Buenos Aires' Planetarium, A Microphone out of Tune

Even though it is shaped like a microphone, it has been the Argentinean eye to the universe for the past 40 years (1967-2007).

The "Planetario de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires Galileo Galilei", with it sample and beautiful park, stage to thousand of open-air concerts, it is a nice place to spend weekend afternoons with family and friends.

I emphasize on the park because I found the show inside the Planetariumun unsatisfactory. Even though there has been important scientific and technological changes since I visited the place more than fourteen years ago, I though presentation "Birth and Death of the Sun" lacked depth andinteresting information.

I think, that if we want to continue to stimulate our culture it would be necessary to balance and tune in our microphones a little better.

How to get there:

Planetario de La Ciudad de Buenos Aires Galileo Galilei

Av. Sarmiento and Figueroa Alcorta

4771-9393

Show: Birth and Death of the Sun (Nacimiento y Muerte del Sol)

Tuesday and Friday: 13 y 17 hs.

Weekend: 17, 18 y 19 hs.

My Arak Beras was Mostly Appearance

I chose appearance over content when I bought my souvenir in Bali, Indonesia. I had no idea what Arak Beras could possibly be, the label only said "distilled from rice and sugar cane." But the bottle's design was so enigmatic and attractive that I could not leave the bottle on the shelf; I had to take it home.

As soon as I opened the container the strong smell of alcohol automatically pushed me about a meter away from the bottle; it was so intense that it made my eyes itchy. The first sip was even worse, and I sustained it while it descended down my throat as a lighted match.

Like many of the souvenirs we buy during our trips, the bottle of "Arak Beras" rested on one of my house's shelves for over a year before I ventured to reopen it.

After such a long time, the artisans' wine had settled and its smell was suave, sweet and liquorish. However, its taste was still strong; perfect to heat yourself up during a cold winter day, but not much else.

After opening it trying it, reopening and retrying it, I still choose the appearance of this souvenir over its content. From now on it will simply sit on my shelf next to other useless acquisitions.

Imagine Buenos Aires Without Buses

Picture by Carlos Rodríguez: Colectivo en el estado Guarico, Venezuela, Hacienda de las Maravillas

Since I moved to Buenos Aires about nine months ago, I feel that my life takes place on a bus. I spend close to three hours of my daily life on abus going to and coming from work, traveling to visit my friends, go out todinner, go to my tango lessons, etc.

As it is common when you spend tooooooo much time with something, I have developed a love-hate relationship with box on wheels.

On one side it is convenient, I can take it anytime and anywhere to gowhenever I want, and I do not get stressed driving around Buenos Aires crowded streets. Yet, on the other side, I have to condense myself next to hundreds of passengers during rush hour, I have to go around asking for coins to be able to travel, and during winter, my hands freeze as I wait for the bus.

However, I cannot imagine living in Buenos Aires without buses. For that reason I have attached this picture that Carlos Rodriguez sent to me of an abandoned bus in Venezuela. When I first looked at it I felt sad.

How would my life be in this city if it ceases to take place on a bus?

Roses vs. Rosas in Buenos Aires’ Green Lungs

In 1975, Buenos Aires’ government transplanted Rosas for roses when it inaugurated El Rosedal de Palermo in the land that belonged Juan Manuel de Rosas.

As years passed by, Los Bosques de Parlemo, and specially El Rosedal, became one of porteños favorite place to spend the sunny weekends: walking along the park, running, playing soccer, skating, sitting down reading the paper or a good book, or simply drinking mate with pastries.

This park, also known as Parque 3 de Febrero was designed and inaugurated November 11, 1975 by the architect and landscaper Carlos Thays; the park carries its name in commemoration of Casero’s Battle of 1852, when the Ejercito Grande commanded by Justo Jose de Urquiza overthrowned Juan Manuel de Rosas and took his lands away from him. The government passed a decree that made the lands public domain, and transformed them into the beautiful green areas we can see and enjoy today. (Registro Oficial de la Provincia de Buenos Aires -Años 1831-1859 (Pag. 416). Decreto Nº 1.474/852. ) ”Declarando que todas las propiedades pertenecientes a D. Juan M. Rosas existentes en Buenos Aires son de pertenencia publica.” Buenos Aires, Febrero 16 de 1852.).

Personally, I find it curious that Rosas´ old residency is now well known for its labyrinths of roses that host up to 12.000 blossoming flowers in the Spring. Years ago, these lands were the scenery of heated conflicts, while today they are synonym of harmony, sweet smells and tranquility.

