Feb 24, 2023
We have had two very full days marching around this busy city. This post covers Friday Feb 24th. On Friday we took a cab to the neighborhood of Palermo which is supposed to be the hip neighborhood full of bars, restaurants and shops and some sights. We mostly wandered around but it was too warm in the middle of the day. Just realizing we missed the Botanical Gardens, a modern art museum and the Evita Perone museum. Oh well. We did squeeze in a stop at a well known bookstore – supposedly one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world. The El Ateneo Grand Splendid is a bookstore converted from a 1919 theatre. It has multiple floors of books, though all in Spanish. For all the international visitors that come to this store, an English section with books about Argentina travel, history and famous literature would be well received. I did find a couple of postcards for the grands and a big map of South America we can use on our cruise. We are going to try and send the kids postcards from every stop or at least from each country. I know our challenge will be finding the stamps and a place to mail the cards from. Mailboxes are few and far between. In Spain, the only place we found a box was in Madrid airport on our way home and it took weeks for the cards to arrive. The downside of our electronic world I guess.
We did have two excellent activities scheduled for the balance of our day. The first was a car tour of street art led by Matt Fox-Tucker, director for BA Street Art. We spent 2 1/2 hours driving through all kinds of neighborhoods, mostly non-touristy to see examples of murals that local artists have painted on sides of warehouses, silos and apartment buildings. Matt was able to explain the significance of the murals – which tend to last for years. We told him about our grafitti bridge which gets painted over almost daily. The themes of the murals were soccer, women’s rights, politics, environment, domestic abuse and many others. Street art is completely different from grafitti which isn’t very artistic. The artists have to get permission from the owner of the building and procure supplies and a crane. Depending on how many artists are participating a project can take from one to three weeks. We saw one very large mural that has taken a single artist years to complete. Matt did a great job trying to explain Argentina’s complicated history and the political and economic turmoil they have experienced over the last 100 years including the economic crisis, the Falkland Wars, the corruption in the political parties… Here are a few of my favorite photos and more at the bottom of this blog. For more information on where to find street art, check out this article on Erin Mushaway’s blog (https://solsalute.com/blog/ultimate-guide-street-art-buenos-aires-graffiti/)
For our evening’s entertainment we had booked an Airbnb Experience, which is an activity offered by a local that might be a walking tour, a class, outdoor activity, food tour etc. We booked a local barbeque (asado) at a private residence. The evening was hosted by Roger who owns the apartment and a couple of lovely friends. There were 10 guests and the evening was spent on the roof of the apartment where a huge round charcoal grill had been going for 3 or 4 hours. We drank a variety of wines, ate so many different meats and enjoyed great conversation. The other guests hailed from Germany, the US, Canada and Mexico. We were the oldest and the others were mostly in their 30’s. There were lots of laughs and stories. The end of the evening was topped off with some local music offered by Yair. These guys all have day jobs and do this on the side, having started just a couple of months ago. It is a great way for them to earn the coveted US dollars and to expand their horizons. Highly recommend if you ever go to Buenos Aires. Look for Palermo Terrace – Asado Experience at www.instagram.com/palermo.terrace.
And a few more street art shots…
