Buenos Aires: New York in the sixties?

I read somewhere in a guidebook or website that Buenos Aires reminds them of New York City during the 1960s. While I was not alive during this time period, I think I get the idea. Crowded streets, lots of color, a little dilapidated and street vendors selling antique nicknacks. It does seem like going back in time, a bit. That was the inspiration for these photos. (They were edited to look antique).

Near Puerto Madero.

An orange stand for fresh squeezed jugo in Recoleta.

Fortune teller in a Recoleta outdoor market.

Café culture in Recoleta. 

Galerías Pacificos off Calle Florida.

In Mercado del Progreso, in Caballito.

Fútbol and Edificio Kavanagh: emblems of Buenos Aires.

 Hasta pronto, amigos.

Fotos en la calle

Today was really relaxed. Did some design work for the Kansan and went through some photos, finally getting out of the apartment in late afternoon. Maria and I then went to Recoleta for a great free tour from Buenos Aires free tours. I think Recoleta is my favorite neighborhood--I would assume because it looks almost exactly like Paris. Somehow, though, Buenos Aires has its own flavor all on its own. Hard to explain.

Anyway, I want to share some photos from the past few days that are snapshots from the street--just walking around seeing what comes my way. Here's what did.

In our own neighborhood, Almagro.

A common sight of mine. Maria in Microcentro.

Plaza de Mayo has to be one of my favorites in the world.

On Avenida 9 Julio in Microcentro

A demonstration for native South American tribe Qom.

Shadows at the border of Microcentro and San Telmo.

An Almagro restaurant. Parrillas (pronounced par-ee-SHas here in Argentina) are famous around Buenos Aires as beef is a staple. You can get some great steak in the city.

Un viejo in Almagro

Almagro is a mix of old buildings and high-rise apartment complexes.

These Almagro muchachos had a failure experiment to create a hot air balloon out of paper. The paper caught fire (naturally) and burned up before catching flight. Its remnants are still burning behind them.

Verano en la ciudad

This guy was making really interesting mate containers.

We happened to walk in Plaza de Mayo when they were taking down the flag. 

A soldier during the flag ceremony in Plaza de Mayo.

My weird sister in Recoleta.

Buying a bag in a Recoleta street market. This viejo made all these by hand. Even though his español was a little hard to understand, we found out he actually lived in Los Angeles for a few years before coming back to Buenos Aires.

Hecho de mano

A Puerto Madero sunset.

That'll do it for me today, amigos. Hasta pronto.

Un día mejor

Hola amigos. I'll just begin with: TODAY KICKED YESTERDAY'S ASS.

I had a few moments when everything seemed to make me nervous--and I still had that pit in my stomach. But after many MANY hours of walking around Palermo, Recoleta, Microcentro and Puerto Madero, stopping in two different parks to sit, laying in the sun, eating street food (Bife sandwiches con papas fritas), and watching the sun set over Puerto Madero, it was all better, thanks for asking.

Maria and I talked with the padres this evening for quite a while. I'm really excited for them to get here in a few days because:
1. My dad is the world's best and will be buying me a replacement camera (since I would do it as soon as I got home anyway, and really wanted it for this trip). He's the bomb. [side note: I tried to buy a 60D today on Calle Florida for 12999 pesos=more than $3,000. In the states it costs less than $1,000. WTF)
2. We can go to all the fancy parillas Maria and I have been eyeing.  
3. The four of us always have the best time together. 10 days of summer, speaking Spanish, eating fantastic comida together=BAM, recipe for a damn good time.

So, Buenos Aires New Years: awesome. We read the city is usually dead, but the people who wrote that must be the dead ones. Puerto Madero was crawling with people! Many (it seemed like all) of them were Brazileños having a good ol' time, and though most of them might not have been porteños, there was definitely a party going on. Fireworks and the like, it was a great time.

Sadly, the last 60D is probably being sold for parts as we speak in a shady-ass Argentine pawn shop. In homage to its greatness, I will post its last photos from New Year's eve.

Fireworks over Puerto Madero. 

Fireworks y amor

Everybody was wearing white? It seemed like a uniform.

Time for some grainy black and white. The 60D's ISO goes all the way up to 12800. Check it out:

Estos Brazileños partying like it was 1999. They were goin' nuts. 

Hordes of gente

Maria, always needing to check herself out. Here: fixing her hair in a shop window while waiting to get some food.

Everybody seemed so happy. Why so sad, man?

Amor...

