Sunday, December 20, 2009

Last night party in Buenos Aires, First night in Bahia Blanca


We reserved a table for ten at a great Armenian and Middle Eastern restaurant on Balcarce 600 block (if you can remember the name, please put in comments, as the ambience, food, service and prices cant be beat!).  The Congolese Embassy was having a party downstairs for the comming of age of the Embassador's daughter, so our group got an upper bird's eye view.



One thing I love about Latin culture is how children are included in events... even late night ones... you see kids with their parents out on the town late at all hours, and they get to run around too... Our friend Daniel's kids soon  had joined in with all the kids from the Congo party, jabbering away in a great mix of languages, playing all over the restaurant..




ON THE ROAD

The bus ride to Bariloche in Patagonia is 20 hours, so we decided to break it up and went  to Bahia Blanca, the southernmost town in Buenos Aires province, for the first night.  Bahia Blanca is an old port town of 300,000, with lots of suburbs of one or two story single houses. 


No, all the houses are not like this... in fact, most in town are quite modern.  But on the outskirts, as in most of the world, living is rougher.





5 years ago, i would see the cardboard collectors with their horses and carts in Buenos Aires, but not now.  


Our 100 year old hotel turned into hostel was right near the train station.   At one time, trains went all over Argentina.  But, like the US, the powers that be opted for more road for autos and shut down many of the lines.   There is talk of a new line from Buenos aires to the Andes area.  We can only hope...

Bahia Blanca is preety damn quiet... this was the only street art I could find...

But we did find the theater that was our reason for picking Bahia Blanca as our first stop.  During one of our many trips to the Immigration office, we met an Argentine couple that were on their way to Bahia Blanca.  They were both dancers, and the man had just accepted the post of  Director of Ballet del Sur with this great old theater as their home.




Notice the three floors of individual boxes



We didn't get to see the professional dance company the night we were in town... Instead we got to see all the dance school's classes' end of the year preformances...

A reminder that I greatly welcome comments and corrections, questions, whatever from you the viewer..I installed a viewer counter about a month ago just to see if anyone was still looking, and so far 700 views are recorded....I am so curious, where are you all from? 

3 comments:

Rick A. Griffith said...

Love the blog, I'll be down from Seattle in late January!

99 said...

Keep going guys... we´re reading!
-the restaurant name is Burmana-

Nice and Easy Antiques said...

I'm visiting from San Clemente, CA USA where my family and I now live although we are from Buenos Aires!
I just found your blog during my "Moving back to Argentina Research" as I like to call it...After 20 years in the States, we have given ourselves 1 more year to plan a definite move, hopefully we'll be successful, I'll let you know...in the meantime, I'll continue to visit you. Feliz Ano Nuevo!
Marcela