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

A one-man-show in San Telmo

On Sunday in San Telmo you can meet original people. This guy was caught in a sudden "storm" on Defensa. His coat and tie flying.

 

Tango in La Boca

I don’t pretend to have any knowledge of music. So don’t think you will be reading anything that adds up to yours. Music should put me in a good mood, just as a nice red wine.

Well, being in Buenos Aires you hear and see tango everywhere. For a tourist (like me) there are certain places where the tango enjoyment is concentrated. Yes sure, we went to La Boca.

 

La Boca used to be a poor fishing village. Out of pieces of old boats the people constructed a kind of patchwork houses. Now these colorful houses are transformed into shops and restaurants or places for another kind of touristic activities. You cannot stop progress. 

Just go there to enjoy what is there: Music, dance, food and wine. It is nice to look around in the shops for presents to take home. It even looked more prosperous than 5 years ago. After visiting some shops and taking pictures of the houses (yes everybody takes the same pictures… and you can also just buy them on the street), we settled down at a restaurant called “Yunta”. Enjoying life at a place like this is great. 

There was the classic tango couple. The man, a dark looking person with an Inca face, was a fantastic performer. He couldn’t have been better casted for this show. Expressing this touch of machismo, that is so essential for the tango. There was also folklore dancing by a gaucho and his partner.

Most of all I enjoyed the singing of Julio. Julio already 80 and still going strong! Old tango songs from long ago, when La Boca was a wild place and Julio was young. “Por un cabesa”…. melancholic and beautiful. I took another sip of my wine …….

The "Librería de Avila", a bookshop

On the corner of Bolivar and Adolfo Alsina you can find the "Librerá de Avila". It is a bookshop. But wat a bookshop. It dates from 1785 - when it started as the "Librería del Colegio". This College Bookshop existed untill 1989. Then the bookshop changed its name into Bookshop of Avila. Just look at the pictures and think yourself there with all these books. Everywhere there were little corners. A desk with a lamp. The portret of Borges on an old typewriter. Cupboards with old things, pictures, memorabilia. The huge sofa inviting you to sit and read. Another desk and books, many, many books.... 


We spend some hours there. It was a pitty that they were restoring the café. Now we have to come back......
The Librería has a website.... One thing is obvious: Time didn't fly in this bookshop.

 

A yuppie theme park: Puerto Madero

Thinking it would be nice to go to a part of Buenos Aires that was completely unknown to us, we decided to go to Puerto Madero. Our hotel was not far. We only needed to cross some busy avenues. We were not prepared for the surprise. There was Puerto Madero, but it was as if we were arriving in the Docklands in London.

It was “cool”. New and trendy old mixed together to a yuppie paradise. 

The old cranes and old ships are like artefacts on a set. Walking along the docks you have no idea even of being in Latin America. The cafes and restaurants play rock, beat and other western music. 

The one thing that comes near to tango is the bridge of the women - the puente de la Mujer. Companies have European / North American names. Prices are adjusted to the level of European cities.  

Sure, the weather is much better than in London. The pieces of meat on the menu are huge. You get them with a lot of potatoes… the green is separate. The wine is excellent and the glasses are much larger then in Europe.

Everything is smooth. I found just one derelict building. I suppose in a few years it will also be transformed into something beautiful and expensive.

I loved to be there; just watching the scenery. The blue sky, the colors, the feeling of being safe. At the same time it feels artificial, like being in some theme park. It is nice for a change to be “back” for a while, but after some time I miss the noisy, busy and lively atmosphere of Latin America.