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Published: August 3rd 2006
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Graffitti Call to Arms
These posters invited people to a night of graffitti to take back the walls of the city. There´s nothing like having to leave a city to make you fall in love with it. Yesterday, I was feeling lonely, hadn´t had a substantial conversation in either language in two days, didn´t much like the food. felt overwhelmed by the Buenos Aires and the dogdoo everywhere, was cold all the time and wanted nothing more than to leave the city as soon as possible. With this in mind, last night I bought a ticket to leave this evening for Mendoza, clear across to the other side of the country near Chile in the heart of wine country.
Once I had done that, of course, I made friends, stayed up until 5am drinking local wine and discussing Irish politics and Chilean music, bought a hat (thus improving my general humor since I wasn´t quite so cold) and generally relaxed enough to fall in love with the city. I´m sure a lot of my bad humor had to do with being cold all the time. Those of you who have lived with me know that I do not tolerate the cold very well, in fact it makes me downright grumpy. I was, as my sister put it, ¨stubbornly optimistic¨ about the
Massacre Manhattan
A little taste of some of the more political graffitti around. weather, despite the fact that I was coming to countries which are experiencing their winter. I looked on the web and the highs were in the 60s and 70s for most of the towns I was visiting. Now, it´s possible that the weathermen had a little too much of the local wine, because the temperatures haven´t gotten above 40 since I´ve been here, and it´s colder at night. I have a down jacket and a fleece, but that is not sufficient. No one, except the manual laborers, wears hats here. The Argentinian women look stylishly freezing all the time, but I decided to bite the bullet and bought the cheapest but warmest hat I could find, and now I¨m happy.
So, back to Buenos Aires. I´m staying in the bohemian neighborhood of San Telmo, which is known for antiques and art. It´s a working class but slowly gentrifying neighborhood which was the favored location for the rich around the time of the revolution, until yellow fever hit and the rich abandoned the neighborhood to move north to what are today the wealthy parts of the city. It´s an interesting mix of gorgeous, slowly decaying colonial compounds selling antiques and
The Walls are Covered
Some of the less artistic graffiti in the neighborhood squat cement stores selling toilets.
The art is what I like best about Buenos Aires. Here in San Telmo, there are murals everywhere and artistic graffiti on the sides of almost every building. I was puzzled by the proliferation of graffiti until I saw a flyer inviting people to a night of ¨public art¨ where a group of people went around last week one night at midnight with stencils and spray paint and graffitied the whole city. Their slogan was ''Art replaces time in an organized invasion of the walls of San Telmo''. Much of the graffiti is political, with everything from anti-US to pro condom sentiment, and taken in an artistic context, I began appreciating it.
At first, I hated the hostel which I am staying at. It is, of course, cold, and I found the people here cold as well. Every time I walked through the common room, people appeared to be stoned, watching bad movies and not talking to each other or me. Apparently, this was an aberration, and last night things picked up with a very interesting night involving Northern and Southern Irishmen (both lawyers and VERY opinionated), a Colombian, 2 Chileans, one Ecuadorean,
30 Years After Their Disappearance
Talk of those who disappeared under the dicatorship and their children who were kidnapped and secretly adopted is still very strong in Buenos Aires. one Argentine, a Brit and me. I was in the middle of the couch and I could literally turn my head left and be involved in the English conversation or right and join in the Spanish one. It was great fun and I learned quite a bit about the differences between barristers and solicitors in Ireland (North and South) and watched with horror and fascination as the two Irish boys tore each other to bits verbally and then decided to just accept their differences and share pints. It was the kind of cross-cultural experience that you only get staying at hostels and is part of what I love about traveling by myself.
Right now I´m waiting for a tour bus to come pick me up to take me on an embarrassing tour to the places I have yet to see in Buenos Aires. I hate being part of tours, but I only have this afternoon to see the rest of Buenos Aires, and it was impossible to get to all the places I wanted to see, namely the famous cemetery of the rich, where Evita is buried, the pink house (like the white house but pink), and the fishing
Plaza de Mayo Protest
The Plaza de Mayo right in front of the Pink House is the center for protests of all kinds. This one was for better pay for doctors at the French Hospital, and the police were ready for a riot. neighborhood of La Boca, which is famous for its brightly colored houses and street tango. On the upside, I feel a little safer as part of a tour in La Boca, which is supposed to be a little rough.
On the subject of safety, another upside of Buenos Aires is that it is the first place I´ve ever been in Latin America where I can walk around and be almost invisible. There are lots of tall blond women here, so until I open my mouth, no one knows where I´m from. Once I open it, they´re not at all sure where I´m from either, which is nice.
OK, time to go be a tourist. I´m feeling really sad about leaving Buenos Aires now that I have people to talk to and go out with and now that I can finally enjoy the city with my ugly hat on.
Until Mendoza,
Cora
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Connie
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We're off!
Once again, your writing makes it feel like we're with you in these adventures. Thanks, you sweetheart. we sure love to travel.