La Bomba de Tiempo & Cacerolazo

Monday night rolled around and this meant only one thing - bomba de tiempo! We were excited to find out if the time bomb could be as good as everyone claimed. Walking to the venue we were filled with nervous anticipation and after an extortionate 50 peso entry fee we were in. The venue was a large concrete konex with both indoor and outdoor standing areas and a stage at the front. 

The venue:

We heard the banging of the drums but decided to head to the bar first for a much needed drink - bottle of red and a beer (pretty standard drinks for us these days). Turns out a bottle of wine means a huge plastic cup full of wine and a litre of beer, about the same size - a good start to the night then! We went inside and were greeted with people bouncing up and down and a drumming band making its way through the crowd. The drumming and dancing was infectious and it was only 7.30pm (an early night for BA), the night was already getting going and this was just the warm up act. 

The warm-up:

Later in the night the main act were to come. This was a bunch of seriously talented musicians - the group take in turns for one member to go at the front to lead the drumming based on more than a hundred different hand and body signals that they've created to enable them to conduct the music - amazing! In the second hour of the concert they also have a special guest come which when we went was some jazz musicians and a singer, however we preferred the beginning when it was just the raw drum music.

The musicians: 

Fun times:

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As the concert finished we made our way out, grabbed a pizza from a street seller and started the walk home. As we were on route, however, we started to hear some more drumming but this time on pots and pans and coming from balconies all around us. It seemed to get louder as we got closer to the apartment. Once we got to our flat we got out on the balcony and the banging was so loud, even our neighbours were taking part so not to be out done we decided to get out on the balcony and get stuck in! After a bit of searching it turned out this was a form of protest in Argentina called Cacerolazo which consists in a group of people creating noise by banging pots, pans, and other utensils from their own homes. The protests at the moment seem to be about the restrictions put on Argentinians to purchase foreign currency (impossible with pesos) and the way the economy seems to be going (massive inflation of over 25%) which does make it pretty expensive here which must massively impact upon the portenos of BA's cost of living - a lot of things are more expensive than London!

Protesting with the portenos: