Signs of Inflation

While still a long away from the hyperinflation of the 1980s, inflation has been running 20-30% for the last couple of years. Everywhere in the city signs are painted or pasted over with updated prices. Since the current inflation follows a long period of price stability in the 1990s when the peso was tied to the dollar, a lot of these signs were painted. Now, with greater uncertainty, the updates are done in a more haphazardly.

Train Tickets

Train tickets from recent journeys to the end of the line.

Peronist Graffiti in Chacarita

I like this photo; the cobblestone street, the spring trees, white-washed wall with soft blue lettering. It's a political mural/graffiti for Daniel Amoroso [great surname!] who, with a little googling, I found out is a city legislator.

Does anyone know if there is a specific name for this kind of graffiti? I'm referring to the white-washed walls, the big bubble letters half filled with [usually] blue paint. They seem to be usually political and usually Peronist. Is the style or color specifically associated with the PJ? I see the style as Buenos Aires' own Pichações.

Gauchito Gil in Chacarita

Gauchito Gil is a popular saint not recognized by the Catholic church. Nevertheless, there exist many shrines to the 19th century army deserter. The main shrine is in Mercedes in the province of Corrientes. Scattered all around the country's highways are small shrines notable for their red flags. Oddly, there's a large-ish shrine right in the middle of Buenos Aires just outside the Chacarita Cemetery.

The End of Capitalism

A timely poster from our Socialist friends announcing a protest in front of Buenos Aires' stock exchange. After dropping 50% just this month it seems they hardly need to underline the point. I believe the painting in the poster is a work by Antonio Berni, an Argentine social realist painter active in the 1930s.

Centro Cultural San Martin

Centro Cultural San Martin is a theatre and cultural center on Corrientes, in the theatre district. It's kind of like New York's Lincoln Center.

Ferrobaires Offices in Retiro

The rather dilapidated offices of Ferrobaires in Retiro. They run a few inter-city train services in Buenos Aires Province, like the one I took to Mar Del Plata. Unless you're a train buff, I wouldn't recommend traveling with them. The trains lack maintenance. Delays are frequent.

Primavera

Tuesday's rain washed the sidewalks clean.

Congreso

Argentina's national congress [wiki: english, español].

I took this a few weeks ago. There was a smallish group protesting proposed changes to the country's pension system. Given the current political instability, seeing a protest here is not difficult. Here's a couple more pics of the flyers the protesters were launching into the air and scattering on the sidewalks:




Argentina's pensions are a hot topic these days. On Monday president Kirchner announced she would be nationalizing Argentina's private pension system. On Tuesday the local stock market tanked 12% on a day when most world markets were up. This article from the Wall Street Journal gives a good summary in English of what's going on. I have to say, though, their headcut of Cristina looks nothing like her.

For Sale

When an apartment or house is up for sale the real estate agent will usually put of a metal, hand-painted sign, which is hung from the balcony or window. Walking the other day I came across this workshop where the signs were being painted and laid out on the sidewalk to dry.

Tomates Cherry

Cherry tomatoes are called tomates cherry. If you call them tomates cerezas you will get funny looks. Trust me.

A car, a bus and a parrilla

I just like this photo. I don't claim any pretensions of being O. Winston Link, but I like the appearance of a bus, a car [Renault, of course], and a parrillada for two, in which three can eat--not to mention the chalet-style house in the background. I should note, this is not Buenos Aires but Mar del Plata.

La casa que fue

As I alluded to in my post on the Israeli embassy, whenever an old house is demolished, a ghost image is left in the neighbor's wall, as most buildings here share walls, called medianeras. The recent construction boom has lead to countless demolitions of historic, old houses, echos of which can often be seen in current construction projects. This is on Callao between Marcelo T and Paraguay. Supposedly this is a protected area.

Kiddie Train in Parque Avellaneda

Parque Avellaneda has a children's railroad. Perhaps appropriately, it's just as derelict as the national rail system.

Two more from Once

Parking garage on Castelli and Peron.


There are some gorgeous old buildings in Once. If you peel back all the ugly signage it could look not so different from Recoleta.

AMIA

AMIA is a Jewish community center located in Once. The initials stand for Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina. In 1994 it was destroyed by a truck bomb which also killed 85 people. Those are their names painted above. Unlike the Israeli embassy, which was destroyed two years earlier, the community center was rebuilt on the same spot.

Abasto

I suppose it's the fate of all historically significant buildings to become shopping malls. Still, the transition from wholesale market to shopping mall isn't all that great. This gem from the 1930s sat abandoned from 1984 until it was reopened in 1999. Personally I think they did a good job with the renovation and it's worth a visit even if you don't plan on buying anything.

Lucky in Once

Feeling lucky?

Once on Holiday

Once [as in eleven] is Buenos Aires' wholesale district. It's crowded, noisy and bustling on weekdays and completely shut-down and deserted on weekends & holidays. The area reminds me of the garment district in Manhattan.

