Only in Buenos Aires

Full house

There are a few things that one can do in Buenos Aires that one might not be able to do in other places.  As our time in B.A. draws to a close, maybe it's time to review some of these.

Last weekend, there was an eclipse that was visible in the Southern Hemisphere, including Buenos Aires.  If had professional equipment like they did at the Buenos Aires planetarium, it looked like this:

Mark did not have professional equipment, but took a stab at it anyway.  He stared at the sun for hours, but really wasn't able to see the eclipse-y part. And the photo didn't turn out as well as the planetarium's photo

Eventually, Mark noticed a group of people in the park who had a method other than staring at the sun.

To see the stars, keep your eyes on the ground?

The guy with the menu (or whatever) had cut a whole in it and the shadow it cast let you "see" the eclipse.  Kind of.

Kind of much ado about a sliver of light on a piece of posterboard.

So, that eclipse thing was ok, but not all that impressive in the end.  Seeking to find something more impressive, Anne and Mark made it out to Teatro Colon.

Anne photobombs the Teatro Colon.

Teatro Colon is supposed to be one of the best concert halls in the world.  Some people would rank it as one of the best opera houses in the world.  So definitely worth checking out a show, if you get the chance.

Second level lobby.

Anne and Mark went to the opening night of the philharmonic season.  They played two very different selections.  The more famous one was Carmina Burana by Carl Orff.  It contains the famous "O Fortuna" - which you will recognize when you hear it even if the name doesn't ring a bell.  So seeing that live was pretty cool.

View from the Abe Lincoln seats.

The other piece was called Madre Tierra and was written by an Argentine composer named Esteban Benzecry.  This piece had portions called "Pachamama" and "Nuke Mapu", which are both phrases that roughly translate as "mother earth" in languages indigenous to South America.  So the the whole thing was about the earth and had a "South America" sound (think pan flutes, flowing water, and Amazon jungle noises).

At the end of it, the composer was called up to the stage to take a bow.  It was at this point that we realized the composer was the guy sitting two seats to Mark's right.  I don't know if we had good seats, but they were at least as good as the guy who wrote the music, so that can't be all bad.

The grey hair guy is Esteban.