sorry I'm late

After being told that this page was being ill-maintained I decided it might be a good idea to report some things from the front.

The pic above is one of the roadside shrines I have seen. I finally learned what it is. It's odd to have bottles with corporate branding on them surrounding a relious centerpiece no? This is a shrine to the Dfinunta Correa. The legend is that she traveled with her baby boy through the desert to meet up with her husband who was conscripted. She died for lack of water but her baby survived on the milk from the lifeless mother's body. People bring bottles filled with water as an offering. She is not a Saint but is treated as such by man Argentines and you can imagine the the Catholic church is none to happy about any of this.

Next the trip to the Millonga. The Millonga is basically a Tango dance hall. This particular venue was called Canning Town. Upon arrival I noticed a mix of ages on the street. There were people barely out of their teenage years as well as people your parents and grandparent's age who had come out for air. It was good to see older people since I was beginning to have the suspicion that there was some Logan's Run type scenario going on here in BA whereby everyone who was not under 30 and beautiful were killed off.

The Millonga hall itself is not much to speak of, a fairly utilitarian room with a bar, the dance floor in the middle and tables flanking the dance floor in a square. Tango is usually depicted as a showpiece with two talented dancers working their magic all by themselves. This however was 200 odd couples at any given time working an overly crowded floor. One thing that struck me as fascinating is that the style of dance is very spacial in nature yet no couples ever bumped into one another. I kept thinkingg and secretly hoping that there would a dance floor train wreck but it would never materialize. The music and dance were more modern than the traditonal places you usually see and hear. The range in ages was fascinating. I can't think of any Friday night activity back home where the young and the almost geriatric get gussied up on a Friday night and let it rip in the same room. The Millonga also is devoted predominantly to Tango but not exclusively. There would be the occasional Jitterbug and Lindy Hop thrown in for good measure and most people seemed comfortable dancing any of these. The other music that made the odd appearance bizarrely enough was The Velvet Underground which the DJ dedicated to us after learning where our table was from. Anyway these halls open at midnight and go until dawn. A quick scan of the room at 4:00AM showed evidence of many of the old folks still occupying their places on the dance floor. This is truly a great spectator activity.

Everything here seems to be named after significant dates in history here rather than the event itself and Tres de Febreuro is name of the city's version of Central Park. It is comprised of lakes, palm oasises, English style rose gardens, marble statues and exotic birds. Nothing is off limits to the pedestrian and the walking paths are crushed red stone that has a distinct smell to them. I am not sure if this is due to the landscape design but endless traffic on the 10 lane wide Ave De Libretrador 2 blocks away is reduced to nothing more than a distant hum inside the park. It seemed the park was a Canines idea of Utopia - in the absence of leash laws dogs are able to run and shit freely in an Eden like environment. It's a dogs life indeed.

So Aregentina lost to Brazil in the Cupa American, this was most unfortunate as I had high hopes of seeing the city go entirely bezerk as the result of a win. It was fun to watch the game with a table of full of Mexicans rooting for Argentina surrounded by Brazilians who were going nuts the entire game with their funny dances and chants.

I visited the MALBA which is the Museo de Arte Latinamericano de Buenos Aires. I guess I understand why there is an acronym for the museum. The museum is fantastic. My favorites were the pieces by Fernando Botero, Jorge de La Vega, Antonio Dias and Leon Ferrari that were in the permanent collection. The Cafe on the ground floor has top notch food and and beverages. The museum was also free so what's not to like?

Here are some random pics