Buenos Aires, Big Flower?
04.01.2010
It's also harbourside city, but that’s where any similarity to Sydney ends. For me, Buenos Aires is all New York: the extra layer of humidity and grime you carry home with you, the garbage on the streets, the people too busy to notice (except for the ones going through the garbage), and the atmosphere and soul that other cities so completely lack.
On the taxi drive from the airport, we passed tenement block after tenement block-- run down, dilapidated, free-standing lego towers interspersed with fields of unbridled horses. Our hotel was central and nice, though the staff were hardly bilingual as advertised! Hard to believe I am able to understand so much, especially when I keep thinking “oh shit, oh shit” while people are talking to me as I realize we are relying completely on my Spanish.
I soon gave up on trying to avoid meat, as this is the cattle capital of the world, and the best beef I have ever tasted I must say. We tasted some empanadas (carne picante, cheese tomato & parsley, ham and Roquefort) and promptly fell alseep. Then wandered to San Telmo, past the Casa Rosada and Plaza de 25 de Mayo. Dinner at a parrilla (grill), La Brigado, included Argentina’s style of smazeny syr or mozzarella sticks, truly excellent steak that lived up to its reputation every bit, Malbec wine, which Raph enjoyed (and which even smelled less distasteful than other wines to me), “deliciously antisocial” garlic fries and greens. Dessert at Nonna Bianca’s banana split with dulce de leche ice cream, yummmm...no wonder everyone here is so, ahem, robust.
05.01.2010
9am city tour included el Caminito, the “Charles Bridge” of Buenos Aires, with paintings, photographs, sculptures, and photos with tango dancers for sale. Apparently portenos (locals) have only 2 passions: football and tango. CD of tour, tango CD, with the famous Carlos Gardel (whom three women in 3 different countries tried to commit suicide over after hearing of the famous singer’s death), and superimposed photo of Raph and I as tango dancers. This time by day, 25 de Mayo Square where all the protests are held (and riot police were gearing up) and the Casa Rosada where Eva Peron delivered her famous "Don't Cry For Me Argentina".
Thank goodness this is a 24 hour city, as we seem to continually fall into an inescapable sleep around 1pm, and don’t wake up again until 9pm…
Dinner at La Bolsa with a professional tango singer and two professional dancers. Even though I avoided meat this time, the portions here are huge! Twice what they ought to be according to Raphael, and 4x what they ought to be according to me (think the Spanish Club portions). Dulce de leche chocolate stop at the “25-hour” mini-mart for dessert and off to a martes milonga at La Confiteria Ideal where all the real people come to tango socially in the ideal setting of a dance hall from another era.
06.01.2010
8am visit to Floralis Generica, a giant mechanical flower which opens with the sun, and closes at dusk, just like a real flower. Walked through the Cemetary Recoleta, an above ground burial labrynth, where Evita is buried with the Duarte family. Toured around Palermo Viejo guided by Diana, a beautiful lovely lady, dance therapist and friend of Sara & Jos, and final luncheon at Café Tortoni, where atmosphere is very New York old school celebrity (I think they were filming an interview while we were there) and the hot chocolate is literally melted chocolate.
We squeezed in tours of the Sacred Valley, Sachsaywuman, Pusaq, and overwhelming markets and pan-pipe performances on the weekend as a warm-up for Macchu Piccu and the Inca Trail. Been too tired to go out and salsa in the evenings, but that is next on the list.
