Buenos Aires

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Social Life Revving Up Again!

Yesterday we had a lovely lunch in the courtyard cafe attached to the Museo Evita. Because of social distancing we had to divide our party of eight between two tables, but other than that it didn’t feel very different from normal. The food was good — although the waitress didn’t write anything down and I don’t think any of us got our steak cooked the way we asked for it!

I haven’t been in the actual museum, and of course it’s closed right now. It’s on my list of things to do when I can, though. As you can see, the outside of the building is quaint, and I love this staircase with all the plants on it.

We call ourselves Ladies Who Lunch, but Lynne’s husband, Paul, is often a nice addition, as he is a great story teller! Unfortunately, Lynne took this photo so she doesn’t appear in the group — but she was there!

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Another Good Sign

When I went for my morning walk today I saw the local farmers’ market is open again after being closed since the beginning of the pandemia back in March. It used to be in a park called Plaza Vicente Lopez, which I pass through on my way to the cafe for breakfast, but now they have closed off a small section of the street beside the park instead. I don’t know why, but it’s still very handy for me.

Another good sign of better days to come.

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I Finally Did a New Sketch

Part of my resolve yesterday was to get back to sketching. I have several sketchbooks full of things I’ve done in my travels over the past several years, as well as in Toronto and other parts of Canada. But for some reason I haven’t been moved to sketch at all for some time. The last page in my book was something from my trip to Bariloche in January! I don’t think it was anything to do with the pandemic, although of course that didn’t help.

Anyway, I decided to force myself to do something yesterday in the hope it would get me back on track. I had noticed on my walks that the Starbucks near me had a few tables outside, with a good view of one of the typical corner buildings of Buenos Aires. I don’t normally frequent Starbucks because I hate their coffee, but I ordered some sort of creamy concoction and settled in for half an hour at one of the tables. This sketch is the result.

I’m definitely rusty, and it was a struggle to produce this less-than-satisfactory result. But let’s hope it’s the first of a new wave of sketches to come.

 

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Finally — a Night Out!

Even though I’ve met a few friends for coffee or lunch over recent weeks, we’ve all been feeling desperate to go out for the evening. As Lina put it, “I didn’t move to Buenos Aires to stay home at night!”

Sasha is a young Peruvian friend who used to be Venetia’s room mate several years ago, but she is now part of our larger group of friends. Venetia and I went for a glass of wine at her place on Monday evening and then we all went out in search of a place for dinner. They live in Palermo, which is a very big barrio and I’m not intiminately familiar with it, so I left the choice of restaurant to them.

We ended up in a very nice place called Velvet. It has a kind of local feel to it, and the food was excellent. As is often the case, there was way too much food, and we all took half home for Tuesday’s dinner! It was peppery chicken with Spanish potatoes (kind of home made potato chips but a bit thicker, and quite delicious).

Before I went to meet the chicas, I had heard from my sister-in-law, Elise, that she has officially retired, so here we are drinking Malbec to toast her happy retirement! (Venetia is beside me and Sasha across the table.)

I hope this was the first of many more nights out as summer approaches in Argentina!

 

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Beautiful Traditional Artwork

A couple of weeks ago Venetia and I were invited to visit Mercedes, a friend of our friend Lina, who lives in the lovely old barrio of San Telmo. I was delighted to see the door to her place was painted in traditional Fileteado Porteño.

Then when we got inside I was reminded of something I found out one night before the pandemic, and that is that many of those old buildings in San Telmo hold lovely surprises inside. Mercedes lives in a hidden complex, with several floors of quaint homes, and a swimming pool in the yard. She owns several of these places, which she rents out to tourists (when there are any of course!).

So I wanted to share a couple of pictures of this unexpected gem.

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Unexpected Musical Treat in the Park

Yesterday my friend Alejandro and I went for a walk around Plaza Francia. It’s a park just five minutes from me, where in normal times there is an artesan fair every weekend of the year. Sadly, of course, it has been missing for the past six months, and it’s kind of sad to see the park without it.

But there was a nice surprise. As we approached the part where the fair usually is, we heard applause, and as we got closer we found it was a choir standing in a socially distanced circle. We arrived just in time for this:

It was just enough to remind us of what we always say — in Buenos Aires anything can happen at any time! Fortunately, this was a nice thing — which we need these days.

Today I’m hoping to be back in the area to meet my friends Venetia and Liz, although the weather is kind of iffy. Fingers crossed the rain holds off.

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I’ll be a gardener yet!

My mother was a keen gardener all her life, and my brother definitely inherited her green thumb. I’ve never been that enthusiastic, though, not even with house plants. When I moved into this apartment a year and a half ago (is it really that long?) there were plants on the balcony and window ledges. My cleaning lady really looked after them more than I did, and since she hasn’t been here since the pandemic began … well, you can imagine. They didn’t weather the winter very well.

However, when I realized I was wasting the potential, I enlisted the help of Venetia, who is a very enthusiastic gardener. She helped me clean out the pots and repot some of the poor things that were badly pot bound. I’ve been watering and feeding them regularly and they have responded. I might even be starting to understand the excitement of watching them grow. Here are a few photos, and I’ll post some more when the bulbs blossom.

This is just part of the balcony. I like how the palm tree in the courtyard is just high enough to almost become part of the garden!

Kalanchoe

Kalanchoe

The first plant is on the kitchen windowledge. There’s a wee passage running from the kitchen to the laundry room with windows all along. That’s where the other plants are.

The kitchen windows face into a yard between buildings, so there’s very little sun. But these green ones seem to do well in the shade and brighten up a rather dull outlook.

I actually managed to repot a plant this week all by myself, without Venetia’s help! I’m not quite at the stage where I love getting my hands in the dirt, but you never know, I might get there yet!

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Lovely Early Spring Afternoon

Today was one of those days when you could just feel spring in the air. Beautiful blue sky and sunshine, warm temperature, and people enjoying the park. If you can overlook the masks, which are kind of becoming invisible by now, it almost looked as if we were back to normal.

I ended my walk with a glass of red wine at La Parolacchia, because my favourite La Biela was full. A glass of wine at La Biela costs 110 pesos, but at this place there was a high service charge on top of a high price, and the whole thing cost 425 pesos. OK, I know it’s only $8 Cdn, but it’s high for here, and I won’t be going back there any time soon!

Like other places, they have “touchless menu”, so I really have to remember to download the QR code app.

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Las Chicas in Puerto Madero!

When I told my friends in our WhatsApp group about my outing to Puerto Madero last week, one by one they all said, “Let’s go on Sunday!” So we did.

Venetia walked from her place in Palermo to my place and then we took a taxi. It was another bright sunny winter day and as you can see, we were all well wrapped up. This is the first time we’ve all been together since March — albeit illegally! We actually had problems recognizing each other wearing masks! Thanks to Venetia for once again talking the photo, which unfortunately meant she couldn’t be in it — nobody was passing to take it for us.

There is a market cafe where we met, and we all picked up sandwiches and coffee for lunch, which we ate sitting socially distanced on some benches looking out on the water and talked ourselves hoarse!

The only fly in the ointment was that there were no washrooms available! The one in the cafe was closed to the public because of quarantine and the Hilton Hotel, where we usually go to the washroom during our New Year celebrations down there, was closed like all the other hotels. That posed a bit of a problem and led to us leaving a bit sooner than planned!

All in all, though, it was great and there was general agreement we’ll do it again soon.

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An Afternoon of Escape!

I’ve been walking in the neighbourhood quite a bit with my friend Susan, but today she suggested something different and I’m glad she did.

There’s a barrio down on the river called Puerto Madero – very modern with highrise buildings. It could be anywhere really, and is not typical of Buenos Aires. But it does have lovely parkland, and a canal runs parallel to the river, lined with restaurants and nightclubs.

We took a taxi down and walked quite a distance in the sun, watching families with kids and dogs having fun while more or less respecting social distancing. On our way back, we passed the restaurant strip, which was quite busy. One place was selling takeout, so we bought a small bottle of Malbec and drank it out of plastic cups, almost in the exact spot where my friends and I celebrate New Year. We had to take our masks off to drink the wine, of course, but were very conscientious otherwise!

The sun was warm and the sky was blue, so definitely a forecast of spring and a brief but welcome respite from lockdown.