Hot Town, Summer in the city!!

I am truly amazed when folks say they are reading my blog! Thanks for all your comments..I never know if my   musings mean anything to anyone other than myself and H! :)

Yesterday:  We ran about 8.5 miles, in the smoking heat of the day. Starting from our apt., we thought we would only be running down to "Puerto Madera" where all the really rich people of BA live. Condos there run about 3 million US dollars..wow don't think we will be living there anytime soon! The area along the waterfront is nice, but not that nice to me..

I started out the run feeling like dog doo-doo. Since it takes me 2 miles to warm up, now I was warm and warming up. We finally reached the Port area and I ate a protein bar, which by the way they only sell in pharmacies, that and gels too. The bar and a ton of Gatorade finally perked me up. We kept running and MAP consulting. At one point, H said wow this is such a great run! Then immediately-BOOM, I went down. My handheld waterbottle broke my fall, but I was a bit shaken up..carry on! Eventually, we ended up on the road to "La Boca". We had heard this was a great old part of BA to see. After a local Portena saw us messing with the MAP, she told us in Spanish to keep going on the road we were on and we would reach La Boca. We had read not to go off the beaten path, because pick-pocketing was common. We keep our money and cards safely tucked into our money belts so we thought what the heck..we were game. We got to what is described as:

"La Boca is the oldest, most colorful, and most authentic neighborhood in Buenos Aires. The neighborhood was settled and built by Italian immigrants that worked in the warehouses and meatpacking plants in the area. La Boca is partly an artist colony, and mostly a working-class neighborhood."

I did not bring my camera (of course) so we were bound to run into something picture worthy and this was definitely just that! The buildings were tiny and thin, painted in odd bright colors, seemingly randomly selected. The story is that this area, being by the docks was used by new immigrants. The colors were used from discarded paint from the ships they arrived on. The story has it that La Boca ("the mouth") refers to being at the mouth of the river, since it was the old port area. There were Tango dancers in almost every cafe along the cute little winding streets with markets along the famous "Caminito Street". 

"Caminito is the work of the local La Boca artist Benito Quinquela Martín. In 1960 he painted the walls of what was then an abandoned street and erected a makeshift stage for performances, and it quickly became a haven for artists. With its cobblestones, colorful corrugated-iron houses and artists’ works, it lives up to it's reputation of beauty?"

So of course if I do not have my own pics, however there are always some on the web:

It was so uniquely beautiful! H & I sat down to eat lunch at one of the sidewalk cafe's and enjoyed an over priced mediocre meal. It was awesome though because we got to watch some amazing young Tango dancers. Motivated by patron tips, they were having pictures taken by tourists with them. I was pissed I did not bring my camera! But oh well, we said hey, we will just come back another day for pictures.

But then we read this (and many others like it):

"In broad daylight in the afternoon, my husband and I were attacked in La Boca by 3 huge men, two on my husband (with a knife!) and one on me. My attacker was trying to rip the fanny pack off my waist, and the guys on my husband were trying to get into his pockets, but we were screaming and resisting- after a couple of minutes, thank God they ran off with both our cameras. They did not get our documents or money, and we were not hurt, but in a way they robbed us of our lovely three-week voyage. Our guidebooks did not warn us about La Boca. Either do not go there, or stay only on the main Caminita, and watch out. If you are accosted, no one will help you."

Alrighty then, I guess we were:

A: lucky and 

B: will not be returning to La Boca! 

However, clueless at the time, we enjoyed our time in La Boca. I never felt unsafe or uneasy there. Somehow we also figured how to take a bus back to our Barrio. It took us some time to figure out how to tell the driver we wanted to get off the bus-they just randomly stop when they feel like it..I spotted the little get-off button to push and voile! We made it home safely..We finished our night off by eating in a neighborhood restaurant that was a gem of a find! The meat "Parilla" was perfectly cooked finally. We found out if you order a steak "medium rare" you actually get "well done"...we did not say how we wanted it done at all last night and the meat was perfect-a delicious meal!

Today: 

As I sit here writing this, H is yelling at our Argentinian television. Must be football playoffs somewhere! What makes it funny is the announcers are speaking Spanish. Sort of a disconnect..

