Post by Grubb Midway on our second walking tour of Córdoba our guide led us up steps and stopped here. What, our guide asked us, was the purpose of this steep sloping concrete park beneath a tall obelisk? I was about to say, “Skate park,” but noticed the angled array of low pipe like barriers….
Author: Grubb
The dogs of Calafate
Post by Grubb Late in the morning yesterday we went to the Glacierium, a science oriented museum dedicated to educating visitors about the glaciers in the area. It explained how snows accumulate, then melt, then freeze into an ice that over time becomes more compact until the weight of the density pushes the growing mass…
Dodging icebergs
Post by Grubb. Yesterday we woke up before dawn to stand outside our AirBnB to wait for our short bus to Puerto Bandera. It was just above freezing so we hoped that we would be the first, not the last, passengers the bus would pick up. We were fortunate in that regard. The place we’re…
Wall of ice
Post by Grubb. Churning our way up Lake Argentino on a catamaran cruise boat, we cruised by an iceberg. Then we swung to the right heading towards a cliff of ice spanning the gap between two sloping snow slicked hills. Hello Spegazzini Glacier! I thought of what was going through Carlos Spegazzini’s mind when he…
Calafate no es caliente
Post by Grubb Mosquitoes won’t bother us here. In the windy low-40s, it’s knit cap time. Driving in from the small airport with stark brown hills to the east and barren flatlands to the west, I felt like I might be back in New Mexico somewhere around Carlsbad. Only there weren’t any trees. Nada. Zip….
If I were to use a pay phone
Post by Grubb. I’d run down to the Recoleta gallery that has this object standing against the wall in the hallway.
No mystery here
Post by Grubb. The first museum we hit yesterday—MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires) led us out of our neighborhood past some embassies to a busy boulevard by a park. (When I mention boulevards in this city I’m talking six lanes of traffic and a symphony of horns.) MALBA is large and modern…
Tangolitry
Post by Grubb. The band takes its place on the stage in the corner of the Belle Epoque restaurant. Par can lights angled above dark red curtains pick out the white haired band leader ready to pounce on the keys of his grand piano. Upstage next to the piano, a tall thin man prepares to…
Yo, Miguel!
Post by Grubb. Yesterday on our street art ramble the first mural across the road from where we met up with our guide featured a friend of mine from Albuquerque on an elongated skateboard. He’s the face in the middle with a bird on his tongue. The cherubic putto figure in the left with the…
The Green Fist
Post by Grubb Next door to the Contemporary Art Museum in Buenos Aires is the Museum of Modern Art. Another pleasant space all low ceilinged and linear. The main exhibit featured lively colored paintings with an environmental theme from the early 1970s. To think it’s been more than 50 years since we’ve been rattling this…
Con Art
Post by Grubb. In most of the places we visit we try to check out a contemporary art exhibit. See what the young artists are doing in that area. Sometimes we’re in for a pleasant surprise, like the leaking water droplets playing on a factory floor of drums in Tromso, Norway. Yesterday we got out…
Double L
Post by Ella. In Spanish, the LL is pronounced as a ‘ya’. So Villa is pronounced Vee-ya. In Argentine Spanish, the pronunciation is Vee-cha. The LL is a ‘ch’ (as in church) sound. I’ve been called Aya, Acha, and she. Just my luck to have a double LL name.
Crash of the alien spaceship
Post by Grubb. A couple days ago we were idling through a park east of where we’re staying and after we crossed a colorful bridge spanning the Avenue del Libertador and passed the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, we came across what appeared appeared to be the gigantic wreckage of an intergalactic spacecraft. Upon further…
Different kind of theater
Post by Grubb. There are classic world-unto-themselves bookstores that we’ve visited in Lisbon, Copenhagen, and Manchester, Vermont, but nothing matches El Ateneo in Buenos Aires for Baroque extravagance. Ella’s already posted a photo, but let me give you a shot from the second floor mezzanine. Notice how it’s arranged like an opera house with box…
Futbol: “Hello, neighbor!”
Post by Grubb. That’s what I hear from the guy wearing a baseball cap standing next to me on the street corner of a busy Buenos Aires thoroughfare while Ella and I wait for the bus carting us to the soccer match Monday night. Brooke, one of the women about to attend the game with…