Fri 9 June

Cooler today. Met up with tour guide and visited Puerto Madero, the docks area. Quite a windswept area as many docks are. Apart from arty painted cows everywhere not much cop (Not real cows of course just well formed statues)This is beef country after all. We had cortados(tiny cups of coffee)in a upmarket place where you could get frightened by waiters with napkins on their arms and lilly white tablecloths. It wasn´t that pricey and as a bonus of sorts we could see the opening of the world football cup on a giant plasma screen. This country is mad about football and streets are deserted when their team plays.
Next we viewed the promenade made by the rich for the rich in 18 something but today frequented by plebs as the rich have gone elsewhere. We proceeded to the ecological gardens rescued from a swamp nearby, but nothing to rave about. All the animals come out at night. Passed by two security guards on the way in as you can be robbed anywhere and riff raff need to be kept out.
Every building in B Aires has a security guard or two or three, even the cafes. There is some logic. It goes like this: every building or business must have a toilet by law. There are zilch public toilets. So these security folk police who comes and goes everywhere to make sure you are a patron if you want to do your business. This law in turn creates work for many many people who usually look bored out of their minds but are part of a large pool of surplus labour. It also means the state does not pay for public toilets. This is my perception. Of course they also provide security etc.
Some unemployed invade the city and bang on metal doors to get attention for their plight.They were in the pedestrian street Florida today accompanied by a bevy of police with some sort of spraying equipment which I didn´t see them use. Like elsewhere these people are despised as layabouts by those that have jobs.
Kissing in public. Everyone male and female,including taxi drivers,greets each other with a peck on the cheek. Other type of kissing: There is no inhibition about kissing your partner passionately whereever you happen to be when the impulse arises,on the footpath, on the bus, in a cafe etc etc. The rest of the world doesn´t exist.