How to get there:

These 300 hectares of green parks are located between Av. Del Libertador, Salguero, Av. Rafael Obligado and Pampa.

Train: Station “3 de febrero”

Buses:

Av. Del Libertador and Dorrego: 10, 34, 36, 160, 166

Plaza Italia: 12, 15, 21, 29, 36, 37, 39, 41, 55, 57, 59, 60, 64, 67, 68, 93, 95, 11, 118, 128, 141, 152, 160, 161, 188, 194

Subway: Line D

Rosedal hours open to public:

Summer: 8.00 to 20.00 hrs.

Winter: 9.00 to 18.00 hrs.

Higuerote: Venezuelan Beaches, Honoring my Adoptive Home

Pictures by Carlos Rodríguez

Majagua, Higuerote, Estado Miranda, Venezuela

I owe a lot to Venezuela; practically half of my life, half of my friends, half of my party-time, half of my personality and the best memories of what it means to go to the beach.

However, since I haven’t been able to go back in many years, to my adptive home, I have dedicated little time and space to it in my blog. For this reason I have decided to share a little piece of Venezuelan beauty through the pictures of my friend Carlos Rodriguez.

Right now, I settle with the memory of these hidden beaches, although I hope some day I will be able to go back to feel the warm sand under my feet and the temperate marine breeze of beach days that taste like empanada, friend’s laughter, reggae, beer and salt.

Panoramic view, Chirimena, Higuerote, Estado Miranda, Venezuela

“The boat is in a river that flows out of the middle of the beach, fishermen keep their boats there, in the middle of the river, where pelicans are in charge of cleaning up everything that may be left behind after fishermen clean the fishing lines they’ve been collecting since 5 a.m. This beach is located in Estado Aragua, in the North, next to the tall coastal mountain range where you can see Puerto Cabello and Choroni (Estado Carabobo and Aragua, respectively).” – Carlos Rodriguez, Caracas, Venezuela.

Two Romes on the Mirror: Twin Cities

A couple of years ago I got permission to use my scholarship in a study abroad program in Rome, Italy.

I was excited about the opportunity of visiting my relative's land for the first time, about having the opportunity to come in direct contact with this distant culture that was also my culture, about meeting my far relatives, about traveling, about growing, about everything...

At the same time, I new that since I was only going to be in Rome for a semester, I wanted to internalize and absorb everything as fast as I could: I wanted to learn about the culture, compare “Italian” food in Italy with the one I eat in the new continent, see how Italians lived, how they studied, what it was like to work in Rome…

For that reason, I was eager to find a job in Rome through the Internet. After sending many e-mails, CVs and applications, I got an e-mail from a History Museum that was looking for a communications intern in Rome. It seemed like the perfect opportunity: I was going to be able to practice Italian (very basic at that time), I was going to learn a lot of history about the country, and I was going to gain experience in my field.

A month before flying to Rome, I wrote to the Museum’s managers asking them if they could help me find accommodations in Italy. They cordially responded something like: Unfortunately, we cannot help you find a place in Italy because we are located in Rome, Georgia, United States.

Those few words were enough to kill my perfect plan of having a full immersion into Italian culture. However, they were not enough to attenuate my excitement f traveling to the old continent.

From now on, whenever you are searching for a city in Internet, you should double check to make sure it concerns the desire city, otherwise you might be looking at the unreal reflection of a name that counts twice.


Places on a Mirror (includes cities and states):

• Ennis, Irelanda vs. Ennis, Texas, USA
• San Francisco, California, USA vs. San Francisco, Cordoba, Argentina
• Valparaiso, Zacatecas, Mexico vs. Valparaiso, Chile
• Oran, Salta, Argentina vs. Oran, Algeria
• Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico vs. Guadalajara, Castilla - La Macha, Spain
• Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia vs. Medellin, Veracruz, Mexico
• Valencia, Spain vs. Valencia, Venezuela
• Bolívar, Venezuela vs. Bolívar, Colombia
• Ayacucho, Perú vs. Ayacucho, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Armenia, Quindio, Colombia vs. Armenia (country)
• Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico vs. Monterrey, California, USA
• San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina vs. San Rafael, California, USA
• Aguas Calientes, Mexico vs. Aguas Calientes, Peru
• Santa Rosa, La Pampa, Argentina vs. Santa Rosa, California, USA
• San Jose, Costa Rica vs. San Jose, California, USA
• Santa Barbara, California, EEUU vs. Santa Barbara, Antioquia, Colombia
• Krakow, Poland vs. Krakow, Wisconsin, USA

