Sunday, 26 May 2013

Hamish....

my niece
Kelly
posted
this
on
facebook
He
is
having
a
great
time
at
Beve
and
Chris's
place

paseadoros de perros.....the dog walkers

Carlos and his chicos,
the dog walkers
of Belgrano
and Palermo.
Otto, Fransisco,
and David.
On my last
day in Buenos
Aires, Carlos
bought big slices
of Tortas for
us all to pig out
on.
and we finished with lots of sticky kisses.

International Book Fair

international
book fair
Buenos Aires
2013

and
some
of
the
stalls
were
increible!
 

bit of a party at the Dutch Embassy

Dutch Embassy
Buenos Aires
April 2013

Some of the members
of the Eloisa Cartonera
 after a pleasant
little evening quaffing
wine and beers and
nibbles and more
wine and nibbles
and dessert, three
varieties.
They won the Prince Claus Award last year and this was a bit of a 'do' for the locals who didn't make it over to The Netherlands to pick up the goodies.

la/el? internacional feria del libros

The International book Fair.
Buenos Aires
April 2013

The Eloisa Cartonera were
invited to hold workshops
at this HUGE event.
i can't remember how
many pavillions there were,
but there were queues of
people thronging every day
at the gates.
I was one of the workers
covered in paint helping
the kids decorate their books. This little chica was very cute and we had a blast teaching each other different words in our different languages. I was blown away with some of the kids painting, and others, well, cool gooey messes.

Killing time in Santiago Airport

Mendoza, Argentina.

I found this nice guy in a park
beside all the official type
buildings.
I think all famous
heads should be
subjected to this
  sort of make-over.
  

Wednesday, 8 May 2013

desayuno con Madelene

Breakfast in the sun with
Madelene. A cute little
cafe just around the 
corner from home.
I live in a neighbourhood
that has lots of 
beautiful old old
trees, and usually a
cafe, a grocery story, a
laundry, or vege store
on every corner.
no zoning of residential
and comerical here.
it's all thrown in
together.
Handy!

Tuesday, 16 April 2013

waiters wait...

El Mercardo
Montevideo
Uruguay.

This market is situated by the
port in Montevideo.
It is an old
iron super structure
 to be used as a railway
station. English in
design and construction,
it was sent by boat
aiming for Chile.
It got as far as
Montevideo...and
got waylaid.
So now, it is a big
market full of bars and
restaurants that cater to the most hardcore carnivours out.

Palabras mi gusta

Words i like...

emplastarse...get smeared
with.
persona aficionada que
acompana a un grupo
de musica moderna...
groupie.
gorgojoso/mugriento...
grubbie.
rudioso...noisy.
rompio...broken, stuffed.
espumajear...foam at
the mouth.
bombachas...ladies
underwear.
disfraz/disfrazar...disguise.
exprimidera de naranjas...orange squeezer.
tormenta....storm.
pelota...balls/derogatory...  el es un peloto.
susurro...whisper

Sunday, 31 March 2013

and Madelene arrived from Brazil

Late one Sunday night
Ezeiza International
Airport, Bs As.

Madelene arrives in
Buenos Aires after
three weeks in the
sun in Brazil.
Intent on saving my
pesos i took Colectivo 8
to the airport.
Three hours later, two
bread rolls and a
small bottle of water, i made it. Sure as hell was glad when Madelene shouted us the fast bus back to town.

the Best Book Store

Don't know the 
address of this
kooky cool
bookstore in
Montevideo, cos
Madelene has got
the MAP!
Walked passed this
place on my way
back to the bus
station and had to
hang out and take
photos.
Books entwined with
plants and a glass
ceiling. Lets have one
of these back in
Dunedin.... We will also need coffee and a printing press and some Murga costumes and drums and empanadas and tango and milongas and, and, and.....



Honeydew melon?

Fruit and Vegetable Market
Montevideo

I love how you can walk
around the corner of
a street and stumble
across something like this.

Last run across the border

Casa el Solis?
Montevideo
Uruguay
Main Plaza

Raced, or boated and bused
to Montevideo for a night.
March 11 and 12. Just
two days before the 
90 day visa ran out.
Great city, but really
expensive as i was
plying Argentinian pesos
so the exchange was
not favourable.
Had a fabulous time
wandering around the old city.
Made a bee-line for the Museo de Carnival. Uruguay has a long tradition of....Murgas...quite spectacular. Needless to say i took HEAPS of photos for joy and future inspiration.....

RED

60 or so pot plants,
Estrella Federal they
call them here.
Poinsettia to us
in English.
Every day i would
make designs or
spell out words 
on the pavement...
along with banana
skins. This day was
la plabra rojo.
Red.

aburrida....con piel de banana

Bored with Banana Skin

In front of the
florist stall
one afternoon
of not much
flower selling.
I would get some
regulars come along
a practice their
English, and
Carlos the
paseador de perros
or dog walker
would buy me coffees
and muffins and flirt
outrageously with his
gorgeous eyes and smile.
Ah those Argentine men are terrible flirts!

La Florista

Avenida Federico Lacroze
Tienda de flores
con Alicia

For three weeks i
was 'la florista' 
while 'el florista' was
somewhere in
Uruguay having a
holiday.
Long hours for
not much pay, but
met lots of cool
people and practiced
'mi lamentable hablar
castellano'. They were
very kind and patient with me and it turns out that
 lots could speak English....better than my Spanish.
Once a week i would take colectivo 59(along with all the other sleepy commuters at 6am) to the Mercado de Flores, the flower market on the other side of town. Trundling my suitcase with wheels and prepared to haggle for flowers. Well, in theory. Turns out when they spoke rapidly to me i would go into shell shock and forget all the words i was trying to say. Anyway, i managed to fill up the suitcase with an assortment of blooms that i hoped would sell, and catch bus 59 back again.

what Portenos do on a weekend

Under a tree
just up from the
runway of
Aeroparque
Jorge Newbery.

On fine weekends
you can find masses
of people hanging
out watching local
planes take off and
land. So close you
could almost touch
the underbellies of them.
Not easy trying to capture an image with a small digital camera that has a three second delay on the shutter. Manged to soak up a lot of av gas in the process.

Murga chasers

The last of the Murga 
pictures i promise.
 Hendrik is a Dutch guy
that was living in front of 
the florist stall.
He also became a 
dedicated Murga fan.
This is what you look
like after half a
 can of  'espuma'
Never look up when
someone says
"look here"

Saturday, 2 March 2013

Murga costumes



Murga dancer
avenida corrientes
Buenos Aires

Not hard to see
why i like Murgas.
Not only the music
and dancing, but
the costumes are
gorgeous.
Have been given
the directions to
places to buy the
glittery sequined 
patches that
adorn the coat-
tails.
 

Bombos....sleeping

More Murga
pics.
Bombos, the
drums,
at rest
while 
another
group
takes
centre
stage
or, in
this case
the middle
of the
road