Buenos in Buenos Aires

Erik´s entry:
So our 10 days in Buenos Aires have turned into 17. A week into our stay, we realized we hadn´t seen, done or eaten all that we wanted to, and were able to extend our apartment lease for an extra week, so we´re still here, though leaving tomorrow.

The day of our arrival it was rainy and very cold in the city. "Very cold" is a subjective description. Compared to New York City in winter, this was nothing - 55 degrees and light rain. After 6 months in Central America, though, we were cold. We´d packed only a few warm clothes, just enough to ensure that we wouldn´t die of hypothermia. There would be no wardrobe changes for us during our stay, and our neighbors must have wondered about us, as we wore exactly the same outfits each day.

The first day, after a much-needed nap, we headed out to wander around our neighborhood - the San Telmo district, which is an artsy and antiquarian neighborhood, known for sunday antique fairs, tango, street performers and old, homey cafes. I was amazed at how much the city´s streets, architecture and nicely-dressed, European-looking populace reminded me of Paris, and in my sleepy state, I was constantly surprised when people would speak in Spanish (with an odd Italian lilt) rather than French.

First on our list was food, and seeing as Argentina is known for the best beef in the world, we wandered towards Desnivel, a famous old-school parilla, or Argentine steak house, where everything is grilled over live coals at the entrance to the restaurant.

Apparently inflation is high in Argentina, and the days of the $5 steak blowout dinner are gone. Still, we paid about$9 for a big, juicy steak, and $2 for a half liter of decent house wine. Talor went for the chorizo and morcilla (blood sausage) which went for just over a dollar each. It was very good, but the place seemed to have succumbed to its own popularity a bit, as the place was packed, the prices were much higher than we´d been told and the service was hurried and impersonal. Still, I was very, very happy eating a steak which didn´t require a chain saw to cut, and to be drinking wine for the first time in so long.

Argentina had a huge influx of Italian immigrants around the turn of the century, and you can see and even hear their influence everywhere. Often I swear that I hear people speaking Italian to each other, but upon listening more carefully, I hear that it´s Spanish with a strong Italian lilt. Pizza and pasta is everywhere, and very good. Very different from US pizza, but absolutely delicious. I imagine that the Italians helped perfect the wine-making here as well, and you can still buy a decent bottle of Malbec for $2-$3.

The next day we wandered down towards the city center, where many of the colonial houses and civic museums, etc. are. We needed some sort of guide to Argentina, so we headed up the pedestrian shopping mall street, Calle Florida. It was awful, packed with tourists, shoppers, vendors, and those preying upon them (as we would soon find out.) We looked in a few bookstores, but only found only extremely pricey English guide books, and not the ones we liked. Outside of one bookstore, I stopped to take off my fleece, as the day was warming up. I put down my pack to take it off, and while pulling it over my head, a couple came up and asked Talor where Calle Florida was (an odd question, as we were on Calle Florida.) She told them as much, and when I went to put my fleece in my bag, the bag was gone. I immediately ran after the couple, but they didn´t have it. Then I saw Talor run into a small indoor mall, so I ran after her and saw a man slinking away, stuffing my bag into his. He heard us approaching and dropped the bag and ran off. So I recovered the backpack, but felt incredibly stupid - we'd been duped by one of the oldest tricks in the book, but at least we learned the easy way, and I never, ever set my bag down, nor carry any valuables in it. I found out later that the bookstore security guide had tipped off Talor about where the thief had gone by motioning with his eyes. Afterwards we both wondered why he hadn´t been a bit more proactive about the whole thing, if he´d see it happen?

A more pleasant surprise in the city was the dog population. Dogs are everywhere, but as opposed to the skin-and-bones, dirty street dogs we were used to from Central America, these were healthy (well, honestly fat), clean, pampered dogs. Being winter, they all wore stylish canine sweaters and their owners doted over them. We even witnessed one owner apologizing profusely to his dog for having pet another dog. (The dog was visibly jealous by the owner´s philandering.)

One afternoon we took a stroll into the La Boca neighborhood, where most of the immigrants settled to work the docks. The neighborhood is known for it´s brightly painted houses, a tradition from the times when the dockworkers would take the leftovers from painting the boats and paint their houses with them. At the entrance to La Boca, they have constructed a whimsical mini-La Boca with figurines of dockworkers, tango dancers, prostitutes and musicians posing in fake windows, all painted in the bright La Boca style. The neighborhood is still very workingclass, and we were warn by several locals not to wander into certain areas on our own, as they´re not at all safe. Futbol rules supreme here, and La Boca is home to Argentina´s most popular club team, Boca Juniors, as well as the birthplace of their fallen idol, Maradona.

