Proyecto 'ace: Travel Update #2

I'm not sure if I can call this a travel update since I just got back to Baltimore over the weekend, but at least there are plenty of photos to share now from my last two 1/2 weeks in Buenos Aires! Since my last update I've gone on a bike tour of the city, been to a milonga (tango night), worked a lot in the studio, finished the residency with an open studio called 'ACE NITE, visited art museums including MALBA & PROA, and stayed in a beautiful apartment in San Telmo through Airbnb. I'll save the photos from the studio for another post, but here's a glimpse of recent sightseeing adventures!

One thing I was really looking forward to doing was going on a bike tour so I could get acquainted with more of the city and still have time to go back to any neighborhoods I wanted while in BA. So the next weekend I took one with Biking Buenos Aires, and ended up being the only person to show up. Unexpected private tour! Also it was a beautiful day.   

We went through La Boca, a neighborhood known for being filled with graffiti/murals & street art. 

In La Boca, we stopped to have mate tea and see Caminito, the more famous street known for its colorful facades. The brightly painted buildings were part of a neighborhood revitalization project by Benito Quinquela Martin, a famous Argentine painter from La Boca. They reminded me of Baltimore's "painted ladies."

On the weekends it's also a popular area for local artisans & vendors, + outdoor tango shows, similar to San Telmo's Feria. 

After La Boca, we biked down to the Ecological Reserve that sits next to the Rio de la Plata and saw Buenos Aires from a distance.

In riding through Puerto Madero, we stopped at the Catedral Primada de Buenos Aires, where Pope Francis was formerly Archbishop!

The next week was our final one at Proyecto 'ace, and after finishing the residency, with four days left in Buenos Aires, I moved to a new apartment in the San Telmo neighborhood I found through Airbnb. It was awesome!

Over the next few nights we went to several milongas or tango nights, but the best was Confiteria Ideal. It was in a beautiful ballroom and mostly older couples who knew how to tango so you weren't required to dance at all and could just sit back & watch while listening to classical tango music. So romantic! ;)

The next day I visited MALBA, Buenos Aires' museum of Latin American art. They had a huge show up of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's work which was awesome!  

This is how crowded the museum was...on a Monday afternoon. On the weekends you might not even get in because the line stretched out around the block. Too much art appreciation I can't stand it!

One of my favorite installations...

After visiting MALBA I walked one neighborhood over to Recoleta to see the famous cemetery and final resting place of Eva Peron a.k.a. Evita! The cemetery is also beautiful all on its own.

Only two days left in Argentina! So much to do so little time! This is a little cafe I had breakfast at twice near the place I was staying at in San Telmo called Hierbabuena and it might be one of the things I miss most about Buenos Aires! No but really they have amazing breakfast.

 Here's a collaboration I did with Santiago Ocampo from 'ace!

I had to go back to La Boca to visit the Fundacion PROA another art museum and pick up the last of my souvenirs! PROA also has a rooftop terrace with a cafe that is cheaper than all the other cafes around and is a lovely place to have lunch.

This photo's a little blurry, but I got all my postcards from an artist in La Boca and this is me holding up a postcard to the original painting behind it! Keep an eye out in your mailboxes, Kickstarter backers! ;)

This concludes our photo tour of my last two weeks in Buenos Aires but like I said I'll be sharing all the studio photos in another post next. Thanks for looking!