I'm excited to be back to enjoy this lovely city and its friendly people for another month.
Plaza de Mayo, with Cabildo on left.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires_Cabildo
Casa Rosada (house of govt.), la bandera and the torres of Puerto Madero... Dubai-like highrise apts for the rich....history of the area is interesting as it was part of the port originally....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Madero...Today it's just sort of a boring place for rich business people, the kind of place that is pretty much the same the world over. It has little of what's wonderful about BsAs and much of whats wrong with the new neoliberal world order...expenisve restaurants, total car culture, total class hierarchy, zero soul
Saying goodbye to Federico from the bus in Cordoba...this was sad, he looks like an orphan! My very good friend who I miss already.
One of Argentina's most renowned Modernest novelists, Ernesto Sabato on Avenida 9 de Julio. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Sabato
Imagine if we featured writers on Santa Monica Blvd. or Broadway or Market St.
This sculpture is made of 30,000 books, and titled the Tower of Babel
la cuenta! Not really, but it's always a bit of a chore to get the check in Argentina or Chile and if there isn't a statue commemorating this, there should be. This is actually a politician by the name of Lisandro de la Torre....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisandro_de_la_Torre
Ezequiel in the tiny kitchenette in my Congreso District apt
Another march, this time Catholic Youth, which was telling for its low energy. They had drums, but they weren't playing them very hard...then again, it's not an aggressive scene (or shouldn't be), but it struck me that kids into religion have not come into themselves yet, they haven't found their real true power that one can only really find by looking inward and having a spiritual experience not dictated from the outside. Otherwise, it just ends up another shallow political movement that results in violence, division and injustice (none of which are spiritual values) and people are manipulated by it and used by sinister forces interested in power. We see this happening to young people all over the world at the hands of so-called religious leaders. Save the children!
Belgrano's tomb in San Telmo
I just thought it was strange that that large highrise in the distance looks like my thumb drive.
We took a hike through the 'reserva', a beautiful natural area between Puerto Madero (the buildings in the distance below) and the Rio De La Plata, which is the widest river in the world....at least the last few hundred miles of it....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buenos_Aires_Ecological_Reserve
Uruguay is somewhere out there
The elections are on (there's an image of Evita on the above bldg) and there are posters all over town, and the police are cleaning up the protest sites, which will likely be back as soon as the election is over. There are also fairs and all sorts of gatherings to encourage people to vote, which seems a little corrupt and old school, as in Huey Long, to me. But corruption here is endemic and Clarin, ...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clar%C3%ADn_(newspaper)...the newspaper that is the arch-enemy of Cristina...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_between_Clar%C3%ADn_and_Kirchnerism.... is threatening to begin running lists of accusations of corrupt activities in the daily paper. I think it's potentially a good idea, but I assume it will be completely political in which case it will change nothing and just further delegitimize an increasingly illegitamite political system--which Argentina really can't afford, considering its history. But corruption here is so out of hand it threatens to actually starve and/or kill people, and the Peronistas don't seem enough concerned, which is a sad comment. Then again, how do you change a culture? The shadow of Peron forever hovers over this country...I don't see how that can be changed...it's really entrenched. Peronism seems to be THE defining moment of Argentine politics and it's not an ideal one. Watching videos of Peron, you can see his charisma, the same grandfatherly Reagan schtick right to the end.
Cordoba's Belgrano football club beat River Plate and then tied with them, demoting them to level B in the Copa de America...which led to a riot among River Plate fans. River Plate's nickname is the millionaires as they pump so much money into the team....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Atl%C3%A9tico_River_Plate...they're like the Yankees, flush with cash and the most winning team ever, so this is a huge humiliation. The ritoing was bad..burned cars, trashed stores...out came the water cannon and tear gas and the police definitely looked less in control than the old Carabineros in Chile who would never let things get this out of hand. It almost looked like Greece. Watch this video:
Yes, football gets more emotional response than real issues, same as it ever was.....
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