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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.

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My New Favourite Parilla

I’ve always had a few places I like to go to eat steak, but my friend Venetia has raved about La Gran Parilla in San Telmo and I just hadn’t been yet. Now I have — and it’s my new favourite!

My friend Linda goes home to California today (sad, I’ll miss her), and she took me out to dinner last night to celebrate our new friendship. We went to La Gran Parilla because she had also heard Venetia rave about it, and we had a fantastic steak dinner. Tender, juicy, succulent beef with some garlicky french fries and great chimichurri.

As you’ll see from the photo below, the steaks are huge. They take their steak seriously here, but fortunately they don’t mind if you take home what you can’t eat there, so this steak was last night’s dinner, tonight’s dinner — and possibly tomorrow’s lunch!

The place itself was charming. Typical old-worlde Buenos Aires parilla with the black and white checked floor and walls full of bottles of wine. There was a pleasant buzz of conversation. We thought about sitting outside because it was a lovely night, but they don’t have many outside tables so we sat inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great night — thanks Linda! I look forward to doing some traveling with you next year!

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A Few Days in Rosario

Cecilia’s sister Adriana lives in Rosario, and they invited me to spend a few days there with them last weekend and the beginning of this week. I didn’t know anything about Rosario and wasn’t sure what to expect, but I enjoyed it very much.

Rosario has three claims to fame: Che Guevara was born there, Lionel Messi (international football star) was born there, and — much more importantly — the national flag of Argentina was first raised there in 1812.

El Monumento al Bandera

The massive Monumento al Bandera is a major feature of the city, and extremely impressive. It’s built in the shape of a ship, and it takes up a full city block. I particularly loved how it looked at night. It’s illuminated in blue, with stripes down all four sides of the tower, giving it the impression of the flag itself. Here are a few photos of the monument.

Front of the monument from behind

To give an idea of the scale. I did feel small!

Lights reflect the colours and shape of the flag itself.

Eternal flame over the tomb of the unknown soldier

Statue of Belgrano, who created the flag and raised it for the first time

Cornerstone of the monument

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bar El Cairo

Cecilia took me to this lovely old cafe/bar, which was originally a small theatre. There was a famous caricaturist and writer called Roberto Fontanarossa who frequented Ciaro back in the forties (I think) and there’s a lot of homage to him here. One of the pictures is of the table he always sat at, and now it’s reserved for artists and actors.

The door with its exotic signage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cecilia and I posing with Fontanarossa

Posing with the cartoon of Che Guevara

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Beautiful Architecture Downtown

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Falabella

Lovely old department store, Falabella

Falabella ceiling

Felt like a queen on this staircase!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time for a cold drink after all the walking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I actually did a couple of sketches of the monument, but haven’t had time to photograph them yet. I’ll do a separate post one day with some sketches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Buenos Aires’ World Famous Opera House

There’s a wonderful theatre here called the Teatro Colon. I took a tour of it last time I was here, but my friend Jo-Anne is an opera fan and was very keen to see it, so I did it again. I was still filled with wonder the second time around!

It’s a magnificent theatre, with lots of gold and plush velvet in the old style. The ceiling is a work of art all by itself, and Jo-Anne nearly fell over the balcony rail trying to get a photo of it!

But the main feature of the Colon is its world famous acoustics, which are 100% natural. There is not a single microphone in the place, and the ‘sound system’ is all created through the  use of wood and materials that spread the sound throughout the place. Apparently Pavarotti said the only thing wrong with the Colon is that the acoustics are perfect — no hiding any mistakes!

Here is a selection of photos I took during the tour. I would dearly love to see a ballet there, but it’s not the season. Maybe one day I’ll be here at the right time.

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Magical New Year’s Eve in Buenos Aires

Happy New Year from beautiful Buenos Aires! I spent the most amazing New Year’s Eve, welcoming 2017 with a picnic with four friends, in 30 degree temperatures, under a sky filled with fireworks and the sound of laughter!

My Argentine friend Cecilia had previously looked into going to one of the restaurants in the post Puerto Madero area, but the prices were prohibitive. But that’s where the best fireworks display is, so we decided to do it our way — and Cecilia outdid herself!

She brought a fold-out picnic table and chairs, her Christmas table cover and a ton of food. She even brought battery-driven lights we could drape around our picnic spot! We brought wine and champagne.

We set up right beside the river and had the best view possible. We took turns walking around the area, soaking up the atmosphere. Linda and I danced along the row of restaurants, taking advantage of their music without paying their prices.

The fireworks started just before midnight, and at the witching hour we cracked open the bubbly. What a fantastic way to bring in the New Year. I think I’ll do this every year!

Here’s a compilation of the photos and a couple of videos of the fireworks.

 

All the best for a wonderful, happy, healthy, success, prosperous 2017!

Helen

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Feliz Navidad from Buenos Aires — no pictures!

I started this post last night, but for some reason I couldn’t get my photos to load. I left it to finish today — and they still won’t load! So I decided to post it anyway with just the story. Let’s hope it sorts itself out before my next post.

My first Christmas Day in Buenos Aires! Quite a different experience from Canada, Scotland or even from last year in Ecuador. They are all lovely in their own way, and all different.

Funnily enough, Christmas doesn’t seem to be as BIG in Buenos Aires as in other places. The decorations are there, but low-key. Preparations don’t seem to happen until the day or two before Christmas, and there isn’t that over-the-top hype I’m used to. I kind of like it.

They celebrate Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day here, in the European style. I was invited to my friend Cecilia’s home to share their family Christmas. We were 6 people and 3 dogs! The meal was a delightful collection of dishes, but the main event was roast suckling pig. I had never had that before, and I must say it was delicious.

Pan Dulce — a variation on Panettoni — is very popular here, and we had some that was made by a friend of Cecilia’s. Very dense and moist, and I’m sure much better than the ones available in the supermarkets.

An interesting component of the whole experience was the weather. Christmas Eve dawned bright and clear, and the temperature soared to the low thirties, as it has been for the past couple of weeks. The doors and windows were wide open and the dogs ran happily in and out to the courtyard. At the end of the evening, after everyone else had left, Cecilia, her daughter Maracena and I took the dogs out for a walk — at 3 am! It was a lovely, balmy night, with soft warm air wafting over us as we walked along the river bank. Perfect ending to the day.

And then…

During what was left of the overnight hours, the weather changed and we had the loudest, wettest thunderstorm you could imagine! The open windows banged, the shutters banged, the inside doors of the house banged — my bedroom door even flew open and banged against the wall! The dogs were hiding under the furniture! What a change from yesterday!

And although the thunder has gone, it has rained steadily all day long. Weird. Anyway, it’s still Christmas and I still enjoyed it. Tomorrow I’m meeting some visiting Canadian friends for morning coffee, whether the weather is back to normal or not, and I’m looking forward to hearing how they spent their first Argentine Christmas.

I hope you had a lovely Christmas, wherever and however you spent it.  Now we have that sort of strange week between Christmas and New Year when we’re kind of in limbo. Kind of working, but not full out.

I find it a good time to reflect on this year and look forward to the next. Undoubtedly for me, the most exciting thing about 2016 is that I spent the first three months and the last six weeks here in my beautiful Buenos Aires. It’s a new dimension to my life that I never would have envisioned before, and it’s a blessing I give thanks for every night.

That’s it for Christmas Day. I’ll keep you posted on the events of the coming week, and of New Year.

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Went to a Wonderful Concert!

On Tuesday night I went with a friend and two of her friends to a wonderful concert, starring a famous and amazing young Argentine pianist called Horacio Lavandera.

It was held in a beautiful old building that used to be the city’s main post office, but is now called the Kirchner Cultural Centre. There are lots of things to see in it, and I want to go down there one day just to sketch some of the lovely old interior features.

The concert was held in the main concert hall, very modern and in stark contrast to the old style architecture of the building itself. Here are some photos of the outside of the building (when we came out around 11.30 pm and it was all lit up) as well as the concert hall and Horacio himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The concert lasted two hours, and then he did five — count ’em, five — encores! It was totally fabulous. It was his 32nd birthday, so he is still very young to be so wonderful. If you’d like to hear him play, just go to YouTube where he has a whole bunch of videos. Amazing.

And do you know what made it even more amazing? It was totally FREE! I think I said this in my post about the food fair, but there are so many great free things going on in Buenos Aires, and my friend Venetia seems to be tapped into them all — great for me as I get to experience them too!