Disappearing Cobblestones

In various barrios of the city the local government is ripping out the cobblestones along the gutter, replacing them with concrete and leaving giant piles of cobblestones piled up on the sidewalks. Clarin published an article on reports of cobblestone theft. Apparently the going rate is 77 pesos per square meter or about 2-3 pesos per stone. The destination: streets in gated communities. Reading this, the urbanist in me sheds a silent tear, like the stoic Indian of the anti-litter commercials of the 1970s. While walking around Flores the other day I saw a taxi driver stuffing his trunk with cobblestones. I asked him what the city was going to do with these adoquines; "mandan a la mierda" was his response.

Planta Baja - The Ground Floor

Everybody on the ground floor keeps their blinds shut. I understand. It's a big city and you want to maintain your privacy. Couldn't arquitects come up with some sound-proof translucent material that would still let the light in?

Edificio Kavanagh

My favorite building in Buenos Aires, Edificio Kavanagh.

Site of former Israeli Embassy

In 1992 the Israeli embassy was destroyed by a car bomb that also killed 29 people. It was one of two major terrorist incidents in the 1990s, the other being the destruction of AMIA, the local Jewish community center, a couple of years later. The site is near the Retiro train station, on the corner of Arroyo and Suipacha. Today there's a small plaza where the embassy used to stand. The outline of the structure is visible in the medianera of the building next door.

Walking around Buenos Aires you'll see a lot of old houses which have been demolished leaving only an outline in the medianera, the wall shared by adjacent buildings. Looking at this corner I assumed at first it was a demolished house that had been turned into a park. It was only when I approached that I could see the full story.

Spiky Palo Borracho

OK, I've given in to temptation. I'm totally obsessed with Palo Borrachos now. This is from a new plaza on the southern end of Puerto Madero. The trees, when new, tend to be very spiky to protect themselves. Both the plaza and the trees are new so that means lots of vicious spikiness.

On Method & Equipment

Whenever I see an amazing photograph I want to know how it was taken. Such curiosity is natural so I wanted to write about about the tools I use.

Most of the pictures on this blog are taken with a Canon D40 and a Sigma 18-50mm f2.8 lens. I picked the D40 because it's solid, fast and well-built. The Sigma lens is better than the basic zoom lens that comes with most digital SLRs but at $400 it's also a lot cheaper than Canon's professional L-series lenses. I figured it was a good compromise. I'm happy with both the camera and the lens so far and would recommend them both.

I also have a Canon SD1000 which is a small pocket digital camera and occasionally I will post pictures taken with this camera, like my recent post on Gualeguaychu. If you look closely at the aspect ratio of the photos you can tell which is which as dSLRs have a 3:2 ratio while smaller digital cameras are typically 4:3. I don't normally crop my photos altho I do fiddle with the levels and sharpness. I like the SD1000 because it is very small and very fast. I can take it out in almost any situation, briefly and inconspicuously. The quality is just OK and certainly no match for the D40.

Am I afraid walking around so-so neighborhoods with $1300 in camera equipment? You Betcha! Fear is valuable but paranoia is not. I carry my camera in a nondescript, black shoulder bag that I bought here. When I see a picture I typically check out who else is on the street, back up against a wall or parked car, take out the camera, take the picture, put the camera away, and keep on walking. If I'm going to a dicey area I'll take just my SD1000 which I wouldn't really care about losing. Also common sense and street awareness is key in any context. I've traveled a lot so it's become second nature to me.

Update March 2009: Lately I've often been using an old Canon XT with a 35mm F2.0 lens. It's light and small. I wish somebody made a small, lightweight, prime lens that was roughly 20mm in focal length but this doesn't seem to exist. The 35mm lens is a little too tight for my tastes but the best camera is always the one you have with you. I still use the SD1000 sometimes but it's images are clearly inferior to a digital SLR.

A note on the design of the blog: I was inspired by Boston.com's The Big Picture. I think that big pictures belong on the web where they can reach a massive audience. I think that all visual content should be made available in very high resolution just for the public good. I use blogger because it was what I was already familiar with. I tried to strip away as much as possible so as to just show the pictures. If you want to use the template, just ask. I'll send you the file.

House for sale in Flores

Here's a cute corner house for sale in Flores. The sign is a little big for the house. You'll also notice on the sides that the windows and doors are bricked up. That means that no one is living there. The bricks are meant to prevent squatters who, due to local law, can be hard to evict. A lot of these old houses have been demolished in the recent real estate boom. The excellent blog Basta de Demoler has been documenting this, trying to save Buenos Aires architectural legacy.

Carnaval in Gualeguaychu

Gualeguaychu is a small city about 300km north of Buenos Aires in the province of Entre Rios. In the summer they host Argentina's biggest and most well-known Carnaval celebration. It's not as big as the samba parades in neighboring Brazil but I was very impressed with the quality of the costumes and production. These pictures are from last February. One advantage of a smaller parade is that you can get close. As you can see from the picture above, I was very close.

Another important difference is that the parade isn't just held the weekend before Lent but rather every weekend from January to March.