LA BOCA - I love you!

Today was my adventure into La Boca on the bus; I was told 64 took me there, but alas, the driver said no. However, once I got there, I realized 64 was the right bus, but he must have been going the wrong way. 168 worked just fine, and I like the driver much better than the 64 driver. I sat right up front with him, and when he made one of the inevitable hair-pin turns at excruciating speeds, I went flying off the seat, which is up high anyway, and grappled my way back up from a sprawled position on the floor. I didn't even look around to see who might have noticed the poor soul flying out of her seat. Enthusiasm, I just chalk it up to enthusiasm

As soon as I got out to La Boca, I knew I'd found something thrilling, and I began to photograph madly. If the graffiti is exhilarating in BA, La Boca is the embodiment of this colorful energy; the houses are painted a zillion colors in a trillion ways, and they are utterly spectacular. But as I got into the quieter neighborhoods, an older woman stopped me and asked me to take no photographs. I didn't quite understand her, but she kept saying something about "spirito," and I realized that I was dealing with issues I had no business interfering with, so I slipped down another street and packed it in.

On one festive street were many stalls selling geegaws, but at the end of it was a woman selling unbelievably intricate woven shawls and scarves. I bought several and struck up a conversation with a Canadian group of four who said they come to BA every year at this time, rent an apartment and buy these shawls for all their friends, all of whom, they claimed, love them. They were buying about 20 and did acknowledge one of the men had a store.... When one woman was ready to buy, she realized that as we were admiring and trying them all on, two young, attractive women had been doing the same, only pushing into us; her wallet was stolen out of her shoulder back. I am very lucky to have had my fanny pack on which I keep my free hand all the time. I felt so, so bad for her, and she was a really nice, gentle lady.

It is difficult for me not to include many, many photos of this area because it stimulated something in me that got me onto a new quest which I called "Techologico Road Kill," and to do it you have to have a really sunny day so that you can look for the shiny objects in the road when you cross the major intersection. I wanted to get all mechanical, technical pieces that had been crushed by cars and busses so that I could make them into sculpture or or 3-D paintings. Plus, the challenge of picking the things up before getting run over by oncoming cars is enough of an adventure, but then you have the other challenge of finding a thing and not merely a shiny piece of wrapping or paper. Start looking. You might come up with some fabulous pieces for me!

After La Boca and lunch at my apartment, I walked to the Museo Decorativo, a magnificent old house of the early 20th century, designed by french architect, Rene Sergent. The objects inside ranged from fussy 18th century french chairs to Ming dynasty Chinese vases to Thai and Cambodian Buddha statues - extraordinarily eclectic mix. But the most exceptional pieces were contemporary silk hangings that were textured, brilliantly colored and as my friend in Penang would say, "A Wow." The artist calls herself Silke, and the hangings are worth checking out. As I recall there were websites on some of the documents, but I don't have one. I DO have the vivid, gleeful memory though. Here is a photo of the building; photos were not allowed inside.



I will leave you with one more La Boca photo because I have to get ready for a welcome to BA party for Nick Renner Smith, a friend of Jack's from Philadelphia. I have a nice bottle of Malbec, some champagne, olives, Argentine cheese and crackers. I invited them for "cocktails." They refer to it as "pre-game," I'm sure because this is mere warm-up to their evenings that seem to go on into not even the wee small hours, but into the breaking dawn and day light! Thank goodness I don't have to go through that anymore.