This next photo is just a cute shot I took on my morning walk yesterday. They’re a bit far away as they were a challenge for my iPhone, but I hope you can see they are two lovely green parakeets. I love seeing them in their natural habitat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This will be my last post until after Christmas, when I will update you on how I spent my first Argentine Christmas! In the meantime, I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas — or whatever December holiday you celebrate. (As I saw in a FaceBook post today, Happy Everything to Everybody!)

By the way, if you’d like to read my annual post, Gifts of the Heart for the Season, you can find it here. It’s my gift to you!

 

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Unexpected Night at the Races

I went with a couple of friends to an annual event called the International Food Fair, but it turned out to be much more!

It’s basically a collection of food trucks, featuring food from many different countries. It was held at the Hipodromo de Buenos Aires, where they race horses and also play polo. The food fair was great. I’ll put photos here of some of the trucks. Very colourful, with several different types of music blaring at the same time, drowning each other out!

I ate Argentina food — empanadas made from Patagonian lamb. Linda had arepas from Colombia, which were different from the Venezuelan ones I had in Toronto, and Pat just had some kind of corn chips. And of course we washed it all down with a glass of Malbec!

Then we all had ice cream, made on the spot using liquid nitrogen, which was excellent. The flavours were amazing, and I ate wood! Yes, you read that right — wood. There is apparently only one tree in Argentina (maybe she said the world, I can’t remember) that you can actually eat, so we had to try it. It was cut into small cubes and soaked in something sweet — quite nice actually.

It was a lovely warm night, perfect for wandering and eating. Here are some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I knew the Hipodromo was a horsey place, but I assumed the food trucks would be in a separate part of the venue. But no! As we were coming in we saw the horses being walked around the paddock. Then as we were eating our ice cream, we wandered around a corner and we were actually in the track area. We stood right up at the fence and watched a race — and it didn’t cost a penny! Gotta love Buenos Aires! Here are some photos and a short video. The third photo is a fantastic piece of sculpture right beside the track area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Just Crossing the Street in Buenos Aires Is an Adventure!

Buenos Aires is a big, bustling, crazy busy city, which makes getting around something of an adventure — and that includes just crossing the street!

You see, while in North America we are used to seeing traffic lights at all four corners of a major intersection, that’s not necessarily the case here. The odd street has four, but most have two on diagonal corners and some only one on one corner! It took me a while to figure this out, but here’s how it works. If you are waiting to cross a street that doesn’t have a light, you have to look at the one at right angles to yours. If that one is green, then you should wait; if that one is red, you can go. You get pretty fast at calculating this after a few near misses!

The locals, of course, are so used to it that they can forecast the time when the lights will change by looking at the right angle one, and often start crossing seconds before the red has switched to green.

The other part of this adventure is the street signs. Again in North America, we are accustomed to seeing some sort of label on all the streets at all the corners, either on a pole like the one in the photograph or attached to the wall.

Not so in Buenos Aires.

There are many, many intersections here with nary a label at all! How do you know which street you are on, you ask? Well, you can ask someone, which I’ve often done if I’m in an unfamiliar area, or just walk to a street that has a sign and backtrack!

The buses are a whole other story — but I’ll keep that for another day!

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Tango Street Party!

Last Saturday night I went with three women friends to a lovely event in downtown Buenos Aires.

It was called La Gran Milonga. The word milonga means both a particular style of tango and the place where people go to dance tango. This event is held every year at this time and I was happy my friend Venetia let me know about it.

To add to the enjoyment of the evening, I met Linda Clair Puig, a woman I met online a year or so ago as I am on her list and had bought her course on how to travel with your business (great course by the way.) She is in Buenos Aires for six weeks or so, and she had her friend Kim visiting from New York. Venetia invited us for snacks and wine, and then we all walked together down to the venue.

It was all along a very well known street called Avenida de Mayo, where they had set up stages at either end and in the middle (it’s not a long street). Each stage was doing a separate show, with music and professional dancers. They were all lovely, but the best bit of all was watching ordinary people dancing tango in the street! I’ve posted a video on YouTube and I’ll give you the link, but I just realized I missed the best clips of people dancing, so I’m going to upload that one as well so you can see what I mean.

The last clip on this video is of a young couple who were among the first to start dancing, and I thought they were lovely. Tell me what you think.

Here’s the second one, which really shows the vibe of the event.

Anyway, it was a great event, and has given me more of a taste for tango than ever!