I woke up at 8:30. Seems since we started eating dinner earlier (9:00) and going to sleep earlier (12:00), I wake up feeling much more refreshed.. I guess my staying up all night like a youngster is no longer part of my ever aging world..yet another loss as a result of aging! it is worth it because of my ever growing wisdom right? Hmm..

Off we headed to the "La Casa  Rosada", (English: The Pink House). This is the official executive mansion of Argentina. Nevertheless, the President normally lives in a compound in Olivos, Buenos Aires Province. It is a female president; "Christina", who apparently is trying to mimic Evita. I think I could do the job, right? This is my best pose on the balcony that Eva Peron gave her famous speeches.

Me and Madonna, right? :)..(hmmm..bad hair day!

The Real Eva Paron

I was guarded well!     

Another day at the office!

Ornate doesn't seem strong enough word...

This must be Juan(Peron!).:)

Once again I am forced to pick and choose my pics of the palace..it was overwhelming art and piece of history..

Now for some football! Tomorrow will be in the 100's. Yikes..however when I read that in ABQ at home, it is snowing tonight, I think I have the better end of the deal!

Halfway Point!

It is hard to believe it but this is Day 34, exactly halfway through our South American trip! Although for the most part I am not homesick, however there was a moment tonight, as we left a movie theater after seeing an American movie. This was quickly resolved when I had a piece of the best pizza ever tasted right down the street from us..:)

The last couple of days have been busy for us little tourists! We spent one afternoon shopping in the best part of the city, the Outlet Center of "Palermo Soho" and "Palermo Hollywood". After snaking in and out of Outlet Shops with H in tow, we finally settled into a neighborhood cafe near a very quaint Plaza area. I bought a couple of things. I have no idea what label the shop carried, as these are Argentinian labels. No matter, I scored! More stuff to squeeze into my already full suitcase...hard to describe the cobblestone street lined shopping district, the thing that stuck with me was the smallness of the shops. Blocks and  blocks of very tiny boutique like shops-it is hard for me to see how these retailers make money..

Tour of the Teatre Colon was next. The theater had amazing European architecture since the population of BA has mostly Italian and some French roots. The tour guide was awful-his English was as bad as my Spanish! No one should have put him in this job. The design, construction and ornamentation of this historical building was amazing!

The last 2 days have slowly getting hotter and hotter! Yesterday, we did even more touristy stuff. In the morning, we set our alarm finally and got up in time for the free tour in the middle of the city. A very cute young woman led the tour. Her excitement about her CITY was infectious and adorable. This free tour took us to places like the Obelisco, Plaza de Mayo, Tribunales, Calle Florida, Teatro Colon and many orher sites which I am sure mean nothing to most of the readers but it was amazing! This time we got more info about all these things, as we have been running past them several times in our 2 weeks here.

A highlight of the tour was the demonstration held in the streets of the city, marked by a fire burning mattresses, blanket and such right in the middle of the traffic stopping taxis, cars and busses for miles. It was a little scary for me....I expected the whole city may go up in flames. The tour guide assured us this is almost a daily occurrence in B.A., a demonstration of some kind, hundreds of them monthly. This particular fire and protest were the homeless showing their anger at the government from kicking them out of their "home" in the square. It was kind sad, really-people who are lost in society are everywhere I guess.

 After getting out of that mess, we continued on down Ave. de Mayo. The guide mentioned that half the population of BA was gone because this is holiday month for the Portenas. Wow, I think I am glad there are no more people on the already crowded streets. There are 10 million residents of the city, with all it's barrios. 

We then enjoyed a bite to eat for lunching one of the oldest cafe's in BA:

It appears some of the really old guys were still there! 

One of the "new old guys" was here too!:)

That night we went to Tango Portena, yet another Tango Show. This one was a bit more "showy" than the last. H and I concurred the talent was a little less, the orchestra a little more. The theater was also more ornate but less cozy..

We have begun to take the subway more. No longer do we stand at every corner or so with the MAP. Instead, we now know where most of the "Supte"'s are and are able to get around most places either walking or subway. This makes me feel all metro-knowledgable now...