After a few days, we discovered a wonderful service, "Cicerones", which matches up tourists with locals who act as private city guides. There is no fee for the service, though they do request donations to keep the service running. Our cicerone was Alberto, a 68 year old retired engineer who has lived his entire life in Buenos Aires. Alberto spoke almost no English, so our time with him was excellent practice for our rusty Spanish, which we´d harldy used on Corn Island. Alberto was a wonderful guide, showing us the little-seen inner workings of the city. We had to really struggle to understand him, but he was very patient, and happy to speak slower, or rephrase his sentences to help us follow along. We met with Alberto 3 times for several hours, and were always impressed by his generosity and energy. We were quite sad after our last meeting when we said goodbye for the last time.

Another day we explored BA´s China Town - all three short blocks of it. We did manage to find some pretty authentic noodles there in a dingy little cafe where we were the only non-chinese eating. We also found a very good, and very pricey Korean restaurant near the theater district, which made Talor very happy.

By far the oddest place we visited in Buenos Aires was Tierra Santa ("Holy Land"), a religious theme park near the airport. For those of you who know the Simpsons, this place is Ned Flanders' PraiseLand come to life. There are animatronic reenactments of the manger, the last supper, even creation! To top it all off, literally, there is a 50 foot Jesus resurected which rises out of the mount and turns, blessing everyone and raising it´s eyes and palms up towards god, all to the blaring music of Handel´s Messiah. There is even a bible-knowledge quiz show, where youngsters who don´t know their bible trivia are dragged away to prison by Roman centurians.

We didn´t take in any of the touristy tango shows, but we did go to one of the informal "milongas", which are clubs open to the public where tango rules supreme. I´d thought that Tango was something kept alive just for the tourists, but that´s not at all the case. It´s much loved by young and old, and the milongas are set up to benefit the locals, not the tourists. Talor loved the dancing. I liked the wine.

After a couple of weeks, we´ve finally gotten our fill of Buenos Aires, for now. The food is quite good, but there´s not a huge amount of variety. After yearning for a more cosmopolitan environement, we´re ready to head back out into the country and explore the smaller villages and parks of Argentina, so we leave tomorrow for San Antonio de Areco, which is the heart of Gaucho country, about 2 hours from the capital.

Talor: Be careful of what you wish for...

After spending 5 months in small towns and villages, I was really needing to go somewhere cooler, somewhere where I wasn´t constantly getting bit by mosquitoes, ants, can´t-see-ems, etc. Although I thoroughly enjoyed myself on the Corns, I started to crave different food options and things to do and see... I was really needing a big city for awhile. Well, talk about extremes... Buenos Aires is big... actually, it´s HUGE! I thought having lived in NYC for most of my life, I would feel comfortable in a big city, but I was overwhelmed! And it´s cold! And impersonal! We went from the friendliest place in the world to a place where everybody´s in a hurry to get somewhere. A simple smile and a hello would guarantee a conversation on the Corns. Here, people don´t make eye contact. Don´t get me wrong, they´re not unfriendly, just busy.... sound familiar? Yup, it reminds me of home...

We were lucky enough to snag a cute little studio apartment in the neighborhood of San Telmo. It´s one of the oldest neighborhoods in Argentina with lots of character, cool places to go for coffee, wine, or food, tango and antique shops everywhere. Some of the shopping "malls" are renovated mansions. Our apartment reminds me of our apartment in New York. It´s tiny, but has a sleeping loft and a really nice bathroom. The entire time we have been travelling, I think we saw a bathtub twice... both in expensive hotels we couldn´t afford. Here there´s not only a bathtub, but a jacuzzi! What LU-XU-RY! Plus the rent is cheaper than the cheapest hostals with shared baths. And of course having a kitchenette means we can cook meals at home. Nothing fancy because it´s not equipped for that, but it was nice to make simple meals of pasta, fish and even a curry with tons of veggies... yum!

