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Published: November 2nd 2010
First off let me set expectations low, this update isn't going to be for everyone. Especially after all of the National Geographic type pictures from Patagonia. But to give a little background, I was in Buenos Aires for nearly 2 weeks in 2008 and figured that it didn't make sense to show a lot of the same pictures from that trip. So instead I took pictures of the city's graffiti! I know, sounds like a dumb idea (and maybe it is) but let me explain.... Like all big cities, Buenos Aires has the ugly spray painting of someone's name on a public building type of graffiti but, it also has some really strange characters and scenes that artists put on walls, buildings, and bridges around the city. Most of it makes you stop and say "what the hell is that?" Plus, what makes things more interesting is that most of the pictures I've taken are from Palermo, which is one of the most clean and wealthy parts of the city! It would be comparable to spray painting pictures on the walls of buildings in Beverly Hills. There people would freak, but for some reason here they don’t. Maybe they even pay
people to paint them, I have no idea. Anyway, I remembered seeing a lot of graffiti on my prior visit so this time I actually went looking for some of the stranger drawings throughout the city. In fact its not just me, there is actually a graffiti tour that takes you around the city, but we didn't end up taking it because it is easily something you can find on your own.
As you can imagine, it’s a pretty big transition going from the quiet small town of El Calafate in southern Patagonia to exhaust filled, busy streets of Buenos Aires. But without a doubt Buenos Aires always has something interesting going on, which makes the city a great place to walk around and explore. When Jeff and I arrived we were met by Jeff's girlfriend, Azita. After I start work, Jeff and Azita are planning on traveling around Uruguay, Buenos Aires and Peru before heading back to California. For me, I only have 3 days in Buenos Aires so I have to make the most of my short time and check out some of the highlights of the city.
The cool thing about the city is that
its best to just have a general outline of the areas that you'd like to visit and then the details seem to just fill themselves in along the way. For instance, one day we decided to head toward the Congress building and Avenue Del Mayo, which are both on the other side of the city. While in route, we found a museum with European and Argentine art, checked out an old building that we thought was a church but turned out to be the Engineering School for the University of Buenos Aires, and also ran across a protest. So it’s not exactly the destinations that make the city a great place to experience, it’s really all the stuff you find along the way. Besides seeing a lot along the trek through the city, we also made frequent stops at coffee shops or places to grab empanadas or pizza. On this trip I probably had one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had at a place called El Cuarteto, which is an 80 year old pizza place that looks like nothing has changed in the restaurant since the ‘60s. We didn’t really know exactly what we were ordering, but it turns
out that we got a pizza with a ton of toppings including 2 sunny side up eggs. It turned out to be awesome!
At this point in the trip, I’ve actually really behind on my updates. I’ve been in Montevideo, Uruguay for about 3 weeks now. So yes I am actually doing work as opposed to just traveling around. In fact, I’ve been so busy working that I got off to a really slow start on sightseeing in Montevideo. But now that I’ve been here for a couple weeks, I will post some more pictures and talk about what I am up to within the next few days.
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