Tea

Tugboat in Tigre

My friend, Jorge, picked us up at our hotel in Buenos Aires and drove us out to Tigre where we stopped at a market on one of the many canals. Valerie wandered around the market and Jorge and I sketched this scene in the late afternoon light. The temperature was perfect and tango music lofted to us from a houseboat downriver. 

Glamping with Bio Bio

Valerie and I went rafting a few weeks ago. To get in the raft, we had to fly 5000 miles south to Buenos Aires, Argentina, then another 300 miles west to Bariloche, then a 6 hour bus ride south to the Bio Bio base camp on the Futaleufu river. This is a trip 3 years in the making. Ever since we rafted the Toachi river in Ecuador ,Valerie has wanted to do this trip. When she first told me about it she enthusiastically said it was a "glamping trip". Glamping? I wondered aloud. "Yeah", she said, "you know, a cross between glamour and camping - glamping."

Well, it was way worth the effort to get there. The Futaleufu is an amazing river, the scenery spectacular, and the food, facilities and staff were extraordinary. Our days were full - not much time for sketching on this part of the trip. The last day I managed to get some time in the afternoon to do this sketch of the "parilla" - a type of grill used for cooking Asado (barbeque).The camp store is on the left and the dining/kitchen area is on the right. This is 8"x20" pen and watercolor.

Valparaiso Street Corner

The last day in Valparaiso I walked from Neruda's house down into the city and found a shady plaza to sit and draw. The electrical lines in Valparaiso are crazy. I don't know how they keep track of everything. I imagine they can't. They just add more wires. So in this scene there is all of the chaos of the city. I ignored the cars, motorcycles and ancient trolley buses but they were constantly moving through the intersection. In the background there was a musician playing pan pipes of popular songs. The Chilean flag is in the upper right corner of this sketch. And there at the bottom, a beautiful gem of a telephone booth so beautifully proportioned. A piece of zen in the middle of it all.

Buenos Aires

A collage of sketches from my recent trip to Buenos Aires.