Buenos Aires: Going Local

"The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they really are." - Samuel Johnson

Spending a month in Buenos Aires has been a great luxury for us. As Tim mentioned, sleeping in the same bed and having our own bathroom are huge benefits. However, I think the biggest luxury has been time. We have been able to really get to know the city, people and culture. We were able to go beyond seeing the highlights, watching a tango show and moving on.

So what have we been doing with our time? Well, we buy food at the grocery store. As anyone who has traveled to a different country knows, a great cultural experience can be had at the local grocery store. You get to see what people typically buy and get a feel for their favorite foods. In the photo below, you can see this is a very busy store. All of those crates stacked up are filled with groceries for home delivery! People do some serious shopping and then have the store bring everything to their houses at a set time.

Strolling down the streets is also a nice way to take in a city. I really appreciated all of the flower and newspaper stands strewn about the sidewalks. The owners of these kiosks would often bring their dogs to work with them. We made up names for the dogs we frequently passed in our neighborhood (Vern and Lou).

We also spent a lot of time reading in the parks.

And the plazas.

We also dined al fresco on many occasions. Parks are great places to do some serious people watching.

One thing we noticed in our people watching is that people love to drink mate outside. Mate(pronounced Mah-tay) is a type of tea that Argentines are crazy about. You drink it out of a gourd. The mate is put in the gourd, loose leaf style, you add hot water, and then drink it with a special metal filtering straw. We saw many people walking around with their gourd and thermos, ready to drink their mate whenever it struck their fancy. Not wanting to be left out of this experience, Tim and I bought our own gourd and enjoyed some mate out on the plaza on more than one occasion. Don't we look like locals?

We also went to many gardens, including the Japanese garden, which was beautiful. While sitting on a bench, we made friends with a local cat. We named him Kevin.

I don't want you all to get the impression that we spent the last month laying around in parks, drinking mate and reading. We did stuff too. We managed to go to a couple of art museums. We also managed to take a free guided tour of the palace pictured below. This was no easy feat! Although there are officially guided tours every Monday and Wednesday, the tours are cancelled if the palace is hosting an event or party. It seems like there are lots of parties in the palace because it took us four attempts before we finally got to see inside the place. It was lovely.

Being that we were in Argentina, we really wanted to get in on the tango scene. The dinner shows are incredibly expensive. However, there is a more affordable, and I dare say, more authentic way to watch tango: attending a milonga. A milonga is a tango dance event for locals, or anyone who wants to dance some tango. You pay a cover charge and then can dance the night away. Milongas are held at various cafes around the city. The cafe we chose, Confiteria Ideal, happened to be where they filmed some scenes from Evita. It is a very atmospheric place. We paid the entrance fee and made our way up the stairs, not knowing what to expect. There were a whole lot of locals dancing late on this particular Tuesday night!

For music, the cafe alternated between a DJ playing songs and a live singer with musicians. We ordered a beer and watched the dancers move about the room. You could tell that some couples had been dancing together for decades. They were so fluid. All of this dancing inspired us to later take a three hour tango lesson. We didn't look nearly as cool as the people we watched at the milonga.

There was also an entertainment interlude! These dancers performed some traditional dances from the provinces. It made me happy.

Something I really appreciated was the footwear. Everyone had the most fantastic tango shoes.

The shoes were so fantastic that we spent an afternoon tango shoe shopping (without intent to buy, of course).

Men aren't slighted in the tango shoe world. Snazzy!

My faves!

Unfortunately, tango shoes don't come in my size. I have big feet. In the photo below, I am much like Cinderella's wicked stepsister, stubbornly trying to jam my too big feet into the coveted shoes. Bummer.

One Sunday, we made our way to the Feria de Mataderos. It is quite a distance from the city center and very few tourists make their way out there, making it a very local event.

Tim was quite excited that this was one of the first things we saw at the fair. Meat! Argentines are carnivores in a big way.

This fair was full of people coming together to celebrate and keep their traditions alive. Everywhere we looked, people were dancing the traditional dances. Some even dressed in the traditional clothes. I need to emphasize, this isn't a touristy place. It's mostly full of locals. There was dancing everywhere; in a tucked away corner of a plaza, in the street, at a milonga down the way. The guy below could really groove.

The dances have definite set steps and moves. Some songs also require handkerchiefs for props. It's great. No one is doing this for money or tips of any kind. Just out of joy.

As if the dancing weren't enough, around 3pm, the gauchos rode in on their horses for a competition.

The game is as follows: run down the street at full speed on your horse and try to put a metal stick into a small ring hanging down as you go by. It was pretty amazing to watch!

The ring is tiny- about the size of a quarter- so it requires some serious skillz.

After watching the gaucho games for awhile, we decided to have some lunch. Tim had a choripan (of course he did) and I enjoyed locro- a type of corn and bean stew. It was good, but not really warm weather food.

As we were heading to the bus stop to make our way home, a dance group was performing traditional dances of the Andean people, in celebration of "Dia Internacional del Indio" (International Day of the American Indian - April 19th). It's just so cool to see people proud to celebrate their heritage and culture. I would highly recommend the Feria de Mataderos to anyone visiting Buenos Aires. With all of the dancing, food, gaucho games, and goods on offer, you just can't go wrong.

So, that pretty much puts us up to date on our blog. A toast to you, Buenos Aires. You have shown us a good time!

(Note: The reason Tim is not smiling in this photo is because this is the beer we enjoyed just before our tango class in an effort to loosen up. It couldn't have hurt!)

Return to BA

After a tour of Argentina and Chile, we have returned to where we began the South American part of our journey. Traveling is a lot of fun, but moving every few days and living out of our backpacks started to wear on us a little bit. So we decided to rent an apartment in Buenos Aires for an entire month and see what this city has to offer.

After doing hours of research online looking for apartments with just the right amenities, price, and location, we settled on a few possibilities that were a short subway ride to most attractions. Except, every time we made the decision to inquire about them, they had been rented out by someone else. We were a day late on three different places. However, it worked to our benefit, as a few days before we arrived, Laura spotted a listing on craigslist that was cheaper, had an amazing location, and had everything we were looking for. Well, almost everything. I was really hoping for a sauna.

The location of the apartment may just be the best part. It is on the biggest avenue I have ever seen. Somewhere around 18 lanes of traffic. We are so centrally located, that in the first 2 weeks of being here, we didn't use any form of transportation other than our feet. Which, I think, is pretty incredible, given the amount of ground we've covered.

Anyway, let me give you the tour of the apartment.

It's a studio, but definitely big enough to feel like you have different "rooms". In this shot, you can see our bedroom, with an excellent king size bed, and beyond is our living room. Also, there is a balcony, but because of the time of day I chose to take this photo, you don't see it.

Here is a shot of our comfy couch, along with our coffee table full of goodies to enjoy with friends.

Maybe I should mention at this point that Nick and Rachel, the friends we were going on wine tours with, were also back in BA for a couple of nights before they headed home to the UK!

So we were excited about showing our place off to our friends and enjoying yet more wine with them, as well as some other goodies. Laura was proud to offer them their first taste of deviled eggs in their whole lives!

This next shot is looking back into the apartment. There's a huge storage compartment for us to put all of our belongings in. The backpacks were completely unpacked and stowed away within an hour of moving in. The drawers for our clothes are a massive upgrade from the plastic bags we are used to at this point.

Here's our dining table/desk.
And of course the kitchen in the closet. All we have is a hot plate, so we have embraced one pot meals. A lot of noodles and soups. But it sure beats having to eat out all the time and is much more cost effective. The best part of this set up is that when we don't feel like cleaning the kitchen after a meal, we just close the doors! Problem solved!

It was really nice to be able to see Rachel and Nick in BA, and we took every opportunity to spend time with them. The night after hosting them at our apartment, we took them to our favorite restaurant in BA.

This is the same restaurant that has the penguins full of wine.

Here you can see that the penguins are literally begging you to play with them. It's not just me.

Anyone who drinks out of them will at some point imagine things could just be a lot quicker if you went straight to the mouth.
After dinner, we went out on the town. Not that you would be able to tell, but below we are in an area called Palermo, where there are a number of outdoor patios to enjoy the nightlife. It was a warm evening and it was fun to be out among the beautiful people of Buenos Aires.

After Nick and Rachel left town, we were back to entertaining ourselves. One of the really cool things in the city is a large nature reserve along the coast. This is a really nice pagoda that was built next to the reserve. Lots of runners and birdwatchers come to this area.

It is amazing how you feel like you have been removed from the big city while walking its paths. Fresh air. Chirping birds. The sound of the water on the shoreline. Though the reality is never far away with skyscrapers in the background.

As in any big city, pigeons are everywhere here. But there are some other wild birds that are pretty neat to see flying around. Parrots! For the most part, they nest in the palm trees, but you can catch a few walking around sometimes.

Just outside the reserve is a pretty popular walkway with many grills and vendors always trying to sell something. The freshly squeezed orange juice that this man served us was a delicious treat.
This is an example of one of the grills that are littered along the walkway. Every time I walk by one, I have an intense craving for chorizo sausages!
Nothing like some grilled meat with all sorts of sauces to slap on there!

They are soooo good. I am seriously going to miss the choripan.

Another activity that we have partaken in more than once is the Sunday San Telmo market. This is a street market where you can find all sorts things on offer- from artisanal goods to just plain cheap crap. There is also a connecting plaza that has a hundred or so tents of just antiques. Antiques are apparently a big thing in this part of town.

Of course, any good street market has its share of street performers. Here in San Telmo, we found singers, tango dancers, statue people, and our favorite, the puppet master. This guy put on a pretty good show with his drunk old puppet, set to a song by the famous tango singer, Carlos Gardel.

Below, I am buying the best treat on the street. This guy is selling churros. But not just any churros. The churros he sells are filled with dulce de leche. And if that weren't enough, he then bathes them in chocolate to create an amazing flavor explosion in my mouth.
Here's a closer look. If you don't know what dulce de leche is, well, you should. It has become like an extra food group for Laura and I during our stay in BA. Hardly a day goes by without our indulging in crackers and dulce de leche. Anyway, its like a creamy version of a caramel chew candy.

It's pretty wonderful. We're going to have a hard time weaning ourselves off of it before we leave BA.
After strolling through the market for a few hours, we were on our way home and stumbled upon this scene. Literally, its a scene. That info booth in the picture is a total sham. They have no pamphlets. No maps. It is just a prop in this movie shoot we came upon. Don't know exactly what they were filming for, but it was fun to watch a little anyway. This was not the only time we saw such a set within the city.
Other than that, we've really enjoyed the ability to have a normal routine for a while. We get to sleep in the same bed, eat our own foods, we don't have to share a bathroom with anyone else, and we have a doorman! Doormen are great for when you lock yourself out of your apartment, as we managed to do the other day.

Maybe things aren't exciting in a "what is going to be challenging about this place?" kind of way, but I'm glad things can feel "normal" for a little while.