Joaquín Sabina concert in La Bombonera

Thursday, 21 January, at 10pm Tina, her cousin and I went to the concert of Joaquín Sabina. It was in La Bombonera. We wanted to take the taxi ‘cos we knew that the Boca district is not that safe, especially not at night. But the driver needed 30 minutes bringing us just three blocks away from Tina’s flat. He took a detour telling us there would be too much traffic to get through and it would be faster walking. He dropped us and from now on we walked within the crowd. It was safe between these hundreds of fans, and it was closer than we imagined.

Arriving at the bowl we needed to find the right entrance, the entrance for the field. We had to wait a while outside ‘cos they were frisking everybody for weapons. The weather was great! The night was still quite warm so that a T-shirt was sufficient. A few minutes later I noticed the request letting everybody in immediately as there was not enough time left until the concert was supposed to start. So we got in quite fast. The concert was great and there was an awesome atmosphere. It was again a bit annoying that the water boys forced their way through the crowd to sell lemonade and water. Three hours later we got out of the bowl. The ladies were smitten by Sabina and his deep smoky voice. J We headed for a café-bar to finish this night with a cool beer.

Pepsi Music 09

 Yesterday was the day. The most important day of the year… of the festivals: Pepsi Music 09.

I went there with Tina at about 6pm. It took place at Club Ciudad de Buenos Aires, at Avenida del Libertador 7395, in Núñez district. It is an outdoor recreation center. There were three stages. The Pepsi stageand the Claro stage were facing each other. Therefore you just needed to turn around or “run to the other side.

The weather was good - dry and warm (in T-shirt all night).

The first bands were not that good. The volume was to low. But they saved the best for last, of course: Calle13. Now the sound, volume and atmosphere was better.

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and Los Autenticos Decadentes were quite good as well.

The festival started at around 3pm and ended  - I don’t know - between 1am and 2am… We left at 0:30pm and had to wait one hour for a taxi/bus. Everybody was taking them.

All the time and everywhere there was much smell of fresh gras in the air. :-/

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btw: a law now allows you to have 15gr of marihuana. You are just not supposed to use it at places where you affect somebody else.

At festivals/concerts alcohol is not allowed. They run around and through the crowd to sell softdrinks.

Colonia del Sacramento (Uruguay)

On Saturday it was time for me to extend my tourist visa. For this I simply needed to leave the country; so I went to Uruguay. There is this company called Buquebus that has some boats/ships to bring you (and your vehicle) to the other side of the Rio de la Plata. My boat left at 8.30am and you needed to be there two hours earlier. That’s why I had to to get up at 5.30am. I just went down the Lavalle Street and at its end along the Puerto Madero. And there I was, at Buquebus. I entered the main hall  Everything looked like a little airport. With my e-ticket and my passport I went to the check-in to get my final ticket. The entire hall was full of passengers from all over the world lining up with their suitcases . When I received my ticket I had to go to the security check. After passing it I got my new stamps into my passport. Now I could line up for boarding. My ferry had the name Silvia Ana. You didn’t notice when you’ve already entered the boat ‘cos it had comfortable new armchairs and seating corner with little round tables, monitors, elevators and a big dutyfree-shop. It took us “just” one hour to cross the river (with a speed of 23 knots).

When I arrived at the harbor of Colonia del Sacramento, the oldest city of Uruguay, it began to rain very heavily. At the mainhall I asked for the guided city tour. I booked a promo that included the transportation by boat from harbor to harbor, the bus from harbor to the old city, to a “ranch” and back to the city, and then back to the harbor again. The bus ride to the Barrio Real (the historic city) was just bad. It was raining, the windows were misted from inside and they were covered by big raindrops from outside, and María, our guide, showed us all the 5*-Hotels.

The Barrio Real was quite interesting; all the colorful little houses, uneven streets and alleys of cobblestones, very old cars from the early 20th century and the old historic buildings (from the Portugueses) from the 18th century. The town is a UNESCO world heritage site since 1995.

First, we went to the old gate of the town (at least what’s left). There you could see what the Portugueses built and where the Spanisch conquistadors continued. We followed the ‘Holy Pedro’ Street (Calle de San Pedro) and then the Streets of the Sights (Calle de los Suspiros) to get to the Main Square (Plaza Mayor). There we saw the ruins of the San Francisco Convent and the new  lighthouse (Ruinas del Convento de San Francisco, faro). After this we visited the Basilica of the Holy Sacrament (Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento). There they have some original sculptures, for example,  from 1777. While we were inside this Basilica, another guy from Buquebus was looking for me to pick me up for lunch.

