22/1 Antiques, street performers and a Palace

Sunday 22 January

We woke slightly fuzzy but were in time for a planned hookup with Paul for Lachie’s belated birthday party. Steph and Amanda were separately online and Cass, John, baby Ryan and the girls were in the background.  It was really good to see them all and delightful to watch Lachie walking unaided and generally just being a typical 1 year old boy.

Brekky then off with half the others to follow the road with all the market stalls, leading towards the area with brightly coloured houses. The stalls were very interesting with a lot of original, ingenious and artistic work. There were some very good buskers: A man with unruly hair, a wild expression, and his coat tails wired to stand up behind him, looking as though he was struggling into a ferocious wind; a man in a chair with his head tucked in between his boosted shoulders, looking convincingly headless; and a man painted white standing posed on a pedestal.

Geriatric tango

windswept man from behind

Invisible man - very clever

There were also buskers everywhere doing tangos and playing instruments. We watched a very good Latino tango band for some time. We left the group to return to the Pink House, which is open to visitors at weekends – quite incredible for the premises which used to be the Presidential Palace, featuring the balcony whence Eva Peron (Don’t cry for me Argentina) used to address the crowds below. The present president, simply known as Christina, recently re-elected, lives elsewhere but arrives by chopper every day to work here. We went through all the cabinet conference rooms, press conference rooms etc. We finished up at the gate where she enters the building and the personal  lift with padded bench that takes her up to her office. There was a guide and commentary in Spanish but he kindly did a mini English version after each room, mainly for Janine’s benefit although there were quite a cluster of other English speakers present.

Me with friends

Presidential balcony looking over Mayo Plaza, where Evita spoke to the masses

Fantasically decorated Presidential Inauguration Room

Thence to the waterfront where we walked along what used to be a working dockyard. On the way back and almost at the Pink Palace we got flicked with some mud by a couple of gypsies. We recognised this as a prelude to an offer to clean us up which results in them running off with your wallet etc so we stepped into the road and ignored them.

Random Noddy-sized police car in the mall

Most of the mob are going to a tango show tonight but we don’t fancy it at about $40 each.