Puerto Madera, Buenos Aires

It has already been several days since we made the return trip from Villa Gessell to Buenos Aires  ( BA). I’m realizing that keeping up with a blog like this will be a challenge. We are staying in a small apartment that I found on AirB&B; it’s in the Recoleta district of the city. It is very comfortable and well situated for exploring the city. We are now three; my daughter Bryna joined us on Thursday and will spend a couple of weeks with us as we travel north through to Paraguay where she was born. Here in BA our schedule has been a full one as we try to experience as much of this wonderfully and quirky city as possible within the limited time that we have. 

We usually leave the apartment around nine and don’t return until ten or eleven in the evening. We have been doing a lot of walking, as my feet remind me at the end of each day. So far it has been an easy city to get around, wide sidewalks and plenty of public transportation, and shady parks to rest in. Obviously much has changed since the last time we were here and so have the details of travel. 

On our first trip here in ’78, there were no credit cards — we carried a lot of US dollars in pockets that we pinned inside our pants. There were no smart phones with Google Maps to help us navigate. We traveled without wifi or internet. Instead of instant messaging, FaceTime and Skype, we wrote post cards and letters (how quaint). Now, there is even a nifty little phone app called BA Como Llego that provides detailed information on the buses and trains, as well as a map function. Perhaps most importantly, for the people of Argentina, the country is now a democracy with an elected government, rather than the very scary military junta who ruled here from ’76 through ’84, which was one of the darkest chapters in this country’s history.

So here are a few images made along the way:

Two famous Argentinian authors Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares greet us on the way into the La Biela Cafe.

Buenos Aires is sometimes referred to as the Paris of South America

As in most major cities of the world, there is a visible disparity in the distribution of wealth in Buenos Aires too

Galarias Pacifico is one of the upscale shopping plazas on Calle Florida where the other 10% shop.

The ornate entrance to the Teatro Colon, BA's impressive grand opera house which opened to the public in 1908 and is still a very active performance venue

One of the ornate galleries in the Teatro Colon

 On the tour of Teatro Colon

I just happened to have been able to get this image of a couple of my favorite celebrities in the grand performance hall of the Teatro Colon