dyane in real life » travel photography

La Boca

admin — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 16:46:45 +0000

La Boca

Red and Green

servicio de lavanderia

La Boca, reportedly named for the colorful Genoese neighborhood Boccadasse is a neighborhood at the southeast tip of buenos aires. To get to La Boca take Bus 98 or better yet take a cab that will drop you off on the main street El Caminito (the little path). La Boca, spanish for mouth, churns with nervous, desperate energy of sharp-eyed street vendors, smiling European tourists and the tavern boys who try to lure them in with combination meals of asado, salad and cheap wine. Despite the colors, La Boca has a distinctively depraved stench to it. There is something hidden beneath all those garish colors.
My Argentine friend marked on my little map the area that was acceptable to visit. My cab driver again told me the streets that delineate the safe zone and asked me to leave before dusk.

Tango dancers prostitute their art on the streets of La Boca; for a few pesos they will look longingly into your eyes while they spread your hips and lift you up into the air. Your friends will snap a few photographs and then they will chase the next young girl. The men naturally get more business than the women because as one suave gentleman said : “what’s the point (with the woman), we can’t really advance from here?” The female tourists, on the other hand, are more than happy to get a brief moment of seductive attention.

For more photographs of La Boca, see La Mirada Argentina

Argentine faces

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:56:53 +0000

El camarero

"Don Equis"

"Don Equis" (I)

Un hondo penar (sorrowful eyes)

Hablame de la lluvia pero que no saques el movil en la mesa

Esperar envejece

el soñador que soño que estaba dormido

This gentleman checked his watch over and over. Then he took a nap. As you can see he dreamnt that he was taking a nap. And then, he checked his gold watch again. Watches don’t offer much variety so he went to the bar to discuss football with the waiters. ”El football argentino estaba secuestrado” me cito una amiga. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner freed the football which she believed had been kidnapped like the tuburlar democracy of the country that despite the best intentions seems to grow unwanted limbs, like those whose mothers stand in the Plaza Mayor holding up faded photographs and mutilated hopes. The comparison did fell hard on some ears. “La ultima operacion de la Presidenta” the tabloids raged with stoires about her multiple nips and tucks and the rapid evolution of her bone structure. The Argentine face is like a Spanish face with the expressiveness of the Italian. I tell them about this, this similarity between them and the Roman descendants. They frown at me and ask, “que cosa?!” Theirs are Argetine faces. Faces that continue to show surprise at small pleasures and great crises. In the early 2000s, the market crashed. The peso plummetted down to a quarter of a dollar. If you had saved your money in trusty US dollars, you ended up with the equivalent in pesos. The government was fanciful and still believed in parity between peso and dollar. $4000 were “officially” 4,000 pesos but on the real market that sum fell to 1,000 pesos.

Yet, they continue to paint the walls bright yellow, they dance, they eat asado and drink mate in line at the bus stop.

Buenos Aires Landmarks

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:43:15 +0000

The first thing I did when I got to Buenos Aires was a take a 5-hr walk with my good host-friend. I got off the plane at a most fortuitous time – 8 am. Just when the city is stirring. I slept most of the the 7 hr plane ride so I was fresh and ready to walk. Monuments help me orient myself because I am the most directionally challenged person I know. Plus, I hardly ever commit details like address and phone numbers to memory.

: Basilica San Francisco

Out of all the religious fervor poured into bricks in that city, this offering is my favorite. I think it is on Calle Defense and Calle Alsina so in the area of San Telmo, where many students live while studying abroad. And plus, I studied with the Franciscan nuns uuntil I was twelve. Whenever I see a bald man in a monk’s coat I get a little excited, without knowing why.

: Doors of Congress

They remind me of the Erecthion in Athens.

: Roof of Congress House

: casas de lujo

There are a lot of gorgeous apartement buildings near Congress, on Avenida Yrigoyen as well old buildings turned into offices and restaurants. It’s a lively area with great deal of traffic. It’s also a good place to look for bookstores. They literally line the street and you can go down choosing the one that gives you the cheapest lot. Happy reading!

: Playa de Mayo

Here is the site of the famed marches of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo every Thursday. They march hear wearing their head scarves in rememberance of their dead relatives or in hopes that though psychologically distempered, they are still alive…somewhere.

quejas en forma de cruz

The square has become a general point of rendez-vous for political rallies. The crosses commemorate the dead in the Malvinas war with Great Britain.

Mothers of Plaza de Mayo

: Casa Rosada

The Pink House, the seat of the President, is in this square. Visitation hours are available. From this balcony, Peron and Evita gave their speeches.

: Vuelve Nestor

A graffittti in favor of Nestor Kirchner whose wife is the current President Cristina Kirchner.

: Eva y Juan Peron

Hay gustos para todos, “to each his own.” Here, a rather crude cement monument in the square in memoriam of Evita and Peron. People seemed generally confused about what she meant to Argentina, or so I understood. Whether she was good or bad, they cannot say. The period of the so-called Dirty War which fell in her lap when she took the presidential seat after Peron died is confusing, they say. Most people are interested in what’s going on today in Casa Rosada.