…late summer in Buenos Aires, a time for whiling away the afternoon heat with a cold beer in a dark, smokey bar while watching life pass by on the cracked and crumbling pavements outside…
I flew out of Ushuaia in a cold dusk onboard an Austral MD80...
My flight left Ushuaia much later than scheduled… on a scale of 0 to 5 for punctuality, where 5 rates always on time and 0 rates total failure, Aerolineas Argentina sits somewhere around a 0.4.. at least it does for Ushuaia. On the basis that the LAN flights were on time I surmise it is the airline rather than the airport ;-) The airstrip in Ushuaia is wonderfully situated, having checked my bike in with, suprisingly, no additional charges (perhaps due to my first class bike packing job.. hehe) I was able to sit outside and watch dusk settle over the mountains and the Beagle Channel. I could not help but feel melancholy at leaving the Andes behind. Unlike the group of Americans that checked in after me and were seemingly more interested in complaining about everything they could think of rather than simply sitting back and enjoying the view…. They provided a constant level of amusing background tut-tutting in departures. I was concerned re seating on the flight, some of them were wider than they were tall… I was lucky however, finding myself seated next to a stiffly prim but very thin old dear from I have no idea where – she pretended I wasn’t there. Might have been my socks, hadn’t washed those in a while…
street footy in the heat of late Saturday morning in BA
Having spent so long savoring the beautifully cold, fresh air of southern Patagonia arriving in the city some 3000km northeast was something of a shock.. the heat, the humidty, the noise, the fumes… La Jungla Cemento as a local friend put it….
... a little more of that footy
tango imagery is everywhere.. the tourists love it, and why not :-)
I am staying in a big old town-house in San Telmo, a somewhat colourful, arty.. and artfully crumbling district of narrow cobbled streets and small shady plazas, the strong heart of which beats to a tango from mid-morning outdoors through to dawn. As I wandered in search of a coffee this morning I passed numerous young folk sleeping off a hard night out amongst the homeless with their handcarts.
San Telmo...
Anyway, enough with the words, it is time for a siesta after my wanderings this morning so here is a little look around these colourful streets from the last few hours for you …
old fashioned delivery bicycles are ideal in the narrow streets
the downtown is as modern as any european city
.. narrow streets jammed with buses and taxis, but there is hope... already many bicycles and the city authorities are saying they want to implement more cycle-friendly policies....
plenty of old American trucks happily :-)
away from downtown... lots of cobbles, lots of bicycles
open air tango, done primarily for the tourists but it is such a part of the city's culture it feels 'right'
a definite sense of humour ..
I sat with a very cold beer at a bar window and watched the streets in motion
colourful buildings reflected in the windscreen of one of numerous battered old Renaults
still a local hero....
only in BA could Che meet tango..
random friendly people I chatted with on the street
Fabulous photos!
thank you :-)
I grew up in Buenos Aires many decades ago, and moved to the US over 25 year ago. Your pictures capture the spirit of the city that I love and hate as few others that I have seen in recent times.
hey, thanks for taking the time to write. I can understand the love/hate relationship with the city, I felt a little of that in the couple of days I spent there. There is an almost sexy undercurrent to the city that is quite beguiling yet other aspects I think would become quite oppressive with time.