Is it the culture or something in the water?

Let's play a guessing game today. See the picture on the right (and I made this one a bit bigger this time), do you see what I see? uh yea, exactly... That was what I walked into this morning on my way out and it was absolutely hilarious! The funniest part was that the dog knew it wasn't supposed to be doing that because it jumped off the cat when it saw me watching. However, when I started to move away, it jumped right back into action and that went on a few times because I really wanted to snap a shot of this. Was I being a pervert?!

When I got home in the evening, I told the owner what I saw because the dog actually just arrived last night and I didn't know where it came from. He then showed me this youtube video that he shot. So, I guess what I witnessed was 'normal' for these two 'good friends' which are both the owner's family's pets. How adorable!! Man, my innocence just went right out the window from this morning incident...

Latin culture has always been known for being a passionate one. A kiss on the cheek when you greet and say goodbye to someone, doesn't matter which gender you are or whether or not you just met that person. There are LOTS of make out sessions on the streets, at doorways, on the bus, in semi dark corners. Singing, drumming and dancing to whatever they have their hearts for. Basically, they have no problem showing their love.

There is however one thing I don't know yet if it has anything to do with their hot-blooded nature, their values or just they are very accustomed to expressing their desires freely. When you pass by any news stand in the city, and they are pretty much in every corner, the magazines that would be flapping right in your face at the most prominent spots are with half naked women. I'm not talking the Maxim type, I'm talking about bare booties and bare titties. I'm not talking about one or two either but a whole wall of display, including DVDs and tapes too. I'm by no means a conservative person but the sight of it still made me go 'holy, that's a bit much don't you think?' It'll take me some time to figure out what that really says about the culture. May be I should ask the dog, she'll probably be able to shine some light on it.

My old love

Went to San Telmo today, reminiscing all of my first encounters in this barrio (neighborhood) which has played a big part in my attachment to this city. You can still see and feel a lot of the old world here, with 100-year-old cafes in their old self still open for business; cobblestone streets which you have to watch where you step or else you may risk springing your ankle by walking into a hole (ladies, absolutely bad idea to wear heels in this area); European-style antique buildings with beautiful architectural design outlined by years and years of dust and dirt… I can go on and on about how much characters this area has. I continued to discover new things every time I walked around.

Including today, I saw new things there; in fact, quite a bunch of them. Other than lots of repaving going on (great news for ankles), new stores, which could only be found in the more ‘proper’ area before, have now opened shops in San Telmo, like Freddo (known for being the BEST ice cream in BA), Havanna (the latin coffee chain, move over Starbucks!) and some trendy clothing stores. It was quite an OMG to see Freddo there (last year, I had to get my ice cream fix some 30mins away). At the same time, however, I got a bit sad that, like many other places on earth, the innocence and the authenticity of this place is slowly being camouflaged by all these businesses because of economical reasons. Looks to me that the status of San Telmo in tourism has jumped even higher in the last year or so. These new shops took over spots that were previously local kioskos where you could grab that gum you need. They became competitors to many one-of-a-kind home-style shops, like there is one very cute ice cream shop that sells home-made ice cream, and Freddo is now located, well, right across from it. Btw, is it totally hypocritical of me for saying all these but then I’d still choose to eat Freddo instead?? If you got to try it, I’m very sure that you’d forgive me completely and would even put your hand up and say ‘I’m totally with you on that Iso.’

Anyway, the point is I’m so going to find a place to live in San Telmo!