San Telmo & Sushi Club

We made the trek to the San Telmo arts/crafts/antiques fair that happens every Sunday.  According to the website the fair has been happening every Sunday since 1970, which is a pretty impressive run.  I am pretty sure this is something I will want to bring Jason to when he gets in country because there are so many things that, if they aren't too expensive, would probably make great little gifts.

As you walk into the street art section you just see all of these amazing prints on both sides of you as you walk down the street.

This is an example of just one of the probably over 100 stalls that were at the fair.  It was a pretty impressive display of things that no one needs, but everyone wants.

This fine gentleman was providing a little bit of last minute entertainment on the way out of the fair.

After San Telmo I met up with an old friend named Tammy.  I went to undergraduate with her and she moved away to do awesome things and I moved away to do other things and we just happen to both be in Buenos Aires for a short while together.  It's pretty great to have friends that even though you haven't kept in touch with very well you can still hang out with them.

She has a friend that is from Buenos Aires and he took us to another park that was filled with more local individuals.  It was pretty and obviously in the distance there were still large corporate buildings.

We walked around and got to see the Ecological Reserve from a bridge close to it.  There are better parts I was assured, but you had to walk around it and we were hungry...

Ecological Reserve

We had been craving Sushi for several days so we decided to break down and head to Puerto Madero for some delightful sushi.  We ended up choosing a fantastic place called Sushi Club that is not available in the U.S. and were able to sit outside in the 60 degree weather with no problem.

View from one of the bridges at Puerto Madero

All of these plates were full of sushi when we began...

The cost of the sushi wasn't outrageous.  Tori and I shared a 30 piece combination and water (which you pay for here) and 1/2 of an appetizer for about $38 USD each.  Also, they were playing Adele throughout the meal which I kind of enjoyed... 

Another successful day in Argentina - until next time.

Ciao,

Tim

Palermo Parks & Evita Museum

Today was a beautiful day in Argentina.  There wasn't a cloud in the sky and even though most of the locals thought it was cold - by Kansas standards this was a fall/spring day and not a winter day.  So I seized the opportunity to go to some of the parks and monuments in the Palermo area.

The first monument (pictured below) is the Monumento de los Cuatro Regiones Argentinas.  It's a pretty nice statue in a very busy intersection.

It's a beautiful statue, but please look very closely for the social commentary here...

This resident of the streets was obviously doing his weekly laundry and taking a bath in the fountain water.  Not pictured here is his lady friend who came to check on his progress a short time later.

Near this monument is the beautiful park that surrounds Lake Palermo that is tucked away in this section of the city.  It is only 2 stops on the subway north from my house and about 5 blocks to the east.  It was pretty easy to navigate and find.

The entrance to the park welcomes you with these beautiful fountains.  The sky was absolutely beautiful all afternoon.

Above a portion of the lake is pictured with the business there that sells paddle boats.  I did opt to take one of the paddle boats around the lake to snap more than a few photos...

After I finished at the Palermo Lake I visited the Evita Museum.  Anyone who is anyone is Argentine history has some sort of museum dedicated to him/her and this one dedicate to Eva Peron did not disappoint.

There were many displays dedicated to her sense of fashion and the one above was one of the many displays concerning her hat collection.

She famously received much of her clothing from outside of Argentina - like the dresses pictured above.

This reads: Passion, Courage, Work, Dignity, Greatness, Solidarity.  This was included in a room that had many artifacts related to Evita's work advocating for orphan children and the disabled elderly.  Regardless of your political positions... I think you can still stand in awe of her unique life.

Tonight's plan is to celebrate the birthday of one of the other student's on the trip...

Ciao,

Tim

To the Delta and Back

Today we all met at China town again and then headed back to El Tigre.  It's a little bit of a trek to get there, but it's been worth it both times now.  Last time we went to the museum and walked the river banks, but today we actually went on a boat bus out to one of the areas in the center that can only be accessed by boat.

This is one of the houses in the city area by the bank of the El Tigre... but these aren't the types of houses we were bound the experience.

We left on the boat taxi and after about a 30 minute ride we arrived at our destination.  During the trip I learned that they actually have boat school buses that take the children to school, boat grocery stores that travel up and down the river and also they have these buses (like the one we were riding on) that the locals pay a fee monthly to utilize.

Sarmiento's Residence

Our first stop once we arrived was the house of Sarmiento which is encased in this large glass structure.  Approximately 30% of this structure is original.  He was a famous educator and President of Argentina from 1868 until 1874.

Sarmiento's original desk

Next we traveled on canoes up and down the portion of the delta that was right outside the place where we ate our lunch.  To get to the starting point of the canoe adventure we had to cross over several bridges.  I believe it to be true that infrastructure is not a top priority in this part of Argentina (see caption below).

This is me on one of the bridges.  I am alone on this bridge for two reasons 1) I was posing for the picture and 2) only one person was allowed on this bridge (like many) because with too much weight it would probably collapse.

Side-note:  One of the girls stepped a little off of the trail and fell completely into a mud hole filled with water.  She was okay, but needed a change of clothes and time to recover from the embarrassment.

The place above is where we had lunch.  The food was absolutely delicious.  It was a quaint little place and the woman who cooks there is apparently known for her ability to add her own twist to some of Argentina's favorite dishes.  I'm guessing you won't see this on Diners, Drive-In's and Dives...

Locro

The above dish is called Locro and is one of the traditional Argentine dishes.  It was absolutely delicious!  It is generally made with the left over parts of cows and pigs that are butchered for other fine cuts, but in this case I don't think it included anything too odd.  

