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!)