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We're two happy-go-lucky travellers (well, one super-efficient organiser and one procrastinating neurotic risk-taker) on an adventure together spanning 7 months and most of the mainland countries in the Americas. Follow us from January until August 2012 for tips on marital bliss (peace? cessation of hostilities, perhaps?) and how a vegetarian tea-totaller and an inebriated carnivore find suitable places to dine ... together.

Monday 13 February 2012

More notes but mostly some photos from BA

   Here are a few more photos from our last days in Buenos Aires.  The first is of Kizzy looking nervous as I posed her in front of the Obelisk and a hefty contingent of oncoming traffic in the widest avenue in South America – Av. 9 de Julio.  22 lanes wide, evidently, although I can only count 20 (and not because I ran out of fingers and toes!).  The second is of me enjoying the sun in front of the art museum in Tigres, a waterfront suburb of Buenos Aires up in the delta of the Rio Parana. 




   The next one is in a bookshop called “the Grand Splendid”.  It’s part of a chain of bookstores, but this one is a destination because it used to be an opera theatre and fell out of use.  The seats and the internal doors have been removed and filled with books on the three main levels, and the stage has been replaced with a coffee shop.  It’s all very decadent to have the boxes as comfortable reading areas. 


   These two are taken in front of the Floralis Generica in the Plaza de la Naciones Unite (United Nations), behind the Museo de Bellas Artes in Recoleta.  As of Saturday it has been a month since I last shaved
(or as Kizzy pointed out, a month that we've been away).  



   And these two are of Kizzy in La Boca, which is evidently a bit of a rough port-side neighbourhood that’s just outside the main centre of BA.  As well as being the home of Boca Juniors, I guess it’s the Brixton equivalent, noted for its atmosphere but a bit edgier.  That said, I can’t imagine a concerned resident in Brixton telling a backpacker to get on the next bus back to central London because it wasn’t a safe neighbourhood.  We went to the bit for tourists – the colourful block around the Caminito.  It’s very touristy and very heavily policed.  The statue is of a gentleman who had something to do with building up the area – hence he is holding a trowel.  But Kizzy thinks that given the area, it‘s more likely he was going equipped for an armed robbery. 



   On our last day in town we took a free walking tour from Congresso (near our hostel) to Plaza de Mayo and then back up to the Obelisk.  We tool almost no photos as we´d done the same walk twice a day since arriving in BA to and from school.  However, we did find out (pretty late after being here for two weeks!) that the tour of the Casa Rosada - the President´s Palace - was free and only possible on weekends.  What a wonderful opportunity for Kizzy to pose on Evita´s balcony and for me to get fashion inspiration from important figures in Argentine history.





   There were two things we noticed that were funny in both odd and amusing ways.  The first: there is a little cottage in amongst all the high rise buildings on Av. 9 de Julio - actually, it´s perched on top of one of them and we didn´t notice it until Saturday when it was pointed out to us by our guide, Virginia of BA free tours.  The final two are part of the quest of the President, Christina Fernandez, to be an icon, chasing comparisons with Evita at every turn.





   We´re now in Uruguay - more photos to follow soon.

1 comment:

  1. I liked that picture with metallic flower, where you too are together. Quickly checked and it looked as if the flower is somehow levitating above the ground.

    I also like the bookshop, it looks very grandiose and I'm surprised that Southern Americans are more interested on reading books then their northern cousins.

    Good luck and may God bless you both.

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