One day in Buenos Aires between Iguazú and the ship, under grey cloud, which after three days of subtropical glare is a relief.
The Pirámide de Mayo stands in the middle of the Plaza de Mayo with 25 MAYO 1810 cut into the base and a figure of Liberty on top. It is the oldest national monument in the country and it has been moved, rebuilt and encased at least twice. Around the base the paving carries the painted headscarves of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo, who have walked their circuit here every Thursday afternoon since 1977.
La Boca
In La Boca, at Magallanes 861, the Conventillo Histórico de 1881 — a tenement built for dockworkers and now a cultural centre. Corrugated iron in pale blue, a staircase and balcony in yellow and magenta, lattice in red, hand-painted signs advertising the artists inside. Entrada libre. Free entrance.
The colours here are usually explained as leftover marine paint from the shipyards, used up a can at a time, which is why no two panels match. Whether or not that is the origin, it is certainly what happens now.
There is also no shortage of street art in this bohemian quarter of Buenos Aires.
Galerías Pacífico
Indoors, out of the weather, the Galerías Pacífico on Florida — a shopping arcade with a domed crossing frescoed in 1946 by five Argentine muralists, Berni and Castagnino among them. Under the dome there is a Christmas tree twenty metres tall, still up on 4 January, and the whole shopping crowd moving underneath it.
In Recoleta the cemetery is exactly as advertised: streets of mausoleums, marble and granite and cracked stucco, angels on the gables, and not a person in sight. Down the middle of one avenue a stray dog is walking, unhurried, in the only patch of light. That is the frame from the whole day.
The stroll back to the Hotel Panamericano is a walking history lesson – brightly decorated hotels interspersed with stunning architecture and monumental buildings.
There’s always time for some more evening photography from the hotel rooftop…
And at ground level…
Tomorrow, the charter flight to Ushuaia.