dia de la primavera

As I write this evening, I am looking out my 5th floor window across a small park. It is almost dark, and there are about three dozen swallows performing aerobatics at my eye level, chasing insects in the twilight. One of them perched on my windowsill briefly a few minutes ago before sailing off again.

Though the buds have been rising and the pigeons cooing for a couple of weeks, today is the first official day of spring in Buenos Aires. Despite the comparatively mild winter, los porteños greet the return of the sun with the riotous joy you might expect from the Inuit as the spring dawn feebly peeps above the ice.

The equinox is filled with local and inexplicable ritual. For example, in the office yesterday afternoon, flowers appeared on all our desks, great and small alike, from "the management". I thought for one terrible moment it was Secretary's Day and I had been misclassified.

It was the first evening since I arrived here in June when it was warm enough to sit outside in the evening. As we enjoyed a post-work beverage at the Spell Cafe, the sights and sounds of spring were all around us.

It seems that spring must be greeted with much shouting and tooting of car horns. The avenue was jammed with cars, however it all seemed in good humour. A party of girls strolled past the cafe carrying giant red hearts - who knows why.

I bid my colleagues goodbye about 20:00 and strolled home to an early night. My dreams were filled with shouts and car horns.

I woke this morning to a perfect, sunny day, after a week of clouds and rain. As I walked through the park taking photos, the debris of the night before demonstrated what a good time was had by all. As the day warmed up, every available surface was populated by recumbent bodies.

I will come back tomorrow to see if they are sunseekers, or leftovers from the night before.
I am running a book on these two - they are probably:

1. Sleeping off last night's wedding
2. Chauffeurs on their lunch break
3. Off-duty bouncers catching a kip on their way home.

20070922_BA_spring_fever

across the andes by A400

well, it may not have the same resonance to it as "Across the Andes by Frog", but it was still a memorable view.
An uneventful trip back to Buenos Aires - none of the planes were outrageously late, and the last LAN-Chile flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires was not only on time but half-empty.
In my jet-lagged state after 28 hours in the air I was happy to look out the window at the enormous mountains and daydream.
I read a book a few months ago by Dr Johan Reinhard about the discovery of some Inca mummies on Llullaillaco volcano. Then there was an article on Sep 7 from AP which brought the story to mind again.
Though Llullaillaco is a long way to the north, as I sleepily gazed at the view I could almost see the brightly coloured dots of people trekking to the tops of those peaks to make their sacrifices.

back in the old country (for now)

Finally made it back to Perth on Sunday afternoon. Trip uneventful (after we got out of Buenos Aires). The 18:15 plane took off at 22:15 for a 1:45 trip to Santiago. Even allowing for the 1 hour time difference, it was a dismal time sitting in Ezezia watching the clock tick past any hope of catching the 22:45 from Santiago to Auckland.
I was sitting glumly in the plane thinking about how on earth I would find a place to sleep in Santiago until the next flight. Then they announced that they would get us on the flight after all. Fortunately there were enough people connecting from BA for them to hold the connection for a few minutes. My plan for a couple of hours in Santiago airport browsing for semi-precious stones turned into a sprint for the plane, but we made it. That business class seat never looked so attractive.
Long day plus stress plus the pre-take-off champagne must have all added up, because I slept about 7 hours of the 12 hour flight. I think that's a personal record.
3 days back in Perth and I think I am starting to get over the jet lag. Should be back to normal just in time to go back to Argentina...