Helen had a lesson with her tutor today, so I went for a walk to give them the apartment to themselves. I headed up Junin to Santa Fe. I heard a brass band playing, and the police had the road blocked. So I waited.
Argentine soldiers in 19th century uniforms on horseback with swords drawn passed me in a parade procession. People watched from their balconies and applauded as they passed. The musicians were even on horseback. I have never seen that before. The musicians in middle section with the trumpets were all on grays. The others were on chestnuts. It was really something unexpected and delightful.
A few blocks farther, at the corner of Avenida Callao and Avenida Santa Fe, the entire sidewalk collapsed almost swallowing a newsstand. The people were able to wrestle the newsstand to the street, but not before it spilled its entire inventory into the abyss.
From the looks of it, storm runoff had been eroding the substructure under this corner for quite some time.
The sidewalk has only been supported by a few layers of tiles and a few inches of unreinforced cement for quite some time. Today's torrential downpour finished the job and the whole thing finally failed.
Argentine soldiers in 19th century uniforms on horseback with swords drawn passed me in a parade procession. People watched from their balconies and applauded as they passed. The musicians were even on horseback. I have never seen that before. The musicians in middle section with the trumpets were all on grays. The others were on chestnuts. It was really something unexpected and delightful.
A few blocks farther, at the corner of Avenida Callao and Avenida Santa Fe, the entire sidewalk collapsed almost swallowing a newsstand. The people were able to wrestle the newsstand to the street, but not before it spilled its entire inventory into the abyss.
From the looks of it, storm runoff had been eroding the substructure under this corner for quite some time.
The sidewalk has only been supported by a few layers of tiles and a few inches of unreinforced cement for quite some time. Today's torrential downpour finished the job and the whole thing finally failed.
I went home and got Helen, and got a picture, but the best part was over and I could not get very close anymore. When I was ther earlier, people were standing near the edge and I could see from the opposite edge that they were standing on unsupported sidewalk. A few more people or some vigorous bouncing and they would have joined the newspapers and magazines in the muddy mix below.
UPDATE: Here is a screen shot from local TV news about the story. There was a lot of flooding all over the city.
2 comments:
We enjoyed your virtual visit to FCC, Ken!
Thank you
Hi Ken, the band you saw yesterday is
The Regiment of Mounted Granadiers created by Jose de San Martín
a battalion-strength formation which serves as the Presidential ceremonial escort and guard unit. As you said, you never saw something like this and maybe you won't because is the only one military mounted band in the world.
Great Blog!! bye
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