…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…
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…
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….
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.
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 …
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.