I’ll be leaving Buenos Aires – in fact, Argentina entirely – in a few days and I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I’m looking forward to the next part of my adventures. On the other, I’ll miss this energetic, beautiful city.

In all the posts I’ve done about Buenos Aires, I haven’t shown you the trash blowing around in the streets, the cracked and missing sidewalks, nor the dog shit thereon. I haven’t recorded the outrageously loud motorcycles made louder by the sound waves bouncing pin-ball style between buildings on the narrow streets. I can’t pass along to you the noxious fumes emanating from tailpipes of buses and cars.

But why would I? I probably wouldn’t do that in my own home town.
No city is perfect and no less this one.
But everywhere I go here, there is beauty. Sometimes such an abundance of beauty, I’m choked with tears.
Argentina is a complex country with a complex history and political strife is not unknown here. The day I arrived, there were protesters in the streets shouting, “Dónde está Santiago Maldonado?” He was an activist for the rights of the aboriginal Mapuche community and he disappeared under mysterious circumstances. His body was recently found (though many people have doubts as to the veracity of even that). After the ‘disappearances’ during the state sponsored terrorism from 1974 to 1983, I certainly understand their skepticism and distrust.
Like I said, it’s complex, and I won’t go into all of it here. But, I want to honor the courageous and truth-seeking people of Argentina with but this small display of graffiti that is everywhere, everywhere, in this city.

Following are pictures I’ve taken during my time here (and in a couple places outside Buenos Aires). They don’t fit any particular category except maybe this first set – murals. They’re everywhere and I barely scratch the surface here. These are just murals I’ve seen in the various barrios where I’ve been staying.

I love all the cats. But, sometimes ‘cat’ is meant as anything but a compliment, as in this graffiti.

 

The head is of the nation’s president, Mauricio Macri – not a well-loved guy.

 

 

Another, er…, opinion piece.

 

I heard “Dance Me to the End of Love” drifting from a shop when I was wandering around Colonia. And “Venus in Furs,” well, it’s an all-time favorite.

I just love this girl’s face.

Below is a sign I saw in a bus bathroom. I had to laugh. Not at whoever wrote it, but at the oddities of translation. Believe me, I’ve made more mistakes in Spanish than I can count. My favorite is when I intended to ask my roommates that if I don’t wake up by such and such a time, to please wake me. But what I started to say was that if I don’t wake up by such and such time, please shave me! We had a good laugh over that one.

 

 

Okay, I promise… I won’t.

 

 

In one of the hostels in which I’ve stayed there were prints on the walls with interesting sayings. Here’s one of my favorites:

“When was the last time you did something for the first time?”

 

Good question to ask oneself from time to time, I think.

 

I wandered into a museum (I can’t remember which one it was – there are so many here) and found it was more a collection of dolls than anything else.

 

Actually, dolls kind of give me the creeps, but what I did find charming were these little tea sets. Each grouping was less than two and a half feet wide. Tiny, tiny spoons!


A couple more from Iguazú.

And the rest is just Buenos Aires gorgeousness and idiosyncracies.

Jacaranda

Optical illusion – smiling brick.

More from San Telmo.

 

“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine – it’s deadly.”

De acuerdo, Sr. Cohelo, de acuerdo.

Chau.