A Street Named Corrientes
2 June 2005 (Thursday) – Buenos Aires, Argentina
Every visitor to Buenos Aires must walk down Av. Corrientes at least once.
For one, there are a few theatres down the avenue and one just has to check out the posters of the ‘famous’ Moria Casan and her large mammaries. 2 years ago, I was walking down this avenue when I started to notice that many people had stopped to stare at someone. I spun around and wow, there she was, all horsy-faced and with that long mane, in a tight white body-suit coming out of a taxi and walking towards the theatre. The boobs are indeed phenomenal. If not for them, I almost did not recognise her with her clothes on. The body-suit must be custom-made.
For another, one just has to cross Av. 9 de Julio to walk r-i-g-h-t next to the Obelisco – a famous symbol of Buenos Aires. Staring up at the tip of the immense obelisk as you cross the avenue, you would somewhat Feel.The.Earth.Move.Under.Your.Feet. Or could it be from the 18 lanes of traffic on both sides that are causing the tremors?
There are also numerous second-hand bookstores in this area that have more quirky, out-of-print books from all sorts of subjects and are perhaps, cheaper than the sparkly bookstores along Calle Florida.
Hmm… I notice that I have been mentioning the names of specific streets and avenues of Buenos Aires in my past updates. Yep, walking down the streets of Buenos Aires, especially in the microcentre, one cannot think of them as ‘just another nameless street’. Here, the names of the streets DO MATTER. Numerous classics and books that were set in Buenos Aires have made mention of the names of the streets and avenues almost casually as if the whole world MUST know of them.
OK, I do not have my Jorge Luis Borges’ ‘Collected Fictions’ with me on this trip as it was just too precious to bring along, but I have with me Roberto Arlt‘s ‘The Seven Madmen’, another Latin American classic of a literature, written in 1929. I recall there were frequent mentions of the street names that Erdosain, in his half-deranged stupor, had meandered through – Chile, Paseo Colon, Arenales, Talcahuano, etc…
In Buenos Aires, and in the many other grand old dame of a city like Paris, London, St. Petersburg, etc…, these streets have rich history, interesting character and significance to those who live and love the cities.
I headed to Claudia’s office for our lunch appointment. She introduced me to her colleague Dario who speaks 5 languages and was quite eager to meet me. We had a great great great time over lunch, just laughing and yakking away. Dario loves learning languages because he hopes that one day he can travel. Well, much like me. Except that he is obviously way more talented than I am in picking up languages.
When I told my friends that for this trip, I would, where possible, ask for free accommodation through Hospitality Club members. Many were quietly supportive but a few warned me to be careful. Granted, I should be careful… but in Claudia’s case, when she told her friends that a lady from Singapore was coming to stay at her apartment, they were, like: Reel her in!!! Reel her in!!! We want to meet her!!
As today is Thursday, I strolled to Plaza de Mayo to see if I could observe any protests. By luck, I was just in time to see the quiet sad protest by the madres (mothers) of the 30,000 disappeareds from the military dictatorship in the 1970s. I knew there was a protest each Thursday but the 2 months here last time, I had not seen one. And today, here it was. The madres who had all lost children 25-30 years ago, wore white scarves on their head and carried a long banner. They marched quietly around the monument in the centre of the plaza several times. More and more people joined them. This is for the memory of those who disappeareds without a trace, without reason.
That evening, I met up with Anabel, another friend I had contacted through VirtualTourist (VT). I contacted her because she was planning on making a trip that is rather similar to mine. But earlier today, she wrote to me telling me that she now realised that it was because of ME that she had joined VT. She was looking for information for this trip and she happened upon my VT pages. As such, after reading and enjoying what VT had to offer, she joined. Wow! What a coincidence and now I contacted her!
She is GREAT! So lively and chatty and funny!! And really very pretty as well, haha! She introduced me to 2 friends and we went to an Art Exhibition in Palermo Soho. Hmmm… in my opinion, the 5 or 6 ‘art pieces’ or simply stuff hanging on the wall were crap. I kept looking for another room to go into to see the REAL ‘art-pieces’ but I guess, that was it! This must be one of those arty farty exhibitions that is WAY beyond me. I am so not worthy. We later stopped by a bar for something to eat. It was called ‘Malas Artes’ (Bad Art). In there, there were numerous paintings of bad art-pieces (hence, the name). But hey, compared to what we had just seen, these were phenomenal pieces.
We later headed to a bar but I did not stay for long as I needed to head back early for I do not have the key to the house and Claudia would be waiting for me. But oh well, I was too tired to stay out late anyway.
Tags: 01) Imagining Argentina, Buenos Aires
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