We arrived late in Buenos Aires from El Calafate and were departing later the following day, so our remaining time in Buenos Aires amounted to about 24 hours.
We decided to use our time to go on a graffiti tour, hoping to see and learn a little bit about Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires is known as one of the world’s graffiti and street art capitals.
The start of our tour was about a mile walk from our hotel, which would have been fine had I not been dressed for winter in 90-degree heat. I was drowning in sweat by the time we reached the tour’s meeting point.
Once everyone arrived, we walked slowly through the Colegiales, Villa Crespo, Chacarita, and Palermo neighborhoods. Our first stop was this building which was hidden but in plain view at the same time.
This was my least favorite of the street art we saw. The style is just not my cuppa tea.
I especially loved the “Extra!” street art below.
It reminded me of advertisement postings in Europe, where people post their advertisements on top of existing ones and eventually create a mosaic with older advertisements showing behind new ones.
The horse on the apartment building above was massive and just around the corner from the “Teta y Salta” piece at the end of this post.
The piece with the man bending over was incredibly detailed, though the details can’t be seen very well in the photo. There was also a large dumpster in front of the man, so his bottom half had to be severed to omit the bin from the photo.
At one point, we came across a building in an area that looked unoccupied except for the obvious clue that it was occupied because the windows were open.
What is most impressive about the street art above is that it continues when the shutter is raised. I thought this was pretty damn incredible.
Most street artists are paid for their work by the building owners and it’s actually a thing for building owners to seek out and commission street artists!
The street art below is one of my favorites of the day, even though it was done by the same artist and on the same building as the first photo in this post. The detail in the camera and hands is incredible, and I like how I’m pointing at it with my camera, and it’s pointing back at me.
Below was the most memorable stop of the day. It’s a father’s message to his daughter. It reads, “I love you, Daddy.”
The father was separated from his daughter for a reason neither Peter nor I can remember. He wanted his daughter to know that he always thought about and loved her. He couldn’t be in her life, so wrote this message on a wall in the neighborhood where his daughter lives.
The art below was completed by an artist from Minnesota, USA. We found it on the roof of a bar. It’s important to recall that we landed in Argentina the day after the 2016 presidential election, and by the time we stumbled upon this art, the nuclear dust of what had just happened had not settled.
Dragons! Who doesn’t like dragons? It is hard for me to imagine having the vision to paint something on the side of a building, much less on the side of a building with a split wall like the art below.
Finally, one of the most famous pieces is “Teta y Salta.” It was created by a famous Argentine street artist named JAZ. He is known as one of the first people to start painting around the city in the 1990s. Now, he paints all over the world.
He uses mixed mediums to paint his murals like tar, latex paint, and petrol. His pieces are usually gigantic and contain hybrid beast/man figures and are sometimes so big that he has to rent one of those crane vehicles with the bucket attached, like the ones electrical lineworkers use.
If I remember correctly, “Teta y Salta” was to memorialize two children who were killed by police in that neighborhood.
Yawning gets you everywhere 
Really cool!