Hoorah! On Tuesday we woke up to sunshine and so far (Wednesday) it has just kept on shining. Time to try out the buses! So far we have mostly walked, with odd Subte (underground train) trips to more outlying places. There is a huge network of buses, run by about as many different companies as there are different bus numbers. To find your way around you buy a Guia-T (bus guide) from a kiosco (kiosk!). This small book is full of bus information. On each double page the right hand side is a map of a particular area, marked into a grid. On the opposite page is the same grid layout without the map. Each of these squares contains the numbers of buses that run through this square on the map. So you look at you departure and destination squares to see if there are any matching numbers. If there is one, then you find that bus number in another section of your Guia-T and that will give you a list of the roads for the outward and return routes, which differ of course because virtually all the roads are one-way. If you don’t have any matching numbers, then you check adjoining squares to your departure / destination squares and try again! It’s a bit like a game and the prize is a bus ride.

We won a bus ride to La Boca. This has traditionally been seen as one of the poorest area of Buenos Aires . It grew from first generation immigration settlingaround the port. Houses were often makeshift affairs using much corrugated sheeting and leftover timber from ships. When the workers had left over paint from painting the boats, they would use it to decorate the outside of their homes.However there was rarely enough to cover the whole house in one go so many houses became patchworks of coour. This colourful area, over time, became a tourist attraction and now the very centre of La Boca, focused on the port, is incredibly touristy and tacky, full of bars, restaurants, T-shirt shops, people dressed as tango dancers with whom you can dress up and pose for your own tango photo (at a price) and lots of paintings (of variable quality) to buy. There are lots of life-size figures hanging out of windows and doors (like ships figureheads), including several Maradonas, the famous Argentinian footballer who at one stage played for the local team Boca Juniors, one of the top Argentinian clubs. He now manages the Argentinian national team. They seem to skip over the fact that he has been in lots of trouble over many different matters over the years and he is still an enormously big hero here.

Past the tourist area, which is literally just a couple of streets, we were quickly into areas where everyday life was going on. Here, many houses were still painted in a multitude of bright colours, even those which just appeared to be bits of ram-shackled corrugated iron nailed together. And there was, of course, the obligatory street painting and graffiti that we find everywhere around Buenos Aires.

We also came upon a wall painting of Gauchito Antonio Gil, who we had never heard of before. It seemed a little bizarre that he appeared to be on a cross with a prayer entreating him to take care of 'our family, friends and neighbours in the barrio (neighbourhood) of La Boca’. Then we noticed two small shrines nearby, which contained written notes and various offerings to the Gaucho, statues of him and cigarette ends. Some of you may remember a few years back, when we went to Myanmar / Burma, we saw figures of the spirit gods who, we were told, like to smoke and people therefore left burning cigarettes for them. We presume that this is a similar sort of thing and were amazed to come across it again. 

Our next good find was an excellent little pasteleria where we bought some delicious cakes and a large piece of some sort of savoury sweetcorn pie and we sat on the portside watching the world go by as we munched! This cobbled street around the port is quite pleasant apart from the fact there is constant procession of cars, huge lorries, local buses and tour buses, all clattering over the cobbles...

With renewed energy, we visited the PROA, a gallery currently showing an exhibition called The Time of Art, presenting iconic works of art from 16th century to the present day. It was arranged thematically so that there were works from different eras around the same theme, such as body, mind, love, hate and everyday life. It was a very interesting exhibition.

The building is also interesting.. It has a very stark industrial look. As you climb the stairs, you can see into both the ground floor exhibition and the first floor bookshop at the same time, through glass walls. The book shop is filled with a lovely aroma from a vase of lilies and has plenty of space to sit and peruse the books. Up another floor and you are into the coffee shop / restaurant with its balcony providing vistas over the port and rooftops. The wall of the balcony is painted with the upside-down silhouette of the skyline, as though reflected in the water, which made for some interesting views.

Whilst we sat there, three floors up, we intermittently heard a cat meowing, sometimes loudly, sometimes softly, sometimes seeming to get closer or further away, but mostly persistent. We never found a cat, despite the fact it always seemed to be just under the table or behind the sofa and we do wonder whether it was a very subtle and clever art piece that was perhaps movement sensitive or just on a long loop with lots of silence in between lots of different miaows!

Our day over, we found the bus stop and the bus back to San Telmo and even recognised where to get off. That is one of the advantages in staying in one place for more than a couple of days! We had a giggle at the ‘Super Amigos’ chair in a local arty shop on the walk back home from the bus stop. Unfortunately my photo through the window is a bit blurred but you can just about make out Jesus with his super-hero saintly friends (but I don't think they include Gauchito Gil).