Buenos Aires: The Rose House

Another tourist stop during our Buenos Aires visit. Ironically, we also visited a Rose House in Sao Paulo - that one named for the Rose Garden in front of it. But this one is the house of government for Buenos Aires - their white house, if you will. The house is named for the color of the stone it's constructed of.

The president of Argentina works here, but doesn't live here. She travels in every day from her home by helicopter and is then transported in secret car (secret tunnel?) to the Rose House for work. Pretty nice commute, I'll bet. And yes, if you're an Evita fan, this is where she made her famous speech, or as we joked, where Madonna sang Don't Cry for me Argentina - whichever you prefer.

We went on a guided tour of the house, which are run every Sunday and are free to the public.

 This is the inner courtyard garden, complete with a few palm trees and pretty fountain in the center.

 Some of the guards making sure we don't steal the furniture.

 A mural in one of the upstairs rooms. I know he's someone famous in Argentina, but I don't remember the name ... some tourist I am!

 This is called the women's room and is where the president (a woman) makes many of her public addresses. The walls are adorned with photos of important women throughout Argentina's history.

 A better view of the courtyard from the second floor.

 One of the banquet rooms - pretty amazing furniture and furnishings.

 This is a view from the balcony beside the famous balcony. Unfortunately, the famous balcony was closed to the public.

 The gold room. Where they meet dignitaries and hold official functions that require a lot of ceremony. A pretty impressive room for sure.

 And finally, the president's private elevator ... to go up one floor. Guess it must be a slow trip to require a couch! :)

Buenos Aires: Teatro Colon

One of our tourist stops was the amazing Teatro Colon. This theater has been around a long time and was recently renovated. We took a tour of the place and got to see the amazing architecture, carpets, paintings and here a little of its history. Unfortunately, they were running a lighting rehearsal for the Marriage of Figaro opera that was performing that evening so while we got to see the actual theater, it was dark. Thanks to our awesome camera and its nightshot setting, we still got a glimpse of how beautiful it is. Here are a few highlights.

 They have their own workshops and make most of the costumes and sets themselves. Some of the costumes were displayed throughout the theater.

 Even the floors were amazing.

Note the three colors of marble on this staircase - yellow, rose and white. Gorgeous!

 One of the reception halls. Way back this was the place to see and be seen by rich Argentinians from Spain, Italy and France. Patrons would come early to mingle before the performance.

 The best view I could get of the side box seats with the lights off. Too bad we couldn't have seen it with the lights on.

The dome inside the theater. In some performances, they put a small group of musicians up here to represent heaven or angels. Can you imagine?

Buenos Aires: Some REAL tango!

Buenos Aires is a beautiful city with a lot of culture and charm. One thing we wanted to experience while there was some tango. We considered some of the touristy tango shows, but decided instead to visit a little bar where the tango was more authentic.

The tango bar was called the Crumpalista and was a tiny little place that was certainly open to tourists, but wasn't really frequented by them.  We were very warmly welcomed and shown to a nice table in the back but with a good view of the 'stage'. Oh, "in the back" also means the second and last row. I mentioned the place was tiny, right?

Here's a good shot of the band. Bass guitar, electric piano and accordian ... squeezebox I mean. The music was wonderful! If you've never listened to tango, give it a try. The best part was that Seb (Argentinian) recognized most of the songs as he grew up listening to tango. Such a cultural experience for us. I always thought of tango as this professional ballroom dance for competitions or something, but it's what families in Argentina listened to and danced to. 

I'm so disappointed to realize I didn't get any photos of the professional tango dancers - too mesmerized to mess with my camera I guess! But, Kevin and Seb took a turn with the lovely lady. I know you're all shocked to find out that neither Brian nor I wanted to try it! (We barely danced at our senior prom) :) Kevin had actually taken some lessons and Seb, well, he's Argentinian so has it in his blood.

Quite a few of the patrons got up to dance, either with the professional couple or on their own. This was clearly a place the older locals (Portenos) came to dance tango and have some wine and catch up with friends. We felt a bit like we were intruding on a special party of friends, but it was really great. The main singer thought it was so nice that we were there and experiencing 'real' Argentinian culture, and of course, he applauded Seb often for bringing us along.

This guy is 91 years old and still comes by to sing a few tangos! I think we left around 1:00am and it seemed the party was only getting started. Things start late and end early morning on the weekend in BA.

Buenos Aires: Welcome

Our South American adventure continued with an evening flight to Buenos Aires. This was really the highlight of the trip as our whole purpose was to visit my brother, Kevin, and his husband, Seb. We arrived without any trouble and settled into our new home for the week - a beautiful old building in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires. We rented a one bedroom apartment so we could cook a bit and have some additional room.

Kevin and Seb met us outside our apartment building and the reunion was officially begun! It had been over three years since we'd seen each other and to say we gave each other big hugs, is an understatement.

 Okay, this isn't actually a photo of Kevin giving me a hug, but since it kind of looks that way and always cracks me up, I decided to include it. :)

 Dinner during our Asado (meat dinner is the best translation I can think of).

 My little brothers - such cuties!

One of our last days - a fabulous steak lunch with all the trimmings.

More to come on our specific adventures in the next few posts.

Sao Paulo: City Tour

Yep, we took the city tour. Maybe we're getting old, I don't know, but we're finding more and more to like about city tours. You get to see and learn so much in such a short period of time. Somehow, it makes me feel lazy - like I should be doing all that research and finding my own way to all these great spots, but oh well, maybe I am just getting old!

Anyway, here are a few highlights of our tour.

Statue outside Ibuerapuera park representing the discovery of the Americas and the conquering of the native South American indians.

Brian enjoying a short break in the park.

This is the back side of one of the cathedrals. Traffic is terrible in Sao Paulo so we never did see the front.

This is mile 0 of Sao Paulo where everything is measured from. The top of the marker is shown below and shows the 6 other regions that border Sao Paulo.

This is the site of the first government building in Sao Paulo. This isn't the actual building, but this is the actual site.

And these two photos are a train station the rich English farmers had built to carry their crops of coffee, bananas, etc back and forth to the coast in Sao Paulo. A really pretty building.

This is another train station that now also houses one of the best auditoriums in the city. The National orchestra plays concerts there.