La Boca

The Sovereign Hill of Baires.

Absolutely all tourists must visit the old port barrio of La Boca, so that the kindly and helpful portenos can relive foreigners of large and burdensome amounts of cash.
We made our ritual donation today.
Before diving in to Boca proper, we visited the Museo de Bellas Artes.
This is the view of the port from the magical roof sculpture garden

you can get a pretty good view of the barrio

they have a collection of bowsprits inside the Museo

I liked them very much.

Caminito is why everyone goes to La Boca

a bit like looking at the paint chart in Bunnings, really.

How to drink a submarino

1. Your waiter brings you a glass of frothy hot milk,
a special submarino chocolate bar,
a spoon,
and sugar.

2. Tear open the wrapper,
DO NOT EAT THE CHOCOLATE.
Drop it into the glass of hot milk.

3. Stir the chocolate as it melts

4. until properly combined.

You can add sugar if you want, but I never do.

5. Enter a state of grace.

Contingent Baires

sometimes you just look up and get a view like this:


there are some fabulous hairdos in Baires


you can buy almost anything in this spectacular shopping arcade on Florida


even a rifle.


some of the graffitti is muy romantico


some is just plain fascinating.

We danced for 3 hours today at the Ideal, honest.

Today we went to the Museo de la Ciudad (City Museum).
It has a temporary exhibition of kitsch, and a permanent exhibition of toys.
This partly completed build-it-yourself dollshouse was there

much of the rest of Baires is under construction too (these public works notices are everywhere)

or it's for sale

but the Confiteria Ideal is still open and operating as usual.
Here Marco assumes an appropriate expression of refined and elegant suffering...

...exactly the kind of suffering caused by having to pause mid serious panqueque consumption for a photo.

Cerrado. Termino. Enfermo.

Last night we tried to go to a tango/feldenkrais class at La Catedral.
We arrived 10 minutes late (perfectly ok in Baires, portenos don't know the meaning of punctual) but the door was locked and we couldn't get in.
Then we tried to go to a milonga in San Telmo, but my information was old and the milonga hadn't been running for years.

This morning we tried to go on a tour of the Palacio Barolo

to get there we had to cross the 18 lane Avenida 9 De Julio

the pedestrian lights tell you how many seconds you have left to cross the road

Palacio Barolo is famous for having been designed according to Dante's Divine Comedia

but the guide was unwell so there were no tours

we drowned our sorrows in cake at the cafe.

Getting around town....

Buses go absolutely everywhere in Baires


you need to use the Guia


just find where you want to go on the map on the right
street numbers in round hundreds are listed on the map
because streets are kilometers long
and have thousands of buildings
and in the corresponding grid on the left are the bus route numbers


because (almost) all the streets are one way, for each route the journey out (ida) and return (vuelta) is slightly different, so you need to check the details in the back


simple.

often it's easier to catch a taxi
they're cheap and plentiful

Reasons to love San Telmo, part one

The Dorrego Bar is just up the street


it's seriously good.


On Sundays, grungy funky young tango Orquestra Tipicas busk in the streets

La Furca


El Afronte


we bought both their cds.