As soon as we made a plan to visit Buenos Aires, somewhere around new year 2012, I as usually, started looking for things to do in the city. I am explorer and of course curious, so when I found Tienda de Curiosidades on the internet that information ended very high up on our list.

Website [not existing any more but quite similar to the one at left [psychograph #01 ] listed two locations in the city centre, Viamonte 1093 and Calle Suipacha 1608.

Exploring exciting Buenos Aires for couple of days we almost forgot about this but one day, having very bad luck with three museums being closed, one of them even for rats removal!!, we decided to look at our "to do list". #22: Find Tienda de Curiosidades.

From the X marking our starting point, first location
#1 Viamonte 1093, was maybe 20 minutes walk. It was very hot, over 35˚C, not very pleasant true the streets with very heavy traffic, but, here we are. Where is number 1608? We crossed huge Avenue 9 de Julio several times but we did not find number 1608. Very kind person in the bookstore nearby explained that that number disappeared, long time ago when they were widening the Avenue. What now? Well, we spent all that time so lets walk another 20 min. to the other location. Walk along the above mentioned avenue was even less pleasant then the first stretch . Location #2 was suppose to be at the very end of Suipasha street but numbers ended up around 1500, asking around was not helpful at all, and we, p**** of took the subway home cursing our back luck this day.

Of course that we thought that this info on the internet was some kind of bad joke, but I being what I am, still explore further the Tienda de Curiosidades. After quite a long search I finally figured out that the person posting first info reversed the numbers, one location is at Viamonte 1608, #3, and the other at Suipacha at 1093, #4. OK, tomorrow we will start another search.

We took the subway to central Obelisk station and than a short walk to #3. Obelisk station is under the huge square at the intersection of two of the most important streets in the city — the long entertainment hub of Corrientes, and the already mentioned ‘widest avenue in the world’ and traffic artery, 9 de Julio. Buenos Aires’ most famous monument, El Obelisco (The Obelisk) extends 70m out from the city’s midriff like a giant pencil – standing proudly erect as the unofficial center, symbol and rallying point. Since its construction in 1936 it is a reference point for Argentines. It was built to commemorate Buenos Aires’ 400th anniversary.

It looked promising for today search. Very short walk and we easily find number 1608 but to our surprise there was not Tienda de Curisidades in the building?

At that point we started seriously thinking that this is conspiracy plot to make tourist wondering around for non existing store [sometimes happening to the naive explorers]. But there is no stopping now, we have to check this last location. With lot of effort I convinced my search companion, my wife, to take a taxi to this last location #4. After 15 minutes ride taxi suddenly stopped and told us that the whole area is closed. "Oh, I forgot to tell you, today is 20th anniversary of 17 March 1992, when 29 civilians were killed and 242 additional civilians were injured in the attack on Israeli Embassy. It is located near by, of course in Suipacha Street – he continued – but you can probably walk to your location". OK. As soon as he disappeared it turned out that police is not letting anybody even peak to the Suipacha Street, and nobody we asked did not know where that number 1093 we were looking for is located.

There was a nice little restaurant there, we had a really good lunch, but after two hours street was still closed, by now my wife is divorcing me for being suborn and stupid to look for some crazy store. Somehow after really begging police officers they let me pass the blockade and get in the street. It turned out that the numbers are going in the opposite direction and actually that part of the street where our number is located was open but accessible only if you go around the block. OK, this is a final try. I went around the block, I passed few other buildings and found 1093 Suipacha.

Final low blow! [psychograph #02 ] Store is closed for vacations until March 26th. Today is March 17th. Our return date was in the morning of that day. Even if I wanted to check this store, and believe me I totally lost the desire, it will be impossible. Later my wife recorded my disappointed look in front of the store. [psychograph #03 ]

What is inside we still don't know, but if you are planning to visit Buenos Aires and this store location is 1093 SUIPACHA, on the corned with AVENIDA SANTA FE.

We walked home [more then 5km] in order to relax and vent frustration and have found that Suipacha is quite pleasant, semi pedestrian street, open only for motorcycles, bicycles and of course pedestrian. It runs parallel to the other even more pleasant and totally pedestrianized Florida street. Just check the photos left, we have found lot of interesting sights along the way so the whole day ended up in harmony [and exhaustion].

Advice: Trust only the information on the internet found on the reliable websites like this one. This is what psychogeography really is, stroll with unexpected results, guided by the unpredicted principles.