Post by Ella After 20 years of construction, the Teatro Colon opened with the opera Aida by Giuseppe Verdi on May 25, 1908. Since then, every opera season begins with an opera by Verdi. Italian Carrara marble, Venitian stucco, stained glass ceilings, 24-carat gold leaf, huge chandeliers (now filled with LED bulbs). Stunning. We took…
Category: Into Argentina and Uruguay we go
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.
Random photos
Post by Ella. Today we visited Western Union for a cash infusion, then on to Teatro Colon. But more on those later. Here are some random photos of the streets of Buenos Aires.
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…
Cooking with fire
Post by Ella. Last night’s late night shenanigan was an Asado masterclass. Trigger warning: lots of food photos. Asado is both a way of cooking (primarily grilling) and a social event where family and friends enjoy an Asado meal. There is a wood fired grill fed by, of all things, a wood fire. Within the wood…
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…
Uber-ing Buenos Aires
Post by Ella. Worth a mention. There is an extensive network of busses and subway here. Easily accessible with a Sube card. We haven’t purchased one yet because they are notoriously hard to find and Uber is ridiculously cheap and convenient. Okay call us lazy. Uber is illegal here. But everyone uses them anyway. Even…
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…
From museum art to street art
Post by Ella. The Museo Nacional Bellas de Artes in Recoleta (10 minute walk from our AirBnB) claims to have the most extensive collection of fine art in South America so how could we not? A nice collection of Goya’s and Rodin’s, scattered French painters, an Italian or two. My favorites, though, were the Argentine artists…