Day 10 – Buenos Aires
On Monday Feb 19 we headed off to visit the Museo des Belles Artes only to find it closed on Mondays. But other sites were nearby, so not a total loss. The giant ‘machina’ flower – Floralis Generica – an 18 ton, 23 metre tall metallic flower sculpture which opens and closes automatically every day. Next off to the Iglesia del Pilar, a very beautiful and well maintained church but as mass was in progress, no photos from the inside.
Next stop was for a coffee at the ‘famous’ cafe La Biela in Recoleta where artists, writers, actors and minor celebrities frequented, and then in the 1950’s it became the popular hangout for racing car drivers; hence the extensive memorabilia on the walls. Outside the cafe was an enormous rubber tree with many supporting beams for the extensive branches.
More walking around town and we headed to the Teatro Colon. We arrived just before noon, but waited in line for 2 hours before our tour at 2pm. At least the lineup was in the shade. The theatre is said to have the best accoustics in the world – and you can see why. The whole theatre is of perfect dome shape; dome ceiling, curved walls in a full horseshoe and with all lower surfaces padded and the only hard surfaces were the pillars nearer the top. There are no walls between the boxes, and everything is velvet and wood. Even the floor seats are on a raised, grated floor to create an echo below them. The very top ring around the chandelier has room for singers (small ones!) to create the sensation of angels or birds singing.
The first 2 architects were Italian, each who died at the age of 44. When the 3rd was hired, he was French and a bit older to ensure completion (lovers scraps were the issue!). As a result there is a mix of styles in different sections of the theatre. The whole teatro was renovated between 2002 – 2010 when every wall was scraped of cigarette smoke and repainted the original colours – a monumental task.
The ‘widow boxes’ were stage left below the seats in a caged area. Widows were not to be seen in public for 2 years, so this is where they had to sit if they wished to attend the opera, ballet, concert etc. As it happened, they needed to enter their seats from the same entry as the orchestra members. So many “friendships” developed with the musicians 😉 .
And we need to mention the traffic lights. There is only one traffic light and one walk signal per direction of traffic, and it’s not always in the same location. Even the locals seem confused at times on what colour the light is! This phenomenon seemed local to Buenos Aires – perhaps a way to save money?
