Dia del Ñoqui

Eating ñoquis [gnocchis] on the 29th of every month is a tradition I've been trying to observe. The fresh pasta shop around the corner from our place was even open yesterday. They're usually closed on Mondays.

Palo Borracho

Palo Borracho, aka Ceiba Speciosa, aka Floss Silk Tree.

Another of the native wonders gracing Buenos Aires' parks and avenues. This tree reminds me of the Crystalline Entity [wow, that's a geeky reference!!]. The trunk and branches bulge [like a beer-belly] to store up water for lean times.

Manifesto

Share: if you take pictures, share them... but only the selects :)

Place: where ever you are, it's unique. Document it.

Big photos. Thumbnails suck

Scroll: lotsa photos per page

JPG: no flash.

Text: Make sense. Explain what you show. Be humble. [If I'm wrong on something, please leave a comment]

Line H - Caseros Stop

Buenos Aires first new subway line in 60 years is the yellow Linea H which runs north/south underneath Avenidas Jujuy & Puerreydon. It will eventually connect all the lines altho currently it's just a five stop stub running from Once south to Avenida Caseros, the stop pictured above.

There are plans to roughly double the number of lines here, making the network much more complete. Here's one map of the proposed new lines. The current mayor, Mauricio Macri, promised in his electoral campaign to construct 10km worth of track a year. Currently, however, he's fighting with the federal government over funding. They're from different political parties. Flickr user n i f posts articles from Clarin and La Nacion to his account and I've found it a good way to keep up with latest developments.

Botanical Garden

A few photos from Buenos Aires' Jardin Botanico.

According to the plaque the photo above is some type of ficus tree. It's certainly a lot bigger and sturdier than the little ficus I put in my freshman dorm room which promptly died.

Inside the Train

Inside the Pullman car on the train to Mar Del Plata.


Inside one of the older cars on the Linea San Martin.

The state of trains and the level of service is contentious these days. There are labor troubles between the unions and the owners of the concessions of the various lines [they were privatized in the 1990s]. Pino Solanas, who is sort of the Michael Moore of Argentina, has a new documentary out, La Proxima Estacion, all about the sorry state of trains in Argentina today.

Yanki de ...

Political graffiti painted on the outside of the old Carcel de Caseros near Parque Patricios. It was announcing a political rally supporting embattled Bolivian president Evo Morales. It mentioned something about el imperio Yanki and you can guess which side they're on.

I was watching the Obama-McCain debate last night in Palermo [which made local news coverate here] and after 60 minutes spent on just three countries [Iraq, Iran and Afganistan] it ocurred to me that those on the Left in Latin American really have no idea how little mindshare/bandwidth/attention their struggles occupy on the American scene these days.

Olsen Staff

Olsen is a Scandinavian-themed restaurant in Palermo Hollywood [Globalization has reached Argentina too]. It's a very nice restaurant, especially on Sundays when they have a brunch menu. As an American I sometimes miss eggs for breakfast and mixing orange juice with champagne, so it's a good place to hang out. I was taking pictures of some friends of mine when the waitress asked if I would take a photo of the kitchen staff. Of all the reasons to take someone's picture there is none better than that they asked you to.

Tango Rambler

A Rambler in Palermo Chico

China Zorrilla in Once

I love you, China Zorrilla, but do you have to spend your golden years hawking for a pawn broker in Once?

Found on the corner of Corrientes and Pueyrredon and, OK, the business is technically a jewelry appraiser [tasador].

Here she is in a funny clip from Esperando La Carroza. Explaining this is way beyond me.

Auxilio de Colectivo

If you're bus breaks down in Buenos Aires you'll just get off and wait for the next one. Honestly, it has only happened to me once or twice. However, if you wait around you'll get to see one of these, extravagantly old Auxilio buses show up to the rescue. They're based on old Mercedes Benz truck chasis that were the standard for Buenos Aires until the 1990s. Like the mudanza trucks, they have an old-school bad-ass-ness that I find irresistible.


More on Buenos Aires buses [or colectivos as they're called here] on wikipedia [where else?].

Rio de La Plata

When you're wrapped up in your life in the city, lost amidst the skycrapers you forget how vast the sky is and how flat the landscape. You go to the edge of the river and you realize how tiny a city of 12 million can seem. That's the skyline in the lower right.

The Rio de La Plata or River Plate is actually an estuary, the world's largest, formed by the confluence of the Parana and Uruguay rivers. The water is a brown, brackish mix of fresh and salt water that extends a good way out into the ocean. Here's a couple of good satellite photos [one, two] that show this.

Puerto Olivos

The other day I hopped on the train [linea mitre] and got off at Olivos, an upscale suburb just to the north of the Capital. It's where the president's mansion is located. There's a small sailboat port and a pier for fishing.

I'm a lazy photographer because here's a set on flickr of Puerto Olivos at sunrise that's spectacular. Here's another great sunrise shot and a picture of men fishing at the end of the pier.

Milanesa and Suprema de Pollo

Just a milanesa & suprema de pollo about to be eaten

Luz y Fuerza

I believe Luz y Fuerza is an electric company, altho please leave a comment if I'm wrong. The building is on Defensa and Belgrano in San Telmo. The photo on the right is a monstrous high rise nearing completion in Puerto Madero. All skycrapers are inherently phallic but this building turns the volume up to 11.

External Debt Museum

The Museo de la Deuda Externa occupies a few basement rooms inside the economics faculty of UBA, the Universisdad de Buenos Aires. The museum tells the story of Argentina's foreign debt, from its miniscule beginnings, through it's growth in the 1970s under the military dictatorship and to its crushing peak prior to the 2001 default. There are a lot of clever exhibits like the one above where a metal guard used by banks to protect themselves against angry savers who's accounts had been frozen is wrapped around a TV showing former president Fernando De La Rua's speech declaring martial law--the incident that sparked the cacerolazo, riots and sacking of supermarkets that lead to his resignation, the devaluation and the default on their foreign debt. The photos below illustrate with statuettes of San Cayetano, the patron saint of work, the growth of unemployment during the supposedly go-go years of the 1990s.

