Wow… So far, this trip has been an action packed adventure of exploring the city and learning about Argentinian culture. The long days and early mornings left many of us literally exhausted… (See photo below)

Thankfully both the National Museum of the Arts and the National Decorative Museum provided a relaxing afternoon of appreciating different aspects of Argentinian culture. For the record, I am not an art major nor do I consider myself a connoisseur of fine art, but I’ll share certain aspects of the museums that I found interesting.

Both museums had a large amount of religious artwork. These works were usually in older sections of the museums. It really showed the impact that the church had in society. Not only was the church a major political force during this time period, but it heavily influence people’s daily lives. Some pieces that were not religiously focused still had religious symbolism involved. For example the painting below.

Another interesting aspect that I noticed is the influence from other countries such as France, England, Spain, and others in the paintings, sculptures, and even the architecture in some of the buildings. I found these subtle crossings of culture to be interesting. For example, the picture below shows a French flag waiving in the background of the picture.

A third aspect of the museums that I found interesting was the amount of pieces that were dedicated to animals. The photo below shows there was a room exclusively filled with horses. I am really curious to learn why certain animals have so much significance in Argentinian culture. Part of me wonders if it is due to the impact they had in Argentinian agriculture throughout history, and how critical they were to the economy and life in general.

My favorite part of the museum was the modern art sections. Even though my knowledge of the arts is laughable, I was still able to appreciate the different works of art and the method that was used to create them. It was nice to slow down and just appreciate the giant works and the craftsmanship required to create them.

Welcome to Buenos Aires, a city where you never really know what to expect. The private tour of Malba was definitively a different experience from every other museum we have visited thus far. It was an extremely modern representation of the arts as shown by the photo below.

One aspect of the tour that was interesting to me was the human representations of art. This was something that I have never experienced. It was very uncomfortable at first, but at the end of the tour I came to appreciate the modern approach. The different human representations included humans forever painting a room, humans acting as revolving doors, humans bound to different aspects of society, as well as others. These representations are shown in the photos below.

Today was also their national holiday of independence 25 de Mayo, and the experience lived up to the hype. Plaza de Mayo was packed full of people all day. There were different food stands set up, entertainment, exhibits, and much more. I was shocked by how many people that were out walking the streets, and sitting in the plaza all day. We listened to the President’s speech, and I was very impressed. No hablo espanol muy bien, but the president was a very passionate speaker. It was very interesting to see the crowd react to what she was saying. She seems very well liked by the people, because she entered the plaza like an absolute rock star, with fireworks and music. It was interesting to see the crowd’s passion for politics and their high sense of nationalism throughout the whole event especially during the national anthem. Although we were not able to get very close, but the picture below show what the scene was like in the plaza.

Finally we ended the day at La Nazarenas to experience some authentic aspects of Argentinian cuisine. Some parts were not my favorite, but definitively worth a try. The best part was looking at everyone faces after they realize they just ate kidney. Although I didn’t snap any live action shots they looked similar to the face shown below. All in all another culturally full day.