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How many years has it been, decades probably, that I would have shown up for a free, three hour city walking tour, wearing high heeled shoes. It was a gorgeous, 84 degree low humidity day here in Buenos Aires and the woman lasted the entire trip. Some of the older folks tired out, or got hungry, and left the tour. Many interesting things to see but my attention kept going to her as we walked streets paved in two inch tiles with deep grout holding them in place.
The tour was in English so I expected to see mostly other Americans but there were few of us. At some point the guide asked each member of our group of 75 where we were from and at least 15 countries were represented- India, Israel, Lebanon, Denmark, Switzerland, Canada, the U.K., Germany, etc. Two cool stories:
According to my guide, there were two rich Argentinian women who were enemies. One had built a cathedral, a teeny part of which of you can see behind this very tall building. After one woman built the cathedral, her enemy bought the land in front of the cathedral and erected this enormous structure so nobody could see the cathedral any longer. This large building is said to be the most hated or most loved building in Buenos Aires.
And another picture which captures the architecture of Buenos Aires: it is eclectic. Colonial archicture remains next to modern in sometimes stark contrast. I love this juxtaposition of colonial and modern structures. That the coral color was continued makes the contrast sort of companionable.
5 Comments
Ouida Tomlinson
I’ve given up high heels but she does have rather nice legs. I would have shown up in tennis shoes. Admire your stamina for a 3 hour walk in this lovely city. I notice you refer to some of the older folks. Does that mean that we are younger folks or is this wishful thinking. Thanks for sharing.
tarpley
She does have nice legs! And, everyone else was wearing tennis shoes or hiking sandals.
tarpley
Meant to clarify what I meant about older folk. Our age or younger. My assessment is that I was easily the oldest in our group of 75. The ones who left I’d guess were 65-70.
Ouida Tomlinson
I can remember that forever and ever, I was the youngest one in a group, but then suddenly, like a switch that was flipped, I became the oldest. There was never an inbetween time it seemed.
Congratulations for outdoing the younger ones of 65-70. I am proud of you.
tarpley
Yesterday on my tour there were only three of us and the guide. The young couple were students from Germany so 22-24 years old, maybe? I kept up because I carried an umbrella. The sun here is fierce and the temperature at 3 pm when the walk started was 96. The couple put on sunscreen but had no hats and seemed a bit wilted by 6 pm. I was not fresh as a daisy, mind you. Having N umbrella to shield the sun is even better than sunscreen!