And lots of it. 

Hasta mañana!

Not a great first day for 2011

Welp, I guess there's no way to avoid it. I will have to tell you what happened to me today.

It was a pretty normal day for a couple of tourists. Maria and I had decided we wanted to explore some neighborhoods that we had yet to go to--San Telmo and La Boca. However, our late lunch kept us from getting there until siesta time, and the streets were a little dead. I had read about these neighborhoods not being very safe at night, but during the day time I thought all would be fine.

Apparently not. While walking through San Telmo, I got my camera stolen. At knifepoint. I'm still a little bit in shock. The thing is, it was my fault as I had it outside of my bag. We also had sort of forgotten where we were, and I lost track of the fact that we were in a shady neighborhood.

As far as these awful things go, I have to say, this was not bad: Maria and I are both safe and unharmed, nothing else was stolen, and my camera didn't have more than 10 pictures on it--none of which were especially important (they were just of Maria...not like I don't have 10000000000 more of those).

We called the police, went to the station, and if I decide to, I might go back to the "comisaria," or police station, on Monday to see if I can identify the face of the man who stole my camera. What good will it do? I won't get my camera back. But maybe I can help another innocent person not get their things taken. Who knows.

It sort of keeps playing again and again in my head. I don't really know how to feel about it. It makes me sad because I will always have a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth when thinking about Buenos Aires, even though this is an incredible city that I really have enjoyed so far and know that I will continue to enjoy. I haven't felt the least bit unsafe at all in any part of the city until then. And if I'm being honest, I didn't even feel unsafe after it happened. There were many people in the neighborhood who stood by me, helped call the cops, and made me feel safe.

I was talking with Maria earlier when making dinner in our little Almagro apartment kitchen, saying how I have always considered myself lucky. And after some thought, I still know deep inside that I am.

I have been able to see all kinds of different places; been able to experience so many cities, cultures, and people. I have never once had a bad experience like this in all my travels. And I won't let this one ruin it for me. I won't let this event have that much power over me.

It's events like these that make you sit back and appreciate all that you have. I even still have a camera! I had decided to bring my old one (sadly, it was a brand new Christmas present that was stolen). I'll still be able to take photos to share with you and keep for fonder memories of the city.

But, it's getting late. I want to actually get up before 11:30 tomorrow (we're making progress...) and so It's time to hit the hay. But don't cry for me, (in) Argentina. I'm fine, and life goes on.

I'm still one of the luckiest people on earth.

Well Hello, Guest! Post by the Stupendous Maria.

This is Maria speaking, er... writing.

So Benito Juarez wants me to post, and so I am posting. Feliz Nuevo Año! Es 2011! Ben and I were commenting among the drunken throngs how weird that is, and how weird it was that we were in summer clothes on New Year's Eve.

But back to our day: once again, we failed as human beings by not getting out of bed until about 1pm. We had our ritual bowl of cereal, looked at random YouTube videos, choked on things laughing at each other and the like, and we didn't leave the apartment til about 4:30 pm, but estamos de vacaciones!

We decided that since we have been lazy do-nothings for the past two days that we would dar un paseo downtown, and it was quite a lovely walk. It took about an hour.

While we were basking in the sun and walking down sidewalks filled with doggie doodie, we stumbled upon a protest of indigenous Argentinians. Susana, mentioned in the previous post, told us that New Year's Eve/Day were filled with rallies (we know them as races, like the Indy 500), and protests.

"We are all Qom. The Earth is our life."

It was actually kind of funny because there were several people who were nowhere near indigenous-looking, but your heritage is in your heart...right? I don't know. Anyway, andiamo! 


Ben is good at taking pictures of buildings and landscapes. I, however, enjoy taking pictures of people, especially little kiddos [however crappy the pictures may be]! They are so incredibly darling, and I just can't resist taking photos of them.

Like mother, like daughter

Look at her run! I just wanted to scoop her up and take her home with me. Does that make me a baby-snatcher?

Wait... that's... just my masterful picture of Ben, since the photographer nunca gets photographed.

Also, he put me in charge of taking pictures of him because he says he needs them, but really he's just a narcissist, and he needs them for his MySpace album.

Tie-ing shoes and telling stories. Plaza Mayo.

After traipsing all over Buenos Aires for a couple of hours, our feets were tired, so we hailed a cab back home, got some more groceries for tomorrow, and took yet another nap. How embarrassing. 

