Buenos Aires

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A Full-on Argentine Evening — and a Surprise

Yesterday I went for my second Fileteado Porteño class at 6 pm. As I said last time, Martin plays tango in the background as we work, which already adds to the Argentine feel of it all.

Just around the corner from his studio is a lovely old square called Plaza Dorrego, and every Sunday night when the weather is fine they hold an open air milonga. I’d never been, and I decided to give it a try. (Mind you, I don’t think I’ll do it again until my course is finished, because I had to go there dressed for tango and I kept worrying about dropping orange paint on my black skirt!)

Anyway, the milonga was lovely. This barrio, San Telmo, is very old and steeped in tango history, and yet it had quite a contemporary feel to it. Instead of older people dressed in more traditional tango gear, there were lots of young people in shorts and shirts — although I honestly don’t know how you can dance tango in flipflops or Birkenstocks!

The best thing I saw there, and in fact the best thing I’ve seen in a long time anywhere, was this young woman in a wheelchair “dancing” tango! This picture shows just one of her partners, as she was whirling around the dance floor for every dance. Isn’t that fabulous?

But I have to tell you about my surprise. When I arrived, lots of people were watching, but it was actually a tad early to dance, so I decided to walk back to the main part of the plaza where there are tables and have a glass of wine. As I approached the area, I saw a woman waving frantically at me and calling my name.

It turned out to be Lena and Bulent, the couple who run the tango school I went to in Toronto in the summer of 2016! Can you imagine? I had no idea there were there and they didn’t know I was here, and what were the chances of us choosing the same milonga on the same night? Actually, they were just having drinks and were going to a different place, but it was so nice to find familiar faces like that. Small world, eh?

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More New Friends!

I had an email from one of my readers recently. Her name is Charmaine, she’s from England and is currently visiting Buenos Aires for the first time with her friend Samantha.

As they were keen to have authentic Argentine food, I recommended La Gran Parilla, my favourite place for steak, and they enjoyed that very much. Another staple of the food here, though, is the empanada, and El Sanjuanino is a little, very old, place quite near me that is famous for them. It’s also very old-world, and that’s why I love it. Here’s a photo of us there after our empanadas. They serve the house Malbec in these cute penguin jugs — and the quantities are quite generous!

The second picture is a sketch I did of El Sanjuanino last year, and the third is the selfie I took of us after breakfast this morning.

I set Charmaine up for a tango lesson with my lovely teacher, Alejandro, and she now plans to find a place to take lessons when she gets back home!

I’m always happy to help visitors have a great experience of “my” city!

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One of those Cool Places in Buenos Aires

I’ve never been in a city that reveres books and authors as much as Buenos Aires. There are still many, many “old fashioned” bookstores, ie they sell only books — no candles or keyrings or all the stuff North American bookstores sell.

I found this place on my first visit. I woke up one day to a pouring wet day that looked as if it would stay that way all day. I Googled “what to do in Buenos Aires when it’s raining” and this is one of the things that came up.

I really must learn to shoot video that fills the whole frame — maybe by next week!

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My New Friends from Scotland

Here are a couple of photos with my new Scottish friends, Lyn and David. I really enjoyed spending time with them, especially when I showed them around a bit downtown the day before they left. I even took them on the bus — an experience most tourists don’t get, but an integral feature of Buenos Aires (as you will know if you’ve read my book!)

The first photo is in Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires. I think it opened in 1882 or thereabouts. The bronze in the background is Carlos Gardel, known as the Father of Tango. I love this place. It used to be a hangout for writers and artists, who would sit there all night, smoking and drinking and talking politics. A throwback to an earlier time.

The second one is taken with the life size figures outside La Biela, another cafe that’s a well known Buenos Aires landmark — as it’s five minutes from where I live, I spend a lot of time there! The word “biela” means monkey wrench, or spanner, or I’ve sometimes heard it as connecting rod, but in any case it’s to do with cars. The reason is that when the cafe opened in the 1940s it was a hangout for the famous race car drivers of the time, including Juan Manuel Fangio — even I’ve heard of him, but I didn’t know he was Argentine!

Like many who visit Buenos Aires for just a few days, Lyn and David loved it and I predict they’ll be back!

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Trying a New Art Form

Yesterday I began a four-week series of classes in Fileteado Porteño, an art form traditional to Buenos Aires.

It began as a way to decorate carriages in the early 19th century, and from there moved to doors and windows, and now you see it on all kinds of things. I’ve bought some of the small signs they sell to tourists. (This is not my work — it’s by a master of the art!)

It’s one of those things that isn’t as simple as it looks at first glance. There is incredible precision in the widths and curves of the lines, and the light and shade that make the designs look three dimensional.

I’ve had a hankering for a while to learn how to do it. Last week when I was in San Telmo with Venetia, we stumbled across an association for the artists, and it turned out they give classes. No groups in the summer, so I’m having private lessons with Martin.

Yesterday I learned about the history of fileteado, and the traditional way of getting the design on paper to start with. I also had a go at painting lines with the special brushes, which is clearly something that takes time to learn! Anyway, I can’t wait for my next lesson and I will put up a photo of whatever I produce by the end of the course.

A nice bonus was the tango music in the background!

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Two Different Art Experiences

I went to two quite different art exhibits this past week.

