La Boca

La Boca is a rough and tumble blue collar barrios/neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is a very popular tourist stop due to the colorful painted corrugated houses. Another big draw is the La Boca soccer stadium that draws large crowds during games. You are warned not to stray out of the more popular areas around the stadium and the area of El Caminito where the tango restaurants and painted houses are located. We enjoyed hoofing it around there, took the bus over, which we are finally figuring out how to use, have to have the exact change, no bills. Kind of wore one of us out so took a cab back.

Pics, La Boca soccer stadium, tango restaurant, waiting for lunch and some colorful scenes.

Carlos Gardel Tango Theater

Carlos Gardel is one of the most famous singers, songwriter and prominent figures in the history of tango. He died in a plane crash in 1935. In the restaurant scene of "A Scent of a Woman" Al Pachino danced with a woman to the tango Pon Una Cabeza written by Gardel.

We attended the theater last night for the show. This is an impressive 500 seat theater. It was table seating and we were served empanadas and wine during the performance. The musicians with 3 accordionists were as great as the dancers. The musicians were elevated above the stage.

Floralis Generica

 Today was kind of a lazy day, it was noon before we got out, was kind of warm also, think it got up to about 88. We visited the National Museum of Art, a monument to Evita Peron and the Floralis Generica, all are within walking distance of our apt. I suspect Floralis Generica means generic flower, it is a stainless steel flower that is 85 feet tall and weighs 18 tons. In it's better days it slowly closed up in the evening and opened in the morning, according to the park ranger it needs some work to get it mobile again. I just got back from taking a night picture, it's quite a beautiful flower.

Pics, monument to Evita, flower at noon, flowering tree, little girl watching Tango dancing and flower in the evening.

Argentina Exoticas Romanticos

We went to San Telmo this morning to see a weekend market in their plaza, turns out tomorrow is the prime day, but it was fun looking around, watching Tango dancers and having lunch. Most restaurants have tables outside where most prefer to eat, no bugs.

In Argentina the Tango is everywhere, tango music and shows on TV, dance halls, tango shows and many performing dancers in the plazas and pedestrian walks. The dance is fascinating and sensual to watch. I would like to Tango with Nita but fear her leg kicks might not be accurate.

We left San Telmo after lunch and came back to the
Recoleta neighborhood where our apt. Is located. We found a huge weekend market going on in the plaza. All kinds of craft vendors, bands, dancers, singers, etc. Watched the Tango dancers for over an hour.

Mate and bombilla.....many carry a little gourd made into a cup where they pour boiling water from a thermos and add large quantities of tea. Into this cup called a mate they put in a metal straw (bombilla), with a strainer on the end, to suck out the hot strong tea, they pass it around and all suck from the same bombilla.

In our apt we have a great equipped kitchen and a large deck with a BBQ, but the food is so good and inexpensive in the restaurants it's not worth cooking.

Pics, Nita at San Telmo, a cool cervesa on the plaza, monster rubber tree, tango, mate and bombilla, and lovers supposed to be listening to the singer

Plaza de Mayo

Last week Nestor Kirchner, the former Argentina president, unexpectedly died, a great shock to the country. In 2007 he decided not to run for a second term and instead his wife Christina ran and won and is the first elected female head of state.

Today we toured the beautiful Plaza de Mayo where President Christina presides in the Casa Rosada. From there we walked about a mile along Florida Ave. Which is mostly a pedestrian street lined with all kinds of shops and vendors. Think we wore Nita out as she was ready to go home in the early afternoon.

Pics,  Casa Rosada (pink house) the presidential palace, memorial signs for Nestor Kirchner on the obelisk built to mark the aniversary of the independence from Spain, the gong show and Florida Ave...can you spot Nita?

 

Dos turistas locos en Buenos Aires

After a long night flight we finally made it to our apartment in the Recoleta neighborhood in BA yesterday afternoon. Today we have been getting our bearings by taking a double decker bus tour of the city, wow what a big city, 3 million folks. It's Spring here, warm and trees and plants blooming.

Pics, bus tour, Basilica at night, dog walker, monster veal cutlet/salad/liter of beer for $18

Swallow Falls state park & iPad test

Several weeks ago we spent 4 nights at Swallow Falls located in the mountain area of Maryland close to the WV border. Oakland, MD was celebrating their annual Autumn Glory Festival with parades and events, we were blessed with perfect weather. The altitude is about 2500 feet and Fall is about 3 weeks earlier than we have it in the bay area. The picture below was taken in the park, the pretty yellow tree in the fore ground is a Maple.


This coming Tuesday we are trading in this nice Fall weather for some nice Spring weather. Will be flying instead driving in our little View motorhome. Will have to travel light and will take the iPad to do the blog instead of the heavy laptop. So.....this is a practice run to see if this little iPad, or should I say if this mature f%^# can handle the blog on the iPad. Tune in next week to see if we can.