Riachuelo

The river Riachuelo in Buenos Aires is known as one of the most polluted rivers in the world. The river and its sediments has accumulated heavy pollutants over the years and in some parts the water is barely visible under the floating topping made of a toxic fat cake. Riachuelo is also the home to a number of abandonded rusty ships that will never sail the oceans again. In between those dying ships the rats are running on top of the floating greasy surface of toxic sediment. To enhance the experience of this magic river there is an intense Riachuelo odour all over the place that will penetrate your respiratory system.

Walking the shores of Riachuelo is an intense experience. Rusty, half sunken ships always tend to be a little bit scary and threatening. The not very cozy environment in Riachuelo makes the total experience even stronger. Visiting the Riachuelo area will defenitely increase the pulse and get the adrenalin running.

Especially I would like to thank the "Captain" of the half sunken ship Rio Grande. I was totally focused, looking at the beautiful rust of your ship through my camera, forgetting everything that was happening around me. It turned out to be a not very clever thing to do in an area like this where one should always be on "Red Alert". At first I didn't understand the sudden scratching noise. Surprised I looked up from my camera and immediately noticed a furious dog who came running towards me over the deck. In a microsecond I was up on my feet, jumping two meters backwards to get away from the immediate quayside. Without pulse I just stood there with eyes following the dog coming towards me. Gah. Lucky for me the gap between the deck and the quay was to wide for the dog to jump. So, there we stood. The dog had a lot of angry words to say to me, I had absolutely no reply. When my pulse finally returned and I started to breathe again I looked up on the bridge of the boat where a door suddenly opened. And out came the "Captain"! Seeing you up there, wearing an eyepatch over one eye (!) and an 8 inch scar over the cheek (!) was defenitely a little bit to much for me. My heart stopped again and the breating paused. I just turned around and walked away, thinking "this is not happening"! As you of course understand already, I didn't manage to take a single decent photo of Rio Grande!