Buenos Aires, Argentina. June/July 2021

[Latbear4blk]

Let's start with good news, it looks like (I am afraid of being more assertive) I am leaving this Friday. Easy to say.

I have been calling AA every day. Last Sunday, an agent finally offered me a flight this Thursday. She was giving me the choice between seats when the phone line went dead. None of AA numbers were responsive, you would not even get a tone after dialing. I tried all day long with the same result, not even a beep.

I went to sleep and tried again yesterday morning. Nada. So I explained my supervisor my situation, got off the grid and went to AA's office in Avda. Santa Fe. It was a 20' walk and the day was nice. Once in AA I had to argue with the security guard who was asking me to call for an appointment, but my charm overcame his resistance. After one hour wait, I got to be placed in a waiting list, given a WhatsApp number, and asked to make follow ups that number, because the phone server was down.

This morning, just in case, as I had done every morning since my flight cancellation, I called again. The lines were still dead. So I sent a text message to the WhatsApp number. About one hour after my text, I received an email response offering me three days to choose in economy class, they would confirm that day and then place me in the waiting list for premium economy, which is the ticket I paid for.

I picked this Friday, and asked whether I would get a partial refund in case I travel in economy and whether I was able to buy un upgrade to business class in case they had a seat. Always through email, she referred me somewhere else to inquire about the refund, and informed me that the plane was full full full. 

One hour after that, she sent me another email with the confirmation of my premium economy ticket this Friday. Excellent news for me. As I shared, I am not in love with my new airbnb.

Now I have to figure out how to take advantage of my time left here. 

This weekend was again sunny and beautiful. On Saturday I took advantage of the spring like weather to take a walk with a friend. I think I mentioned before that he would bring me some pot from his brother's harvest.

Of course, last Saturday I did not know I only had one week left. It is a lot of pot. Although the quality is not so good, it does its work and I do not want to trash it. I am arranging my will. My weed goes to my good friend Y, the Venezuelan fuckbuddy who got me my first shipment. I will meet him this Thursday, and he will also keep the water pipe I had bought and showed before.

But I was going for a walk, when I got distracted by the weed. Just two blocks away from my nest, we have the famous Plaza de Mayo.

The Pink House is our White House. The pictures where you do not see it are pictures taken with the Pink House at my back. 

A close up to the little tend of protesters. Just two nights ago, the whole plaza was taken by protesters although their displays were considerable better looking than this tiny little poor one.

Then we walk until the also famous Avda. 9 de Julio, the world widest avenue in Argentinean mythology. In its intersection with the almost equally famous Avenida Corrientes you find the Obelisco. 

All this area has been refurnished to improve transit, with exclusive lanes for public transport in the Avenida, so this square with the new giant BA is now smaller than it was. However, the landscaping is now better. 

Along the Avenue the lines are separated in groups by long, thin landscaped walking blocks, each one named after one of the Argentinean provinces. This is Santiago del Estero.

After Avda 9 de Julio we headed to the Teatro Colón. 

Most people think the front of the Colón is the side of the building on Avda 9 de Julio because it is the most known picture, but they are wrong. That famous picture shows actually the back of the building. The real front is in my picture above, in front of Plaza de los Tribunales, another important plaza although not as famous as her sister de Mayo. 

Plaza de los Tribunales was under construction two years ago, during my last visit. It looks much better now than in my old memories. Look at this incredible gomero. 

I used to be around this area a lot during the first half of the 90s when I was doing some acting. One of the buildings around this Plaza is the Teatro Cervantes, one of the most beautiful theaters out of the many, many beautiful heaters in Buenos Aires:

The Colón and the Cervantes are not the only beautiful, massive, important buildings around Plaza de los Tribunales. I will highlight two more out of all of them. Look at this public High School, right next to the Colón:

 And of course, the building that gave its name to the Plaza: la Suprema Corte de Justicia.

In one of the corners in front of the Plaza, we have one of the many, many traditional cafés in the city. This one is called Le Petit Opéra, and it is very well kept.

We enjoyed some snacks there, they have a delicious coffee and bakery. The check was $AR 1,150.

Once we recovered our strength, we went to Avenida Corrientes, which is Buenos Aires' Broadway. Theaters are starting to reopen, but the area is yet semi deserted. Since my last visit, they have started to restrict cars transit during some hours, and built a pedestrian stroll along the blocks where most of the big commercial theaters (and the Teatro Municipal San Martín) are located. This is also an area filled with book stores that used to be open 24 hours. I doubt this is still on, but I do not know.