Despues, we wanted to go out at least for a little while, porque it would be a travesty slash the lamest thing in todo el mundo if we didn't, because it's New Year's Eve. We both are pretty uncomfortable with the idea of clubbing with each other, so we settled for people watching. It was pretty fantastico. 

We waited, and por fin, the fireworks started! They were beautiful, right over el rio, and there were lots of people out and about watching them with us. We also followed a group of Brazilians that were drunk, loud, and hilarious. One of them looked like Snookie, which begs the question, is Brazil the Jersey of the southern hemisphere? We pondered this, and then got distracted by their incessant singing and flag-waving hilarity. 

All in all, it was a good day and a fun and very exotic way to spend the Eve of the New Year.

Feliz Nuevo Año a todos, y un besito.

Pirottes del sur

It was 9:15 and I got up.

There was a terrible noise coming from the living room. I recognized it as an alarm from an iPhone. But was it coming from mine? NOPE.

It just so happens that Maria got an iPhone 4 for Christmas. Now the entire family has an iPhone. Sorry if you ever get in the midst of us talking about our "FaceTime" conversations, or about how much easier life is now that we all have such an innovative cell phone. We drink the Apple Kool-Aid, if you get my drift.

But like I was saying, this horrible noise was coming from the living room. I think it was an attempt to get Maria and I to wake...but was shut down as I entered the living room with a prompt, "I'm...not getting up now," and Maria continuing to hit "snooze" until finally shutting it off altogether. We then slept til 12:30.

But Buenos Aires was waiting for us just the same, so we decided to go for some groceries.

We ended up walking right around the corner, to Avenida Medrano. We found a little supermercado that had all we wanted. Unfortunately, when we were checking out, we found out they do not accept tarjetas de credito, and we were in the embarrassing position of not having enough cash to pay for the groceries. I then had to make a quick trip to an ATM. Woops.

After a meal of leftover Paella from last night, oranges and some questionable "cheddar" cheese, we decided to contact Susanna Pirotte, a long-lost relative who lives here in Buenos Aires. Our apartment has a phone.

We ended up meeting at Alto Palermo, a really nice mall, after taking the Subte for the first time. We decided to meet at the McDonald's "of course not to eat, just as a meeting place!" ...There are two McDonald's at Alto Palermo. After just a few minutes of waiting, we met Susanna and her husband Roberto, and set off on a quick tour of downtown and a fantastic meal.

Bistec y 'bife de chorizo.' Not the same as just chorizo back home. Much more delicious.

Susanna y Maria

Yo, Susanna y su esposo Roberto

We walked down Avenida 9 de Julio, the más ancha del mundo. It is so weird to be wearing shorts and seeing Christmas decorations everywhere. And by so weird, I mean awesome. 

We walked by an incredible restaurant in Puerto Madero. In Argentina, their form of asado, or BBQ, is to use the embers, or "brazas," instead of direct fire.  

We stopped for some helados in Puerto Madero. 

Great conversation is not just an art mastered by Pirottes in North America. This might top our long Thanksgiving rants, though, as this one drifted between English AND Spanish. 

Waiting for a taxi ride home. Great end to a great beginning here in Buenos Aires.

MUCHISSIMAS gracias a los Pirottes de Argentina. It was great to meet you. Espero que no sea tanto tiempo hasta la proxima visita.

Had to start somewhere

Why not start on a great trip?

I've always been so bad at updating anything other than my Facebook. Finally, it's time to crack down and keep up a blog of my own.

For the inaugural post, I think it's entirely appropriate that I am updating from a foreign country. The first few posts in this journal of sorts will be of a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Currently, Maria and I are occupying the couch in our little apartment in Almagro, a middle-class porteño neighborhood close to the city center.

Per the norm, we took a massive nap after arriving, but in as little clothing as possible because the power was out in the area. No air conditioning for the afternoon. That inconvenience was especially nasty when lugging up our suitcases 8 fights of stairs.

But after we settled in, we took a little viajecito to find some food. Ironically (if that's even the right term), we found a hole-in-the-wall place and ordered Paella Valenciana (I guess we thought we were in Spain). I think we're really going to dig it here.

Welp, I wish I was better at the words part of this, but unfortunately, I'm running low on them.

(PS I just got a new camera for the holidays/birthday which was very much needed. I now own a Canon 60D! I think the creation of this blog coincides well with my new acquisition). BOOM.
I'm very happy with my high ISO settings.

Good night, Buenos Aires. See you tomorrow.