We had gone free-ranging yesterday, hitting the streets of Buenos Aires with no specific goals, to let the city unfold un-prompted.

We had ridden the subway …

… the cars like something off the Orient Express—wooden windows, wooden seats wooden doors … that didn’t necessarily close all the way or when they were supposed to, or even stay closed for that matter. But it was reasonably clean and efficient enough at moving people.  The fare was less than one peso, about 25¢ and, we later learned, can even be free if one arrives just as something liquid has spilled into the ticket machine rendering it temporarily out-of-order.

We had  strolled Continue reading “Free-Ranging in Buenos Aires”

Snow and ice and plummeting temperatures prevailed at home, but Argentinians were approaching their longest day of the year and at 6 p.m. on a December evening the sun was still high, the air was still warm, and the streets were bustling, noisy and at times congested, but also bright and green.

My first impression is of a relatively pretty city as cities go. Not particularly keen on cities, we prided ourselves on the fact that during our last excursions to Europe we had succeeded in avoiding all contact with large cities, except for the necessity of arrival and departure at a major airport.  Buenos Aires though presented an abundance of bloom  – purple blossoms hanging in great profusion from the many trees, yellow and rose-coloured blossoms, and gorgeous blue bulbs.
Argentinians, we found, Continue reading “Impressions of Buenos Aires”

Off again.  This time to South America.

South America is not a place I ever thought I would visit, although I’m not sure why that was so. My images of the continent were derived from Romancing the Stone, and Indiana Jones movies and films from the 1940s of slow, lazy ceiling fans wafting the air in oppressive heat, and men in Panama hats; of people who escaped to the southern continent and purposely lost themselves in its out of the mainstream cities.  But the opportunity arose … Continue reading “Tales from South America”