After lunch we made our way around the neighborhoods in the Delta.  One of our guides actually has a home in the area and showed us where he lives.

This house was constructed by him in about 5 months.  It is made from bricks of mud and blades of grass hand-compacted together.  He used the bottles to create his own version of stained glass.  On the property he dug a hole which pumps water into a tank inside of his house and purifies it for use.

He has several animals on the property including this adorable 5 day old kid.  

All in all it was a pretty interesting day.  It was fun to see people enjoying such a primitive way of life.  They canoe to their friends houses and are relatively self sufficient.  It was a great change of pace from the day-to-day in Buenos Aires because it is such a large city with so many people.

Until next time,

Tim

Flag Day & Casa Rosada Tour

Today was a federal holiday in Argentina.  Many of the businesses, banks and all of the government agencies were completely shut down today and the public transportation system was running a limited schedule. This means... there was no school for us either. There was a rally in the Plaza de Mayo and because it was not a regular working day for the President and her staff the Casa Rosada was open today for tours.  It is safe to say that flag day here is taken a lot more seriously than in the United States.

We took the tour completely in Spanish because it's nice to practice and because we were the only three that   weren't from Argentina on the tour.  The tour lasted about 45 minutes from start to finish, but we had to wait about an hour with our tickets before it started.

This is the outside of the Casa Rosada and each fence section has a different crest on it.

This is the foyer where we had to wait for the tour to begin.

One of the many garden areas inside of the residence.

One of the garden areas that was open to the public had windows to the desks of actual government workers.  I thought it was interesting that this particular employee decided to leave phone numbers and other information in plain sight on sticky notes.  I have no idea if this information is sensitive... so you viewed it and you might be wanted by the government.

Chapel

This is where the President does her press conferences.  

Another of the internal gardens, I think this was probably my favorite one.

The view of the Plaza de Mayo from the Presidential Balcony.  Basically I felt like Eva Peron.

This was the "white room" and it is probably one of the most ornate rooms I have ever seen.

One of the meeting rooms... usually used for photo ops.

Presidential Office - we learned that the sitting president no longer lives in the Casa Rosada and it is only used for official government work.  The Presidential Residence is at another location.

The fireplace in the President's Office - I just thought the attention to detail was amazing.

So, now it can feel like you all took a tour of the Casa Rosada today too... Feliz Dia de la Bandera!

Ciao,

Tim

Residents of the Street

So yesterday I had an interesting exchange with one of the tour guides during our graffiti tour.  This is how the exchange went:

Enter some random guy with dirt all over his clothes, missing teeth, matted hair and a brand new, all white, very clean cell phone.  He and the tour guide have some sort of verbal exchange regarding the art and then he walks away.


Me:  Hey, so did you happen to figure out if that guy was homeless because it seemed like he had an awfully nice cell phone.
TG:  No, he wasn't homeless.
Me:  Oh, okay... so was he just visiting...err...
TG:  No, he lives in that van he was standing by.
Me:  <blank stare> Um...  I think you and I have different definitions of the word HOMEless.


So this led to a discussion about how she doesn't think of anyone that actually has some sort of place other than the actual street to sleep is homeless.  Maybe it's narrow-minded of me but I was legitimately confused when she said that he wasn't homeless and lived in a van.  I am actually glad this exchange occurred because I really feel like these cultural differences are important to uncover.


In the city it is difficult to go anywhere and not see a person sleeping on the street.  Like many other big cities with a mild climate I assume this is an issue.  I am not sure what programs here are available for homeless people, but I do know that public health care and the public university are both free of charge.  Where I am from there are laws preventing this type of "camping" but here the people have mattresses outside of buildings with pictures taped to the outside of the building and other personal affects surrounding their space.

I took the picture above of a guy that was taking a little siesta on a park bench during one of our tours... and if you look back at my blog about the zoo and other things there is a picture of a cute girl that was begging for money on the subway.

One of the interesting techniques that I have seen some of the homeless street vendors (I am sure not all of them are homeless) utilize is to leave things with you.  So if you are sitting on the subway they will just drop off books, facial tissues, flash lights, plugs or whatever else they are trying to sell.  They leave it on your lap for awhile and then come back to collect the item back or the money you need to pay.

Also, one girl whose housing situation I do not know was reading tarot cards on the subway.  She was probably around 9 years of age and would stick her hand out as if to shake your hand and if you responded by shaking her hand she would shuffle the cards and deal them to you.  She would leave the cards with you for you to read and then return after she finished her rounds to collect the cards and your tip.

I haven't purchased anything from a street vendor yet... but I hear the DVD's are pretty reliable and would be a good way to learn more Spanish.

On a complete other topic... people still use payphones here... I took the picture below of some woman using a pay phone to prove it.

Ciao,

Tim

Graffiti Tour

After our regular classes ended at 14:30 today we were taken on small buses to various parts of the city to view graffiti in the city.  In Buenos Aires there is a rich history with graffiti and it has been used as means of political protest, as an underground form of communication and to find missing people believed to be killed by historical dictatorships.  These pictures are taken in the Palermo district where I live and some of these artists are well known and charge a lot of money for their work, but believe this is a way for them to give back to the community.  It is still technically illegal here, but many times the artist obtains permission from the property owner or these are done on public buildings where permission was granted in the past and the newer artists just use that as blanket permission to paint.  Also, some political parties - including the one in power now - will actually pay groups of people to perform graffiti with political slogans.

It should be noted that the Palermo district is quite large and split into several factions and these pictures were taken in Palermo SOHO and what is now being referred to as Palermo Queens.  I guess the developers in these areas try are familiar with the geography of Los Angeles and New York.

The photographs: