The rising waters……….

 

The day was bright and beautiful…. So how nice to have a picnic on the beach.  White sands, only touched by the wind, blue sky, a quiet dark blue sea. Yes this is how it should be forever, but the waters are rising……

The first thing you notice when you start crossing the last of the dunes are large metal strips across the entrance to the beach. “What is this? Another amazing new real estate investment?”

And then you get a bit further, over the dunes. “Oh help they are digging… there are pipes… oil???” As we look over the fence my friend tells me this is a project to protect the coast against the rising of the sea level.

Of course I cannot pass without taking some pictures. A workman comes to the fence (are we trespassing?) and hands us a folder. This really is a strange project! But I am beginning to like it.

In short: The Dutch fought the sea for so long, that now they want to trick it into helping them. Loads of sand are brought to the coast. They are creating a kind of sandbank that reminds me of the sands in Sicily near Tindari looking more or less like a Madonna. 

And then it starts to get interesting…. The sea will spread the sand along the coast in stead of taking it from the beaches. The name of the project “Sand Engine” says it all.

This was an educational picnic! We enjoyed the bright yellow rubbish bins.

A little plant, looking a bit like a succulent, was struggling for life.

The fence that vanishes in the distance.

Just another perfect day……

See larger pictures on Flickr: the Sand Engine

Hotel with a view....

It always feels great to look over a city from a high building. In Buenos Aires we had a hotel in the old part of town on “Moreno”; between the Plaza de Mayo and San Telmo. The view from our room was interesting, but the view from the roof terrace was wonderful.

Looking in the direction of the Plaza de Mayo there is the church from the “Convento San Francisco”. Two elegant towers at both sides of the entrance, a large cupola in the middle.

Next to the cupola you see the little Big Ben. It chimes exactly like its Big Brother in London. 

 

 

Like on many old buildings in Buenos Aires little trees grow on the walls. The neigbourhood of the hotel is old and sometimes falling apart. The first impression is "where are we now"? Looking back it was an ideal place. Quite "bohemien". And there is much evidence that things get better.

Next door to us are some very freshly painted white ladies sitting on the edge of the façade of the Ethnographic museum. One is almost sliding down and her sister is looking in a mirror. Sure, they are not afraid of heights. This museum is being restored.

But take a look at this rooftop. The grasses grow wild. The rests of a greenhouse, the remnants of a beautiful dream… This must have been a small paradise in a rich past.

Inside the bloc, on top of the tangle of buildings, al kinds of different roof terraces. It must be nice to make a BBQ at the end of a busy day on this cozy roof terrace. Although you must have your back to the watertanks, the peeling walls, the fire stairs, the happy colored washing of the neighbors….  Just keep looking at your own plants and everything will be fine.

  

 

Further away the skyscrapers of the Puerto Madera dominate the horizon. It is obvious; there Buenos Aires is booming.

Tortoni

Tortoni is a famous restaurant on the Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires. Antonio and me went there after the Cabildo was closed. There we spend the evening of march 6 2006. A date to remember.

 

I still feel your arm

Showing me the pictures

On the wall at Tortoni’s

I still see your eyes

So dark, so deep

I feel your shyness

And you must feel mine

As though we are children

Loving for the first time

Living in a world called Tortoni’s

My glass of wine

Thirsts for the deep brown sea

Of my lovers eyes.

Red and brown

Black the depth

Of their longing

  

My love

Do I miss you

Our time together only six hours

Enough to fill a lifetime

Enough to feel lost these days without you

What is another 48 days

Just a bite out of this year

Endless in our eyes

Endless the few days since our last e-mail

Far away on the other side

Of our horizon of time

You look at me in black and white

Retouched by me

I am touched by you

I look at you in black and white

The essence of a person

Caught in one dimension

Tango

Tangible emotion

I cry when I hear your passion

I want to hold my love close to my heart

The music vibrating in our bodies

In a whirl that binds us together

Tangible love

And now we are back

5 Years later

We drink the wine of our love

In this place
Confirming the impossible

Gardel and Borges as our witnesses