It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.
But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.
There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.
Alan Cohen
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
Groucho Marx
The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Belgrano R

In the middle of the night, the weather changed.
For the past few days, it was sunny and warm and even yesterday, when it was cloudy, it was still comfortable, no chill to the air.
In the afternoon, the wind picked up, we found ourselves scurrying home with Pup from the park, thinking the skies would open up soon and rain would come. But they did not, it remained windy and grey.
Sometime in the night or early morning, I woke, not knowing why at first. Then there was lightening and the very loud thunder following. Then the rain came. 
It was very loud, coming down very hard. I fell right back to sleep, like a bebe .. I love to fall asleep to rain.
And best of all, I like to wake up to the freshly washed world that is the morning after a rain.
There were all sorts of reasons today why we had to wait for this person and that , I made my umpteenth phone call to Carlos the plumber who never answers anymore.
After listening to the banging and crashing of the plumber finally attacking the leaks in the apartment above, I hoped our plumber would answer my call and come finish the last problem in the house ( so far) ...


He answered the phone !!
I, living in Buenos Aires, spoke to him in Spanish.
He, being a nice man with a good sense of humor, answered me in English.


It went something like this ...


me -  Carlos ? Hola !
C -     Hello
me -  Como esta ?
C-      Good
me -  Bien !
C -     Tomorrow.
me -  Mañana ? 
C-      Yes, 10 o'clock .
me ...Yes ! Gracias ! 
C-     chau
me - chau


Scintillating, no? ( but I spoke Spanish - she says, patting herself on the back )


So Carlos is coming tomorrow and I spent today reading and watching Spain beat Germany in the World Cup and then we spent some quality time in the park .. where the wind was strong and cold and invigorating but sent us home to big cups of hot tea and a new chewy bone for you-know-who.


There is a neighborhood here called Belgrano R.
We heard about this place from friends and spent the day there, a few months ago.
My friend Sandra who aside from being a brilliant person when you visit Buenos Aires and need someone to help you with your activities, questions, shopping etc, is one of the nicest people I know.. and she has been a huge help to us over the years that we have lived here, with little tips about where to go and what to do and I am sure she has saved us from getting lost countless times...Sandra told me about Belgrano R and where to tell the taxi driver to take us and she gave me a list of streets to walk on and where the plaza is and all the good information that made the day perfect for us.


Belgrano R was named after a military commander way back ... this commander also created the Argentine Flag .. It is an upper middle class neighborhood made up mostly of single family homes, beautiful beautiful homes with walled in gardens and pools in the backyard and cobblestone streets and wonderful trees and , well, it is just a beautiful neighborhood.


When the railroads were being built, the English workers lived in this area.
The homes are mostly Anglo-Saxen design, Tudor, and just beautiful. It would be hard to find a place that one did not like.


There is a beautiful plaza with cafes and restaurants all around the edges, and some historic homes that are works of art. And an English language book store.
You sort of need a car if you live there, but that is definitely not something that would stop me from moving there if we decided to do so. It is suburban in it's way, but still right in the city of Buenos Aires.
This house was a museum .. this is on the pretty plaza .


I took plenty of photos,   you can see why we liked it so much.. 
this side of the street ...




And from the other side of the street

Even if the homes were not so beautiful, the tree lined streets made me fall in love with the area.

They should do Home tours ... 


This building is just wacky.. All glass, with those gardens planted on the terraces. Amazing and Beautiful !

                                                     So this was a day in Belgrano R .. hope you liked it. 



6 comments:

  1. Liked it? I loved it. Wonderful piece and the pictures were perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Candice
    First of all, thanks for the nice words, I am glad I could point you in the right direction to one of the most beautiful parts of the city, and so you can share it with others.
    And you don't need a car to live there, I don't drive and I lived in Belgrano R for 1o years and never felt the need for a car. Thank goodness for radio taxis.
    The last picture is not an apartment building, it is a green house, the headquarters of a well known gardening company.
    I could do a tour to the homes in Belgrano R, I've learnt a lot about them over the years I lived in the neighborhood.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh Sandra, you have been such a help ! You have saved us so many times from getting hopelessly lost or missing out on something important.
    A car would not be so bad to have, eventually.
    I am shocked that that is not an apartment building ! How wonderful to work there !
    There were buttons to push, like for apartments, the room upstairs looked like a living room... yes, I was straining to see inside !
    You should do tours of Belgrano R .. definitely.
    We will have to do one together .. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love the glass house!
    I am enjoying touring the neighborhoods with you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The glass house is a garden shop (Salvatori); the top floor is the penthouse where the owners live, it's not an apartment building

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, Thank you Anonymous, Sandra has told us about my mistake.
    Thanks for commenting !

    ReplyDelete

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