Back in BsAs and going
March 23, 2011
My last days were a lot of running around and a lot of doing nothing
And it was Morcheeba in concert from a very nice position
Wonderful live show
Afterparty
Lights
Lighted. Morcheeba in concert. Lunapark, Buenos Aires.
Light(s)
Posh hotel rooms
Rooftop pool
With a view over the city
Then some more good food
A jazz night
Packing
Goodbyes-nogoodbyes
When I wake up in the morning, it rains
I leave, Argentina cries
The way to the airport is: grey
The wait is: filled with a few doubts
Hasta la proxima. I will be back cause when you’re in love you return. And I did fall in love. With the South. The North. La Capital. The other North. The Northwest. The centre. What’s South of BsAs.
Oh, and I ate those Patagonianberries. So it’s decided.
Flying. Home.
Pinamar_S 37° 06′ 43″ W 56° 51′ 51″
March 20, 2011
Driving from BsAs to Pinamar is 4hrs of flatness
No dramatic glaciers
No millioncolourscanyons
Nothing but flat flats
Dotted with cows, Schilf, a few trees
Framed impressions of nothingness
A few clouds
As exciting as it gets. On the way to Pinamar.
Pinamar is: wind and sun and emptiness in yet another season gone by
There are people fishing, in Pinamar, late at night
Police men patrolling on squads
But no fish
There are hundreds of beautiful houses, half of them empty, the other half for sale
And just every now and then a sign of life, als hätten sie sich verlaufen
No fences
No obvious indication of where you garden ends and your neighbour’s begins. But there is no you and you also don’t have neighbours. So – no fences needed
We look into people’s kitchens
Pinamarpeople.
****Let’s pretend JB sent me his pictures so at this point you’d see a picture of me on the beach****
Dust
Pine trees
The sandy streets paved with pine cones and spikes
There is ice cream and the full moon
And tiny little fried squids that make you want to become a vegetarian again bur also not cause they’re really yummy. With lemon.
There are neverstoppingwaves
Pinamarpinetrees.
Cree-PI-namar at night. When fishers don't fish you don't ask questions.
There’s a weekend away and there’s a bus ride back ‘home’ to BsAs and there are many thoughts with a jazzy background
I move my comfy semi-cama chair back and look outside
I close my eyes and open them again
The landscape hasn’t changed, but the light and the colours have
I do the same thing a few more time until it’s dark
We’re slowly rolling towards the city
It’s Sunday night
Tomorrow: Morcheeba concert in the Lunapark
Tuesday: the day before Wednesday
Wednesday: departure
Walking through deserted Pinamar, looking at retirement options.
1kg de pollo por 9.50 pesos. And six blocks to the left.
March 15, 2011
The plaza in Las Heras where it’s always 9.30hrs
Passing the guy in Palermo (on the 39, my ‘school’ bus) who sits next to a row of old water canisters
Passing the shop that sells 1kg de pollo por 9.50 pesos
I love taking the bus from the centre home. Especially from Alem, after my UBA classes. It takes some turns before it ends up on Santa Fé. At one stop, everybody but a few people leaves the bus and goes to the subte.
The time: usually when it starts getting dark
I love the city’s lights, in that time-space when you’re not quite sure if they’re already necessary or not.
Even better when it rains
My stop: just before Plaza Italia
Green on the right
Six blocks to walk on the left
Anonymes Großstadtfeeling with me feeling a bit lost, with only vague ideas in my head
I have no idea how often I will still take those buses. But I went to Standard Bank and changed 50 pesos, so that’s enough for many more rides.
Salta_S 24° 47′ 0″ W 65° 25′ 0″
March 13, 2011
Saturdayrepairs
Breakfast on the plaza
Old gentlemen reading the newspaper
A very friendly waiter
Heavy clouds in the distance
Horses passing the plaza, the gauchos dressed up, the Getrampel nicely coordinatedly uncoordinated
People watching, with a huge freshly squeezed orange juice, good (!) coffee and the best medialunas I’ve had in Argentina in front of me
Life’s good
It’s Saturday
Esperando.
Another two first times: flight cancelled.
And a night in a 5***** hotel for free.
Not bad. Not bad.
And I was thinking, it couldn’t have happened in a less convenient moment – it’s Saturday, I was travelling in the North, with no plans for Sunday other than to be back in BsAs to dance tango in the evening. Which I did. Cause we had to get up at 3.45am to catch our flight back. Oh well. Short, but nice, nice.
It feels strange to know that this was my last trip in Argentina. For now. For this time.
I fell in love with the North just the way I fell in love with the South.
vidrios.
lavadero.
I love the painted words on Latin American walls. Instead of signs.
Lavanderia
Vidrios
Coca-Cola
I love capturing normal people doing normal things
Walking
Driving past
Normal NeverComeAgain/AMillionTimesToBeRepeated-scenes
abierta.
Salta-ndo. Gente de salta.
Purmamarca_S 23° 44′ 00″ W 65° 29′ 00″
March 10, 2011
Salinas grandes. South of the border.
No words can describe the happy feeling you get by looking at all these colours
Shades of red and orange
Green and grey
Beige and yellow
Pink and purple
Mixed with clouds
High up
Down low
Bright white and rainy grey
Moving
And then the sun comes out and everything changes again
Our earth in the making
Nature’s wonders, concentrated
And me in the middle of all of this, in awe
Cactus. An ocean of.
Singled.
Passing over 4000m; through the rain and dropping temperatures
Down again, as curvy as up, and there they lay in front of us: las Salinas Grandes
The Salar de Uyuni in the winter of 2002 were dry
This time, I walk in the salty water of the flats, further South, across the border. It’s summer.
It’s 2011, my Spanish includes verbs now, my hair is shorter, my thoughts different, everything nothing is the same.
It’s the usual. And still amazing.
However you look at it.
Mirrored.
This time, though, I taste the salt waster which is unsurprisingly surprisingly salty
Funny pictures and white feet, white legs, white socks, white shoes
When it dries, your skin reflects the sun in a million tiny little crystals
On the way back: a truck loaded with a lot of nitroglycerine, driving at 3km/h, people waiting, people watching
I ran out of words for Northern Argentina two days ago, so I just look out of the window, while Mercedes and Esteban talk about Uruguayan politics and the 1980s
A scenic drive through everchanging colours
Another day in the North
Short encounters with people from here and there, BsAs, Bariloche, Denkmark. Switzerland. Uruguay. Humahuaca, Jujuy.
Back in Purmamarca: a short hike around the mountains, more colours, more ohs and ahs, completely unnecessary, but oh well, you know.
Töpferware. Enriched my cup collection. Yeah.
Cafayate_S 26° 5′ 0″ W 65° 58′ 0″
March 8, 2011
The North: shaded. A thousand colours. And more.
Breathtaking rock formations. Millions of years.
Valles Calchaquíes
La Quebrada de Escoipe
A private tour, me loves
Sun, but not too much
Clouds, many
In the morning, they hang so low that they touch the foot of the mountains
To the right
To the left
Every direction offers amazing views
It’s hard to decide where to turn my head
La garganta del diablo
Once again I am reminded of my geomorphology classes at university
I love nature
I love those geological eras that make our lives but a blink in time
Interesting how we can talk about anything like a status quo when if comes to our planet – as if things were ‘done’ by now. As if mountains weren’t still oroding and valleys still filling up with sediments.
No visible changes in our life time and we’ll all long be gone by the time anything will have moved by a few centimeters.
No hike no rock climbing zone
Erosion underway in what seems stable
It’s all about wind and water
despacito…
enterrado.
eroding. still.
“Siempre es mejor ser socio” (‘downtown’ Cafayate)
NorthEastSouthWest 