Cartoon Stroll
Tour map
Belu and I stayed in Mafalda at a quarter past two. It's two o'clock and I go out onto the balcony of my house, where I can barely stand straight because it's so narrow that my feet almost do not fit, and rescue the bike by bending the handlebar at contortionist angles. "Put on your helmet," says L, who does not care about my safety, but is rather amused by my redondito helmet, like the Atomic Ant. "Do not laugh, I already had an accident and I bounced my head against the asphalt, if I had not had a helmet ...". Low since 18 with the contortionist bike. I hold it in a single wheel, I lock the handlebar in a gap between the door and the mirror, I close the two doors of the elevator, I take that minute to think if it will be cold and that I hope there is little traffic and I go out the other side trying to Do not get stuck with the pedal. I start on July 9, I go on a fluid pedal until the cobblestone appears, suddenly, in Chile. The cobblestones are the silent frontier of San Telmo, the entrance to the oldest neighborhood of Buenos Aires. I do not understand why they make a bike path that leads directly to that surface like a meteorite. The choppy rebound gives me an allergy, literally, I do not know if it will be that the blood starts to run through my body in another direction but I get red spots and my arms start to itch. I make the three blocks that I need to get to Defensa walking. I never know whether to take off my helmet when I walk with the bike.
San Telmo
Road details
I see details that I like: a corner with a mural in homage to Leonardo Favio, a patch of pottery with drawings of flowers on the entrance step of a restaurant. I have to go for a walk more often. "You are the traveler who does not leave your house," José told me a while ago, when he came to work and saw that I had to be removed with forceps from my trench in the heights. Even my best friend, from Costa Rica, tells me to come out more. I spent almost two years living in other people's houses, I need to recover my time in mine. I am at a very home stage and I feel good, as if I had chosen a voluntary house arrest and they gave me permission to go out a few times a week. I sit down to wait and Belu appears walking with his bike, he tells me that he was delayed because he came across a via crucis. We are about to start ours. Today is holy Friday.
There is a line to take pictures with Mafalda. We leave it for the end and we move through Chile in the direction of Balcarce. We see Isidoro Cañones with three people hugging him for a selfie. They put him in a corner with a lot of nightlife because of his playboy condition, it seems. The Paseo de la Historieta is a tour of sculptures and murals that starts in San Telmo and ends in Puerto Madero, it is a tribute to the most popular cartoon characters of Argentina and their creators.
People are always there
Isidoro Cañones is a character from Dante Quinterno, created in 1935. He is considered the typical playboy from Buenos Aires, he is a cancherous and seductive character, he likes to live the moment and the good life.
The tree and the Ministry of Defense
Beanpole and Superhijitus are characters from "The Adventures of Hijitus", a series of Argentine cartoon, created in 1967 by the Spanish artist Manuel García Ferré.
The one with the balloons
Matías is the best-known character of Sendra and the protagonist of the strip "Yo, Matías" that has been released since 1993 on the back cover of Clarín, an Argentine newspaper.
A toilet strip Pereyra and the fake New York (?) Building in the background.
The mural of Liniers (Argentine cartoonist, painter and graphic artist). He painted it live in 2012 with Kevin Johansen's music.
We pedal towards Puerto Madero and in the middle we see a succession of characters, we are in the heart of the via crucis of comics: Clemente, the Girls Divito, Patoruzú, Patoruzito and Isidorito, Gaturro. I know many of them because they are very involved in popular culture but I never read them. Clemente is a creation of Caloi, is a lover of football and women, Patoruzú is a tehuelche cacique and the oldest of the characters, created in 1928, the Divito Girls are pure curve, the clothes almost explodes them, they are with their suitcases as about to leave or new arrivals. We enter Puerto Madero and it's like changing cities. We pedaled through the wide streets, between mirrored buildings, crossed the dike and Belu told me: "There are no camalotes, a few days ago I passed and some still floated". More than a month ago the tide brought camalotes from Brazil with snakes and other bugs and they were stuck in the coasts of Buenos Aires. In the Ecological Reserve there were signs of "prohibited from approaching the river: snakes". We go by Juana Manso and turn right on Marta Lynch. The streets of Puerto Madero have the name of a woman, Juana Manso and Marta Lynch were Argentine writers. We skirted a square with trees planted in organized rows. I feel like I'm somewhere else, I'm not sure which continent, but I feel a bit of a trip. Diogenes and the Linyera rest under a tree and I want to accompany them for a while. Sun rays appear that do not last long, the sky is gray. In the background we see Toilet Pereyra and Mendieta sharing a mate, I sit on the third bench and I see that there is rain water in the mate. You hear the sound of the trees shaking with the wind, in the background there is a post called the Titan of the choripán.
The Divito Girls, drawn by Guillermo Divito, were characterized by their sensual physique. He began to draw them in Patoruzú in 1936 and then continued in his own magazine. The girls Divito marked the fashion of the time in Buenos Aires.
Gaturro is the best known character of Nik, Argentine cartoonist.
These are some photos that I love to share with all of you, soon I will publish other photos that I take in this tour, I appreciate your time for reading this post, I send a kiss to all and many thanks for your nice support.
My sister and I
