I woke up early on Sunday morning, and realised I’d have to do something with my day other than sit at my computer trying to get PHP to send mail. A couple of natives had told me that Puerto Madero was a nice part of town to visit, and since there’s a bus that goes there from right outside my flat, I decided to take myself off there…
The bus ride was quite pleasant, actually, but then, at 10am on a Sunday morning, neither the buses nor the roads in Buenos Aires are particularly busy. The buses here don’t really seem to be designed to hold many people, so I’d hate to travel on one in the rush hour. Anyway, it got me there easily enough, and I stepped out into the dazzling sunshine and blistering heat.
There’s not really much to be said about Puerto Madero. I took quite a few pictures (look on flickr) just for the sake of it. It really just seemed to be a dull place where rich people live (the estate agent I got the flat from said that about a third of the properties there are owned by people from the US, who only come here in the summer). I didn’t come across any shops, just a few brasseries and restaurants along the riverside. I would have liked to stop for a drink and a rest, but I figured the prices would be silly.
Walking further away from the river, there’s a big expanse of grass, and more normal folk were hanging out there, sunbathing. I would have stayed, but there was absolutely no shade, and I wasn’t there to sunbathe. I walked back the way I came, taking photos along the way to entertain myself. I must say that I liked the cranes in the area: I always like big cranes.
I studied my map, and after about 5 minutes (my map-reading skills are perhaps improving with all of the practise – though I still feel for the hapless girl who asked me for directions last weekend, who I sent in exactly the opposite direction to where she wanted to go. Hey, that was her fault for being lazy: there was a map right next to her that she could have consulted, but she chose to ask a foreigner instead…) I discovered that I was actually right next door to San Telmo!
Anyway, I went to San Telmo to watch the Ajedrez de Tango Viviente once more. I took some videos this time: you can watch them someday, when I upload them… I’ve tried all day with youtube, but the quality’s been terrible. I’m now tweaking the settings of the video for export, and I’m going to try uploading them to Vimeo instead. Videos are a bit trickier to get online than photos. Here’s a photo of the beautiful dancing people to tide you over. Like you, they’re waiting for the show to start…
And you can watch videos of the tango on Vimeo. I took a few, so go and watch them. Here's the opening dance:
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