Time to go time

We now feel quite at home in the area we have been living for the last few weeks in Buenos Aires. We have found two good and comfortable cinemas within walking distance and, as seems to be the case in general here, foreign films are subtitled not dubbed so you actually get to hear the voices of the actors rather than, as in Spain, the small group of "actors" who provide voices (often inappropriate) for a wide range of actors. This weekend we went to see a French film about a school in the 20th arrondisment in Paris, Entre Les Murs (The Class, I think, in England) and finally caught up with Slum Dog Millionaire ( Quien Quieres Ser Millionario?). Both were fascinating studies of difficult societies and it is easy to see why they won prizes. In fact in relation to Slumdog I would imagine all other contenders in most categories from cinematography to acting to soundtrack gave up hope on seeing it. It was also, of course, horrifically violent, but I can see that it would not have worked without this.

We have also found a restuarant where we are welcomed like long lost friends-yes, despite all our complaints about food-and another which we have been to only once so far but which serves the best pizza I have ever tasted "made with the same love as that of the original immigrants" according to the blurb, since of course pizza, made by Italian immigrants, was the original fast food, long before McDonalds thought of the concept. We will be back there tonight.We have a favourite coffee shop and we know which supermarket to avoid (horrendous queues at all hours and no change in the till-a constant problem here) and where to go. For bigger adventures we know to keep an eye on what is going on at the Centro Cultural Borges, where we were again on Saturday night, to watch a modern dance company perform some of the most startling tango you could imagine, accompanied by a tango band and singer with a voice that surely equals that of Carlos Gardel (No, we had´t heard of him either till we came here, but he was a hollywood star in the 30s and lived up the road). We have a park that we run in and know our way to a shopping mall where we can sit and read the papers and watch the beautiful people stroll by on a Sunday morning. What more could anyone want?

So, predictably, we are moving on. Not very far to begin with, just to Palermo, another barrio of BA, but then, on Friday, to Peru and Bolivia. It is raining there at the moment and here we are enjoying the most wonderful autumn weather-blue skies, a little chilly first thing in the morning and then warm sun in the afternoon. The leaves are beginning to fall so the light is dappled....Buenos Aires gets under your skin. It will be hard to leave it.