And you know it´s always all about the food for me... first we hit a parilla to sample their world-famous steaks, mocillas (blood sausage) and chorizos (spicy Spanish sausage). All was good. There isn´t much street food in BA, but there are bakeries everywhere where you can get tasty empanadas (turnovers) filled with beef, chicken, veggies or even sweets. They make for really good snacks. Also at the bakeries are all sorts of sandwiches and prepared foods like tortas (kinda like quiches). Got all excited to find there is a Chinatown here... well, it was more like a Chinablock, but I was able to get my noodle-fix at the diviest noodle shop. Then we went in search of Korean food. Found a fancy restaurant in the theater district and really didn´t know what to expect after our seriously bad Korean food in Antigua. It was pricey, but damned if it wasn´t good! So, got my kimchee-fix too... ahhh all´s well in the world again.

Then there is the parilla sandwich shop just a couple blocks away... it´s a tiny little hole-in-the-wall always packed with people wolfing down sandwiches with steak, sausages or chicken cooked on the bbq right there. One day, I went and got a sandwich for Erik to bring back while he was busy working on the photos at home. The choripan (sausage sandwich) was absolutely delicious! The next day, I passed by the sandwich shop, and from across the street saw the owner and waved at him. He called me over and immediate gave me a hug and a kiss like I was an old friend. We chatted for a minute and I promised to go back later for a sandwich. When E and I went back a couple of hours later, we got sandwiches and this time ate at the shop. It was great fun watching the goings-on, and chatting with them. The owner, Freddy even offered us some wine... did I say they weren´t friendly?

Having an apartment has been a nice luxury for us, and we were able to save money on rent and food, but it also has it´s drawbacks... we feel a bit isolated. We don´t have access to the instant social scene you would get staying at a hotel or a hostal. And it´s hard to meet people here. Once again, it´s not that people are not friendly, but with very few exceptions, bars here do not have bars... they´re set up as tables and portenos tend to go out in groups, and sit together. Plus, after 5 weeks of not practicing Spanish, I became shy to strike up a conversation because I couldn´t understand anything they said. Here, as everywhere, people speak Spanish differently, sounds almost like Italian, very lyrical. It´s been great meeting Alberto, our Cicerone, who was kind enough to take us on walking tours, and explain the culture and people of BA. He even gave us a memento he made himself of old coins mounted on a piece of wood. So sweet!

Erik keeps saying BA reminds him of Paris, but for me, there are so many similarities to New York... the pace of life, the variety of people, the skylines with tall buildings of glass, metal and concrete. There are fancy shops, restaurants, pharmacy chains, and plenty of homeless. Walking along Puerto Madero, I swear it was deja vu... I could have been walking in Battery Park City. But there are also differences, some major like the language spoken, and some subtle... like there are grocery stores on every corner, but unlike NY where Koreans own that market, here it´s the Chinese, but the produce inside the grocery stores and supermarkets are sold separately by natives. And all the dry cleaners are Japanese. Why?

Oh and Portenos love their dogs! These dogs are the fattest, most pampered I´ve seen since leaving NY. They all wear cute little sweaters and jackets, get hugged, kissed and carried. We saw Freddie (at the sandwich shop) cutting up a huge piece of steak to give to a dog that wasn´t even his. We even saw an owner petting another dog then begging his dog for forgiveness for petting another dog! Ha! And these dogs poop everywhere! There are no pooper scooper laws so we were constantly shouting ¨cuidado!¨(careful!) to eachother wherever we walked.

The schedule here is another thing we had to get used to. On the Corns, we would wake up between 5:00 and 6:00 in the morning, lunch around noon and eat dinner around 7:00ish before going to bed around 10:00, and that was considered late on the Islands. Here, restaurants don´t even open for dinner until 8:00, and the peak eating time is 10:00, ending around midnight when everyone goes out to bars, clubs, milongas, whatever, until the wee hours of the morning. We tried going out earlier, but bars and clubs are dead before midnight. So we tried taking naps and having coffee in the early evenings, but still struggled to stay up. But we did manage to get out a few times to a milonga, and a couple of joints in the hood.

We went from nothing to do to too much to do. It was overwhelming in the beginning. So we did what we normally do when we first arrive in a large city, just walked and walked and walked. Checked out neighborhoods, museums, milongas, bars, restaurants, coffee shops... whew, I´m exhausted. Now I´m looking forward to going to a smaller town, a slower pace, and hopefully, friendly locals...

The complete set of photos from Buenos Aires may be found on our Picasa pages:
http://picasaweb.google.com/erikandtalor/BuenosAiresArgentina
(Be warned that BA is a photogenic city, and there are a lot of photos.)