On Wednesday I went with five friends to MALBA, the Museum of Latin American Art, which had a special exhibit of Mexican artists. I was primarily interested in Diego Rivera, whose work I first saw and loved at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. However, there were many beautiful pieces there, as well as a few that required a strong stomach! There were two of my favourites, but I unfortunately forgot to note the artists’ names.

The first one is an abstract study of people in a cafe, and I liked it because it seemed happy! The lady in the satin dress was on a wall opposite the door and was very striking as you walked in. It’s a pity my iPhone refused to take photos without flash, as it kind of washed out the beautiful bronz colour of her dress.

 

 

 

 

Today my friend Hemilce called and asked if I’d like to go to the Museum of Fine Art to see an exhibit of the Spanish artist Joan Miró, and that was completely different from the MALBA experience. The two on the left ar typical of the artist’s strong use of colour and abstract subject matter.

The third (sorry it’s a bit dark) was a room off the main gallery where children were playing games associated with the exhibit and contributing their own efforts. I love this kind of thing, which helps kids appreciate culture while they’re young.

The entrance to the exhibit was this blue corridor — I thought it was kind of fun.

This beautiful lady was my favourite of everything I saw today, even though she isn’t part of the exhibit we went to see. She is called Bianca and is by the 19th century French sculptor Gustavo Frederic Michel. Isn’t she lovely? Most sculptured heads look blind to me, with their blank eyes. This one was different. The eyeballs were carved in such a way that she actually looks as if she is looking at something.

I don’t do a lot of galleries as a rule, so it was fun to do two such different ones in such a short time.

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Met Lovely People at the Cafe

Last night after dinner I walked up to my favourite evening haunts, the terrace at La Biela. La Biela is a famous cafe with a huge terrace and it’s perfect for people watching! I often wander up there of an evening for a glass of wine after dinner, and I feel quite comfortable being on my own. But of course, company is always nice.

I happened to choose a table next to a couple, and as I heard them place their order I noticed they had Scottish accents just like mine. So I spoke to them, and went on to have a lovely evening in their company. They are widely traveled, but this is their first visit to Buenos Aires — in fact they had only been here for a few hours when we met. As they are here for a week, I hope to run into them again.

I almost didn’t go out last night because it was v-e-r-y warm — the terrace at La Biela didn’t have its usual buzz because of that, but I’m so glad I did.

Also, if you know me well, you’ll know that speaking to people I don’t know has always been a struggle for me and I’m trying to cultivate the skill. I’m finding it pays off, as it did last night when I met lovely Lyn and David!

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I know it’s a strange tourist attraction…

Time for a new video!

The first time I came here I resisted the impulse to visit Recoleta Cemetery because, well, it’s a cemetery for goodness sake. Not something I usually do when I’m on vacation.

However, all the guidebooks mention this particular one and it certainly is popular, so eventually I went along to check it out. Now I get it! It is so worth a visit on many levels, and for me not the least of those is sketching. I’ve also been here when I’ve had visitors and they also found it well worth the visit. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this short video and a few of my sketches from past visits.

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My first visit to a Mosque

Yesterday I went with three friends to visit the Mosque at the Islamic Centre of Buenos Aires. I’ve never been in a Mosque before, and I found it interesting.

We had a complete tour of the complex, not just the Mosque itself, and it was all in Spanish. Our guide spoke very rapidly, so it was quite challenging but I think I understood the most important parts.

He took us into the classroom where they teach Arabic and there he took questions about Islam. There were many questions and he answered very fully.

Finally it was time to enter the Mosque, where the Imam was just about to start preparation for prayers, and we were all invited to sit on the floor at the back. It took quite a long time, and I took the opportunity to make a small sketch. Unlike the Mosques in the Arabic countries, which I’ve only seen in pictures, this one was not elaborate at all, and the sketch reflects that. I’ll put a photo of the same detail beside it so you’ll see what I mean.

Afterwards we had a lovely lunch together, and then took a v-e-r-y long walk home.

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Knitter Heaven!

I’m a knitter. I learned to knit at my mother’s knee and over the years there have been times when I’ve done a lot and others when I haven’t done much at all.

A couple of years ago, I idly consulted Google to ask if there was a yarn shop near me in Buenos Aires, and was amazed to find there wasn’t just a yarn shop but a yarn district! Actually it’s a small row of shops, probably about eight of them, side by side on a street called Scalabrini Ortiz, and it’s just a short bus ride away from me.

I didn’t have the wit to take a photo of the shops from the outside, but here are some shots of their interiors I found online:

 

 

 

 

 

Ever since that first time, I usually pay it a visit and come away with some nice yarn to work with while I’m here. This year was no exception. I bought this lovely, soft Peruvian cotton in a happy apple green colour, and am knitting a lacy top.

Choosing yarn here can be fun or challenging, or both. That’s because for the most part it doesn’t sit on the shelves in nice neat balls with labels that tell you how many stitches you get to an inch. No, mainly you buy it by weight. So I had a pattern I got on the Internet and it called for 5 balls of a particular type of brand name yarn. I had to estimate how much of my apple green cotton to buy! In the end, I bought half a kilo and it looks as if it will be enough. If not it will just have to have shorter sleeves because I’m not buying another half kilo to make up a shortage!

Maybe I’ll post a photo of the finished top.