Day 14 - Evita & MALBA

---

We ate our museli and fruit (our supermarket purchased brekky) this morning and went out the door at 9:15am. We walked up to a different bus stop which was just a little further then yesterday’s but it meant we didn’t have to go all around the eastern part of the city. We changed at the Green line which covers the Eastern part of the city around the green area of the city, that is, parks, sports facilities etc. It was 10:30 am by the time we boarded the green bus. One interesting item we passed that we’d never heard about was an amusement park dedicated to Jesus which is how the commentary described it. It has a sound and light show on the creation of life, but I don’t think it is Darwin’s version. The road also ran along the Tigre River which looked a bit murky. Also went past the main soccer stadium but other than that, nothing too exciting. The bus also took us through a parallel route through the Palermo area so we got off on a different stop to get some coffee and hopefully see some more street art.

We managed to find good coffee again and a little street art but decided to make our way to our first museum stop Museo Evita, dedicated to the life of Eva Peron. The building itself is lovely and was built during the first decade of the 20^th Century. We thoroughly enjoyed this museum as it told the stories and had many of Evita’s dresses and other artifacts. This is a must-see if you have any interest in the life of Evita. A bonus is that there is also an excellent café in the same building where we had a late lunch. We also had wi-fi and we messaged our friend from Los Torres, Michelle, and she just happened to be checking into a hotel with a friend just around the corner. As I was sending her another message she turned up at the café. She said she was passing by and saw my grey pony-tail. She sat down with us for a chat and we will all be going to the Recolletta area tomorrow so may meet up again for dinner.

We then walked to the Museo Artes Latino Americano (MALBA) which has a permanent collection of art from South American artist. Entry was only 70 pesos ($AUS2.70) each as we got Seniors and Teachers discount here. The second floor had an art photography exhibition featuring Richard Prince and Cindy Sherman. MALBA is a small museum and doesn’t take long to see everything on display so worth visiting.

By now it was 6pm. Museums open late at 11am or noon but they stay open late to around 7pm. We decided to catch a taxi back as we needed to get ready for our Tango show. Taxis are very cheap here and the taxis displaying a licence number use meters so no qualms about using them in BA.

For the Senor Tango show I had only booked for the show as the dinner didn’t have rave reviews and the plan was to eat at a restaurant called El Pirata, but when we got there it was closed . Google showed there were two more restaurants two blocks away so we walked but the area was a bit seedy looking and it was not a shopping area as I had expected. So we couldn’t find anything open and it was so quiet Daisy was getting a bit worried so we decided to head to Senor Tango and see if we could add dinner. The lady checking us in couldn’t speak English but she got one of the bouncers who are all dressed like gangsters except for this one who was dressed in top hat and tails to interpret for us. Dinner was no problem but relatively expensive for BA, 2,400 pesos each but at this stage we didn’t mind. We got very good seats and were promptly served. The meal we had was actually quite good. We ordered trout because the bad reviews I had read had complained about the quality of the steak.

The show started quite late at 10 pm but we thoroughly enjoyed it. A bit cheesy in parts but hey, we like a bit of cheese. The stage was circular and started with two horse riders galloping their horses onto the stage and they make them rear up so was a spectacular way to start. The dancers, band and female singer were excellent and enjoyed the show immensely. The band featured violin, cello, double bass, piano and and a fantastic accordion player. I have a new respect for accordion and just loved the music. Hearing it live and played so well was a revelation. The show finished at 11:30 and the waiter told us that buses back to your hotel was included in the dinner but we got the man who helped us earlier to assist us again but it turned out our deal didn’t include transport and they said it would be cheaper to get a taxi, but the man was great and helped us get a taxi out the front. There were plenty of taxis arriving as they all know when the show finishes. We had a bit of trouble communicating with the driver but he eventually understood that we were not at a hotel but an apartment.

---