Buenos Buenos Aires

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We have been in BA for almost a year now, and as it's our final week I thought I would put a few pictures online of the city. The Galeria Pacifica have their Christmas tree up already (and the Americans haven't even celebrated thanksgiving!). The temperatures are creeping up and everyone is returning to the parks to make a start on those summer tans.

It seems that dogs have been banned from the parks though. The police were going around with megaphones today and making sure all dogs were on leads. So today there was no threat to our lunch from any canine friends or foes! Last week we saw the somewhat amusing site in a Plaza Serrano bar where a young lady had her burger snatched from her plate by a stray dog. It's always amusing when it happens to someone else. The bar staff were very good and gave her another one (for free we suppose).

I thought I would share some photos of my daily grind too. My drawing has improved dramtically as seen by my efforts on the classroom whiteboards. You can only imagine what it would have been like a year ago! There's also a few pics of the subte (Underground train) where we all seem to spend a lot of our lives in very close proximity to half the city's population.

Finally, some of the sights that I still find hard to believe. At times it can be impossible to walk down the street on the pavement (that's a sidewalk for some of you!!) without being forced onto the road by maintenance work. And there's the scaffolding which adorns the new blocks of apartments. I am always worried about walking underneath these constructions as they certainly wouldn't pass European Health and Safety tests. No accidents thus far though, but we still have 6 days until we leave for the South!

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Photos

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad
A giant tree indoors whilst it's 30 degrees outside

Santa is in town
with a full complement of reindeer

The Galeria Pacifica
An impressive building but the shops are a bit expensive for your average backpacker. Even so, the foodcourt is cheap and good!

Catedral Station
I seem to spend half of my life here and I can't even get a free "La Razon" any more as they have stopped giving them out at the times when I am there!

Murals
Every subte station seems to have murals depicting historical scenes of the area.

Subte Trains
Hot, sweaty, unreliable, frequently breaking down or stopping. Time for some investment????

Pavement Obstruction
At the moment there's a lot of digging up the roads and paths around BA. It should be nice when it's finished!

Scaffolding
Look out for falling debris!

Teaching
Seriously, this lesson was about parachuting. To be precise, it was an audio exercise about an octagenerian parachutist who is determined to continue jumping out of planes until she is 100 and beyond.

Comments

[mark]

I still remember the first time that I saw a scaffolding here that was all plywood. Only in Argentina!

[John]

subway
I THINK THE SUBWAY WORKS QUITE WELL!

[anonymous]

I remember waiting a while for the subte trains. Usually, you wait 2-3 minutes at a metro but I was waiting more 5-10 minutes there! I tried not complaining especially that I was paying around 20p a journey! Looking through your blogs are bringing back the fantastic memories I had in BA...I'm planning now to return!!!