One last chalet in 2008

And to close out 2008, a chalet.

Avellaneda Floresta

Along Avenida Avellaneda in Floresta is a wholesale clothing district not unlike Once. I took the picture the day before Christmas and the street was mobbed with people doing last minute shopping.

Kung Fu Flores

Kung Fu studio in Flores on the corner of Bogota and Gral. Artigas. You can also get meat and your nails done on the ground floor.

I've been enjoying Blanco y Negro y Que, a photo blog, in black and white, mostly of Buenos Aires. I've added it to my blogroll below.

All Boys

Outside the All Boys Club, a middle-tier soccer team in Floresta.

Poetas de Nadie

Coto, a big supermarket chain, clads their stores in red and blue tiles. They were shiny and new back in the 1990s but they're showing their age. These two pictures are from a mega-store out in Floresta, where I was walking the other day. Poetas de Nadie [nobody's poets] are a tango/rock group. Their most popular video on YouTube only has a few thousand views so this graffiti might actually be part of their marketing plan.

Woof!

After yesterday's cat post I felt I had to put up some puppy pics. No dice. The best I could find were these dog photos.

Like tango and soccer, dogs are one of those Big Subjects I've yet to really delve much into on this blog. Perhaps this whole cute-meme is a good way to ease myself into dealing with such an important, porteño subject matter.

Oh, and merry xmas everybody!!

Yo soy tu gatita

This blog needs more Cute. So here's an adorable kitty in a shop window on Borges. So as not to offend anyone, I'll try to rustle up some puppy pictures.

Looking at this picture, I can't get La Factoria's Yo Soy Tu Gatita out of my head. Any reggaeton fans out there?

Redwood Tree & Plaza de Mayo

I always get a little homesick when I'm walking thought Plaza San Martin and see this California Redwood tree. The photo on the right is in the center of Plaza de Mayo.

Asado a la Cruz

It's been awhile and I thought it was time for another steak photo on here. Last night we enjoyed a remarkable asado a la cruz--ribs slow cooked for 3 hours over coals by Facundo, who is a master of his craft.

Christmas Trees

There's not a lot in the way of over-the-top Christmas decoration here. Just a few trees and lights here and there.

Night in Microcentro & Congreso

Last night I walked around the microcentro and Congreso with my friend Fabio acting as my bodyguard. Here's the Obelisk.


It was about 11pm and like any summer night, the streets were full of people. It's too hot during the day but walking around at night is great. Here's an arcade on Lavalle.


A tackily decorated restaurant on Cordoba and Florida that mostly caters to tourists.


An unfinished building on Corrientes and [I think] Talcahuano [somewhere near there].


Fabio posing next to some graffiti outside a church on Mitre and Parana

Ho Ho Hot

Santa Claus in Abasto shopping mall. What this photograph doesn't convey is that outside it's 34 degrees C [90-ish F]. Thankfully for poor Santa it is air conditioned in the mall.

Peru Beach

Peru Beach is not a beach nor is it in Peru. It's a sports complex on the river front in the posh, northern suburb of San Isidro.

Gauchito Gil in Colon, Entre Rios

My friend Martin, who lives in Concepcion del Uruguay, about 300km north of Buenos Aires, kindly drove me over to Paysandu in Uruguay, just across the river for a few tramites. Along the way we stopped at a Gauchito Gil memorial just outside of Colon. Martin said he'd always seen the memorial from the highway but had never stopped. After seeing my photos from San Juan, he thought of me and suggested we stop. Crazy yankis are good that way.



The memorial seems to be the work of one Luis Dantaz. Martin was in a hurry to open up his store after siesta so I didn't bother to research more about who was behind this memorial. I naively assumed I could find some info on this guy on wikipedia or, surely, google. I seem to be wrong, however. Anyway, I like how in the picture above the termite colony on the statue's arm looks like a giant turd.


The site also has a stone-line structure which one can walk into and contains a virgin. Notice how the brush strokes on the blue sea mimic the contours of the fake stones.


The rusty sign at the entrance makes Gil's eyes look jaundiced.

Disco in Paysandu, Uruguay

I first came to Argentina as an exchange student in Alta Gracia, Cordoba in 1993. I remember being shocked to find out that a small city of 40,000 people supported no fewer than 7 discos which rocked on the weekends. The culture of the boliche [disco] is strong in Buenos Aires but even stronger out in the provinces where, honestly, there's really nothing else to do.

Ground Floors in Villa del Parque

Continuing my ground floor series [planta baja], here's a few more from my trek through Villa Del Parque. I like how in the photo above, the old doorway is discernable by the brighter, presumably newer cladding. And those windows! Security and safety are big issues in contemporary Argentine society and you see it expressed in their domestic architecture. I feel like there are sentries behind those two little windows ready to fire their cross-bows at any suspecting character.

Chalet-style Houses in Villa Del Parque

The other day I took the Linea San Martin train out a few stops to Villa Del Parque, one of Buenos Aires' many, quiet, pleasant, tree-lined, middle class neighborhoods. I walked along various backstreets all the way to Liniers, through areas that never, ever see tourists. There were a lot of chalet-style houses that I couldn't resist taking pictures of. I've been documenting my little obsession with chalet's for awhile now on flickr. The more I explore these areas, as well as greater Buenos Aires, the more I realize how truly massive this chalet project could become. At least half of all houses built today in Argentina follow this basic style. I might as well be taking pictures of California ranch-style houses in Encino.

One difference, I suppose, is that most houses here are built on spec. People aren't buying some cookie cutter template thought up by the marketing types at KB Homes but, instead, are expressing their own personal, domestic fantasy with every Chalet built.

Fabric in Once

Fabric store on the corner of Junin and Lavalle in Once. I like the chain.

Skinny Buildings

In areas between the dense, built-up center and the quiet, peripheral neighborhoods you find these isolated apartment towers, built to their legal maximum height [or higher if the right people were paid off]. Swings in the fortunes of the property market can leave these buildings alone in the sky for decades.

Campeonato de Polo

On Sunday I watched a match between Black Watch and Ellerstina in the 115th Argentina Polo Championship at the Polo Grounds on Libertador and Dorrego. I'm a complete polo novice and so I went more out of curiosity than anything else. My main impression, one which is completely obvious but which I'd simply never thought through before, is that those horse move fast. Also, the horses, which you could see through the rails on the avenue, resting, are incredibly muscular and beautiful to look at. I know nothing about the polo schedule here but here's an info page on Vitural Tourist.

Pampa El Leoncito

Pampa El Leoncito, a dry lake bed just south of Barreal in San Juan Province.

Two Virgins

Entering Calingasta in San Juan province

Outside Uspallata in Mendoza province

Gauchito Gil in San Juan

Memorials to Guachito Gil are to be found on roadsides all across Agentina. Like Difunta Correa, Gauchito Gil is another popular saint whose red memorials are instantly recognizable [wiki]. Here are a couple from my recent trip to San Juan found on the road to Valle de Calingasta. The red looks amazing against the earth and the sky. If you're just in Buenos Aires, you only need to go as far as Parque Los Andes on Avenida Corrientes to find a big memorial.