Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Running in Buenos Aires


Thought I'll post some pictures about my Sunday morning run in Buenos Aires before we flew back to South Africa last week. All my runs were in the dark and this was the only opportunity I had to run in daylight and I decided to take the camera along to snap some Pictures.


The Hotel we stayed in was about four blocks away from their main avenue, the Avenue of July 9 which was named after their idependence day. It is the widest avenue in the world, even wider than the Champs-Elysees in Paris but definately not in the same caliber as the Champs-Elysees. Very untidy and as you will read below it's the local suburb of the homeless


It's maybe the widest in the world but definately not the longest and I was at the end before I knew it. Below is the Opera house being renovated and will open end of March.


Then I saw this guy sleeping under some plastic sheet on July 9 avenue. Thought it was a once off but soon realized that this was going to be a heartbreak run as it was the "local suburb" of the homeless
The name plaque
Some Statues all along the avenue

Another statue with some cravity on the wall, guess you get that everywhere.

This was my first real shock as most homeless people I ran past were adults. This family was living on July 9 avenue and while the mother and father was still sleeping the little guy was playing and keeping himself busy. There were plenty of homeless people living here and I saw more and more children, so sad.

No matter where in the world you are, you will always run past a McDonalds if you do a run no matter in which country you are.

Some more statues and plaques.

Gues it's all the Assholes staying in this Hotel. Hope it wasn't given the name after the Falkland Isle war against the British. One thing that the Argetines are not scared to say and are quite vocal about it, is the way the feel about the British. Even our tour guide who was hosting an international group had a lot to say---> very unprofessional.

Some more statues on the pavement of the avenue.

This family even had a chair and their "house" was made of any scrap material, mainly plastic and cardboard.

One of the local Taxi's. It was close to this Taxi that I saw something that spoil my whole run. I was already upset about all the street children but I saw a mother still sleeping or passed out with a baby of no more than 3 months old laying next to her on the side walk. The shelter was just a piece of cardboard. I wanted to take a photo but some other homeless guy was standing next to them which appeared to be his home. He looked very aggressive and was looking at me as if I was crazy running around this time of the morning.

One of the squires along the way.

A playground for children, not very nice with no grass at all.

Done with July 9 avenue and on my way back to hotel running past Florida street. A street full of shops with no cars allowed. Just shop after shop.

The street in which our hotel is.

Running towards another squire.
Someone put up some banners protesting against something.

Another statue
The other side of Florida street heading away from our hotel

Eventually I only ran 1h30 instead of 2h00 manly because I was upset about all the homeless and was running out of road. I didn't want to get loss or ran into some dodgy streets.
I only realized how blessed I am to run in my hometown.

3 comments:

  1. Great pictures.

    Yes, two of the sad realities of global capitalism:

    1) inevitably running past a McDonalds anywhere in the world.

    2) A permanent social underclass.

    Hope you had great fun in Buenos Aires. I'm jealous.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Didn't you recognize the guy sleeping on the street, he was an ex-GM car dealer.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mark
    Yes so sad but true
    Johan

    B
    must be, haha
    J

    ReplyDelete