back to Buenos Aires

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We walked laden with backpacks through the old city to the part where we would catch our evening ferry back to Buenos Aires. Deserted and still the streets felt like a movie set. My backpack was small and dense like carrying a sleeping child.

JJ towered by my side. “Where’d you get the doll?” I was holding it my hand so as not squash it in my dense pack.
“Oh some guy gave it to me, when I saved hm from his hotel room” I passed her the doll and she took it with curiosity.
“Pretty heavy for a little thing”
“Yeh, wonder what it’s stuffed with.” I took the doll and lifted its little red floral skirt to reveal the neatly stitched seams of her legs with shoes that were permanently sewn to her feet. Her face was prettily embroidered but expressionless and her hair was made of many individual threads sewn into her head then plaited. The kind of handwork you find in countries where shoe shining is still a trade.

We came to a plaza and sat a while since we were still an hour early for the ferry. There was a dry fountain in the centre and a large broad tree to its side. Children played with toys that didn’t fit them, pushing oversized bikes they could not ride or wheeling around in roller blades that made them look like polio victims. For so many children there seemed to my eyes too few adults.

The mosquitos moved us on and we headed to the port in time to join a long queue.
The “fast ferry” is big if you are in first class and small if you are in cattle class. We were in the latter and joined the 200 fellow passengers in a tight grid of airplane chairs. It felt like we were all about to see a movie but all we saw was the on board canteen selling tired sandwiches to tired passengers.

The class below cattle class simply sat on the floor n the open area near the duty free shops and got drunk on their duty free alcohol.

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