Normally, the crow wold make challenging just walking around these sidewalks. This is also an area I visited a lot in my times as political activist and actor. It was sad to see many traditional places, mostly cafés, closed forever, but it was also nice to see this new design, more pedestrian friendly.

Sunday was also sunny and bright, but I spent the whole day with my family. I was stressed because of the phone incident I shared at the opening of this post. I was equally stressed on Monday. After fighting with the AA security guy and getting into the waiting list, I met Alan again for a few pictures.

And you know the good news today. I have been trying to plan for these few days. I was fantasizing with getting Alan and Tomy together. Unfortunately, it seems that Tomy is in Rosario this week. Let's see what happens.

A few friends have been reaching out to me expressing their interest in Buenos Aires. I suggest you all to cool down your enthusiasm and keep learning about the city. It is a great destination for food of all kinds, arquitectural explorations, music and dance of all kinds, theater of all kinds, night life, sex, and who knows what else I am forgetting that is not  amongst my interests. But plan for later.

First of all, you will not be able to come in, and if you miraculously can you may not be able to get out as planned. Second, the city is not itself amidst a pandemic. Unlike Rio, which never loses its charms, Buenos Aires' fun is greatly diminished by current restrictions. 

This is going to be one of the last reports on this trip, but probably not the last one.

 

 

 

[Latbear4blk]

Right now I am waiting in my airbnb for a car service that will pick me up and take me to Ezeiza. At today's exchange rate, it costs me U$S 12.33. Just finished packing. Yesterday, I got my airbnb's hostess to refund me almost 90 bucks.

On Wednesday, I went to the Lab to get my covid test, ready for a fight. My appointment was August 2nd, and I thought that I had a better chance walking up to their site instead of calling. No fight was needed, the whole process was delightful. They even refunded me money, as I had paid for a PCR test. As the well known lazy dilettante I am, I did not research properly and just assumed that the PCR test needed to entry Argentina was a universal demand.

Fortunately, this lazy dilettante feeds from the wisdom of the real experts. Thanks to the friend @floridarob, I learned that you need a rapid antigen test to entry the US. I had paid for a test that costs twice what I needed. However, not only everyone was super friendly and accommodating, from the security guard to the nurses, not only they administered the test without an appointment that day, but they algo gave me back half of the money. I ended paying U$S 20 for the rapid test. I could have gotten it for free in the public system, but did not want to take the risk of a delay in case they were overwhelmed.

If you happen to be in Buenos Aires, I strongly recommend LABORATIORIO ROSSI. I actually chose them amongst the recommendations in the US embassy website. They have a very friendly user portal to set appointments and pay, and several locations in the city.

They told me that the results could take up to 24 hours. A few minutes after I walked in back to my airbnb, I was receiving an email with a link to my negative result. Sweet.

These last days I walked a little bit for Monserrat and San Telmo, which are more or less Buenos Aires Historic District. This is a representative view:

My iPhone is not very good at taking the images without adding light everywhere (or I do not know how to use it properly), and you cannot appreciate in this pictures how daylight is fading, and classic farolas are already lightning up in the background. 

This is a very popular neighborhood amongst foreigners. They mostly come on weekends, though, when these empty streets become very crowded, many of them closed for vehicular traffic and turned into only pedestrian. It is an area full with antiques stores, and an antiques street fair on weekends. As I am walking late and on a weekday, most stores are close, but you can see a few examples.

Many blocks are filled with stores likes these ones. Also take a look at this picture, because if you visit Buenos Aires you will probably not recognize this place:

It is the famous Plaza Dorrego, which is wrongly called "Placita San Telmo" by many. You would not recognize this place because you would probably visit on a weekend. Walking would be challenging in the crowd, and the space would be covered with stands offering antiques and art-craft.

This was an area I used to visit a lot during the last years of the military dictatorship back in the early 80s. Back then, gays and lesbians would shelter in this area rather than Barrio Norte. I used to hang out in bars around Plaza Dorrego a lot. Then, during the second half of the 80s and the first of the 90s, I was involved in acting and directing theater in the local alternative circuit. 

I walked by the place where I took my first acting class. Now it is a typical store selling used furniture.

