Tuesday February 2

Buenos Aires

We didn’t need to use an adaptor to charge camera batteries, laptop etc last night as Argentina’s plugs (3 pin) and power supply is the same as in Australia, only positive and negative pins are reversed.  It didn’t seem to affect the charging.

Today, we were able to sleep in (but didn’t because we woke at 6.15 as usual!) as our “Free Choice” tour of graffiti art around Buenos Aires didn’t start until 9.30am and finished at lunch time.  Tomorrow will be different as we are departing from the hotel at 4.30am, bags out tonight. Our 3 000km (3 ½ our) flight for Ushuaia leaves at 6.40am and the temperature down there is expected to reach a maximum of 10 deg, less any wind chill factor.

Our Graffiti and Street Art Tour guide was an Irish architect-turned-guide and was very knowledgeable on the history of graffiti/street art both overseas and in Argentina. Street art is not tagging, more like murals painted onto walls and although not legal is tolerated. Property owners are able to paint the front of their properties however they like and some ask artists to do these art works for them. The artists usually take a few days and use scaffolding, large tins of paint etc and sometimes spray cans.

As it was originally  ......

.... and as it is now.

Down the side of a four-storey building

This one is by/for a political party

This one by a Brisbane artist

One of the artists has a large collection of art work displayed around the ground floor of our hotel.

Some of these art works have been on walls for over 10 years and have not been vandalised. We were taken to one brick fence on a street corner and shown a couple of tags in particular among the others, from a father telling his children (one for the daughter, and one for the son) that he loves them. Ordinarily children might cringe to see this. The story is that he has a restraining order slapped on him and can’t be anywhere near his children, so he communicates his love via the wall. We were then taken across the road to another corner (building this time) and pointed out, among a number of tags, one very tiny message in a heart written in pen – the children had replied saying they loved him too!! So touching!!

From father to his children

tiny reply from the children

The children's tiny reply is next to the red 'M'

Dog-walking is big here - not unusual to see several dogs (always well-behaved) with one walker.

Be a REALLY early start tomorrow (3am) to breakfast and fly to Ushuaia to get the ship to Antarctica.