnic peoples got off the boat and stayed there. But in Boca they were even more bull-headed: In 1882 La Boca declared themselves an independent republic not only within Argentina, but within Buenos Aires. But the then-presidente went over and talked them out of it, and they immediately made him a hero and built a monument or something to him. These are a couple of life-size human images leaning out of windows."
Proletarian wall murals in La Boca.
3-2 to 3-5-09. Near Puerto Iguacú, "The Riotropic is off the beaten track, literally, beautiful, quiet. I looked across and finally noticed what had evaded my eyes as I plunged back and forth for a couple of days: an immense, wide-spreading saguaro cactus. Needless to say, took pix. Not native to this region, though I'd already read they grew in NW Argentina (I'm in extreme NE); about 25 years old, Remy—the owner of this place, who moved here eight years ago from France—told me, though I believe that it’s more like 50."
The pool and (in the background) my room at the Riotropic.
3-4-09. "I learned from Remy of the existence of M’Bororé, a Guaraní, Native-Argentine settlement within a few hundred yards of here. On his advice" I visited there, picking up a guide at the school first.
"My guide, Xavier (but pronounced the correct way, not as in Cincinnatispeak), walked me through this more than 1,000-year-old place with ancient animal traps and various other sights unseen anywhere else. I took two photos of the deer trap, and despite my nonexistent Guaraní and mere Pig Spanish, and his having about as good a command of English as I have Spanish, I managed to describe to him Buck Day in PA with a combination of Spanish words, hand gestures, and sound effects."
A friend on the walk between the Riotropic and M’Bororé.
"Then a group of children from the school—which Xavier told me has 270 students (thank God I learned numbers, the most important Spanish of all), but who come in two shifts and always seem to be at recess—emerged and sang me a song, with the biggest boy on guitar and the other singers growing by the second because I think they all wanted to be in the picture."
"I went to the slightly more public site—though again I was the only visitor there—of La Aripuca. There they've build a massive, literally monumental trap (the size of a small ampitheater), out of tree trunks either 300 or 1,000 years old, I forget which, but are specified in the signs that I photographed) in memory of the normal-sized animal traps that seem to be key to traditional Guaraní culture—probably because that was a big part of how they ate and thus survived."
Guaraní gato at La Aripuca.
3-3-09. The Coatí--also known as the hog-nosed coon, snookum bear, and Brazilian aardvark--is a member of the raccoon family. They're everywhere at the Parque Nacional Iguazú, as encouraged by tourists who feed them, oblivious to the fact that they may bite them.
The famous waterfalls of the the Parque Nacional Iguazú, here and in the next dozen photos.
Looking toward the Isla San Martin, over to which I took a short ferry ride, and then hiked all over the island.
I saw several rainbows like this.
La Ventana, so-called for obvious reasons (means "The Window").
There are hundreds of waterfalls at Iguazú.
The Iguazú river just above the falls.
River plunges into falls.
and all the way down. This is part of the widest waterfall, the "Devil's Throat."
As you can see, both kinds of waterfalls are at Iguazú: lots of narrow ones like these, and bigger, Niagara-styled ones as seen in other photos here.
Right beside a waterfall on the Paseo Superior (upper trail).
Rose's apartment building at 1082 Ave. de Sante Fe, on the first floor (one floor up).
3-6-09. Rose, her Rice and Buenos Aires roomie Carina Baskett, and their new friend Samantha (from Columbus, Ohio via the University of Hawaii), outside the apartment. They helped me celebrate my 56th birthday on March 6. All three are studying in Buenos Aires until the end of June, through the IES Study Abroad program there.
Interior of the apartment, here and in the next two photos.
Rose with the twenty roses (twenty years old) that I gave her on Sunday, March 8, International Women's Day, a day on which any and all women in Buenos Aires get any and all gifts from anyone. Rose and I enjoyed the sharing of these roses with the four other women of this household: Carina, the Señora of the house (Miriam), her teenage daughter (Sofia), and the maid (Maruja).
Photo of Rose taking a photo of Carina taking a photo.
Rose looking at the Torre Monumental (British Clock Tower), a gift from the British community of Buenos Aires after building the nearby Retiro railroad station complex. The British Empire had the capital to create Retiro and connect Buenos Aires to its hinterlands to get products to markets overseas. For years many Argentines felt exploited by Great Britain. The monument survived the Falklands Islands war unscathed, but a few years later, during an anniversary memorial service, an angry mob attacked it. They destroyed portions of the base and also toppled a statue of George Canning, the first British diplomat to recognize the country's independence from Spain. The Islas Malvinas-Falkland Islands War Memorial was placed across the street as a permanent reminder of Britain's battle with Argentina. The main attraction of the Clock Tower is the view: A free elevator ride will take you to the top floor with its wraparound view of the port, the trains, and the city of Buenos Aires itself.
In the Plaza San Martín.
Samantha, Rose, and Carina studying a manuscript that I found on the ground that turned out to be an apparent elementary-student piece of writing in Spanish.
The three branches of the military, the Army, Navy, and Air Force, take turns guarding the Islas Malvinas-Falkland Islands War Memorial, and the changing of the guard is worth seeing.
3-7-09. Lucas Arnold serves during Argentina's decisive Davis Cup doubles match in which he and his partner, Vasallo Arguello, defeated the Netherlands at the Parque Roca stadium. It was a real treat seeing my first Davis Cup match ever live--and on the red clay amidst the kind of noisy, partisan crowd particular to the Davis Cup.
The Netherlands team serving.
Final score: 6-4, 7-5, 6-3.
TV interview afterwards with the victors.