Trios:

• Cordoba, Spain vs. Cordoba, Argentina vs. Cordoba, Mexico
• Merida, Spain vs. Merida, Venezuela vs. Merida, Mexico
• Paris, France vs. Paris, Texas, USA vs. Paris, Tennessee
• Trujillo, Venezuela vs. Trujillo, Spain vs. Trujillo, Peru
• Sucre, Perú vs. Sucre, Venezuela vs. Sucre, Bolivia
• Athens, Greece vs. Athens, Ohio, EEUU vs. Athens, Texas, USA

Multiple:

• Humboldt, Germany vs. Humboldt, Santa Fe, Argentina vs. Humboldt, California, USA vs. Humboldt, Nevada, USA
• Providence, Rhode Island, USA vs. Providence, Colombia vs. Providence, Chile vs. Providence, Santa Fe, Argentina
• Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina vs. Rosario, Sinaloa, México vs. Rosario, Chihuahua, Mexico vs. Rosario, Filipinas vs. Rosario, Uruguay

CyberShopping in Argentina, Experience Worthy of Surrealistic Life

Address > Enter > Pop. The website that I was looking for opened up. Click-Click. "Awesome! The exact tennis shows I was looking for!," exclaimed my friend, Would you come get them with me?

Jobless, and with lots of free time at that time, I agreed to go with him. Besides I'd never been to the area of Buenos Aires where the store was located and I wanted to explore that part of the city.

After a 40-minute bus ride we arrived at the given address, although wefelt we were in the wrong place: an area of low houses next to the railways. But the address was correct; so we walked about two blocks to thedoor of the "store", a white house built in the beginning of the XX Century.

A guard received us at the door, he asked a couple of strange questions from the other side of the bars, he asked for our ID, wrote our names downin a book and opened the bars. As we walked in, we passed through a metaldetector and the guard searched our bags; the situation was strange and it reminded me of the pre-departure flight procedures.

After we passed these controls, he opened a second door where we found a third door thatseparated us from the tennis shoes. Behind the last door, the stored resembled any regular shoe store in Av. Santa Fe or Av. Cordoba, with shoes and tennis rackets displayed on thewalls, and various people trying on shoes and clothes. However, the atmosphere was tense, and the salesmen kept looking into the cameras and the safeguarded door the whole time. I felt like the protagonist of one ofthose hidden camera prank shows. Only this time, it was no joke; my friendwas as stunned as I was.

After a little while, the storekeepers brought the shoes he had previouslyreserved through the Internet. He paid for them in a hurry and left theplace as fast as we could. "They were the exact shoes I was looking for!" he told me as we were leaving, "and I had not been able to find them anywhereelse." At that time, he was defeated by desire. In his place, I would havesettled for the desire, and from now on I can assure you I will stick totraditional shopping. As of now, in Argentina, Internet shopping is not made for me.

Poppa's Hat Travels the World

Bariloche, Rio Negro, Argentina

Each person chooses different ways of keeping the spirit of their loved ones alive. Some people keep their pictures or some family item, others transmit special recipes, stories or family traditions from one generation to the other, while others create their own rituals.

For that reason I became curious when I found out that after his grandfather died before going to study abroad in Argentina, Porter Campbell travels around the world with his grandpa’s hat to keep his memory alive.

Laura: When did you Stara travelling with the hat?

Porter: Since I came to Argentina August 2006.

LV: How did you come up with this idea?
PC: Poppa was an inspiration for me throughout my life; it was part of the inspiration to do something on his name. He used to that that hat with him everywhere, so it became his “symbol”, we say. And since he died two months before I came here, it was natural. Although I think the idea originally came from one of my aunts, Connie, or his son Robbie.


LV: Do other family members travel with the hat?

PC: No, just me for now.

LV: Where have you traveled with the hat so far?

PC: Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, Córdoba, Mendoza, Mar Del Plata, Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Chile (Chile, Valdivia, Santiago).

LV: Does the hat have a name?

PC: No, “Poppa’s Hat”....

LV: Did your grandfather like to travel?

PC: I think he did, he always traveled to visit his children and his grandchildren. He also had “timeshares” everywhere…

LV: In one of the pictures you can see a ring along with the hat. What’s the story of the “family ring”?

