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Published: September 7th 2006
The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo
Buenos Aires has a lot of politically fueled grafitti on its walls. This picture depicts the 'Madres de Plaza de Mayo', the mothers who gather every Thursday to remember and protest the disappearance of their children during the military rule from 1976 to 1983.We write today stuck in the northern corner of Argentina. We arrived in Puerto Iguazu this morning excited to see the 'Cataratas' of Iguazu, one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world. Our plan was to stay here for just two days and one night returning to Buenos Aires in time for the Boca Juniors soccer game tomorrow night. Unfortunately we still haven't seen the falls and we may be stuck here for a while. A local protest (non violent) has cut off access to the waterfalls and the airport. Apparently the locals aren't happy with a recent cross border tax that the argentinian government has implemented a few months ago and have decided that they WILL make the government notice and listen. Nothing says 'Bienvenidos'(Welcome) like a blockade of burning tires. On an upside we have been able to catch up on our chess, card playing, ping pong and emailing since other than the falls there isn't much to do here.
The last we wrote we left Lima for Buenos Aires. The two cities are complete opposites, black and white, ying and yang,...Ian has classified Lima as 'the arm pit of Peru'..dirty and sweaty. 2 days was plenty of
Night out at Teatro Colon
We enjoyed the sounds of flamenco and tango in this beautiful theater...the accordian may be bringing sexy back... time to see all the sights. Thankfully we had a beautiful place to stay in ,which was the perfect retreat and made the stay terrific.
Buenos Aires has been labeled the 'Paris of the South' by many travelers. It is littered with high end restaurants and cafes, which was perfect for ducking into for a 'cafe con leche' and 'medialuna' (aka sweet croissant) break from the cold weather.
After hiking the Andes and treking in the jungle in Peru, we were ready for a dose of 'bo bo' - bohemian bourgeoisie...a term we've learned down here. Our 'bo bo' experience consisted of going to the Teatro Colon, one of the world's oldest theaters (ranked third after Paris and Vienna for acoustics), a tango show at Carlos Gardel's old haunt and the ultimate...a fashion show introducing Buenos Aires' spring fashions and hot designers. It was the only place Ian has seen other women my height in South America...although he claims he didn't get a 'good' look. =)
We walked around a lot, taking in the different 'barrios', like Palermo, San Telmo (sort of like Chelsea in NY with its antique fair on the Sundays), La Boca (the neighbourhood that was founded
Teatro Colon
The architectural detailing inside the theater is amazing! by Italian immigrants circa 1900s) and Puerto Madero - the most expensive real estate in Latin America. The things that we will remember from BsAs are:the professional dog walkers...you see many of them in Recoleta walking anywhere from 6 to 12 dogs along with the remains from the dogs (watch your new leather shoes!), taxi drivers that think they´re Formula 1 race car drivers, cafe after cafe after cafe, the architecture (they even have a bar named the Opera Bay bar and the building is a mini replica of the Sydney Opera House) and tango.
Hopefully we will be able to see the Iguazu falls first hand in the near future. If the protest eases up, we will hopefully be on our way to Buenos Aires tomorrow afternoon and catch the Boca Juniors playing Sao Paulo in the evening. If not we will still be here mastering our ping pong game.
All the best,
Ian and Kasia
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Mom (Fran)
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The best laid plans...
Sounds like you are safe, which is very good and having a break from your itinerary. Hope the demonstrators settle down soon, I have to say we have not heard of this protest here in sunny Alberta. I enjoyed your outfits - it must be cold in BA. We are expecting similar weather next week as the temp drops and Fall begins. The leaves are turning, the crabapples falling. We had a great back to school week. My new secretary is a gift from God and everything is so smooth it is like a whole new experience. I should worn you that when you come back it is very hard to get back to the work the pattern. I have come to believe that work shouldn't take quite so much of our time, how to manage that...I'm not sure Enjoy every minute - you make me feel that I am with you as I read your wonderful blog. Love and big hugs Mom.