We walked south along Avenida 9 de Julio towards Teatro Colón.
The theater takes up a whole block and has its back on Av. 9 de Julio.
As we turned onto Av. Viamonte to get to the front of the theater, we
couldn't but notice the four nicely dressed young ladies walking in
front us. It seems that in this part of the world, midriffs and tight
jeans or tight flannel pattern pants are still very fashionable -
pants so tight that the panty lines show.
The four young women walked into Teatro Colón; we walked into Teatro Colón; a lot of nicely dressed people were walking into Teatro Colón. My, there must be a performance! I looked around and let myself be impressed by the European-style architecture, even though I don't know anything about architecture. We walked up a flight of marble steps. A few men who seem to work for the theater stood at the first doorway. I thought I'd take some pictures here, go out, take some more pictures, and then I'd be on my way. But Ed kept walking in, so I kept walking in. The men stood around the first doorway didn't stop us.
Ed kept walking in, so I kept walking in. There were a few men at the second doorway. Beyond that, I saw, through a set of doors, a large hall with seats and people milling about. The men stopped us. I figured if there was a performance here, there's got to be a ticket office. "Heck, I am in the mood to see a show," I thought. I asked where the ticket office was in my broken Spanish. I don't know if I made myself understood. I certainly didn't understand him. In any case, we were directed to the side. It turned out to be not a ticket office but a bag check. Ed for some reason wanted to make sure that the bag check was free, so I fumbled through my dictionary to look up the word. Free of charge is gratis, a word we used a number of times more later on.
The style of the theater must be from a very different age. The theater hall is like a box. The main orchestra section at the bottom is on a slightly inclined floor. The antique looking seats are covered in what seems to be red velvet plus ornate carvings. On the sides are six levels of balconies stacked one on top of another without offset. The open space inside the hall is impressive and its grandeur unmistakable, although everything seemed to need some good polishing or a fresh coat of paint.
The theater was not very crowded. An usher led us to our seats and gave us a program. He waited and we realized that he was waiting for a tip. We gave him a tip. The performance began at 5:00 p.m. The program says función extraordinaria. I guessed that it must be some special performance. I couldn't understand why the performance was free. Maybe because it's a practice performance?
The first performance was a modern dance number. It looked like it was some sort of a story, but it was kinda abstract, so I didn't understand very much. Then there was a piece introduced with a monologue by a man. That one I didn't understand a thing. No español. I liked the solo Swan Lake very much. Ed liked one where a man played a marble statue. That was a very imaginative piece, but in the darkness with air conditioning, I couldn't help dozing off for half of that piece. I was hoping for some tango, and my wish was granted. Several couples came on stage, did some very characteristic tango moves, then gradually evolved the moves into what I would call tangofied ballet. It was beautifully done. I thought even if didn't see another tango show, I could leave Buenos Aires in peace. The audience apparently liked the performances very much too. There were a lot of a clapping and shouts of "Bravo!" after each piece. "Bravo" shouted in Spanish sounds exactly like how you shout it in English.
After the show, we looked around, and found out that the theater charged five dollars for guided tours, but we couldn't make it to any of the available times. Nothing major was missed here. What good is a tour of an empty theater, while you can sit in it and watch a great performance? As we were leaving Teatro Colón, I was giddy with excitement. First I beat the mustard artists at their own game. Then we saw such a wonderful performance in this wonderful theater. I would've bought tickets to see a show here. But there we were, wandering into the theater at 4:55 not knowing what's going on, and hitting on a super performance by accident. And it was all for free. This was exactly the kind of experience I had been looking for. All this on the first day here. I had a very good feeling about this trip.
We walked further south along Avenida 9 de Julio, past the
unremarkable Obelisco. The boulevard is way too wide, with eight
lanes in each direction at places. To cross it, you must use two
traffic light cycles and wait at an island in the middle of the
boulevard between the two cycles. When traffic moves, it moves like
the boulevard is a race course. At one traffic light, I saw six cars jammed into five lanes.
We walked to Avenida de Mayo and turned right towards Plaza del Congresso. There are more European style buildings along the way. The plaza seems to be a popular local hangout with kids playing and having great fun in the fountain there this hot summer afternoon. The area is not terribly well kept, with graffiti on many of the monuments and structures. We wandered around briefly and turned back towards Casa Rosada at Plaza de Mayo. Casa Rosada is the presidential palace. We arrived quite late and didn't even bother to check whether we could take a look inside. Ed told me that this was where Madonna wanted to sing in Evita. The Argentinean government wouldn't let her at first, but after her chat with the president, they relented. We were always on the lookout for Evita whenever we walked by a movie theater, but we never saw it showing anywhere. We thought it would be very symbolic to see the movie in Argentina. The movie opened around Christmas in selected cities in the United States. By the time we got to Plaza de Mayo, we had been walking for a long time, so we sat down on a bench, rested for a long while, and watched the night fall.
We set out again at around eight towards San Telmo to look for tango shows. Although the whole city of Buenos Aires exudes a very European atmosphere, the neighborhood around San Telmo reminded me of Rome the most. Ed concurred. Rightly or not, the rather narrow and dark streets also made me a bit nervous about security. We found La Casa Blanca. It seemed to be an upscale place from the outside. The price of entrance included two drinks, but no dinner was served at the place. We walked around to check out a few other places. All of them offered the same deal. I was very hungry by now, and wasn't too excited about two drinks on an empty stomach. There wouldn't be enough time to eat before the nine o'clock show, and I thought the eleven o'clock show would finish too late for us to venture through the dark streets safely. Too bad there weren't any shows on Sunday. A decision was made to call it the night and to see the tango show on our way back from Ushuaia in two weeks.
We walked back to Plaza de Mayo, but didn't see any restaurant along the way. We walked along the pedestrian-only Avenida Florida towards our hotel. All the shops and banks along the way were closed. With no other restaurants in sight, we felt victim to the seduction of the golden arch. Normally we would have avoided McDonald's, but this night we were a tad desperate. I think it's a sin to eat at McDonald's while traveling. I usually don't spend that much time in a place. Every time I go to a McDonald's, I rob myself one more opportunity to sample fine local cuisine.
After dinner, we continued north on Florida, and much to my dismay, saw a few open restaurants. I had jumped the gun on deciding to eat at McDonald's. The east-west running Av. Lavelle was a lot more lively at this time of the night with arcades and cinemas filled with people. The area seemed to be a popular local hangout. We didn't notice many tourists. Maybe they had all blended in. By the time we got back, it was eleven. It's been a long day. It's been a very eventful first day. We had a lot of fun.