PC: Poppa liked the ring and he bought one for each family member. It is like our symbol, I guess.

LV: Would you like your grandchildren to follow a similar tradition? If that’s the case, what object would they take around the world?

PC: I’d like to pass on the hat to my entire family (from my cousins to my grandchildren), and if someone is traveling to an interesting site I’d like them to take the hat. Another object… I don’t know. I don’t have anything that I carry with me everywhere I go, maybe some day. I think I am going to make a book with all the pictures, and make copies to pass down to my immediate family.

Now I leave you some of the pictures Porter took while traveling through Argentina. Enjoy:

Poppa in Argentina

Aconcagua, Mendoza, Argentina

Cascadita en Argentina


Mendoza, Argentina

Mar del Plata, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Bariloche, Argentina

Puente de Mendoza, Argentina

Cerro de los Siete Colores, Argentina

Buses are Argentinean. Read the History

“Did you know buses were invented in Argentina?” I would repeat proudly, with a bit of skepticism, while I traveled. Although I had never been able to find facts to back out this statement, I had always repeated it as a fact…until I found “De los colectivos” an article written by Federico Recagno for the 44th volume of December’s edition of Todo Contol, the magazine for Obra Social del Personal de los Organismos de Control, which confirmed that the bus actually IS an Argentinean invention.

According to the article, in 1920, a group of taxi drivers got together in a bar of Rivadavia Avenue to come up with a new system of transportation that enabled them to more a large number of passengers at the same time, to be able to offset the high cost of taxi-meters.

Recagno affirms that the first car-bus, with “capacity for four passengers sitting in the back, three on the sides, and one next to the driver” circulated through Buenos Aires for the first time September 24, 1928. The trip cost between 10 and 20 cents, and route stated in Primera Junta, passed through Plaza Flores and ended in Lacarra y Rivadavia, one way, and the inverse route on the way back.

As time passed by, this medium of transportation became more and more popular, businessmen started adding bigger cars to fit more people and they assigned new routes around the city.

The car-bus continued to evolve until it transformed into the medium of transportation that we use today, where in Buenos Aires it is impossible to travel without coins clinking in your pockets.



Curiosities about buses in Argentina:
Tulio Montaña = first bus passenger.
Corina Milianazzi = received the first printed bus ticket.
Bondi = name used by people from Buenos Aires to refer to the bus; the word comes from the word “bondinho” in Portuguese that means little bus.

San Telmo, An Neighborhood of Antiques that Lost its Kingdom to Modernity in Buenos Aires

I confess. I am a Fair’s girl. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t juggle and I’m not into acrobatics, I am a Fair’s girl because on the weekends I like to stroll down the different Artisan’s Fairs that are organized across Buenos Aires: at Juramento, Plaza Italia, Placita Cortázar, Plaza Francia or San Telmo.

Each of the fairs has a unique touch to it. For example, at Placita Cortázar you can experience how traditional art fusions with modern art, and decorative art with clothing items; at Plaza Francia you can see how street artist’s presentations wrap around artisan’s crafts; and at San Telmo you can be the protagonist of how history and tradition mingle with modern society and tourists.

It had been a long time since I had last walked around this area of town, and I was surprised to see how much the Fair that grown and evolved. About ten or twelve years ago, San Telmo, one of Buenos Aires’ first neighborhoods, was characterized for being the host of antique stores during the week, and a renown Sunday Antique Fair where businessmen exchanged and their merchandise to curious people passing by.

Even though nowadays Buenos Aires’ most renowned and emblematic antique stores are still located in San Telmo, as I walked down Defensa Street Sunday afternoon, antiques got lost among rustic and modern art crafts that were sold by street artists. Nevertheless, the neighborhood still conserves a gallery where you can find old and strange objects, some almost forgotten that take you back to your childhood days, and other completely unknown for young generations. Antiques continue to play a central role in the neighborhood, even though they no longer rule the place, and now they have to share their kingdom with modern objects.

Although San Telmo has been modernized in the past couple of years, it still conserves its rough spirit: tango groups fill the streets with profound beat of the double bass, harmonious notes of the violin and the agile two by four of the bandoneón; dancers adorn the cobblestones with firuletes and eights, turns and history; and painters portray moments, figures and people attempting to immortalize the moment.

At San Telmo I enjoy being a Fair’s girl because I travel through time, experiment the past and experience the present changes at the same time.