Gotta Love Nature

The Thays Home

This morning I arose ready to conquer my very first tour scheduled to be conducted in Spanish. I can't lie, I was a bit nervous, but confident enough to be excited. I rode up to Plaza Italia, I set up the bikes in the Botanical Gardens and as I chatted with the security guard, Guillermo, (a good conversation in castellano to prepare me for the afternoon) I began to suspect that something wasn't right. 11:10, no guests. 11:15, still no sign. 11:30, ok, that's a no show. Such a bummer, but it happens from time to time. Instead of being disappointed all day I took advantage of the incredibly summery weather we are experiencing and took a stroll through the Botanical Gardens Carlos Thays.

Thays was a French architect hired by the city of Buenos Aires in 1889 to help design the public parks and green spaces. He created the Botanical Gardens in 1898 and lived with his family in the house located at the center. He is responsible for making BA the attractive and green city it is today. Thanks to this fine naturist, every Sunday I'm in a beautiful setting, preparing bikes for our graffiti tour, but have never once spent a decent amount of time exploring the park. The security guards are always telling me I should check it out. I've briskly walked past or through on several occasions and once stopped in to take some photos with Kristin, but something was still missing. Today was the day!

My favorite statue
IV tiempo de la VI sinfonía de Beethoven

Impressive to say the least. The memory of Grandma and I enjoying the botanical gardens in Madrid was my first thought. I'll have to review my pictures but it seems that BA beats Madrid in the garden aspect. The sculptures are beautiful. I especially enjoyed those named for Beethoven's symphonies. The temperature could not have been more perfect, there were several people strolling around, a group of volunteers working on a gardening project and I was suddenly thankful to the no show tourists for giving me the chance to see what had always been right in front of me.

The lucky poo shot

I circled back around the Thays home preparing to enter, as they often have art exhibitions inside, when suddenly, I felt a nice squirt of cool, white bird poop drip down my shoulder, onto my top, and all the way down my leg. The stench was tremendous! Who knew such a little thing could be so smelly. A nice bystander from Jujuy was kind enough to inform me that my hair was covered and then preceded to dump half of his bottle of water on my head to clean me off. Then informed me that I shouldn't worry because this brings good luck and giggled as I calmly tried to clean myself off with the half-ply toilet paper I had stuffed in my bag.

My garden tour ended abruptly, but at least I managed to get some pictures. On the way out Guillermo snickered as I told him about the bird and he was kind enough to remind me that the garden has lots of trees that attract birds. I'll be sure to bring my umbrella next time. The return bike ride was very quick as I was stimulated by the intermittent aromatic reminders that between my hair and helmet was a lovely layer of birdy waste. Back home and showered, I am looking forward to experiencing the luck that bird intended to bestow upon me.