Ahora, Estoy Turista

Delaney — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 22:35:00 +0000

Above: The Fortabat

I’ve been a turista lately, going to museums and seeing sights. Last week I went to the Coleccion de Arte Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat, which is a long name; I think that people here just call it the Fortabat. This is a museum that Sonja and Katharina had told me about it and said that they’d enjoyed their visit, but suggested that I might not appreciate it because it’s “just art, mostly painting” and there were no explosions or anything to keep my attention. I was, of course, offended and once I found my way there I studied each piece for agonizing amounts of time, starting in the 17th century and working my way toward the present day, looking for subtle changes in technique and use of light through the centuries. I did this, of course, to prove to myself that I am not a Philistine and that we norteamericanos don’t always need explosions to be captivated. It was a beautiful building and and extensive collection, but seriously, it was pretty boring.

Above: The MALBA

But! The next day I went to the MALBA and realized that yes, I do love art and can be amazed and intrigued and yes, inspired by sculpture and painting and architecture and saying such-and-such is art even though in any other context it would just be a chair or a greenhouse or a canvas painted all the same color. It was great, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Buenos Aires. And I went on Miercoles, so it only cost 5 pesos, which is like US$1.50.

I also recently went on a Buenos Aires City Bus Tour with Rebekah and Julie and a young woman named Linda, who is unsurprisingly from Germany. I’ve not got much to say about it, honestly. It seems like something that would have been really cool to go to the moment I got to the city, just to get a good overview of the highlights, but I’d already seen every single place the bus took us through, plus many more. It was a beautiful day, though, and sitting on the roof of a bus being driven around on a gorgeous day is a decent way to pass some time. Here are a few bus-tour-y photos:

I ran a bit. I meant to do 22 miles on Monday and had measured out an appropriate route, but missed a turn somewhere and ran a bit extra when I should have turned around at a certain street. I ended up only going about a mile and a half extra, but after a point, a mile and a half can mean quite a bit. My longest run here in Buenos Aires up to then had been 20 miles, and I ended up running 23.5 miles that day. However, I’m beginning to think that if I had a support van (like Dean Karnazes sometimes does) feeding me nutritious foods and keeping me hydrated (and providing bano services), I might be able to run indefinitely. The things that I always worry about while running are not exhaustion or how much my feet hurt (which really, they do), but if I’m going to get sick from dehydration or if I ate enough of the right kind of food beforehand to keep me going. And el bano, seriously. Public facilities are few and far between in Buenos Aires; I’ve had a couple of close calls.

We also went to the Metropolitan Cathedral. ‘Nuff said:

Chau.

Travels with Delaney » art

Ahora, Estoy Turista