July 6, 2019: Back in the Buenos Aires Saddle

The good news: Sunrise over Mendoza was beautiful. The bad news: I saw it.

"It has all the elegance of the old world in its buildings and streets, and in its people all the vulgarity and frank good health of the new world. All the news-stands and book shops - what a literate place, one thinks; what wealth, what good looks. " -- Paul Theroux quote about Buenos Aires

Obviously, the pirate and I were up early in Mendoza to catch a Norwegian Airways flight into Buenos Aires due to a cancellation of the previous day's flights secondary to striking pilots. Ends up that isn't such an unusual behavior for the pilot union. Fortunately, we were back in Buenos Aries in about 2 hours while our trip companions who took the bus endured a 17 hour transit. 

So first thing on our agenda after rising at 4am was a nap. Thankfully, there are no photos of our mouth's drooling and no recordings of the snoring. 

We considered a number of museum possibilities, and there are MANY in Buenos Aries, and landed at Collecion de Arte Amalia Lacrosse de Fortabat.

I'm not familiar with Amalia Fortabat (chairperson and chief stockholder of the largest cement factory in Argentina) but Andy Warhol painted her portrait!

This is lovely architectural specimen and houses a very nice collection of permanent and temporary works.

 Foundation Fortabat contracted internationally acclaimed, Uruguayan born architect Rafael Viñoly for this design.

The museum has an eclectic permanent and temporary exhibits, most of which are quite enjoyable. We found a really striking art exhibit featuring the Difunta Correa. (See prior post for information about this unofficial saint.)

Difunta Correa

It is located along a canal of the Rio Plata and getting there included a nice walk over an attractive relatively new pedestrian bridge. The waterfront area was very active, even though it was a cold day, with lively family outings, buskers, rollerbladers, and teenage girls eating cotton candy. There are many restaurants, and Luigi, our tour guide, had told us previously that this area had undergone and rejuvenation. 

Puente de Mujer Bridge is of the cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge type and is also a swing bridge, but somewhat unusual in its asymmetrical arrangement. It has a single mast with cables suspending a portion of the bridge which rotates 90 degrees in order to allow water traffic to pass. When it swings to allow watercraft passage, the far end comes to a resting point on a stabilizing pylon.

 Since we spent a lot of the day in transit and getting a nap, and since we have to get up and be ready at 3:45AM to go to Iguazu falls (what sadist made these tour arrangements?), we caught an early dinner at a restaurant called Casa Cavia. This establishment shares space with a florist and is full of beautiful floral arrangements.

Casa Cavia

The cocktail and dinner menus both celebrated and were inspired by films. 

The cocktail menu. I wish I had photo'd the menu as well which was based in movie posters.

We had a short but enjoyable second interlude in Buenos Aries and would recommend this cosmopolitan city to others who might consider coming way, way south of the U.S. border.

"Brazil was beastly but Buenos Aires the best. Not Tiffany's, but almost."- Truman Capote

Paul's Ponderings:   A chance to have a reprise on Buenos Aires was great......we played hooky on the scheduled activities and just took in more of the city instead, which was great.   We had a 330 am requirement to get up for the trip over to Iguazu, so we didn't want to be out too late and managed to achieve that nicely.     Tomorrow it's off to another UNESCO heritage site to see the falls.....can't wait as it promises to be spectacular.