Buenos Aires

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More Sketching, More Cafes

Yesterday I decided to sketch the Presidential Palace. It is called the Casa Rosada, or Pink House, because — well, it’s pink. I found the right bus and didn’t get too lost — mind you, it’s kind of hard to miss!

CasaRosadaIt took me over an hour to do the sketch, and it was right at the hottest time of day. And there was not an inch of shade in the square, so I was really exposed to the sun. Fortunately I had plastered myself with sun cream before I left, so although I got a lot of colour I wasn’t too burned. (And where was my genuine Panama Hat, made in Ecuador? At home in the cupboard of course! I’ve taken it out now though and am making a point of wearing it because the sun is very strong.)

If you saw the movie “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” you may recognize the building, as it was from one of these balconies that Evita addressed the crowd in the square.

Today I went out to sketch, but didn’t end up doing anything because it was way too hot. (Oh shut up, Helen, I hear you say!)

tortoniFrom there I went for lunch to another cafe, the Cafe Tortoni. This is the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires, and they have kept it more or less the way it was. There are pictures on the walls of the famous writers and paintings by the artists of the thirties and forties, and there is art deco glass all over the place. I keep expecting Ernest Hemingway to walk in and sit down!

Tomorrow I am going away with Cecilia and a new friend, Donna from California, for five days to some kind of wetlands area in another part of the country. I don’t think there will be wifi, so I probably won’t blog again until I get back next Friday and then I can tell you all about it.

 

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Buenos Aires: a Book Lover’s Paradise

Coming from Toronto, where the choices in bookstores are limited mainly to Indigo and a few smaller places, I am amazed at what I found here in Buenos Aires. It’s a city that honours books and writers, and that shows in the number of bookstores all over the city. I snapped all these photos on the same couple of streets, and I’m sure I didn’t get them all. They all seem to have people browsing in them all the time.

El Tunelbookstorelibros

Most of them have cafes inside, where people happily drink coffee while looking books over to decide whether to buy them or not. Try that in Indigo!

 

 

 

grand splendidThis one is my all-time favourite bookstore anywhere. It’s called El Ateneo Grand Splendid. It used to be a 100-yearold opera house (presumably called the Grand Splendid), but it wasn’t being used any more. In Toronto it would have surrendered long ago to the wrecker’s ball and been replaced by a condo building. But here, they made it into what they justifiably describe as the world’s most beautiful bookstore.

The photo is taken from the stage, which remains complete with curtains and serves as the cafe. There you can have anything from a cup of coffee to a full course lunch complete with wine — and all with a pile of as yet unpurchased books by your side!

AteneoI didn’t feel like sketching today, so I cheated. This is a sketch I did on my last visit. Ever wanted to find a quiet spot to read and have nobody bother you? Check out the buy in the bottom box!

 

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Started Working — Started Dancing!

Yesterday was a big day for me on both work and relaxation fronts.

First, my vacation is officially over and I am now back at work. I have found it quite natural to get back to doing the work I love in this place I love. I did work on the manuscript of one of my clients, and then I did some work on my own stories. It’s so long since I did anything about Merry that I had to do some digging around to see exactly where I am. I have several stories ready to publish, so I will get the first of those up on Amazon and the other platforms this week. If you are part of “Merry’s Merry Band of Readers” you will receive the usual notification when that is done. (If you are not, but you would like to be, you can join here.)

The other exciting thing is that I had my first tango lesson! It was a bit of an adventure, because I was determined to get there on the bus and it isn’t just around the corner. I went online and found a bus stop fairly close to me, with complete directions to Alejandro’s studio. Problem was, I couldn’t find the bus stop! Seriously, I must have walked around the same block four times before I finally found it — and only because I got on the wrong bus and the driver pointed out where to get the right one!

One of the difficulties is that bus stops are not necessarily obvious here. Some have shelters, but lots are just a pole in the sidewalk with no obvious sign that says Bus Stop. They tell you the number of the line and the buses that stop there, but that doesn’t necessarily make it easy. I was glad I had left in lots of time, and at least I will know for next time.

Screen Shot 2016-01-12 at 10.21.47 AMThe tango lesson was great. Alejandro obviously has a deep knowledge of, and love for, tango, and he spent quite a bit of time telling me its history and why that is important if you want to dance. I learned about the tango posture, the tango walk(s), and the tango embrace (!).

Then we did some simple dancing to the music and even though it was nothing fancy, I did actually feel I was dancing tango. I’m going for a second lesson on Thursday, and then I’ll probably just go once a week.

Alejandro is an excellent, empathetic teacher — and as you can see from the picture, he’s cute too!

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Party Party Party!

Last night I was invited to go to a party with Cecilia and her sister Adriana, who is visiting from Rosario. I didn’t actually understand what it was, thinking from Cecilia’s description that it was some kind of women’s group.

I’m still not exactly sure what the group is about, but they were a fantastic bunch of people — both men and women as it turns out — and this was a full on party! It was on somebody’s rooftop, and we were among the first to arrive. When we climbed up to the roof we found the son of the house busily making pizza — from scratch. And I had an idea how many people might be there from the number of pizzas he was making!

In the end I think there were about thirty people there. The music was loud and upbeat and people were dancing singly, in pairs and in groups! When the pizzas made their appearance, around midnight I think, they were fantastic. Different topping combinations from the ones I know — I never saw a pizza with corn kernels mixed with Roquefort cheese, for example — and all delicious.

