Buenos Aires Photographer - Big Pics of BA: 2010.03

Valientes & Big Hair

The three galanes from the hit telenovela Valientes are putting on a theatre show presumably recapping the steamier scenes from the series. It's their hair that gets me, however. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger--reminds me of a certain musical trio from the 70s.

Culto Gitano - Sandro Cover Band

Coverbands aren't just limited to ABBA and the Beatles. Now there's one for recently deceased singer, Sandro.

Constitucion

For me, the most spectacular of Buenos Aires' train stations:

I'm labeling this post as "touristy stuff" but please note that the area around the station is not safe, especially at night.

See also my picture of Constitucion from 2008.

Irrompibles Pintada Politica

My love and obsession with pintadas politicas continues. What I love about this photo is not just the script but the strokes on the wall of the white wash, determining the "canvas", the texture of the sidewalk and the pavement partially covering the cobblestones. This is somewhere in Caballito/Flores near Avenida Boyaca.

Condor & San Martin

I like statues of condors because they're an impressive species and also because the canyons of the Andes are so distant, both physically and aesthetically, from the pampas around Buenos Aires. They evoke a sense of national identity and ownership of a diverse landscape far from the cosmopolitan capital. The bust of the general San Martin on the lower right likely refers to his march over the Andes during the campaign to liberate Argentina from Spanish colonial rule.

Not so visible from this angle in the photo is that the neck of the condor statue is broken and hangs limply to the side. This plaza is located near the Cancha de River. I think it's called Parque San Benito; at least that's the name that's closest on the map. For more condors, see my post on Edificio Otto Wulf, one of my favorite in Buenos Aires.

Fiat 68 for Sale

A cute little 1968 Fiat could be yours. Just a flat tire to fix.

I find these kinds of pictures hard to resist. Here's a couple more angles:

Cancha de River

Built by the military dictatorship for the 1978 World Cup, which Argentina won, the stadium, also known as El Monumental, is the home field for the River Plate Futbol Club.

Anything related to futbol/soccer is very poorly underrepresented on this blog. Recently, however, the San Telmo loft blog has published two really excellent posts on getting tickets to a Boca game the cheap way and another about the history of the Boca Juniors and the fan experience--really informative posts and great pictures too.

Catedral

As Buenos Aires was a relative colonial backwater, the catheral on Plaza de Mayo doesn't really compare with Mexico City or Lima, altho it's got a lot of historical importance, including being the grave site of national hero San Martin.

The changing of the guard and my poor attempt at panning.

San Martin's mausoleum

Graffiti by the Movimiento Izquiera Revolucionario equating the church and the military dictatorship.

Ugi's Index - March 2010

Last year I wrote up a detailed post on The Ugi's Index. It's sort of a local version of the Economist's Big Mac Index which tracks the price, in dollars, of Big Mac's around the world as a means of comparing currencies and price levels in different countries. The Ugi's index is more a means of tracking the Argentine inflation and relating it back to dollars by using a single, iconic item; the Ugi's pie. Recently inflation has been accelerating and stories of skyrocketing beef prices have been all over the news.

In January Ugi's raised their price from 12 pesos to 14 but recently they've rolled back to 11.99 pesos. Here's my tracking spreadsheet updated with two more entries for this January and currently. In fairness, tracking the price of an Ugi's pizza in constant 2000 dollars is a little silly as the price of inputs like cheese and flour fluctuates wildly with overall commodity prices.


.	Date	Price in Pesos	Exchange Rate	Price in Dollars	CPI Deflator	Constant 2000 Dollars	% Change since 2000
.	1/1/2000	2	1	$2	1	$2	-
.	1/25/2004	3.5	2.98	$1.17	1.1	$1.07	-46%
.	9/4/2006	4.8	3.1	$1.55	1.17	$1.32	-34%
.	2/1/2008	6.9	3.16	$2.18	1.25	$1.75	-13%
.	3/1/2008	8	3.17	$2.52	1.25	$2.02	1%
.	4/1/2008	10	3.17	$3.15	1.25	$2.52	26%
.	3/1/2009	12	3.65	$3.29	1.23	$2.67	33%
.	1/15/2010	14	3.86	$3.63	1.24	$2.91	46%
.	3/1/5/2010	11.99	3.89	$3.08	1.24	$2.48	24%

New Year's in Saavedra

Confession: I've actually been in Calfornia since January 13th, working on a project about Dinuba, this small town in the San Joaquin Valley where my mom's family is from. You can follow my progress on my other blog and on this flickr set.

I'm arriving back in BsAs on March 14th, Meanwhile, I hope you've been enjoying photos from all my archives. On Jan 1st there was a high, light cloud cover that difused the light and cut slightly the oppressive heat. I went out and walked around Saavedra:

This house rocks [hehe]. It's right across the street from the Walmart that abuts General Paz.

Nightime on the 9th Floor

In dense neighborhoods like Barrio Norte or here, just near Alto Palermo, the buildings are nearly all of uniform height. Up near the top there's a certain intimacy of being able to stare into your neighbors' living rooms. It's literally another plane of city life.

Plaza Alemania

These two are from a couple of months ago. I was walking back from seeing a show at MALBA. It was spring and I was struck by the brilliant green of the sun shining through the fresh leaves on the Tipa trees. That's a woman doing Yoga over there on the left.