Some of us had booked lunch outside of Colonia, at some kind of “ranch” called Arena Granja Colonia. We were eleven people from the USA, a couple from Buenos Aires and me. I shared a table with the porteño couple. We got to know each other and him I’ll see again this weekend at Pepsi Music Concert. We had a buffet of asado of chicken, beef and some innards, some empanadas, salads, fresh homemade salami and cheese and for dessert cakes, Dulce de Leche, fruits and creams. We had a bottle of Patricia beer and at the end a coffee. After lunch we tasted some selfmade jam (of pepperbells, tomatos, strawberries, plums, onions, etc.), salami and cheese in the next room. They were also producing/selling different licors. At the end the Argentinian couple and I had a look at its museum. It is a huge collection of key fobs, ashtrays, bank notes, telephone cards, steins, and the world’s biggest pencil collection beeing in the Book Of World Records. Finally the bus picked us up again to bring us back to town. Back there it was raining so heavily that the streets turned into dangerous torrents. My boat back to Buenos Aires was supposed to leave at 9.30pm but I decided to leave with the Argentinian couple at 6pm, especially as there would be nobody left and as it was raining like hell. After this day I was quite tired.

Hot; spontaneous concert of Carlinhos Brown

Today was a hot day, too hot! It started yesterday when I went out for dinner at half past midnight and we still had 22°C. When I left the restaurant (I had my pizza with glaced ham, pineapple and honey again ) it felt even warmer. You just did two steps and you already swet like a pig. But today was even worse. The day started with 22°C and until the evening the temperatures climbed up to 30°C. You didn’t know how to move (or even to breathe) without getting bathed in sweat! It was an oppressive air… or still is.

Tonight I surfed the internet and by pure chance I saw that the Carlinhos Brown band is playing at the Gran Rex theater tonight. I decided to watch them. I went to the theater to see if they still have some of the cheaper tickets. I had luck and got the last ticket of the cheaper  category. It was a great concert and an awesome atmosphere. There were quite many Brazilian fans, of course. Everybody was standing; almost the whole time and almost everybody was dancing. The sound was just great. The whole theater was shaking (I couldn’t even hold still my camera!), all your cloths were moving and your body was vibrating. Awesome feeling! One of their songs was Magalenha. At the end there was a huge porteño group presenting with Carlinhos some great percussion act. Finally the audience was so loud, persistent and had so much stamina forcing Carlinhos to give so many encores that, in the end, we could enjoy their music 30 minutes more. He did a really good job in entertaining the audience! When I left the theater it was almost midnight and we still had 30°C. On the way home it began to thunder lasting only about half an hour. Yet the temperature didn’t fall. Therefore, at home I enjoyed a bottle (1L) of cool beer.

Loros & new concert tickets

Yesterday I came back from university when I saw a hustle and bustle of green-yellow loros in front of my apartments building at Plaza Lavalle. There were about ten of them flying around - from one palm tree to another. I hope next time I’ll have my good camera with me to take a good shot of them. These loros are called cotorras argentinas [lat: Myiopsitta Monachus]. They are making quite a noise.

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Today, at the Ticketek at Centro Cultural Recoleta, Tina and I bought tickets for the ‘Pepsi Music 09‘ concert, one of the most important concerts in the year. We got tickets for one of the two national concert days. There are 15 national bands playing that day: Calle 13, Catupecu Machu, Vincentico, Misterio, Los Autenticos Decadentes, Los Tipitos, Gogol Bordello, Cultura Profética, The Ting Tings, Maximo Park, Karamelo Santo, Dante, Dr. Krápula, Zoe, Mamá Pulpa. At one of the international concert days ‘Die Toten Hosen’ are playing. They are quite famous here. The concerts will be in the Club Ciudad de Buenos Aires. It holds 30,000 spectators.

We enjoyed a bit the very nice weather in front of the Hard Rock Café with a nice view overlooking the Plaza Francia and the Plaza Intendente Torcuato de Alvear. There we saw a couple of cotorras argentinas flying over our heads.  

I wanted to buy a ticket for Jason Mraz concert as well but all the cheap tickets are already sold out. There are only the most expensive tickets left which cost three times more. Therefore just one concert. It is better for the wallet anyway.

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Next weekend I need to go to Colonia (Uruguay) to extend my tourist visa for another 90 days. There are two different boats. The faster boat needs 75 minutes to cross the Rio de la Plata. I hope there will be good weather to enjoy the day trip! I’ll finally have the chance to eat some good fish. In Bs.As. they only have filete de merluza (hake fillet) in supermarkets and restaurants. My professor recommended chivito uruguayo, a special Uruguayan meat dish, to me. We’ll see!

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btw: paper napkins in restaurants and bars are usually hard like baking parchment; therefore absolutely useless