Apparently it’s a tradition here to end a party with ice cream, and that happened around 2 am. I finally got home around 3 am, so it was quite a night and I had a great time. They say Buenos Aires is a nighttime city, so I guess this was my introduction!

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I Met Some New Friends — and I went on a bus!

OK, yesterday I took the plunge and tried out the Buenos Aires transportation system. I figure if I keep taking taxis all the time I’ll never get to know the city, so I bought a pass and I was ready.

I asked Cecilia to help me understand it so that I wouldn’t get lost on my first expedition. She showed me a site online where I can put in the “to and from” information (kind of like the TTC Trip Planner) and find out which bus, train or subway to use. The thing is, there are a gazillion buses in this city, all buzzing around in different directions, so it’s a little scary. Anyway, we went to a great barrio called Palermo, which I’ve been to several times and which I love, and that was quite easy. I’m pretty sure I could get back there on my own.

But then, I had planned to go to The English Group of Buenos Aires at night, and I invited Cecilia to come with me. So we took two more buses and went straight there from Palermo — which totally messed me up! I think I’ll be OK next week if I just go straight from here though. But it was great, as I already saw areas of the city that were new to me.

TEGOBA was great fun. The people there are a mix of locals, expats and visitors, and the objective is to help locals practise their English. There were people there from several different countries as well as several porteños (Buenos Aires natives), and they were all ages including a wee boy of about nine. He was with his parents, porteños, and he spoke fluent English and had beautiful manners. What a great start for him, eh?

The event finished about 10 pm — and then I had to get the bus home! It was quite near where Cecilia lives, so it seemed silly for her to come all the way back here with me — it was about 45 minutes. I have to admit I was very nervous, but Lady Luck was on my side as a young couple heard Cecilia speak to the driver and it turned out they were getting off at my stop. It’s a good thing they were, because I might have had a problem recognizing it. I then had to walk a couple of blocks to get home from the bus stop, but it was fine. I wasn’t nervous at all because I recognized my own neighbourhood right away so it was easy from there. But I feel like the world is my oyster now that I know how to ride the bus!

Screen Shot 2016-01-09 at 9.55.48 AMScreen Shot 2016-01-09 at 9.56.38 AMHere are a couple of sketches I’ve done here. Cecilia greeted me at the airport with this enormous bouquet of flowers to welcome me back — nice, eh? The other is a cafe right on my corner, which might be a regular haunt for me. I might gradually built up a collection of cafe sketches over my time here, as there are so many of them, each with its own personality.

 

OK, I’ll sign off now. It’s Saturday morning and I’m off to find some adventure!

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Today’s Adventure — the Supermarket!

Yes, today I went grocery shopping. In fact, I can’t shop for much because my kitchen is really just a stove, sink and very little else crammed into a cupboard! I did boil an egg today though, so I figure I could manage pasta too, but I won’t be having any grand dinner parties!

The supermarket was fun, because I was torn between going for things that were partially familiar to me and being more adventurous. Think of the cheese counter back home, with a gazillion types of cheese from many countries. Now think of that all in Spanish! When you start learning another language, names of cheeses are not the first thing you learn! And there’s always a protocol with supermarkets, isn’t there? Here it was discovering I had to get my fruit weighed by the fruit weighing man before checking out.

Anyway, I got enough cold meats etc. to have a lunch at home, and that was the plan. However, as soon as I got it on the plate I realized I hadn’t bought salt! There is also a shortage of cloths in the apartment, so I have to buy some of those tomorrow. I never though grocery shopping could be such an adventure.

This afternoon I planned to do my first sketch. I found this great cafe (one day I’ll tell you about the cafe scene in Buenos Aires), got the perfect seat outdoors facing a fantastic building with an amazing door. I plunged my hand into my sketching bag — and it came out covered in green paint! One of my tubes of paint apparently did not survive the flight from Ecuador— and that reminded me of another item to add to my shopping list for tomorrow — paper towels!

I had planned to go out for a real Argentine steak dinner tonight, but in the end I decided my stomach hadn’t really settled enough yet, so I just had a light dinner again. Tomorrow I’m going to The English Group of Buenos Aires, a Meetup group that focuses on giving locals a chance to practice their English. Apparently it’s the custom to go for pizza afterwards, so that will be tomorrow’s dinner. It won’t be until ten o’clock though, so I’ll be plunging into the Argentine dining schedule! So by the next night I should be good and ready for that steak dinner.

I had two FaceTime conversations today, one to Canada and one to Scotland, and they both worked beautifully, so it seems the Internet is in good shape. If anybody wants to have a FaceTime or Skype call with me, just let me know a time and I’ll be happy to do it.

That’s it for today. I’m now going to end my day with a nice glass of Malbec on my little balcony — cheers!

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Buenos Aires!

I’m here! After a very long travel day yesterday — four-hour taxi ride to Guayaquil, two-hour flight to Panama and then overnight to Buenos Aires — I was exhausted by the time I checked in to my apartment.

The apartment is great. It is small, but very cute and it really is in a fantastic location. I’ve been out and about just a bit today, but aim for an early night so I can throw myself into my Argentine adventure tomorrow. I truly am happy just to be back here in my beautiful Buenos Aires again!

I’ll post again soon, and thank you all for following the blog and especially for your comments!

Hasta pronto!