Yesterday we embarked on a run in the late morning. We now know it really is summer here. The temperature was easily in the 90's. Humidity at alot plus percent. I was really weak and hurting the first couple of miles. Finally after a gel and full bottle of gatorade I could pick up the pace. We ended up running 6-7 miles in the end. After showering and refueling, we took the Supte down to the Plaza De Mayo for the "March of the Mothers".  The history of this March dates back to the 1970's in short: 

"The March 1976 coup, led by General Jorge Videla, only escalated this conflict; the "Dirty War" resulted in 30,000 desaparecidos (people kidnapped and killed by the military during the years of the junta).^[14] The silent marches of their mothers (Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo) are a well-known image of Argentines suffering during those times."

We watched a movie: Imagining Argentina, which depicts the horror of what happened in the 1970s. 30,000 people went missing without a democratic government. The movie is not for the faint hearted. It is chilling. But, this is the true story of Buenos Aires. The Mothers and Grandmothers of these missing children and young people march every Thursday afternoon to remind the Portenas of their history. The guide tells us it has become a bit of a tourist trap to make money with sales of trinkets, books, etc. to help the "party" represented here. I don't understand all of the politics surrounding the March but it is very moving to see..

Onward we went to the second of our free tours. This time it was 5:00, in the heat of a very hot day. Again we were filled in on bits of cultural information and some political history. The guide took us by many "palaces", which use to be living quarters for the rich. The tour began in Retiro. She told us the history of: Ave. Alvear, Palace, Plaza Francia and Torre Monument. It was all extremely interesting. We passed some very ritzy shops which will not be on my shopping agenda.

Military guiding the tombs of the young men who died in the war with Britainin the 1980's over the Falkland Islands:

OK can you tell these windows were painted on the building? Amazing..

Too many statues to count!

                 There were many many palaces still standing in Buenos 

Aires..

I have tried just to post the highlight pictures believe it or not! I have taken hundreds of photos-it is hard to pare down to the favorites!

Short video of the Buenos Aires 8k

What a way to run into the New Year!

Well, I have spent the last 24 hours trying to re-establish most of my previous blog posts to no avail. I accidentally checked "all" button on my post delet page..grrr...I have found them in google reader but don't know how to re-post them. If anyone knows how to, please let me know! 

I will move on now...hey it is 2012!! We are spending the day at home today..I am so sore! Yesterday we got up and put our race outfits on, including the race shirts they gave us at registration. Off we went to the race venue. It was about a 2 mile walk to the "Obelisk" in one of the main parts of BA. 

They closed a whole street!

When we arrived, there was a sea of aqua shirts all around us. It was an amazing site as we all crowded around the announcer's stage at the starting line. 2,750 of us to be exact.. There was a guy leading a "warm-up" for the masses, nubile young women who danced to high energy music as the excitement of the race built...H nd I had chills as we heard the Argentinian National anthem.

It was probably one of the most exciting race starts I have ever witnessed! After much dancing, screaming, singing and general amazing excitement from the crowd-cinco, quatro, tres, dos, UNO-bang!  

We were off!! 

H and I started the race together. As we came up to kilometer "uno", I glanced at my watch and we were at exactly 6 minutes, our goal was to maintain that pace for the whole 5 miles of the race..we remarked how easy it felt to run at that point anyway....the course was pretty crowded throughout the race, we had to dodge people, grates in the road and trash. The water they handed out was in plastic bottles so lots of crunching of plastic was going on. I noticed with interest that no one was talking, these Argetines were very serious runners. They looked like very competitive racers-this only served to motivate me to run faster!! At k3 we were still keeping the pace. The sites around us were amazing and I had my camera but was too excited to race to take pictures. I noted to myself that I was glad we had reconned the course and taken pictures the day before. I started to feel the heat of the day-first just a bit then as the race went on, sweat started to drip from me. It was the hottest day of our stay here in B.A. It was easily in the 90s by race time, which was by the way at 4:00 PM, the hottest part of the day! As we rounded a corner to about 4k, H said he was stopping for a gel and for me to keep running. We had taken our own handheld water bottles, which I was really glad for because at each water station was a log jam of runners and if I were to stop, it would take forever to keep going. I continued on, without my running partner and tried to pick up my pace. It got hotter, and hotter and hotter! I saw people starting to wilt around me. Some had even started walking. I did slow my pace in the race once to grab a sponge off the ground to douse my head and another to try and get water at an aid station to throw over my head to cool off. It took me walking past 3 tables to get water finally....it took me awhile to get going again. At one point I thought I may have to walk, i was so overheated but I PUSHED myself, thinking you can do this..come-on! I passed a woman that looked around my age. Could I be running to place in my AG? Finally, finally, I saw the 7k sign and looked at my watch-42 minutes-I was right on track to finish in 6 minute k's, my goal. I think I was mumbling profanities at this point but no one understood my English at this point.

