Since we didn't have any lessons yesterday, we decided to visit the Natural History Museum in the Abasto neighborhood and then go to a movie at the Abasto Shopping Center. The Natural History Museum is located at the edge of Parque Centenario, a large round park in the center of a fairly modern-looking city neighborhood. The museum celebrated its 200th anniversary last year. The building has some striking details.
To me the dinosaurs were most impressive in the exhibits. There was a great exhibit showing what dinosaurs were found on what street corners in Buenos Aires, imagining the past long before the city existed. The other interesting exhibit was a timeline of the intersection of political events and scientific discoveries. The exhibit discusses how politics has suppressed and supported various scientific endeavors. I've never seen that topic taken up by a museum before.
There were several times when I thought of the Adkins Arboretum book club because there was a cabinet of curiosities, discussion of the Voyage of the Beagle, and other things that reminded me of books we had read.
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| Dinosaurs of Buenos Aires |
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| A relatively new diorama of African mammals |
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| Cabinet of Curiosities |
After the museum we were in need of a cold drink. On the way back to the subway station we stopped at El 55, a small bar on a street corner. The owner made a great iced frapuccino for me (not so easy to find iced coffee drinks here) and a tutti-frutti smoothie for Jake. Tutti frutti here just means a combination of many fruits. We took the subway back a couple stops to the Abasto Shopping Center. This is a huge shopping mall with lots of stores and a multiplex Hoyts cinema. Many of the popular movies at the theatre are in English with Spanish subtitles, but some are dubbed so you have to look for whether a particular film is subtitulada. There was only one film at the theatre that was an Argentine film. There was a long line to buy tickets with cash (plenty of machines to buy tickets with a credit card, but not very popular). We got tickets to see Life of Pi (named La Aventura in the theatre) choosing our seats at the counter (yes, there are assigned seats for the movie). We had an hour and a half before the movie started so I went into a bunch of stores looking for a couple shirts. Clothing here is priced the same or more than in the U.S. though, and it is hard to find cotton clothing, so it was an unsuccessful shopping trip. Back at the theatre we had to wait in a line before they would let us take the escalator to our movie, then in another line to get our 3-D glasses. Argentines wait in a lot of lines (buses, theatres, paying utility bills,etc.) and seem very patient about it. The movie got out around 10 pm and by 10:30 we were back in our neighborhood for a light dinner at Bar La Poesia.
3 comments:
"Life of Pi" was the best movie I have seen in a couple of years. Great filmmaking. Great acting. As believable a plot line as possible with that book. Seeing it in 3D is a great idea.
The details of the architecture are so fabulous - I love the spider/ spider web on the doors especially. Very interesting about the assigned seating in the theater...
Nice to have assigned seating - you really could show up at the last minute, avoid all lines, and get a good seat! I found Life of Pi overly mystic and was surprised Jake liked it so much. It did have spectacular visuals though.
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