It's telling that Clarin, Buenos Aires' mass-market daily newspaper will run stories on page 1 of the business section analyzing Argentina's sovereign debt risk and credit default swap spreads. Until two weeks ago such knowledge of the workings of credit and derivatives markets by the general population in the US and Europe would have been unthinkable.

The museum is located on Uriburu 763 and is open Monday to Friday 3:30-8pm and Saturdays 11am-8pm.

Edificio Otto Wulf

Edificio Otto Wulf, an art nouveau masterpiece from 1914 and one of my favorite buildings in Buenos Aires. It was originally the the embassy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire [!!].



Buenos Aires ur-Blogger Robert Wright has some old posts showing the view from Otto Wulf as well as an encounter with the grandson of the architect.

Calle Yapeyu in Boedo

Boedo is just a normal barrio but it has its charms. It's been getting some more attention thanks to this article in the New York Times by Ian Mount of GoodAirs.com. The photo above is from Calle Yapeyu, which is a narrow street that doesn't fall in a straight line. Each block is like a private alleyway.

Galerias Pacifico

Galerias Pacifico is a shopping arcade located on Florida, the downtown shopping pedestrian street. The frescos worth seeing as they're done by some important Argentine artists from the 1940s such as Berni. I just read its wiki page and the building has an incredibly varied history: department store, railway offices, torture center during the dictatorship, and now shopping mall. You basically have Argentine history in the 20th century encapsulated in a single building.

Museo Casa de Yrurtia

The Museo Casa de Yrurtia is located on a quiet street in Belgrano. I stumbled upon it the other day and, as admission was just a peso, I walked in. The museum is dedicated to Argentine sculptor Rogelio Yrurtia [1879-1950], author of a number of monuments scattered around the city. The museum, his former house, is a pleasant, Spanish-style house [unusual in the city] and is totally stuffed with sculpture, drawings, maquettes and random bric-a-brac from his life. I was taken by these over-sized statues crammed into tiny rooms. They seemed so bizarrely out of place.


Photography isn't allowed in the museum rooms, though god knows why. The rooms aren't guarded so I made sure to cough loudly each time I took a picture so that the guard in the lobby wouldn't hear the shutter.


One of the more amusing pieces in the museum is a sketch by Picasso dated 1904 which is displayed along side a letter from Picasso playfully requesting payment for said drawing.

Natural History Museum in Parque Centenario

While not as impressive as the Natural History Museum in La Plata, the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia [or MACN for short], located in Parque Centenario between Villa Crespo and Caballito contains a great assortment of dinosaur bones and more recent fossils like this scary bird below:

Wouldn't want to run into that guy on the Pampas!


Here's the museum from the outside. They're open daily from 2-7pm. More info on the museum's website.

Puerto Madero at Night

Crisis in 2001/2002

In this week of global financial meltdown I thought I'd pull a photo from the archives. I took this on a visit to Buenos Aires in 2002 shortly after the crisis at the end of 2001 when they defaulted on their debt [the biggest default until Lehman!], devalued their currency, and went through five presidents in two weeks. These posters were put up outside the local headquarters of Banco de Boston, a gorgeous moorish-style building downtown, by angry depositors who's funds had been frozen.

Argentina is no stranger to economic crises and there is a sense here that the first world is getting their comeuppance. On Tuesday the president said that the first world's bubble has burst while Argentina stays firm. She was heavily criticized for this as there's a lot of evidence that the economy here is anything but firm. Still, there is resentment that the US doesn't follow the rules it lays down for other countries [free market! privitizations!] as well as a palatable fear that the crisis abroad will trigger one locally, as it has often in the past.

Banco de la Nacion - Headquarters

Completed in 1939 and designed by architect Alejandro Bustillo, the Banco de La Nacion occupies an entire block on the north side of Plaza de Mayo, right next to the Casa Rosada. The interior features a massive dome that reminded me of a 1930s-style Pantheon. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside. I walked inside and found a quiet space to sit while I fiddled with my camera settings. When ready, I stood up and quickly snapped six photos before a guard hollered at me. I apologized and pleaded ignorance. Forgiveness trumps permission.

Sidewalk - Acabar

The sidewalk in front of the restaurant Acabar uses a typical style of tile but in bright, varied colors. Like I mentioned in my post on La Boca, an unexpected splash of color and invigorate the urban landscape.

Sidewalks

I could make this entire blog only about sidewalks. You see, in Buenos Aires the sidewalks are paved & maintained by each individual building. A single block will have a dozen different tile styles in various states of repair. It will keep you on your toes.

Palermo Nuevo

A friend's balcony has a great view of Palermo Nuevo, an area of town with a lot of high rises constructed during the Menem years of the 1990s. The tall building in the center is Torre Le Parc, once the tallest building in BA.

Araucaria Tree in Parque Centenario

I enjoy how parks in Buenos Aires are often landscaped with native plant & tree species like this Araucaria tree in Parque Centenario. Araucaria's often flatten out to a distinctive crown like the tree above. I have a soft-spot for Araucaria's in general and Monkey Puzzle trees in particular [Monkey Puzzles aka Pehuen aka Araucaria Araucana] are mostly found in southern Chile and Argentina. Here's a good Monkey Puzzle Tree picture over at Atacamaphoto.com. Note, the tree above is not a monkey puzzle. I'm not sure which species it is, but feel free to leave a comment if you do.

Soon the Jacarandas will start blooming, so expect more tree pictures pronto.