I saw the finish line and tried to sprint but I had literally nothing left to give and crossed the finish line in an undramatic fashion along with hundreds of others. I was done!! Pushed my stop button and 48 minutes-yay!!

I felt bad for ditching H but he was not far behind me:

At long last we were done!! It seemed like a lot longer than 5 miles to me, but I did it! 

Wow! We wondered around the finish line for awhile sucking down Gator-ade..I was drenched with sweat, as was H. It brought back memories of Ironman Western Australia, the heat was almost unbearable! There were vendors at the finish line so I bought myself some socks as a race reward. I had momentary visions of placing in my AG. We hung around the awards ceremony but since it was all in Spansh, we gave up after awhile.

When I checked the race results, I was glad we had not stayed. I think 33 women in my AG..it is hard to tell exactly how many were in the F55-59 category. I ranked 1661 out of 2757 (and many DNFs or DNS) runners, 297 out of 818 women and 10th in my AG..not bad for an old lady! We saw one who had collapsed at the end and a few ambulances..I think heat was a main factor..

We rounded out our New Year's Eve by dinner at a pizza cafe near our casa. It was the best pizza I ever tasted!! There was no one on the streets at 11:00 PM- here the local "Portenas" celebrate the NY at home with family or as one local told us, "getting drunk and going to several friends' houses". We opted for a toast at midnight watching fireworks on TV and watching the ball drop in New York at 2:00 AM Argentian time.

I slept like rock and now it is 2012.. I wonder what the new year will bring!

Some pics of the sites we saw along the race course:

Oh bummer...

Today I accidentally deleted all my posts from the trip so far. Gahhh!! I will try and  recover them but if it looks too complicated I may just save the cached pages for myself and not re-post them. I assume anyone who is following my blog will have already read them...sigh....

Sorry folks! :)

More to come! Happy New Years!!

The Grinch is in B.A.

The last two days have been filled with running (literally) around, checking in with the fam and working out some more. I feel a little out of sorts and disoriented today. Christmas Eve is not the same here as it is at home; no surprise, but it in B.A. It is a time for families to get together. So i was kind of hoping some random South American family would adopt us for the night and take us home for an authentic Argentine dinner. I must not have looked forlorn enough on the street today. I slightly regret not planning our Tango show tonight. We talked to 3 out of 4 kids yesterday and 2 granddaughters, which made me miss them terribly, being Christmas and all. This is the first time I have had such feelings in the 21 days we have been gone.

I thought our workout at the gym today would perk me up but apparently not. I know that everyday can't be merry sunshine while on a trip. Sometimes free floating sadness and depression is normal for me anyway. H reminded me I get a litle depressed every Christmas..I asked since when? He said since my mom died (18 years ago). I should remember these things but I obviously don't...The beauty of getting older is that every year is a new year to remember old stuff! The whole city of Buenos Aires is slowly shutting down as I write this. We plan on cooking our roast and mashed potatoes in our little home tonight. Taxis will be hard to find and restaurants are too far to walk to, the only ones that are open tonight anyway. I look forward to Monday, when all the touristy stuff will be back open and we can start carting maps around again. We may venture out tomorrow. There are a few places to visit and if we plan our trips with runs, we kill 2 birds with one stone.

The cheap massage I got yesterday was disappointing, I guess you get what you pay for. But for an hour of lying down, being somewhat reflective and resting was worth $18 I guess? I am now on a mission to find the best massage in B.A. 

Tonight is here: The day ended on a high note. I talked to my 3 sisters on the phone. H and I pooled our cooking skills and made dinner at "home" tonight. It was actually pretty good! Seems H cooks Argentinian beef better than they do so far. We are watching Local TV celebrating "Navidad Bien" until midnight, when the fireworks will be unleashed. The neighbors that moved in next door have noisy little kids and I lost the cord to download my pictures from the camera. Bah Humbug!

But look, there is always this: