January 10, 2018 by hwilkie@mhwcom.com

I know it’s a strange tourist attraction…

Time for a new video!

The first time I came here I resisted the impulse to visit Recoleta Cemetery because, well, it’s a cemetery for goodness sake. Not something I usually do when I’m on vacation.

However, all the guidebooks mention this particular one and it certainly is popular, so eventually I went along to check it out. Now I get it! It is so worth a visit on many levels, and for me not the least of those is sketching. I’ve also been here when I’ve had visitors and they also found it well worth the visit. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this short video and a few of my sketches from past visits.

January 7, 2018 by hwilkie@mhwcom.com

My first visit to a Mosque

Yesterday I went with three friends to visit the Mosque at the Islamic Centre of Buenos Aires. I’ve never been in a Mosque before, and I found it interesting.

We had a complete tour of the complex, not just the Mosque itself, and it was all in Spanish. Our guide spoke very rapidly, so it was quite challenging but I think I understood the most important parts.

He took us into the classroom where they teach Arabic and there he took questions about Islam. There were many questions and he answered very fully.

Finally it was time to enter the Mosque, where the Imam was just about to start preparation for prayers, and we were all invited to sit on the floor at the back. It took quite a long time, and I took the opportunity to make a small sketch. Unlike the Mosques in the Arabic countries, which I’ve only seen in pictures, this one was not elaborate at all, and the sketch reflects that. I’ll put a photo of the same detail beside it so you’ll see what I mean.

Afterwards we had a lovely lunch together, and then took a v-e-r-y long walk home.

January 2, 2018 by hwilkie@mhwcom.com

Beautiful Buenos Aires Doors

One outstanding feature of Buenos Aires architecture is the doors. Of course, the doors on important buildings are very fine, but so are many on ordinary apartment buildings. I’ve always meant to sketch a series of them, and I finally started. Here are the two I did this week.

Yesterday I was going up Ayacucho Street to visit a friend — and quaff some more New Year champagne — and I stopped to sketch this beautiful black wrought iron door. I had noticed it before, so I went prepared with my sketching materials.

It belongs to a restaurant, and the stonework above it is just as beautiful as the door itself.

The second one is a lovely honey coloured wood, also quite popular in buildings made predominantly from cream coloured stone — well, I don’t know if it’s actually stone, but I mean the building material is cream coloured. I sat on the doorstep of the building opposite to do this one, and I asked the concierge what the building was behind the door. He shrugged and said it was just a residence, “nothing special”. Mind you, it must be quite a residence, but anyway I just love the door.

I cheated with the third one, as I actually did it a couple of years ago. Now this is an important building. It belongs to the Argentine Navy. It was a blistering hot day, and I found a cafe kitty corner to the building and sketched it while eating fruit and cheese and drinking a cool glass of white wine!

Finally, on my way home today I saw this performance and couldn’t resist photographing it. Two men on the ground pulling ropes, two more men on a high-up balcony pulling the other end of the ropes, lifting a couch up and over the balcony rail. When they saw me taking the photo, the guys on the top couldn’t help showing off a bit, and I had a moment of panic that they might drop the couch and it would be all my fault. But no, all was well.

Just moving day, Buenos Aires style!

December 26, 2017 by hwilkie@mhwcom.com

Christmas Day — and something new

Having celebrated Nochebuena with my Argentine “family”, I celebrated Christmas Day quite differently.

In the afternoon I went out to sketch. Not a great one I’m afraid, but I enjoyed sitting in Plaza Vicente Lopez making it. People were lying around in bikinis sunbathing, which was surprising enough that I had to record it!

In the evening, a small group of women from one of the expat groups I belong to got together for a potluck dinner at one of their homes. She has a beautiful apartment in Palermo, with a lovely little outdoor area filled with plants. We spent the evening out there chatting, eating and drinking — the perfect girlie night!

Standing waiting for the bus home around midnight, with the temperature still hovering in the high twenties, I actually said out loud, “It’s Christmas!” just to remind myself. We’re now looking forward to New Year’s Eve, and hoping the weather holds up because it will be an outdoor celebration.

Something different

It occurred to me that I could give you a better feel for Buenos Aires if I made some little short videos of some of the places I like to go. I won’t schedule them on any particular day, but just when I’m out and about and think you would enjoy seeing where I am.

In today’s video I’m on Avenida 9 de julio, near the beautiful building that is the French Embassy. I hope you enjoy it.

December 12, 2017 by hwilkie@mhwcom.com

Salta Trip, Days 2 and 3: Purmamarca

Day 2 was really the beginning of the big adventure, as that’s when we started on our way up into the mountains. In fact, our next two destinations were not in Salta but in the Province of Jujuy (pronounced hoohooey). The first of those was the small town of Purmamarca (pronounced poormamarka).

There are two ways of getting from Salta to Purmamarca — one easy, on the highway, and one adventurous and beautiful. Naturally, we chose the second, which took us up through what’s known as La Caldera. As we drove just a little north of the city of Salta, the terrain began to change. Not only was it rising, but it was covered in jungle vegetation. And it was winding — very winding. And narrow — very narrow.

We stopped a couple of times at the miradores (meeradors), places where you can stop for photo opps or just enjoy the view without worrying about the road. Cecilia was driving this rental car without automatic gearshift, so she was working pretty hard. To counteract the growing effects of the altitude, we both had gobs of coca leaves in our cheeks. (This helps quite a bit, and I’ll talk about the coca leaves in a separate post. In the meantime, don’t worry about it!)

After a couple of hours of La Caldera, we emerged above the tree line and found the mountains becoming more bare and rocky. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant by the side of a dam and reservoir called La Cienaga. The food was great and the view was beautiful, so it was a nice break in the drive. When we left La Cienaga, however, the mountain road went into a serious climb again. This time there was no jungle to cover the sheer drops on the edges of the road, so it got a bit more scarey.

Eventually we took a left turn off the highway (Ruta 9) onto Ruta 52 and on into Purmamarca. It’s a small town nestled into a “bowl”, with the mountains not only all around but very close. And the colours are truly spectacular. I walked around with my jaw dropping for two days, surrounded by all this beauty. Every direction you turned in there was another mountain, another view and another palette.

This area is called Siete Colores, and there truly are seven colours in the mountains. And it’s not only the colours that are spectacular but the shapes of the colours. I tried to sketch one day but I was defeated. The light changed every couple of minutes, and with it both the colours and the patterns. I’m including the sketch for the record, but it doesn’t nearly do justice to the reality. Neither, in fact, to most of the photographs I’ve seen, even the professional ones, because it’s not just what you see that makes such an impact, but what you feel. I can completely understand why ancient peoples worshipped mountains as gods.

We had dinner the first night in a small local restaurant which, unfortunately for the owner but fortunately for us, was almost empty. The only patrons were Cecilia and me and a man from Paris, who sat with us at Cecilia’s invitation. There was a three-piece band playing folkloric music and they gave it their all for the whole night. Cecilia paid 100 pesos for their CD, and since I don’t have anything to play a CD on, I paid them 100 pesos for this photo opp!

Before we left Buenos Aires, Cecilia’s son-in-law, Valentin, told us we had to try llama meat. We asked if it was good, and he said no, but we had to try it! So here it is. He was right, it wasn’t good, but at least I can say I tried it. Tough and tasteless. Very tough, very tasteless. But the animals are beautiful — more on those in a later post.

One other little quirk from Purmamarca. This is our hotel room, which had this beautiful, handmade headboard. The embroidery was perfectly done and the colours typical of the area. It was a thing of beauty. But is it just me, or would it not have been better to put it over the bed??

The original plan was for us to move on next day, visiting Las Salinas Grandes (large salt fields) on our way. However, despite the coca leaves, I succumbed to a bit of altitude sickness and had to stay put. Mind you, Purmamarca isn’t a bad place to have to spend an extra day!

On Day 4, though, we headed out to our next destination. Stay tuned.

December 11, 2017 by hwilkie@mhwcom.com

Salta trip, Day 1

Although I’m back in Buenos Aires now, I do want to post about my fantastic trip to Northern Argentina with my good friend and sidekick Cecilia. There’s a lot to say, so I’ll divide it into sections and include some relevant photos. So here goes with Day 1.

We left Buenos Aires very early in the morning and flew to Salta, the capital of the province of the same name. It’s a fairly bustling city, not particularly beautiful in itself but surrounded by mountains in the distance. I did a couple of sketches, including this one of the cathedral. I love this kind of ice cream pink they use for some of the old colonial buildings! (Sorry about the blue tone — had to take the photo in my kitchen in late afternoon.)

We also went to the High Mountain Museum of Archeology, where we saw those mummies that were discovered high up on the volcano called Llullaillaco in 1999. They were apparently children of noble families who were sacrificed to the mountain by the Incas 500 years ago, and preserved extraordinarily well by the temperature and altitude. I’ve only ever seen pictures of Egyptian mummies in their bandages, but this was totally different. The one they just call The Boy really affected me emotionally. He was apparently about three years old, and he is sitting with his knees bent and his head on them just like a little boy would. But he’s so small! I had to remind myself that this wasn’t a doll or a statue, but once was a real little person. So sad. We couldn’t take photos inside, but I took this one of the postcard I bought.

At night the mood changed, as we had been invited by a friend of a friend of a friend of Cecilia to a “peña” held in a place called La Casona del Molino. People sit at quite big communal tables (although everyone at our table knew each other). Some people bring guitars and other instruments and spontaneously start singing. All the musicians are very respectful of each other’s time and talent. Many of the songs were known to the locals (who made up most of the crowd as I don’t think it’s known to all the tourists) and there was lots of joining in. Quique, the boyfriend of our hostess, was one of the singers and he was great. Most of the music was mountain folkloric music, and one couple even got up and danced chacarera. Fabulous night and a great start to our trip.

Next morning we picked up our rental car early and set off for the first leg of our mountain adventure. Stay tuned.

February 1, 2017 by hwilkie@mhwcom.com

A few sketches

I’ve been very bad about keeping up my blog this time. If you’re one of those who have been checking back to see what I’ve been doing, I apologize.

The fact is, I really have been working more this time than last, which means I don’t get around to see as many things. I tend to be out more at night with friends.

Anyway, I thought I’d post some photos of my sketches here, and I’ll try to sort out my other photos and post some of them soon.

This is the English Tower, so called because it was donated to Buenos Aires by the English while they were over here building railways and such like.

This is a lovely cafe inside a museum. I went there with a bunch of women from InterNations and found it so beautiful I just had to go back and sketch. You sit in the cafe and look through the arches into a lovely courtyard garden. I may go back again and sketch it from a different angle.

I paid a visit to the Botanical Gardens last weekend. It’s a beautiful place, full of not only plants and trees, but also some lovely statuary. The problem was it was hotter than hell, and the only seat I could find in the shade was opposite this big weird cactus plant!

Last Sunday Cecilia and I went to visit Costanera Sur, a lovely conservation area between a very posh barrio called Puerto Madero and the Rio de la Plata. It took us three hours to walk around it, and we were so shattered we went to one of the expensive restaurants in the area and drank a bottle of Malbec. Oh yes, and we had some food to go with it!

This is a view of the river from one of the sheltered lookout points. It was hot here too!

One day I went with Cecilia and a friend of hers to a huge park area in Palermo called 3 de Febrero. This particular lake is called Lago Regata, and I was fun watching dogs chasing the swans — without getting too close of course! It was hot here too!

This is the Monument to the Flag in Rosario, which I wrote about before. What a colossal monument, and very impressive.

This eternal flame burns over the tomb of the unknown soldier at the Monument to the Flag.

This was another hot day, when I sat on the edge of a planter and sketched part of 9 de Julio Avenue, apparently the widest avenue in South America. As usual, my sense of proportion failed me, as the Obelisco is much much taller than it looks here. But as is my usual excuse in these cases, a sketch is just an impression and this is enough to evoke the memory for me.

The magnificent entrance to Recoleta Cemetery. I haven’t sketched inside it this time, but I may do that another day.

That’s it for now. I’ll post some more sketches before I go back to Toronto after I’ve built up a bit more of a collection.

March 13, 2016 by hwilkie@mhwcom.com

Submarines, International Women’s Day and Tango

This week I went again to Cafe Tortoni. I know it’s a tourist trap, but it’s really so beautiful I can’t resist it. I love the old pictures on the walls, the art deco ceiling—and the ghosts of artists and writers of the past that seem to hover over everything.

But on this particular afternoon I had been walking around downtown and it was time for some afternoon coffee. I was near Tortoni, so I decided to try a specialty they have made famous. It’s called a submarino.

They bring you a cup of hot milk, accompanied by a small submarine-shaped chocolate bar. You drop it into the cup and submerge it in the milk, and then you stir it till it melts. Now that’s how to make hot chocolate!

International Women’s Day

When I left the cafe after my usual breakfast, after saying goodbye as usual, the waiter said to me Feliz Dia, or Happy Day. I thought this must be some variation on Have a Nice Day. But no, it turned out it was International Women’s Day, and I found out they take it quite seriously here.

Cecilia called me later in the morning and said she was going out to lunch with Macarena and Daniela to celebrate El Dia de la Mujer, and invited me to join them. We went to a place called Victoria, about half an hour away from Cecilia’s home, and had lunch in a restaurant overlooking a lovely little marina full of boats.

I went for my Spanish lesson that night, and the place is downtown. At one point we could hardly hear ourselves talk, and the teacher explained that this was the main street leading to Plaza de Mayo, and these were people parading up there to celebrate the day, and also to protest injustices against women worldwide.

Tango!

Last night (Saturday) Cecilia and I went to a tango show at the same place we always go, Taconeando. It’s a small place with an intimate show and atmosphere, which I prefer to the big spectacles, and the music and dancing were lovely as always.

In this particular place, at the end of the show the dancers come out into the audience and invite people to dance. I didn’t think we’d be asked, as we were quite far back and not next to the stage as before, but I think Cecilia engineered it! Anyway, one of the dancers invited me up onto the cabaret floor to dance. There were only two couples in the show, so that meant only four couples now — including this handsome man and me — actually on stage, under the lights, with an audience!

And I thoroughly enjoyed it! Cecilia took pictures, but we were so far back you couldn’t really see it was me. But that doesn’t matter, because I don’t need a photo to remind me of such a lovely experience.

And now I’m getting ready to go to San Telmo for the Sunday artisan market, and maybe some sketching.

March 7, 2016 by hwilkie@mhwcom.com

Mendoza — where wine is everything!

I spent this past weekend in Mendoza, Argentina’s most famous wine region. They are celebrating the vendimia, or annual wine harvest, and I was there for the show. And the drinking. And the eating.

My friends Susan and Michael were down from Ecuador for a vacation, so it was an added treat to spend this time with them. A bonus was that Susan had used her travel agent skills to hire an excellent driver and guide, Jorge, and my trip began with him picking me up at the airport and taking me to the hotel, where Susan and Michael awaited me. It was late morning on Friday.

First Tasting

About half an hour after I checked in, we were off with Jorge on our first wine tasting adventure, at a winery called Ruca Malen maybe 45 minutes outside Mendoza. We had a tour of the vines and the kitchen garden and the production area. Then we sat down at a table on a lovely veranda, surrounded by an array of wine glasses awaiting our attention.

Lunch was five courses, with a different wine pairing for each. To say it was delicious is an understatement, especially the beef course accompanied by everybody’s favourite, Malbec. We were so full we all declined dessert — and if you know me well, you know that is practically unheard of!

We came back to the hotel and had an afternoon nap, and then set off to explore a little. Jorge told us that there is a law in Mendoza that every ten blocks there has to be a “plaza” or green space full of trees and grass. This makes for a beautiful natural air freshening system.

After that we had the nerve to go out for supper!

The Parade of the Queens

One of the features of the vendimia is the crowning of the National Queen of the Vendima — yes, it’s an old fashioned beauty contest, but lots of fun nonetheless. Each region of Mendoza province sends its queen to the contest, and on Saturday afternoon there is a parade where they all get to show off. But it’s not just the queens. There are beautiful horses ridden by gauchos in full costume, and huge floats full of people throwing grapes to the crowd.

We couldn’t get over the number of young boys and girls of about five years old who were sitting astride these huge horses as casually as another kid might ride a bike — and controlling them perfectly while they waited during the long breaks in movement. Amazing. Susan took some great pictures of them, and when she sends them to me at the end of the week (when she gets back to Ecuador) I will do another post to show you them.

The Main Event

The main show takes place on the Saturday night at an open air amphitheatre just outside of town. We were picked up at 6 pm in a minibus with a dozen or so other people and a very competent guide called Florencia. We knew we were to be provided with a “box lunch” — but we didn’t realize it would be two enormous sandwiches, salad, dessert, candy, a bottle of wine and a bottle of champagne!

We arrived very early, and although that meant a long wait it was fun watching everything come together. The stage set itself was an engineering feat, and the lighting amazing. The program listed all the dancers, singers, aerial artists, band etc. by name, and I just counted them — 889! My little iPhone did its best, and I hope these shots will at least give you some feel for the grandeur and scale of it all. I also took a few short videos, and when I finally get around to sorting my videos out I will post a link to them here on the blog.

There was a fantastic show of dancing and music that lasted about 90 minutes, followed by the election of the queen, which lasted about an hour. They were all beautiful — as you would expect from Argentina, land of an amazing number of beautiful people — and the eventual winner deserved her crown.

The night ended with a fireworks display, and then we were ferried back to the hotel. We arrived about 2.45 am, tired and happy.

Second Tasting

Despite our late night, we were all up and ready for Jorge on Sunday morning at 8.30. We were headed further afield this time, for a two-hour drive to Tupungato and the glorious wine country of the Uco Valley. This is a veritable paradise of fertile wine growing land at the foot of the Andes, and so beautiful it takes the breath away. This is the Tupungato Volcano.

On our way there, we admired the huge state of Christ up in the hills above the valley, so Jorge decided to drive us up there to see it properly! It was a bit of a nail biter, but the view was worth the ride. The statue is interesting, with its very definite South American features.

We finally arrived at the Salentein winery, which is a relatively new one at only sixteen years old. This one has a lot for tourists as well as very fine wine. Way down below the vats and barrels is a wonderful cellar with a grand piano, where they hold concerts twice a year. You sit on the steps and lean against the barrels as you listen — I can’t imagine a better way to listen to music. There is one in September that features tango, which must be fantastic in that setting.

There wasn’t much time for sketching but I managed to snatch literally ten minutes to try for an impression of the place.

We had no food here, but tasted three different wines with a very good lesson on how to taste wine. I quite enjoyed learning about that.

Here we are with the wonderful Jorge.

Third Tasting (!)

That was just the morning, and we weren’t finished yet. Jorge had booked us for lunch and yet another tasting at Gaia, the winery of the Bousquet Estate. I had seen Bousquet wines in Canada but hadn’t tried them — I’ll definitely get them now!

Here we had a choice of a 4-course or 6-course lunch, with a wine pairing for each. We opted for four courses, as we were defeated by just the thought of six courses. Again, the food was fantastic, and the wines we had with each one were all delicious. We did manage to distinguish among them and we each had our favourite, but in truth they were all good.

This is Susan and me at the end of that lunch, absolutely satiated with great food and wine.

On the way back to Mendoza, Jorge told us about a little local ice cream shop in Tupungato, and he made it sound so amazing we just had to stop and try some. Yes, it was well worth it!

They took me straight to the airport, and I arrived home at my little apartment in Buenos Aires about 10 pm — and went straight to bed! All that food and drink compressed into such a short period of time was very decadent — but a wonderful weekend I’ll always remember.

March 1, 2016 by hwilkie@mhwcom.com

Downtown, Rosedal and San Telmo

I’ve had a lovely weekend and beginning of the week.

Downtown

On Saturday, I went back to visit the Plaza de Mayo again, as there are other interesting buildings besides the Pink House.

This sketch is of the outside of the Catedral Metropolitana. I don’t actually care much for the outside, as to me it doesn’t look like a church at all, much less a cathedral, but I thought it was worth drawing anyway.

The inside is much more impressive, although like many major Catholic churches I found it to be a bit over the top. This was the “parish church” of the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, before he moved to Rome and became Pope Francis!

Ever since the first time I came to Buenos Aires, I’ve been fascinated by the magnificent door of the Naval Building. I’ve wanted to sketch it, but the problem was always finding a place to sit to do it, as it is at a major intersection downtown. I finally got lucky and found the perfect table at a cafe kitty corner from the building, so I had lunch and did the sketch at the same time! I was worried my sketching skills would not do the door justice, and I was correct. But I hope it at least gives an impression of what it looks like.

Once again, I was sitting right in the blazing sun and I was reduced to a greasy spot by the time I was done, but I think it was worth it. And the glass of white wine helped.

The Rosedal

Yesterday afternoon, Sunday, Cecilia took me to the Rosedal, which means rose garden. I had always heard it was lovely, but didn’t pay much attention because frankly I wasn’t really that interested in seeing a rose garden. But it turned out it is much more than that. It is a very large park with beautiful palm trees, which I love, a big lake with paddle boats, swans and geese, some beautiful gazebos where you can sit in the very welcome shade — oh yes, and a rose garden.

It was the last day of summer holidays before the schools go back, so it was quite busy, but lovely nonetheless. Here are some photos.

This is the sketch I did from inside one of the gazebos, while Cecilia read the paper.

We did go on the paddle boats. If I had known about that, I wouldn’t have worn a short skirt!

San Telmo

This afternoon I visited San Telmo, one of the oldest barrios in the city. It is known for its association with tango as well as all the artists that go there to paint the old buildings and cobblestone streets. To tell the truth, I prefer it at night when the lights are shining on the streets and there is lots of night life.

I found the Plaza Dorrego and sat at the outdoor cafe having a Campari while I did this sketch.

Once again there was one of these beautiful big trees with the pink blossoms which I love. I also liked the colourful blue umbrellas.

I will go back again one Sunday, when the street market gives it more life.

Work

People have been asking if I’m getting on with my work, and I’m happy to say I am, even though some days it’s tempting just to go out and play in the sunshine. I’m not as far forward with my novel as I had hoped, but I still have more than four weeks to catch up so I still hope to meet my goal of having it ready to go to the editor when I get back to Toronto. Fingers crossed!