quiet monday afternoons

mondays in buenos aires are almost as slow as sundays. many shops are closed and the streets are not too busy. the city feels as if it has dozed off for a nap. the air outside on monday was cold and crisp much like a sunny winter morning back home. a soft breeze blew on our faces as mark, andrew and i began searching for the hidden bike stores of buenos aires. the subway dropped us near one bike store where i tried to communicate that we were looking for used road bikes. it took a lot of hand motions and broken spanish (or castellana as the argentines say) before we saw our first used road bike. the bike was a classic, from the seventies, but out of our price range. our attempts to find the other bike stores were futile. either the internet lied or these stores no longer existed, most likely the latter. although, the internet has lied to us several times about directions.

our wanderings led us to the polo grounds, where there seemed to be an upcoming horse race. we walked beneath the overpass and beside walls of rainbow colored graffiti. as we walked up a small street, covered in shade from the trees overhead, mark spotted a black, rusted one speed bike. the bike immediately grabbed his imagination as the bike he would want to ride. we set off hoping to find such a bike. mark stopped and decided he woud leave a note in the spokes for the owner. andrew and i waited for mark to return, but after about ten minutes, we were growing impatient. as andrew and i arrived back by the old, black bike, we found mark inside the store talking to the owner. the locksmith store was small, but operated by five men, probably best friends who enjoyed arguing about futbol and politics.

mark soon had struck a deal with the store owner and while he gleefully went to search for a bank, andrew and i stayed to chat with these men, who were very interested in these young american boys. they asked us what we thought of argentina so far. we love this country. they asked what we thought of president bush. before i could answer, fredericko let me know what he thought. fredericko spoke the most with us. fredericko is a few inches shorter than i am with slicked black hair and golden teeth. he was wearing a red striped adidas jacket and nike shoes. he spoke much like italian mobsters i remember from the movies, very passionate and with large arm movements. fredericko was not too fond of president bush or the woman that will soon become president of argentina. he gave bush a thumbs down, jfk a thumbs up and clinton was asi-asi (so so). i think it was largely dependent on who had visited argentina. andrew soon struck up a conversation about futbol with fredericko. i filled in parts of mising vocabulary for andrew, but mostly the love of sports replaced our language deficiencies.

mark returned with his money and we left the shop with smiles and warm handshakes. andrew and i were extremely excited about the conversations we were able to sustain with these men in the shop. the men in the shop were extremely excited to lend us advice about the city and where we had to visit while staying in argentina. a great way for us to spend a quiet monday afternoon. andrew and i left for home on the subway, while mark rolled away on his new, old, black bike.