It is also the Bohemian hood in Buenos Aires, where artists choose to live. Many of my artists friends still live there, and I am always visiting them. 

So not only I have been in this area in each of my visits to the city, but besides I'm very familiar with it. Of course I notice changes like old stores gone and new ones arrived, but everything else is pretty much the same. I do not see the blooming change I saw in Palermo, a mostly unknown territory for me. This is a very alive area at night in non pandemic times, almost as much as Palermo.

Last night I wanted to say goodbye with a boom, but my plans went wrong. They started surprisingly well, and then they went in a very wrong direction.

At 4 pm I received Y, my Venezuelan friend. I think I shared before that our sex was not so satisfactory and we were drifting towards a "clean" friendship. Well, we had an amazing chemistry. Not only the sex rapport was intense, but the whole interaction was very warm and fulfilling. We had a shower together, and oral sex while bathing each other. Then we continued making out and we were about to have full sex when we realized it was 7:30. 

I had made an appointment at 8 with one of my favorite local escorts. We had been even fucking for free, and I wanted to say goodbye paying him his new fee (thanks to my advertising he has now a new and higher fee) in full, and having amazing sex. I had warned him I may be saying goodbye to a friend when he arrived at 8.

When Y and I realized it was 7:30, we decided to smoke a quick joint and have some more oral sex instead of fucking. I was eating his ass when my date rang 15 mins before scheduled.

I went down to bring him up, and warned him that he had interrupted us because he came in earlier. Everything seemed to be OK. I am not going to enter in details from here. The point is that he was completely disrespectful and dismissive of my dear friend, with all the racist and xenophobic attitudes that trigger me. You all know how easy I am to trigger with these things. It is not only online.

After walking Y out, apologizing for the bad moment (he was shaking, trying to control his rage), I came back furious and had a two hours very uncomfortable conversation, and of course no sex. 

So I had that bad closing of my night. I am happy now because I have already talked several times with Y and he (we) is fine.

Today I had a last lunch with home made cooking. After kissing goodbye my mom and sister, I came to my base to pack and here you have me.

This is the last report I am posting in this thread. I think.

 

[Latbear4blk]

One more, while I am waiting to board my plane in EZE. I forgot to recommend a restaurant and share the last two items checked out of my To Eat List.

The Museo del Jamón is a tradicional Spanish (from Spain) cuisine restaurant close to Avenida de Mayo & Avenida 9 de Julio. I used to love it when I was living in Baires and I was not disappointed.

I ate a great Tortilla Española:

And finally, I got my only Flan con Dulce de Leche in this trip:

And this reporting is now over. I think? 

[traveller123]

@Latbear4blk

Thank you so much for the interesting posts and photos on your trip home to BA

I know it must take a lot of time to put your posts together but this forum member for one has really appreciated them.

I'm a 74 year old living with my partner in Thailand and I guess I will never get to South America but posts like yours are a substitute.

Wishing you a safe journey

[Latbear4blk]

Report one Tomy's OnlyFans.

[davet]

Your reports are better than any travel Insta because you really capture the feel of being there, feeling the cobblestones under my feet, smelling the coffee, getting dizzy from the graffiti. I didn't know that neighborhood was called Montserrat. I walked through there from Avenida de Mayo, comparable to and developed around the same time as the Gran Vias of Spain if the Argentines ever clean it up, to San Telmo. Isn't there a stunning disco in the area set in an old theater with two levels of gallery and sweeping chandeliers?

I don't mind gritty neighborhoods if they have character and a story. The tango was born in places like this and the songs frequently name even grittier slums to the south.

[davet]

On 7/9/2021 at 1:59 AM, iendo said:

If you would ask me where some of these photos were taken I would say somewhere in Europe. I'm very interested in visiting.

If you blindfold some monolingual American and parachute them into the middle of the Barrio Norte, they would probably guess Paris or Milan or Madrid. But the great thing about BA is that's just one side of the experience. There is (or was) a sprawling shantytown within sight of one of the ritziest neighborhoods. Drive the length of Ave. Santa Fe and its continuation and you can rapidly go from New York/Paris to a provincial Italian city to Eastern Europe to Peru to Bolivia. (With a budding Chinatown along the way, IIRC.)

[Latbear4blk]

Report on the local version of gay escorts discussion forums.

https://ilikepinga.com/2021/08/15/foro-pirata/