Demolished Houses & Medianeras

I'm fascinated by the traces of demolished houses on the medianeras, which is the wall that two adjacent properties share. Above you can see each rooms' tiling or wallpaper. They're records of the destruction of Buenos Aires' architectural legacy as well as glimpses into an interior life rarely on view. Usually these plots are blocked by fences and you can only view it from the side. Recently I realized I could put my camera on a tripod and hoist it up like a pole and thus "see" over the fence, which is what I did with the photo above. I like the point of view altho I wish I had a wider angle lens, something like this, to see more of the sides of the building. If you're interested sites like this I'd check out Laura Gorbatt's blog as she's been documenting similar sites. Also, I'd recommend Basta de Demoler which is trying to rally support for preservation.

Ugly 70s Tower in Villa Crespo

I've always kind of liked this 70's monster that looms over Canning & Loyola in Villa Crespo.

Fiat 125 For Sale

1977 Fiat 125 for sale [as indicated by the water bottle on the car's roof]. If you're interested call 155 745 7437. No kidding. Love that teal!

Statues in the Jardin Botanico

Drought

There's a serious drought affecting Argentina. The government has declared a state of emergency and the agricultural sector is facing billions in losses. In Buenos Aires we've had a dry, hot summer with very little rain. The parks and the plazas, which rely on rainfall, have been turning brown the last few weeks. Here's Plaza Constitucion. Even in normal times it's not the best kept plaza but now it's turned into a dustbowl.

Skinny French

A skinny estilo frances apartment building on Avenida Belgrano and 24 de Noviembre in Balvanera. There are a few streets in Recoleta where most of the buildings are in this style and lead people to often make comparisons between Buenos Aires and Paris. Outside of Recoleta, however, buildings in this style tend to be more isolated.

Parking Lots

Spinkled throughout the city are empty lots turned into parking lots. Frequently they're covered with a black or blue, plastic, translucent shading material. It gives the light in the parking lots a curious, difused quality.

I'm not the first to notice this effect. I remember going to a photography fair here a few months back and seeing massive, wall-sized prints of these parking lots [I can't remember the photographer's name, so if you know who I'm talking about, please leave a comment]. Other tourists on Flickr have posted their takes as well: one, two, three, four.

Also, I'd like to thank Buenos Aires Weekly for linking here. If you're new here, welcome.

No Hay Monedas [Por Dios!]

I would be remiss in my duties as an expat blogger living in Buenos Aires to not address the severe coin shortage afflicting the city. As has been recently covered in Slate, the Wall Street Journal and countless blog, the city just doesn't have enough coins. The root of the problem is that the city's buses only accept coins. Recently the bus fare went up from 90 cents to 1.10 pesos thus breaking an important psychological barrier. It's very difficult to get more than a pesos' worth of change from a single, small transaction. Kiosk's typically warn you in advance of their lack of coinage as you can see in the photo above, written with typical Argentine understatement.

Survival in Buenos Aires requires a combination of meticulous planning and ruthlessness. Every transaction is a goal to achieving the maximum amount of change. You eventually learn how much change various vendors are willing to give out and you plan your purchases accordingly. One always pays with the highest value banknote possible. This occasionally requires some white lies as the forlorn check-out girl at Coto sighs as she asks if you have any monedas. I respond with an equally resigned voice, no, lo siento and promptly pay for my small purchase with a 100 peso note. Remember, she's just an employee and Alfredo Coto does not need your monedas.

Of course this whole problem could easily be solved if card readers were installed on buses here. Mendoza and Mar Del Plata both use magnetic cards and I can confirm that coins were much easier to come by there. This article in Critica lays the blame at the feet of the bus companies, saying they are resisting installing card readers because it would require them to fully declare their income and not cheat on taxes. There's usually an obvious reason why equally obvious solutions aren't implemented and it usually has to do with money.

San Telmo Fair

Ciudad Baigon, a tango orchestra.




Bernabé Ferreyra aka Carlos Lujan aka Gardelito. Tanguero, street performer and Carlos Gardel imitator. He's been doing this since 1972.




Antique stand in Plaza Dorrego


Antique store on Calle Defensa


Garrapiñadas. Yummy.


It's been awhile since I've blogged any meat & potatoes touristic stuff. Here's a few pictures from the grandaddy of them all, the antique fair in San Telmo.

10 Australes

I was missing one bill in my series on hyperinflation and banknotes. It was the 10,000 Peso Argentino note pictured above. This note was in circulation when the Austral was introduced. Rather than retire the note, the new value in Australes, 10 in this case, was simply stamped on the front and back of the note.

ProvinGias with a 'G'

Mordi left a comment on my hyperinflation post pointing out that the original batch of 1 peso coins issued in 1995 came with an error, misspelling "Provincias" as "ProvinGias". As soon as I read this I searched through my precious coin pile and sure enough, found a coin with the error. Here's closer-up macro photo on flickr that shows the error.

Fiat 600 - White & Red

The Fiat 600 is a cult car in Argentina [as I suppose it is in Europe too]. You'll often see models all tricked out or lovingly restored. The red interior on this one just blew me away.

Red & Blue

The Linea Urquiza train in Lacroze station.


Parking lot with red arrows

Blue & Green

Plaza Miserere. The sculpture is by Rogelio Yrurtia.


I liked color combo with the entrance tiles and plants.

Renault 12

Renault 12 in Once with Malvinas sticker

Posters outside an Autoservicio Chino

Small, chinese-run supermarkets dot the city. Frequently on the wall outside is a profusion of posters for soft drinks and beer. I find the jumble of posters and colors visually interesting.

Subte Linea A - Estacion Carabobo

A couple of weeks ago the government inaugerated two new stops on Line A, the oldest of Buenos Aires'subway lines. The pictures below are from the new last stop, Carabobo.

They're still using the old wooden trains.




The stations are pretty plain and functional. The only decoration are murals by well known street artists. This photo on Flickr identifies some of the artists.

China Zorrilla in Once - II

A few months ago I posted a scary photo of comedic actress China Zorrilla in the window of an appraisal shop in Once. It seems someone was listening because I walked by there a couple of days and they've hired a better photographer and a retoucher.

Calling Pi

The emergency number on Buenos Aires' subways and trains is π, as in the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. And remember that it's 31416 not 314159 or 314159265 when the guy sitting next to you has a heart attack. If you don't like it, you can call their customer service line and complain. Their number is the fibonacci sequence.

Ugly 70s Apartment Towers

As ugly as the 60s apartment buildings are, far worse are the large towers from the 70s sprinkled across the city. Often they're smack in the middle of quiet, low-rise neighborhoods. On the plus side, those living in the buildings have great views.

Blue Sky & Apartment Bulding

Here's a similar apartment building with front and back parts that's on Ave. Santa Fe & Fitz Roy. The sky here has been really, really blue lately.

Cuerpo Atras

Buenos Aires looks nothing like Paris largely because it was wrecked in the 1960s by all these ugly, cramped, concrete apartment towers which went up all over the city. Peron freezed rents during his time in office in the 1950s and so there was huge pent up demand. I don't know the details of the story but zoning laws were either relaxed or overcome thru bribes to build much larger buildings than what came before or has been built since. Particularly distinctive for me is the whole rear body of the building. In theory the interior of each block is supposed to be free of buildings to allow light and air in. It's actually called the pulmon or lung of the block. Buildings from this era cover nearly the entire plot.

I actually have a soft spot for these buildings. I think such an oversupply of crappy apartments keeps prices down and allows families, creative types and whatnot to continue to live in the center of the city. Buenos Aires is not a jewel like Paris and I think that's a good thing for the city's vitality.

If you know of any sites online about Buenos Aires in the 1960s, I'd be interested to hear about it in the comments.

Francisco Salamone - Rauch City Hall

Francisco Salamone was an Argentine arquitect who worked in an art deco/futurist/fascist style and was active for just four years between 1936 and 1940. He was closely aligned politically with the conservative governor of Buenos Aires Province and got few comissions once he left office. During those four years, however, Salamone designed over 60 buildings in small towns in the southern part of the provice. He built city halls, cemeteries and slaughter houses [which, when you think about it are the three most important institutions, aside from the church, in small town provincial life].

I first became aware of Salamone's work looking at an exhibit of Esteban Pastorino's moody prints of his buildings. By coincidence my boyfriend and I went to Rauch the weekend after new years. It's a town that's exactly 12 by 12 blocks located 280km south of Buenos Aires. Every January 2nd there's a party for all the students back in town for the holidays [I posted some pics on my personal blog].

Like any cult figure, there's plenty of material online about Salamone these days; a flickr pool, a long post on skyscraper city, and a slide show on Clarin.